Stepping foot into Kenya for the first time at 8 years old, Nyakio Kamoche Grieco learned that beauty products could be made by hand.
Grieco was there to meet her grandparents. She was already a fan of skincare and beauty, but something clicked when her grandmother taught her to make an exfoliant body scrub from hand-grown coffee beans and sugar cane.
Nineteen years later, with a business plan she created during her time at OU, she launched the body scrub as the first product of her brand: Nyakio.
Now the founder and CEO of Thirteen Lune and Relevant, Grieco combines her roots and entrepreneurial vision to curate a more inclusive and diverse beauty industry.
“Beauty is connection,” Grieco said. “It’s a way to bring people together and to celebrate other cultures. Especially when we live in these divisive times, I look to beauty and culture as a way to connect us all and to see the beauty in one another.”
Growing up in Norman, Grieco spent a lot of time on OU’s campus, often with her father, Dr. Jidlaph Kamoche, as he pioneered the African Studies program. Though she danced around what school to attend, she fell in love with the idea of experiencing campus as a student. She graduated with a business marketing degree in 1996.
“I didn’t know I would ultimately become an entrepreneur when I graduated,” Grieco said. “Having the ability to create companies and do projects analyzing existing companies really did end up planting that entrepreneurial seed.”
At OU, Grieco used career development resources to further her future. Not only did the career resources teach her how to write a resume, but it gave her the network she used to land jobs in Los Angeles.
“Everyone should absolutely take advantage of (the) career resources (on campus),” Grieco said. “Ask all the questions. Don’t be afraid. It is the best opportunity for preparation for the real world.”
Grieco later moved to Hollywood to work in the representation of different actresses. Beauty products landed on her desk daily, many of them with ingredients sourced from Africa — yet the continent had a startling scarcity of recognition.
“When it came to premium beauty, nobody was really talking about Africa,” Grieco said. “I saw an opportunity to create a premium skincare brand celebrating the sophistication and the efficacy of ingredients in Africa, and I took it.”
Soon, Nyakio went from a brand Grieco sold out of her apartment to one in stores nationwide. To let the brand go further places, she sold it to Unilever in 2017 and continued working as the face of the brand for the next three years.
Grieco showed up on lists of top Black-owned brands to follow. Noticing a lack of recognition for other similar brands, Grieco knew something had to change. In June 2020, she began working on an inclusive beauty retail platform that launched December of the same year as Thirteen Lune. While building that brand, Grieco also created a skincare brand called Relevant.
“Being an entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart,” Grieco said. “There are good times, and there are hard times, but there (must) always (be) that constant need, desire and challenge to keep going.”
A year after establishing Relevant, Cosmetic Executive Women honored Grieco with the 2023 Female Founder Award. Grieco said she owes a great deal of her success to OU, which is why, even though she’s lived in California longer, she tells people she’s from Oklahoma.
“That is a testament to the incredible upbringing community and loving souls that (the state) still feels like home to me,” Grieco said.
Through all of her start-ups and successes, OU has remained a special place in Grieco’s heart. She still takes trips with her sorority sisters from Kappa Kappa Gamma, guest lectures at Price College of Business and visits for as many football games as she can.
“I’m a Sooner, through and through,” Grieco said. “(I have) the opportunity to carry forth the legacy (and) the power of the University of Oklahoma. Whether it’s the campus community or the businesses that surround the community, we’re all in it together.”
