Inside the October Makers Club LIVE Session with Akuba Torvikey: A Masterclass in Bringing Beauty Products to Life

Elaine Truesdale
Nov 10, 2025
3 min read

What does it really take to develop a beauty product that performs, feels intentional, and stands up to real customers—not just in your studio, but on shelves, in salons, and in the marketplace?

That’s exactly what we explored during the October Makers Club LIVE session featuring Akuba Torvikey, a fractional Head of Product Development with experience working inside some of the haircare brands shaping today’s industry. From TPH to Pattern Beauty to African Pride, Akuba has guided products through every stage—from concept to formulation to launch—and she generously walked Makers Club members through that full journey in this session.

This was behind-the-scenes knowledge most people never get access to.

What Akuba Broke Down for Us

1. The Foundation: Market Research That Actually Means Something

Akuba emphasized understanding the problem your product solves and who it solves it for—before you ever touch ingredients. She showed how to evaluate competitors, identify performance expectations, and select benchmark products to guide development.

2. Concept + Positioning

We discussed how to articulate the “big idea” of a product—its purpose, feel, fragrance, benefits, and claims—so that everything flows from a clear direction instead of guesswork.

3. Feasibility (Where Many Indie Brands Get Stuck)

Akuba walked us through:

What manufacturing partners need to know
How to choose packaging that’s realistic—not just pretty
How to make sure your cost of goods supports your retail price
How to avoid expensive re-dos mid-development

4. Working With a Formulator or Manufacturer

Members learned how to use a Formula Brief to clearly communicate expectations, so feedback doesn’t turn into confusion or wasted rounds of sampling.

5. Testing + Validation

She covered the types of testing that protect your brand and your customers—including stability, safety, and performance testing—and how to approach testing when budgets are tight.

6. Post-Launch Reality

Launching is not the finish line. It’s the beginning. Akuba showed how to track feedback, decide when to reformulate, and know when a product has reached the end of its lifecycle.

Guidance Rooted in Real Experience

Our Makers Club community benefits deeply from the expertise of Margaret Haven, who has decades of hands-on product development, ingredient evaluation, and formulation support experience—not through a chemistry degree, but through years of laboratory experience, manufacturing problem-solving, and real-world product testing across companies and brands. Her presence in the conversation added context, history, and practical insights that grounded the discussion.

Why Makers Club Matters

This session was a reminder that beauty brands aren’t built in isolation.

They are built through knowledge, community, support, refinement, and shared experience.

Inside Makers Club, creators get:

Monthly LIVE teaching and demonstration sessions
Replays and resource access
Guidance on product development, scaling, and improvement
A supportive network of makers who understand natural hair, textured hair, and the realities of small-batch beauty entrepreneurship

If you want to grow your product line, refine your formulas, or launch intentionally—not just quickly—this is the room where that work happens.