New York Magazine is certainly among our fave reads, so we were delighted to see a shout-out for Eu2Be's award-winning oil from none other than Tayari Jones.

She is a New York Times bestselling author of An American Marriage — a book that landed on both Obama's Summer Reading List and Oprah's Book Club — and I caught up with her briefly at the Boston Book Festival, where she appeared at the historic Church of the Covenant and I tell you, every row was filled to capacity. 

To back up a bit, Tayari recently appeared in NY Magazine, where she catapulted Eu2Be into her marvelous orbit with a shout-out to Eu2Be Enrich + Radiate Oil as a product she simply “can’t live without.”

Eu2Be Enrich + Radiate Body Oil

"Because I’m on planes so much and it makes my skin so dry, I put this body oil on after the shower and it makes my skin so moisturized and soft, but not greasy. I don’t know how you can put oil on your skin and not come away greasy, but this works. It has a very herbaceous scent but it’s very mild. I’m from the South and to have someone describe your skin as ashy is the worst insult ever. With this, you will never be ashy again. It was given to me by my mentor at the Radcliffe Institute — that’s what real mentorship is about."

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So with that I thanked her in the words of one of her favorite writers, “thank you for lending me your good name…” and here are a few highlights from her talk:

She’s the type of person who answers blocked calls — and that’s a “good thing.” She learned about American Marriage being picked for Oprah’s Book Club when she answered a blocked call on her mobile and had to pull over upon recognizing that the caller was Oprah herself!

She’s Southern and old school — she still writes on a typewriter and she is a devout letter writer, adding, “but nobody writes me back!”

And I couldn’t help but hear some of her advice through the prism of being a beauty and skin care entrepreneur — there’s no shortage of advice out there, and she cautioned that much of it aims to make what you’re doing more conventional.

If you’re seeking to tell a story that doesn’t exist and to answer your own unique calling — whether writing or in my context, answering the call of your own beauty from within — it is critical to keep this in mind.

She is a generous and passionate speaker and storyteller, and offered much to the aspiring writers in all of us:

• Set small, reasonable goals daily, as not everyone can sit down to do serious writing every day. And you don’t have to write in order. The best stories don’t unfold in a straight line.
• Start your project to satisfy your heart, to answer the question which made you want to write in the first place.
• Stay curious and keep putting your hands on it and mind into it daily, even if it’s editing what you’ve already written.
• It’s important to write our own stories, so don’t write because you’re supposed to — write because you want to satisfy what’s in your heart, because you want your story to be told. Write your story.

She is as enthralling a speaker as she is a writer and, no doubt, teacher. Thank you for “rolling up” in my world, Tayari.

In the words of one of our favorite writers:

“Beauty was not simply something to behold;
it was something one could do.”

― Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye

Touché!

Photo: Nina Subin for NY Magazine

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