A Peek Inside Her Agenda: Marvella Akiojano

The CEO recently dropped her Valentine’s Day trio set and held a pop-up shop in Dallas last August, where she sold out in 30 minutes. Marvella hopes to continue to make Marviano a worldwide brand. The beauty expert talked with Her Agenda about her inspiration for the company, dream collab, and where she sees the brand headed in the near future.

Her Agenda: What led you to start your cosmetic line, and what success have you seen since it launched?

Marvella Akiojano: I started Marviano Cosmetics because I personally was facing certain issues with my makeup. I remember vividly that I got my lip filled on the top. I know people were talking about me on the internet, and when people talk about a certain part of your body online, you start to reflect. I’m looking at all my lip videos, and I see that towards the end of my video, my liner is gone. I’m still recording, but my liner is gone. That was the first time I noticed that.  When I go out, me and my girls first stop is the bathroom. What are they doing? Lip liner. I’m like, we just got here. When I noticed I’m not the only one facing this issue with my lip liner, instead of going to the market and seeing what was already there. I just felt like actually doing research to figure out what would make a lip liner long-lasting and how to create my own. That’s how I started Marviano Cosmetics. I would say it has been pretty successful so far, especially because it is pretty solution-based. We thank God. We’ve had thousands and thousands of orders over the past year since we launched, so that is very, very exciting.

Her Agenda: Other than your lip liner, what products have you added to your Cosmetics line?

Marvella Akiojano: Now we have lip glosses. We currently just sneak-launched some lipsticks in our Valentine’s lip kits and our other additional lip kits. We also have a lip balm called Yap Stick, which has SPF in it. Super excited about that. It also has foliates, so I love that product.

Her Agenda: What was the inspiration behind your recent Valentine’s Day drop, and what can we expect from you in the future?

Marvella Akiojano: Honestly, the Valentine’s drop was a marketing spinoff because the lip kits are pink and have the winter icicles on them, because it was supposed to be for Christmas. It was supposed to be a great stocking stuffer. With manufacturers that are not in the States, it takes so long. You just have to pray to God that it gets here in time. They ended up delivering the red version. So I was like, hmm. The best way I can do this is spin it as a Valentine’s Day drop. That’s how we ended up dropping that for Valentine’s. It was never a Valentine drop. I’m excited about our setting sprays. We’re going to drop that very, very soon. 

Her Agenda: What do you want women to feel when they wear your products?

Marvella Akiojano: I want women to be confident when they wear my products. I want women to know that they don’t have to turn into chemists and mixologists in order to find shades that work for them. You can go on the Marviano site and see, hey, this girl has my skin color. I know it’s going to work for me. Boom, espresso martini is dark enough. I want them to feel confident in the items that they’re putting on their face. I also want them to feel beautiful from within and out. I don’t want them to be worried all the time, about their lip combo not looking right after a while, or their lip not being protected when they’re out in the sun. I want them to put something on and know that, okay, after I’ve put it on, I don’t have to revisit it again. 

Her Agenda: What was the inspiration behind the name Marviano?

Marvella Akiojano: Marviano was actually supposed to be a bag brand. I designed a bag, and at the time, I had just graduated from college. I was about to graduate from college, and I didn’t have the funds to make that dream come true, so I put a pause on that. The name Marviano came from December 2023. I went to visit my parents, and I was telling them about the bag. I didn’t know what name I would use, even if I wanted to drop a brand, because the last time I had a brand, it was called Vella’s Closet. I was selling clothes in college. I was like, if I wanted to stick, it had to be good. There’s this African artist called Asake. He dropped a song called Amapiano. At the time, my dad was just singing the song. I was like I need a name. He’s like, hmm, Marviano. My last name is Akiojano, and obviously, Marvella. He put both of them together. He started singing it with the song Marviano, Amapiano. I’m like, hmm, that’s kind of hard. That’s how Marviano came up. 

Her Agenda: How does your background in marketing help you in terms of your brand?

