From Ghana to Brentwood, woman’s pastime inspires business

Growing up in Ghana, West Africa, Jennifer McGill never guessed her hobby would one day turn into a Brentwood-based business.

But in many ways, things have come full circle for McGill.

Not only was her body care product line, Konadu Body Care by Nature, named after her Ghanaian name, “Konadu,” but it also was inspired by her teenage pastime.

As a teenager in Ghana, McGill started experimenting with butters and oils. She made natural creams and balms out of ingredients such as coconut oil, shea butter and palm kernel oil, which she found at her local market.

“I would just go to the market and whip it together and I liked what I was doing, it was fun,” she said. “But when I started doing it (in the U.S.) and people started liking it, and I thought, ‘Why not start selling it?’ ”

However, it would be many years later until her hobby developed into a business.

After moving to the U.S. for college, McGill was enthralled with the seemingly endless choices of beauty products.

“When I first moved here I started using whatever I could get my hands on without thinking about ingredients or how they would be for my skin,” she said. “Until I realized it was actually ruining my skin.”

Jennifer McGill mixes shea butter and natural oils to make her handmade lotion at her home in Brentwood. McGill has grown her line of body care products, Konadu Body Care by Nature, into a thriving small business. (Photo: Collin Czarnecki | The Tennessean)

Along with being overwhelmed, the daily grind as a financial analyst left McGill feeling unfulfilled.

“I felt like there was more to this life than just going to work,” she said. “It just felt like I needed to be doing something more than just sitting in the office and cranking the numbers.”

Once McGill made the decision to quit her job to spend more time with her first son, she again found herself experimenting with making lotions, butters and balms, just like she had done as a teenager.

Her friends liked her homemade products so much that she decided to launch Konadu in 2011.

Today her line of natural body care products, which are infused with botanical oils, organic fruit and vegetable extracts, can be found at Whole Foods in Green Hills.

McGill said Whole Foods was attracted to Konadu based on its natural ingredients, which McGill says are essential for skin.

“Skin care does not have to be very complicated. I think that the less you put on your skin the better your skin is,” she said. “Your skin only needs moisture and oils with great vitamins and nutrients.”

McGill runs her business entirely out of her Brentwood home. An upstairs bedroom serves as a storage room for product packaging. An electric mixer, bowls, spatulas, utensils, oils and extracts can be found downstairs in the kitchen.

But McGill has big plans for Konadu. Earlier this year she took her brand national with the launch of her online store, konadubodycare.com.

Along with developing a hair product line, she also is working on getting her product on the shelves at Kroger. The business has been so successful that McGill also is in the process of looking for a brick-and-mortar location for Konadu.

“It’s humbling and exciting at the same time,” she said. “When I started it was just a fun thing for me to do, but now it’s turned into a business.”