Interview:ByDammie Amolegbe.

They say Beauty Queen, so it was only right I imagined to meet a Lady fully made up, in an evening gown; prancing around her house with a sash over her neck that says “MBGN 1991”, when she sees me, she’ll most likely be doing the “Royal Wave”, and just at that moment will someone be wearing the crown on her head as the audience cheers!

Alas, there was my imagination getting ahead of me (again) as she stepped out in her nightshirt and bedroom slippers.

“Hi Damilola, How are you? I was just about to step into the shower” She said.

In no time, she was done and we head out to Barazahi; “The Perfect Urban Escape” – a full-on Spa, Salon & Gym located at 16, Fola Osibo, Lekki phase 1 were we met up with the ever-talented TY Bello and the one and only makeup living Legend – Banke Meshida. The Icing on the cake was the fabulous-ness that are Deola Sagoe’s pieces, and Mrs. Nike Oshinowo – Soleye had just the right 44YRs Old body to pull it off!

Photographer, Check!
Make Up, Check!
Subject, Check!
Venue, Check!

Click after click, the night went by as it became magical.

Day 2: Breakfast at her house & Interview.

8.30am: She was up and full of energy, having come back from running, fully geared in her sports clothes. “I Delayed breakfast because of you” She said, as I giggled my apologies. Did she really expect me there 8am IN THE MORNING?! Not that I can’t be awake, but you know with Lagos traffic & Nepa (PHCN) that’s a bit of a stretch! (Smile).

Breakfast began, and my quest to a 30-minute healthy living began, we talked through her MBGN days, Skin Deep (Her Spa), her health, her new workout DVD, and her plans for 2010.

Dammie: I’m so glad to be doing this interview with you, hope you had fun at the photo shoot yesterday.

Nike: Likewise Damilola, I had a really lovely time with you yesterday. Very well done.

D: Our pleasure. So I am taking you back to 1991, right after you were crowned Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria (MBGN), I’m sure it’s been a whirlwind since then, what are the highlights you remember from your life and your career from then till this very second?

Nike: What I remember, highlights from my career…Oh God!

D: You can start from when they put the crown on.

N: It’s been different for me because my career was not based on the pageant. It was not a kind of “life after MBGN”. I guess maybe it all just fit in, because I did run skin deep for so long.

D: How long did you run Skin Deep for before you sold it?

N: Close to ten years. The fortune doesn’t exist anymore; it didn’t last very long once I moved on. But then I’m not that kind of person, I don’t look back. I just keep my head up once I know what it is I want I just stay focused in that direction that I forget to look back. I knew exactly what I wanted; at first it was point out to me that I was a little too young to be able to do it so I waited. I did charity work and just enjoyed my life but once I turned forty, I set about developing and starting my dream(s).

D: Oh wow!

N: Yeah, I had a lot of fun but then I decided I wanted to do the next thing and that next thing has taken me this long to develop, and it’s now launching. I wanted to do my own range of products, fragrances, skin care, hair care, which is what I’m doing now.

D: A range of beauty products I see. Would you say you live up to society’s standard of being “Beautiful”?

N: Oh Damilola, I’m sorry for interrupting you. But, it is impossible. You cannot live up to society’s expectations of you. They don’t know you, they never will, they don’t live with you. They have a perception of what they imagine your life entails. They don’t imagine I go to the loo (or wee or bath) like everyone else. So I don’t try, I learned earlier on that I can never live up to their expectation, I am not perfect. I am completely flawed but then that’s what makes me human. I’m not perfect; I have never wanted to be perfect. But they imagine this perfect being with perfect beauty, perfect this and perfect that. No, that isn’t me – that is a figment of their imagination, that is so not me.

I have come into my own a little bit, since getting married because I’m living with a man that basically helps me fly, who helps me be a better version of me, the more laid back version of me. He has helped me deal with all my insecurities, do you understand? When you are with a man that loves you, your flaws and whatever, you know; flaws and all, you grow, you realize you don’t have to be perfect.