Marvella Akiojano: It gives me the perspective of the buyer because that’s something that I learned a lot in my school, especially since I joined a professional selling program. A lot of that was B2B. I feel like if you can sell to a business, you can sell to an individual consumer. I think the little skills that I did learn about human relations and how the brain works in terms of buying and selling, I think that definitely plays a huge role. Compared to knowing, I need to know to put it on their face and let them know what it is that I feel like learning how human beings think in relation to purchasing things definitely helps. It also taught me how to spin things, as I explained about the Valentine’s Day drop. I learned not to take all the possible L’s before exhausting all the other options that you can carry out. 

Her Agenda: What was the moment you first fell in love with beauty?

Marvella Akiojano: Wow, that’s been a long time. I’ve been doing makeup and hair for a long time; my mom was a hairstylist when I was younger, so that already introduced me to beauty in general. I would also braid hair with them and learn how to do hair. My mom was also big on makeup. All I remember growing up was antenna eyebrows, blue eyeshadow, and red lipstick. I think watching her and I always just used to play in her makeup. That’s how I was introduced to beauty. My mom was a makeup babe. I’m not gonna lie, I don’t know what she was doing, but she knew what she was doing. Her letting me play with her makeup was how I was introduced to beauty. I would always do her makeup whenever we’re going to parties. I learned on her face, she was my canvas.

Her Agenda: What drives your passion for beauty and content creation?

Marvella Akiojano: I was bullied when I was younger. I knew I was always a pretty girl, but I feel like when I started to dibble and dabble in learning how to do my own hair and how to emphasize certain features on my face, and enhance what I already have, I think that’s when I fell in love with beauty. I thought oh great, I don’t have to totally shape shift my face. Growing up, there was this idea that you had to put on makeup to change what you look like. The more I realized I don’t have to change what I look like with makeup, I can just emphasize those features that I do have, that are super pretty on my face. It doesn’t have to be a costume. 

Her Agenda: You’ve been doing a lot of red carpet interviews this year. Is that something you want to continue to do?

Marvella Akiojano: I would absolutely love to be on more red carpets, especially because my stylist has been killing it. Give me the looks. I absolutely love serving looks. I want to do more red carpets for sure. More panels. I would like to talk to younger females as well and share my experience. I want to let them know that it’s possible to come from zero to a hundred. It’s very, very possible. I also want to be on more beauty panels, and maybe a masterclass one day, and a collab with a big brand by God’s grace. We’re going worldwide with it. Whoever wants a piece of Marvella can get it.

Her Agenda: How do you want to inspire young girls hoping to enter the beauty industry from an entrepreneurial standpoint?

Marvella Akiojano:  It’s a very intricate space because we’re dealing with multiple colors of people and multiple races of people. You also have to put everybody into consideration, which I would say at the beginning stage, it’s kind of difficult because you do have limited resources. I want them to know [no matter] how difficult it is; it is very much worth it. As a Black woman, for me personally, it’s very worth it because I’m not even the darkest shade in anything, but sometimes I struggle to find my shade in certain products for certain brands. They should know that it’s okay for it to be difficult at first, but it’s very, very fulfilling and rewarding when you can be the one to fill a gap in a market for your people too. You’re also fighting for people, regardless of who they are. Even if it’s somebody whose not of Black descent. Keep going and be transparent. It will take you far.

Her Agenda: What are the keys to a successful career? 

Marvella Akiojano: I would say discipline, transparency, and community. Very important. All three of those.

Her Agenda: Where do you see Marviano Cosmetics in the next five years?

Marvella Akiojano: In the next five years, I see Marviano in stores like Sephora, Ulta, and Boots in the UK. I’m hoping and praying that Marviano is worldwide and accessible to my customers in person. That would be amazing. If we can get it on Amazon, I think that would be stunning. I could also see Marviano starting a little makeup academy as well. That is something I’ve always wanted to do because not everybody has access to makeup products. Currently, I have makeup products on my floor because I’m doing a giveaway on my Snapchat. I know makeup is not cheap at all, so by God’s grace, in the next five to ten years, Marviano will have a full face of makeup. We can have a little academy where kids will pay maybe $30 or $40 a month and get a little package of makeup monthly. It would be just a little something for the girls who want to do makeup but cannot afford to splurge all that money.

[Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]