On this week's episode, we talk to Jasmine Nelson, Founder of Umber by J Lenay. Jasmine Nelson is making major waves in the Beauty industry by tackling an underserved and rarely spoken about issue among women: Facial Hair. It is estimated at least 10% of women deal with Hirsutism (male pattern hair growth), and many more have some degree of excessive hair that they feel uncomfortable with. Hirsutism is often a symptom of PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) in which 70% of affected women may remain undiagnosed.
Jasmine, who struggled with this issue since her teenage years, is one of these women. After trying many remedies, spending thousands, and not seeing any results, she decided to create her own solution - The Hair Reducing Fade Oil.
Since 2020, her company Umber by J Lenay, has helped over 40,000 women feel more confident, connected, and finally feminine again thanks to her all natural topical solution.
Watch the video for the discount code to purchase and more!
Jasmine, who struggled with this issue since her teenage years, is one of these women. After trying many remedies, spending thousands, and not seeing any results, she decided to create her own solution - The Hair Reducing Fade Oil.
Since 2020, her company Umber by J Lenay, has helped over 40,000 women feel more confident, connected, and finally feminine again thanks to her all natural topical solution.
Watch the video for the discount code to purchase and more!
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Shop Essence Live in partnership with the
00:06New Voices family. I'm so excited about today's episode. Now, friends, between us, have you ever
00:14been in a situation where you may have hastingly shaved your bikini line with a bad razor and then
00:21a week later you're just like in detention with your down there area? Well, I have something
00:29amazing for you guys. A Black woman has created an amazing product for this problem in particular,
00:36ingrown hairs or unwanted hairs. I'm so excited to introduce everyone. Everybody say hello to
00:43Jasmine Nelson, CEO and founder of Umber by Jay Lanay. Hey, Jasmine. Hey, Ms. Stephanie. Thank
00:51you for having me. I'm so excited to have you, and this is definitely a problem that a lot of us have,
00:58myself included. Don't know what method is like going to safely remove hair and be pain-free,
01:05but then not leave residual like ingrown hairs. Can you tell us about your product and how you
01:11came up with this incredible idea? Sure. So I have, I have my hair reducing fade oil. These are both the
01:19same. One for body, one for the face. These are both hair inhibitors, all natural. It's been a journey.
01:27It's been a journey creating those. All natural hair inhibitors. And can you take me back to the
01:33moment where you're like, I'm going to create this product? Like what is your background? How did you
01:38get into creating something like this? So in general, um, back at the age of like 15, probably
01:45a little bit even before that, I noticed I had hair growing on my neck and that was the most surprising
01:52thing that could ever come across. I came home from school one day. I looked in the mirror. I'm like,
01:56what's going on. And then the first thing I wish I had never done was take a razor and put it on my
02:02skin. You know, it's like, you're talking to like your mom, right? She tells you, don't shave your
02:07legs. It's going to get worse. Everybody's heard this. I'm sure. I did this on my neck. And that was
02:12the biggest thing, mistake I have ever done. I feel like if I just left it alone, it probably wouldn't
02:17have been as bad. So I ended up having a lot of ingrown hair, like what you were saying with the
02:21bikini line. I ended up having a lot of dark spots picking at the ingrown hair. And over the years,
02:27I've been trying to hide it with makeup, um, trying different ways to remove it without tearing up my
02:33skin, which never really worked. And eventually I went to a doctor to see what was going on with
02:38me. Eventually I found out I had PCOS. And so that's what stimulated the unwanted hair and PCOS is
02:44polycystic ovarian syndrome. And so, uh, I went to try to get laser. They, they denied me for
02:50insurance to get that cover because it's a cosmetic thing, not a medical issue for real.
02:56And then eventually I did, uh, do electrolysis and I did a number of sessions with electrolysis
03:03did not work out actually stimulated more hair growth. Again, this is not to say it doesn't work.
03:08It does work. It just didn't work for me at the time with the person I was working with.
03:12That is the time that I decided, look, I need to find a solution for myself. It's like you go to a
03:18store, you didn't see anybody with my face, your face on any of these products. Um, and it just
03:25wasn't meant for us. So I was like, you know what, let me go ahead and do some research. This started
03:29back in like 2016 when I started like dabbling into researching and, and trying to figure out what am I
03:36going to do? So I looked into like Ayurvedic, uh, holistic ingredients and ways to try to create a
03:44hair inhibitor. And eventually in 2018, I came up with something that was working for myself,
03:50but I didn't actually start testing the product until 2019. I had over 50 women
03:55tried. This is not original item. I went through so many variations of this to accommodate
04:00everyone. Cause it was working for me, but you know, maybe something was too harsh for
04:04one person or too strong for another. So I went through a lot of variations to finally create
04:10something that was perfect. And so in 2020, I, I went ahead and created a website.
04:17Then I became a racist. I love this. And now you're here 2025 on shop. I love, love, love this for you.