I learnt that it takes Love – a special kind of love for you to be that way. So I have never been too concerned with their imagery or vision or ideas or ideals of how my life should be, because they have never known me.

D: Very true, Love of self. What would you say is your best feature/attribute?

N: My best feature isn’t actually visible but I think it is my brain, my mind. I have my father’s mind; it’s kind of phenomenal; my father had a unique business brain. If my father was living in V.I, Lagos, close to the beach, he will still be able to sell sand to people who go to the beach. It’s a unique skill, unique gift, and I think that’s my best feature.

My physical feature when I look at my face (maybe I’ve looked at my face for too long – laughs). I look at my face and body in a very objective manner because that’s the world in which I operate; my work is within the beauty industry. So when I look at someone, I don’t look at “oh she is pretty”, I look critically,

I look at the cheekbones, I look at the eyes; if they are set together. I do know I have unique features; I know I have good features; I know I have good bone structure; I know I’m pleasant to look at. But I don’t go “oh isn’t she just adorable, isn’t she gorgeous” oh no! I concern myself with “is she healthy, is she fit and how much more can she be healthy and fit” – that’s a hard one, not certain I have a “best” physical feature.

D: Do you remember growing up with any insecurity or succumbing to peer pressure?

N: Tons, tons, tons, tons and tons of insecurities, and yes plenty of peer pressure. If I can talk about peer pressure first, which is what I want all these young ladies out there to know; that “YOU can be YOU”. You see I grew up in a time when alcohol wasn’t such a big issue and drugs wasn’t such a big issue but you should remember that I have always worked within the beauty and fashion industry, and I was able to do it my way. I didn’t feel like I had to be cool and drunk every night.

D: That’s very good for you then. In an industry where people are fast to go under the knife to change their appearances, have you ever considered surgery to enhance your looks?

N: You know what; I have had lots of surgeries concerning my health issues. When you’ve had to be put to bed that many times because of your health issues, you are not going to do that willingly. It’s not something you do frivolously. Having said that, in a few years maybe when I’m sixty, I will have a face-lift and people will see me and say “Oh is that Beyoncé “(Laughs), and I’ll reply “no, no it’s me!” (Laughs again), and maybe I’ll be able to go to these places I’ve been wanting to go.

D: (Smiles) What Health Issue are you referring to?

N: en?do?me?tri?o?sis [en-doh-mee-tree-oh-sis]

–noun Pathology
The presence of uterine lining in other pelvic organs, esp. the ovaries, characterized by cyst formation, adhesions, and menstrual pains.

I’ve battled endometriosis forever. During the shoot yesterday, I was in pain, you all had to give me pain killers, if I’m very stressed, it rears its ugly head, if I’m anxious it does, it’s just something I have had to deal with, there’s no cure.

So I have learned to live a lovely life – I have a wonderful life, I learn to cope with it. Certain times in the month, it’s a bit more aggressive, but right now, my doctors and I have found a way to manage it; I’m coping.

Having said that, I have to say exercise plays a big part in keeping my health issues abet. I have never been so fit in my whole life (I wish I knew earlier), I have never been this healthy and I’m forty-something. I have discovered that if you keep your body at its optimum state of good health and its optimum state of fitness, everything else stays in place; you know your heart issues, diet issues, just everything.

D: Well this brings me to the (your) fitness video, how did the idea come about?

N: I have a lot of body issues; one day, I feel my bum is too big, the other day is my belly – I want it flat, one day I feel like my chins and cheeks are growing out, you know, I also was in England with my husband, and I had been unwell for a year, which led to another batch of surgeries.

