Happy New Year 2026! SeedSpot Special — From Dakar to U.S. Shelves with Victorine Sarr (LYVV / Maison LIV)

Welcome to 2026—and welcome back to The Brand Blueprint. We’re opening the year with a SeedSpot Special featuring Victorine Sarr, Founder & CEO of LYVV Cosmetics (operating in the U.S. as Maison LIV). Born in Dakar and trained at L’Oréal and Apple, Victorine built a clean color brand for melanin-rich and global skin tones—first validated across West Africa and now expanding to the United States via Amazon (data first), indie/specialty beauty, and eventually national retail. In this episode, we dive into the four Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promo), why Product is Victorine’s forever #1, how to translate EU/Africa compliance to U.S. label language, and practical distribution realities from ECOWAS to barcodes and brand naming. If your 2026 includes a U.S. push, this founder playbook will help you align product, data, and partners for retail-ready growth.

Key takeaways

• Product > everything: performance & authenticity compound over time

• Amazon = data engine for targeting first U.S. retail doors

• Compliance clarity: “natural” vs “organic,” INCI, copy claims & packaging

• Packaging & brand naming: retail-ready + U.S. trademark strategy (Maison LIV)

• Distribution is local: ECOWAS helps regionally; elsewhere requires new playbooks

• Accelerators accelerate: SeedSpot pitch & readiness frameworks save cycles

  
  

Episode highlights (with timestamps)

• 00:45 — Victorine’s path: L’Oréal, Apple, and building LYVV/Maison LIV

• 02:40 — Rapid Fire (breakfasts, spices, U.S. food favorites, 2026 word)

• 06:25 — Why lip SKUs first; shade/texture insights; data-guided choice

• 09:35 — Airport/spa activation → distribution momentum

• 12:20 — Africa distribution reality check (currency, tariffs, partners)

• 13:20 — Amazon → indie/specialty → national retail (U.S. ladder)

• 15:15 — U.S. trademark pivot: Maison LIV; packaging/UPCs and label language

• 16:30 — SeedSpot: data-driven buyer pitches & retail readiness

  
  

Happy New Year—and thank you for rocking with us. If this helped: like, follow, and share.

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