04:26So if we can, I know you have quite a bit of products available for sale. If you guys see
04:31at the bottom of your screen, her website is there. You purchased directly with these
04:34black owned brands here at shop essence live. Um, can we start to talk about this main product
04:40that I have here and what the uses are for it? Sure. So again, this is a hair inhibitor. So
04:47think of it as though, let's say you have to, you have to remove the hair from the root. So when you
04:52remove the hair, it has to completely come out. Like you have to see the bulb of the root. Don't
04:58put the hair low. Don't use Nair. Don't use electric shavers. Those things are not going to
05:02work because what this does is it penetrates the core of the hair follicle. This manipulates the
05:07androgens that feed into the hair follicle and it manipulates the new hair cell production of the hair.
05:13So as you use this product, you'll start noticing that the hair will thin out. It'll delay in growth.
05:19You'll also see that maybe sometimes the hair will change in color. Like it's reverting from terminal
05:25hair to vellus hair, which is like peach fuzz. Um, it helps fade the dark spots. And in general,
05:31you'll just start seeing less and less hair. So for example, if you're used to plucking your hair every
05:37two, three days, you'll start to see that expand. So let's, for example, let's say week one, it was
05:43every two, three days week two. Now you just got like once a week. Then it's once every two weeks.
05:49Then it's once every three weeks. It'll just expand as you keep using this product. You use
05:53it daily. You, um, you apply it on clean skin. Don't go applying it after you put all this other
06:00stuff on your face, because again, this has to be able to penetrate the core of the follicle.
06:04That means that if there's any other product in your pores, this ain't going to work. You diluted it
06:10or it's just not going to work. You have to apply it on clean skin. Same thing with this. A lot of
06:15women who end up getting this is because they tried this one first and they was like, you know,
06:19this works so well. Let me go ahead and start using the bigger product on my body. Now I can't say
06:26that shaving doesn't completely work. It just doesn't give the drastic results like you would
06:31see on my website. But if you do shave, eventually the shaving, it'll slow down a little bit. There may
06:38be, um, some thinning of the hair as well, but it'll definitely give you some relief on having to deal
06:42with any body hair. I would suggest the waxing with this. So for both products, I would suggest
06:48like threading, plucking, waxing, sugar, waxing, epilating. Those are all things that completely
06:55take the hair out from the skin. Right. So theoretically with this, you get a, if you get
07:03a wax, let's say every two weeks, that would alleviate you to have to go back every so often.
07:09Thank God. Cause that is torture. So this is good to know few less waxes, everyone. Um, and then how
07:16does it work for, does it also work for ingrown hairs and dark spots? Like how does it work for
07:21that? So for it's kind of, it is a mixture of, or a variation of how someone would use this product,
07:29because I've heard a lot of this does help with ingrown hair, but also in general, this could also
07:34increase ingrown hair if you're not using it properly. So for example, yes, I'm going to
07:41tell you. So if you are already very prone to ingrown hair and you just don't know how to handle
07:45that, I would suggest waiting on using this product. Make sure you can figure out exactly
07:50how to deal with ingrown hair, like changing your hair removal method, making sure you're exfoliating
07:56regularly, putting on the right moisturizer to keep your skin moist and hydrated. Because when you have
08:03dry, dry, very dry skin, or you're not exfoliating, it's a whole bunch of buildup in your skin. So
08:08this isn't going to help. Cause once, like I said before, if this is going to thin out the hair
08:12and you already have troubled skin, it's just going to create more issues because the thinner hair is
08:18not going to get through the skin. Oh my gosh, what an education we're getting on Shop Us Inside.
08:24I'm kind of saying some lies here. Don't go to the product because you don't know what you're
08:28doing yet. First with your regular skin, but for sure, I have to press, you have to make sure that
08:34you exfoliate when using this product. All right. Give us the order. Okay. So at what point are we
08:41washing with soap and then exfoliating, then drying, then using it? Can you take us through all of that?
08:47Sure. I mean, I can speak on my product in particular. So when I use my, let's see, now I'm bringing
08:55them up with the products. So when I use my face wash, I come in, well, let me rewind. Cause
09:00let me rewind. I use my sugar scrub first. I like to use the sugar scrub first and then go in with
09:06the face wash to clean off all the debris from the sugar scrub. The sugar scrub is really good
09:11for exfoliating. It's good for gentle skin. Don't go putting this on your face straight up, like
09:17have put some in your hand and then like put some water in it and make it like a little. Yeah. And
09:23then you like massage it in your skin and it becomes super soft. It, uh, it makes your skin
09:30a little bit plump and tighten as well. So it gives you more of a youthful look right after you use
09:34this. And then when you come in after that to use this face wash, it even helps even more because
09:39the black soap helps with lightening the spots. So after you use the sugar scrub and then the black
09:46soap face wash, then you come in with the hair reducing fade oil. And when you do that,
09:52you have to make sure that you apply it and then you really massage it into your skin until it's
09:57fully absorbed. And then after that, then you come in with your other products, like your,
10:03your moisturizers, which I also have a moisturizer and your, uh, your spot treatments. My moisturizer
10:10is meant for more ingrown hair and irritation. I use this on my kids when they are out in the sun too
10:17much. And they might get like some, uh, what you call it, some irritation from the sun, not
10:21necessarily sunburn or like bug bites. This is really good for a lot of irritation. And then I
10:27also have, if I have to rewind a little bit, I also have a, uh, shave, shave stick. This is for the
10:34shavers. So if you're going to shave, don't go using this product with this. This is more for if you want
10:40to eliminate the ingrown hair that you have, let me put it up to the screen. If you, uh, this will
10:46help eliminate the ingrown hair that you have. It will help fade the spots. Like this has been
10:51one of my favorite items when I was shaving because I had a lot of ingrown hair. Okay. I had a lot of
10:58dark spots. And what's funny is my husband, he showed me how to shave correctly. Cause of course he's
11:04God, he knows what he's doing. So let me go ask him to see how you do this. So when I did that,
11:11when I use this with his method, Oh, I was in the loop. I was like, okay, we out here. I ain't
11:17tripping no more off of being insecure outside. So I love that. Can you open that, um, shave stick
11:23product? Is that like, kind of like deodorant format or what? It's almost like a deodorant. I mean,
11:28there's a top right here, but you would hold on one now. I might stay my fingernails with this.
