We spent 5 minutes with Torrian Denise, the founder of DorNee Natural Body Luxuries, and found out the inspiration behind the brand that not only nurtures your skin, but your soul.
Torrian Denise, a nail technician and salon owner for many years, was always on a quest to find products that would moisturize her client's hands and feet. In 2001 she was introduced to Raw Shea Butter and began creating a natural foot butter to use on her clients especially during the cold winter months -- below is her story:
ENTER THE FLO:
I believe customers will fall in love with the heart of your brand. It's connected to your mother. Can you share a little bit about how your mother inspired the skincare line?
Absolutely. So I was making skincare almost 30 years ago but in 2004 my mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and the treatments were very drying and burning to her skin. Just really wreaking havoc on her externally, not to mention of course, internally. The prescriptions and the over-the-counter products that we were buying were just not helping her. So I just had a concoction of natural butters and oils, whatever it was at that time. And I just said, mommy try this, it's just shea butter and cocoa butter. I didn't fragrance anything at that time so her favorite perfume at the time was Dolce and Gabbana Sicily and she would take it and she would spray it in there and mix it up. And she was like, okay, now I can do that. But it helped to restore the moisture in her skin and elasticity. I'm absolutely not making any claims, but it made such a difference. So after her passing in 2005, 4th of July, 2005, I just had to ask myself, why did my little concoction work? What was it about it that helped her? And so I started doing research on natural ingredients and their benefits, thus birthing the DorNee line, which is a combination of the words adore and my mother's name, Renee.
And now you're taking care of other people, just like you took care of her. I want to touch on your background as a nail technician, because this is one of my favorite parts of getting my nails done–the massage. And it's just not the same anymore. It sounds like when you were doing it you were using something really nice on hands and feet?
Yes. So at that time, like I said, over 30 years ago, when I was doing nails, I owned two nail salons. We were more intentional about the care that we had taken with our clients. So that's where the products came in. That's when I started mixing up stuff for the feet for my clients, for their pedicure and their hand massages and things like that. It wasn't a priority, but I was intentional about that care. Fast forward when my mom got sick, it was just like automatic because I made that to care for my customers.
Let's talk about your favorite products. If you had to suggest two products to a potential customer, what would they be?
It would be the Heel Shield Foot Butter, because that is the actual product that I gave my mom. It just now has a name and of course it's reformulated after all those years, but it is my top selling hands down. I need to close my business if I don't have it. So the Heel Shield Foot Butter absolutely is a favorite. So I'm going to take myself out of the equation and I'm going to go to a
customer favorite which was part of a limited edition collection that I did in 2013. It is the Ultimate Shea in the fragrance Lust. And when I say I cannot make enough of it it's always sold out. It's always at the forefront of my day, when I go into the warehouse it's three or four or five in an order for each customer I'm emailed about it I am text messaged about it. So I would say you cannot go wrong. I formulate fragrances, so my fragrances are unique. I don't do duplicates. I learned to formulate fragrances and essential oils. So it's something that I concocted and it just it just got legs and wings and it took off.
What do you want people to feel when they open up their box? They see the beautiful packaging. They open up the cap and they put it on?
I want them to feel more so than the intoxicating fragrances how good their skin is going to feel because it's going to feel amazing. I want them to understand that the DorNee brand is much more than what's in the bottle. It's about the foundation of love. It was about my mom. So I want them to feel, not only that I put my heart and soul into this business,but I had to lose my mom in order for this business to gain life. Her death birthed this. So I want them to feel love more than anything. I want them to know that my arms are wrapped around them virtually.
Welcome to FLOURYSH we're so glad to have you.
