L’Oreal wows with beauty pageant for youngsters as winners emerge

(L-R) Assistant Brand Manager Dark and Lovely, Iretiogo Etsaghara, Beautiful Beginnings Mum & I Pageant Princess, Precious Olatunde, General Manager Consumer Products Division, L'Oreal Central West Africa, Sekou Coulibaly, Human Resources Director, Enitan Ashley-Dejo and the Group Marketing Manager, Ogbemi Kesiena at the grand finale of Dark and Lovely Beautiful Beginnings Mum & I Beauty Pageant for School Children in Lagos.

SHOWBIZPLUSng can authoritatively report that it was an event filled with sparks of beauty, glitz and glamour as parents and their female wards gathered at Caley College, Agidingbi, Ikeja, to witness the grand finale of beauty pageant tagged Beautiful Beginnings:My Mum and I  courtesy of Dark and Lovely beauty range of products from the stable of L’Oreal Central West Africa. The activation which was a week-long workshop designed to educate mothers and their lovely damsels on the importance of hair maintenance was organized in commemoration of the children’s day.

 After a keenly contested beauty pageant that involved 15 schools, Precious Olatunde, a student from Caley College emerged the overall winner and carted home the sum of N200, 000.00 and a printer for her school. Also, the first runner-up, Islamiyah Ibuoye, a student from BolsSchool smiled home with N100, 000.00 and a desk-top computer for her school. Also, JemaimalAdegbe, a student from Frontliner School went home with the sum of N50, 000.00 and a scanner for her School.

Speaking at the event, General Manager Consumer Products Division, L’Oreal Central West Africa, SekouCoulibaly, stated that the ground breaking beauty pageant is to celebrate children and their mothers. ‘‘Apart from the fact that the Dark and lovely beautiful beginnings focuses on children, we figured out that there has not really been much education made in Nigeria on maintaining children’s hair which is why we have created the maintenance week’’.

Highlighting the motivation for involving mothers and their daughters in the workshop, Coulibaly said that, ‘‘we want to summarise the children’s day with the beauty pageant where mum and their children will be involved in order to celebrate the best looking mum and their daughters here today. It is more exciting because this is the first time that a brand is addressing kids in educating them on the importance of maintenance and then congregate their mums around that subject matter’’.

Some mothers and loyal patronisers of Dark and Lovely range of beauty products shared their various views about the initiative. Mrs Mercy Uchendu, a Road Safety Official established that the event has really been an eye-opening one. ‘‘Most parents like me have learnt a great deal from the workshop and today’s grand finale. I am very happy that this brand is thinking about us. I have learnt so much from this workshop that would have cost me money to learn. Dark and Lovely has fulfilled our desire for healthy hair’’.

In a similar vein, Mrs Ogundipe who is a fashionista was elated and expressed deep satisfaction towards the workshop. ‘‘As a professional fashion expert, I cannot but wonder how a Nigerian brand can weave a wonderful idea around mothers and their daughters, it is simply fantastic. The Dark and Lovely brand has already set the pace here with this initiative. Other brands can only copy but this novel idea is worth applauding’’.

Mrs OkparaOnyekachi also added her voice by acknowledging that the workshop has lived up to its billing. ‘‘I have learnt a lot from the workshop. My daughter and I have bonded more because we had to team up for the competition. This is also same with other mothers because the event has helped to call the attention of mothers to the hair maintenance of their wards. Indeed, no knowledge is lost and the brand has been very revealing’’, she said.