Yetunde Alabi’s turning point wasn’t dramatic. I know we hear about these big ‘aha’ moments on the road to becoming a founder, where they either slept on someone’s couch to go after their dreams, or they hit rock bottom and have some massive epiphany.
Thankfully that wasn’t her story (because we don’t wish unnecessary struggle or hardship on Black women, okay?).
It was simply that she came home exhausted one evening, lit a candle, and actually paid attention to it for once. “The soft crackle of the wooden wick, the way the fragrance seemed to shift the energy of the room and it grounded me,” she says. That moment, where she actually noticed the scent for once, and was actually able to feel present instead of just going through the motions, became the foundation for MAJENYE, her Black-owned beauty and lifestyle brand that launched this year with 16 products designed to turn everyday routines into what she calls “sensory moments of grounding and luxury.”
It’s not a typical beauty brand origin story, and MAJENYE isn’t really a typical beauty brand. Alabi is building something that sits somewhere between wellness and fragrance, and between self-care and cultural ritual. The line includes body oils, cold process soaps, wax melts and coconut wax candles with names like Enigma, Saharan Musk, and Love Letter. But ask her what she’s actually selling and she’ll tell you it’s about “reintroducing people to the art of slowing down.” Which we all could use a bit of that right now.
And that all of course sounds nice (especially when introducing a customer base to your new brand). But there’s much more behind the brand behind mindfulness and intention, and I think we’ll all come to learn that very soon. Alabi, who is Nigerian, thinks about fragrance as a form of memory and ancestry. “As both a Nigerian and Black woman, scent is more than a fragrance, it’s a vessel of memory, ancestry, and emotion,” she explains. When she’s developing a scent, she’s thinking about her ancestors who didn’t have the privilege to rest or indulge in self-care. “Lighting a candle, anointing your skin with oil, or filling your space with scent becomes an act of remembrance, resistance, and reverence.”
That’s a different kind of sales pitch than most beauty brands are making. But that’s the beauty in buying Black, or buying “ours.” It’s uniquely ours. “When I blend a fragrance, I’m not just pairing notes, I’m invoking memory,” Alabi says. “The sweet smoke of oud recalls tradition; the spice of amber feels like the rhythm of a drumbeat; the softness of tonka reminds me of peace reclaimed.”
Every MAJENYE fragrance starts with a story or mood she wants to capture, then she builds it using the classic perfumer’s pyramid structure: base notes that anchor (woods, resins, musk), middle notes that tell the emotional story (florals, spices, botanicals), and top notes that create the first impression. Each ratio gets tested and refined until the scent feels right. “The process ends with a burn test or skin test, because the true character of a fragrance reveals itself in motion and time,” she explains.
In a time where it seems like everything being sold to us is toxic and there’s just about polyester in everything, it’s also good to know that the products themselves are clean. They’re all used with either coconut wax, phthalate-free fragrances, glass vessels, wooden wicks, all made in small batches. But Alabi pushes back hard on the idea that clean beauty can’t perform. “Clean beauty has often been questioned for lacking depth or staying power, but we’ve proven that purity and performance can coexist beautifully,” she says. The formulations are tested to make sure they have strong scent throw and burn evenly because “sustainability shouldn’t mean settling.”
Alabi imagines someone moving through their day with MAJENYE—cold process soap in the morning, body oil after, roll-on fragrances at midday, then candles in the evening. “Perhaps it starts with bergamot in the morning, melts into cardamom tea and musk by night,” she says. It’s scent-layering as storytelling, where each product shares notes with the next.
In a market that’s already saturated with luxury candles and body care, Alabi thinks what sets MAJENYE apart is “soul.” She’s direct about positioning the brand at “the intersection of ancestral wisdom and modern luxury,” creating products that are “an homage to the rituals our ancestors were once denied.” While other luxury brands focus on opulence, MAJENYE focuses on energy.
“MAJENYE isn’t about following trends, it’s about transforming your environment and your spirit,” she says. “We don’t just sell fragrance, we invite you into ritual.”
Looking ahead, Alabi is focused on what she calls expansion with meaning. More wellness rituals, guided meditations, retail partnerships with the right kind of spaces. She’s not interested in being everywhere, just in the places that get what MAJENYE is actually about.