Dyrana ‘DyDy’ McIntosh has once again been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. The artiste, influencer, and public figure recently launched a skincare line that she says came to be after she struggled with breakouts.
DyDy said her breakouts started shortly after her move to Florida in 2012 and were hard to get rid of, due partly to her sensitive skin and the harsh chemicals in the products she was using. After exhausting other products, she moved to all-natural options, and about four years ago, decided she would venture down the road of creating her own line. In 2021, Yeee Cosmetics was born.
The businesswoman told Flair that the name of the business was not just something she came up with; it reminds her of somebody that means a lot to her. “I lost my uncle when I was 12 years old, and he was a father figure to me, and his last name is Yee, so that’s where ‘Yeee’ came from. I felt like I needed to use a name with meaning because it would push me even more, because it’s somewhat deeper than just the products for me, me affi mek him proud,” she said.
ALL-NATURAL
The cosmetic line features a herbal face wash, face toner, face cream, lip scrub and lip gloss, which are all made from organic ingredients, with no chemicals added. She also has a secret ingredient: love. “First of all, it’s made with love, because I make them at home and it’s really all-natural, [I stress that] it’s organic because you know some people will lie and say that. Mine is literally organic. If the wash go inna yuh eye, it nah go burn you like it’s organic, it good. Any skin type can use it,” she said.
Establishing Yeee was not without its challenges. For DyDy, that included a delayed launch date. “I’ll tell people this though, putting a business together is not easy because there’s a lot of work behind the scenes if you want to get it done the right way, like you have to register it, you have to do all type a stuff, so pretty much my challenge was the waiting game because I don’t have a lot of patience. I had to sit and wait for a good while to get certain things done because it was [supposed] to drop from March and it drop in July. I kept on sharing the news with too many people, so when me woulda tell somebody sum’n, they would be like no, don’t do it yet, and then it would slow me down, and I move to other things. My two main problems was the patience thing and listening to people,” she told Flair.
This is not the first business DyDy has created, but the multi-hyphenate feels she has finally found her passion. “I’ve done others, I had my shirts, bracelets and swimsuits, but I wasn’t passionate about those. My advice to people is [to] do something you love and are passionate about, ‘cause I got bored with [that] stuff, so I was just like, alright cool me cya bother wid dis, mi affi find sum’n mi actually like and will work for me.”
She also shared advice for other entrepreneurs. “Stay focused and keep your business to yourself, don’t listen to anybody, if a it you love, a it you love, do it and study what it is that you’re going to do business in, if it’s skincare, then study skincare, if a clothes, then study clothes, just put your all in it and don’t listen to people and don’t tell them your moves, and you’ll be fine. And pray, make sure you put God in front of everything.”
After Yeee Cosmetic’s official launch on June 5, the products were sold out within three days. The entrepreneur says she is working on more skincare products right now and is planning to expand the business and go over into hair in the next year or two.