Once you are forty, your body doesn’t quite bounce back like it used to. My gynaecologist is also my surgeon, he used to operate on me and he’d say “oh my God, Nike within a week you are out of bed and just going” but this time, one month later I was still in bed thinking, “ woe is me, I’m still not feeling well”, and my poor husband will start looking after me and try to pamper me. I just wasn’t myself. Also this time around, I was a little bit bloated, I felt fat and ugly and I don’t like big gyms, those great big gyms intimidate me with those healthy people working out. So I decided to look for another way to workout; I started going to a place called ‘Dance Works’ in Mayfair, London – one of the trainers in ‘Dance Works’ is currently my personal trainer, Hugo and he slowly got me to enjoy exercise, in the early part of the summer he will take me to the park and we will do exercises, and then I get home and begin to take off my workout clothes, look in the mirror and I see my waist is chiseled; once you start noticing the changes in your body, you are motivated and my husband starts saying you know, your bum has lifted, not only is it firm but it has literally moved from where it was. I began to realize that there was something happening and I’m one of those people – that if I find something good, I want to share with all my friends.

As training one-on-one with Hugo developed. I became very interested in fitness and I said to him that I will soon be going back to my country and I will like to take this to Nigeria, then the thought of doing a fitness DVD sprung.

D: How did you go about compiling it?

N: Hugo and I began recording it, it took us a while because we had to get the best parts of the exercises, and put it together in a way that women can do it in their homes. It’s an hour long and at the end of it, it’s got a nutrition part; I show women the foods I eat (there’s no point getting all fit and healthy when you are not eating the right things). It tells you how I lost weight and how I’m maintaining it.

I also have aerobic exercises in there and cardio; there is a low impact one and a high impact one, so that people don’t quickly grow out of it – you can start with the low-impact, and after 3 months when you are a bit fit, you can do the high- impact exercises.

There’s an added bonus which is that it actually lets the viewer into my life, such that they see me sweating, they see me with my personal trainer slugging it out; doing sit-ups, and doing leg raises and totally not loving it; it’s not pretty, it’s hard, it’s tough, but it works. They see that, they see my serious side and my “oh my goodness, no!” they see my determination, they see my smile, they see my corky smiley little girl side, they see the “oh whatever” side, they see me and I believe that people haven’t gotten much access to me. But when you buy the fitness DVD, I’m right there in your home. It’s quite interesting.

D: Do you use your workout video?

N: I do…I do the routine, but not every morning. I try and do it five days a week. It’s so much like work; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Saturdays; I don’t do any exercises, Sundays; I barely get out of bed (laughs).

D: Aside from being “Healthy” and “Beautiful” . . . why else would you advice people to stay fit and/or pick up the fitness video?

N: To live longer; it makes your heart pump, pump harder, faster, the more your heart does that, your body releases something called endorphins like a happy drug; you do your exercise in the morning, and you can walk around all day merry! You don’t need drugs or champagne, because you have that whole dose of endorphin and you are just good to go. Working out gives you a lot more energy; you can do more, (Like that song – (singing); you can see clearly now, the rain is gone). It’s like that. Life is just less challenging because you can tackle it, you can do more. I know that’s weird, but you can tackle it. It gives you energy.

D: Even when you have a really busy day, are you able to schedule in your work out?

N: It has to come first thing in the day. I keep saying that diet and exercise is not something you do to lose weight, it’s a mindset. It’s a lifestyle and I’m saying to everybody out there, let me show you a new way of life. Come and experience the new way of life, it just integrates exercise and good food into your day-to-day living, not for a month, not for two months, not so that you can get into your new dress, no! It’s for the rest of your life. We are going to be seventy and we all are still going to be doing these exercises.

D: What kind of food would you advice people to eat?

N: I love food, I have a passion for food, and I love Nigerian food (Amala is my favorite). I don’t deny myself anything. So you can have treats; I’m not saying you can never eat pounded yam, you can never eat this; you can eat anything you want, but in moderation; at the right time. The nutrition part of my fitness DVD shows you how/when to eat Nigerian food and it goes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and I expect you to treat yourself on Sunday but I’m not expecting you to pig-out either! (Laughs).

D: GREAT! What else do we expect from you in 2010?

N: Oh my goodness, everything starts 2010, the fitness DVD hits the market this month, January. Immediately after that my perfumes, then my hair range of products come out in Easter.

D: Well, seems like you plan to make us feel and look our best, we wish you the best!

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