Olamide Olowe is embracing failure in real time and customers are here for it
TheGrio...
After a Bread Beauty launch fell flat, the beauty entrepreneur went viral for publicly sharing the setback and asking her community what went wrong.
When Olamide Olowe, the founder of Topicals, who recently also acquired Bread Beauty Supply, launched a new product under Bread that flopped — “like almost no sales,” she said — she surprised her customer base by asking them directly why.
In early June, after the unsuccessful launch of a new edge control product, Olowe took to TikTok to be transparent and ask exactly why, after launching Topicals in 2020 and helping it become one of Sephora’s fastest-selling skincare brands, Bread wasn’t selling.
“I recently just had my first launch with our newest product called Slick Hold Gel, which is basically edge control slash like slick black gel that helps 4C hair actually get into a slick bun and stay that way for up to 12 hours with no flaking, no white residue, no stickiness. The product is amazing. So, imagine that, and imagine me launching, and it flopping like absolutely flopping, like, like almost no sales,” the skincare brand founder said as she spoke to the camera from inside a car.
She added, “I did what I thought worked at Topicals for Bread, and not having that same response.”
Olowe went on to reveal that she had sunk most of her life savings into reviving the haircare brand after acquiring it a year ago. After the brand failed to move the way she had hoped, she said she was entering a new era.
“I think this is a new chapter in even my own evolution in coming and speaking directly to my community to ask a few questions. I think my first thing is, what did we do wrong in our rollout and in our marketing that didn’t really land well with our audience, with our customer?” she posed.
The video was well received, going viral and racking up thousands of replies. While some offered honest criticism she could work with, many praised the transparency, the rare look behind the curtain of a Black founder, and her commitment to getting it right. At a time when customer service and the human touch behind brands and major companies appears to be dwindling amid the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, (and as Black-owned brands continue to disappear from shelves), Olowe’s willingness to publicly dissect a failure and invite customers into the rebuilding process struck a chord.
The entrepreneur is no stranger to candid conversations about the industry. In addition to founding Topicals, Olamide Olowe launched Cost of Doing Business (CODB) in 2024, a brand-holding company that endeavors to help scale Black beauty businesses.
@olamideolowe I need your help rebuilding @BREAD BEAUTY ♬ original sound – Olamide Ayomikun Olowe
“Honestly, I don’t think Bread’s challenge is as simple as marketing. Beauty consumers are behaving differently, communities are engaging differently, and brands have to work harder than ever to maintain cultural relevance. Really appreciate you opening this conversation,” a user on TikTok replied in the comments.
Another user added, “Love your transparency, Olamide! Marketing professional here: the reality is that the consumer avatar for Topicals vs. Bread is totally different. Topicals is high-energy, Gen-Z clinical skin solutions. Bread is minimalist, luxury self-care for the ‘lazy hair’ routine. Even within the same demographic, the psychological trigger to buy hair gel vs. hyperpigmentation serum is completely different. Bread’s marketing needs to pivot toward luxury lifestyle integration. Can’t wait to see how you re-strategize this!”
Consumers have suggested a name change, greater consideration of the aesthetic and branding, folding it more intentionally into Topicals, more tutorial-led content for different hair types, including 4C hair, increased exposure, a completely new approach, and more. In a follow-up, she said she didn’t expect either the sheer volume or the quality of the responses she received.
“I was not expecting this level of response from everyone,” Olowe said in the second video. “I’m super grateful for how much people are invested in me and invested in the success of brands that represent people like us.”
She also shared that she has struggled the most with deciding how to preserve a brand she was given while also determining how much of herself, her own ingenuity, and her creativity to pour into it. She recalled that when she relaunched the brand last year after acquiring it, she received a lot of backlash from people who were concerned the brand was losing its original essence.
“I think I struggled a lot with that because I wanted to make the customer happy, so I thought, okay, I didn’t do the right thing by trying to bring more of my own vision for the brand,” she continued. “This made me think of a question that I would love y’all’s help in answering, which is, ‘How do you preserve the founding vision while simultaneously positioning a brand for growth?’”
She added, “Specifically, how do you do that when the founding vision may be loved by the community but isn’t commercially viable, or it’s not proving itself to be commercially viable?”
@olamideolowe Replying to @Blessing Nwodo ♬ original sound – Olamide Ayomikun Olowe
Her plan for now is to continue listening, responding, and brainstorming. She’s already uploaded more tutorials and has a brand trip to Bermuda in the works for two “breadlettes.” All in all, she said part of the reason she shared the video in the first place was, of course, to be transparent, but also to embrace failure in real time.
“This video is just to, I think, push myself to remember that it’s actually okay to fail,” she said. “I think I’ve felt so much pressure to be successful because Topicals was successful, and I’m excited to learn again. Thank you all so much for listening, and I’ll be back again yapping and talking about all the different parts of rebuilding Bread.”