11:33That's another thing. If you decide that you want to get this product, you have to, uh, I ain't
11:39about to show y'all that it's falling apart. No worries. Yeah. So the shave stick is in that format
11:46to make it easier. But it's like a deodorant. So yeah, yeah. Roll it up and it'll do what it does,
11:51but you have to, I would suggest wearing some gloves because it has turmeric in it and turmeric
11:56is also very good for fading spots. So if you're going to use that, get you some gloves. Yeah.
12:02Cause then the turmeric can like stain your, your fingers. Whoa. You guys see all that she has
12:09to offer has us absolutely taken care of. Can you talk about the different areas of the body? Like
12:17are these products, are there certain products for bikini versus face? So you can use them all,
12:21you know, all over the body. What would you suggest?
12:24Honestly, the funny part is like when I first became, when I first created this, this face
12:33wash, my sister was using this all over her body and she would keep asking me, can I just
12:38go make a bigger container for the body? I'm like, yeah, we're not doing that right now. I'll
12:42do that another time, but you can use this anywhere you want. You can use the sugar scrub wherever
12:47you want. I mean, you can use all these products wherever you want. I really can't think of a place
12:51you can't use it. As long as you're making sure that you do the prep work to, um, make
12:57sure you're in a good situation. Like I said, with the ingrown hair, as long as you know how
13:01to use these methods correctly and take care of whatever is going on correctly, then go ahead
13:08and use any of these products. They have actually been very well for me and some others that I
13:12know. I love it. Okay. You have a discount code for the folks at home watching. I'm bringing
13:20it up on the screen. Welcome 10 for 10% off. So if you guys are watching this and you're
13:27going to her website, which is also scrolling, make sure you're using the discount code and
13:31did it get a discount. I clearly have to go on and get all the rest of those products,
13:35those incredible products that you have. So, so great. I'm going to leave this up on the
13:39screen. Um, while I do that, I would love Jasmine, if you can talk about being a member
13:45of a new voices family and what that's been like for you to be a part of that community
13:49so far, you know, being a part of new voices has been very motivating for me just to see
13:54how many women are just doing their thing, making a difference, having solutions for different
14:00problems, seeing what is going on as far as like, uh, not that I haven't really seen too
14:05many events, but I have seen a lot of different opportunities that I would love to be a part
14:09of funny part is my sister. She's also my PR person. We went to beauty con and we came
14:16across some, um, of the essence, some of the essence women that work for essence. And they
14:22told us about new voices. I'm like, you know, let's go ahead and get into this. We have to
14:26be more a part of the community. We have to make a difference with everyone. We like, it's
14:30great to network. It's great to exchange information. I mean, it's just been nothing but a positive
14:36experience for me. Oh my gosh. I love that. And I feel like I ran into you at beauty con
14:42I might've been one of them. And I want you guys to like, think about this beauty con just
14:50happened a few months ago in December. She just heard about it, join new voices. And now
14:55she's being interviewed on shop essence live. You see how this happens. Make sure y'all go
15:00into new voices, family.com bet on yourself, no matter what stage your business is. It
15:06is a really, really great resource and tools. There's mentorship community, like so many
15:11things available to you guys. So go to new voices, family.com fill out a business profile.
15:16And I, you know, you could be highlighted on shop essence live in the near future. You
15:20never ever know Jasmine. Thank you so much for joining today's show. I want to remind everybody
15:26the discount code and the website where you go to purchase. I'm so excited for you. I'm
15:33going to get this whole entire system. And when I reform, I'll put my before and afters
15:38and tag you guys, but thank you. Thank you so much for this really intentional line, all
15:44like natural ingredients, safe to use all over. Like this is really, really great for us.
15:49We're going to be outside this summer. Okay. We about to be, we about to be outside, but thank you
15:56so much, Jasmine. And thank you guys so much at home for tuning in. I am Stephanie Donovan shop
16:01essence live in partnership with the new voices family until next time. Bye y'all. Thank you.