Boity Thulo. Picture:Ian Landsberg
South African media personality Boity Thulo has found herself on the trolling side of social media, following her recent unsuccessful business venture.
In September 2020, the TV personality and rapper launched her perfume range, Boity Pink Saphire, in collaboration with beauty brand, Halo Heritage.
The perfume was performing reasonably well up until recently, but then sales began to dwindle, which caused it to be marked down from R595 to R60 at retailer, Clicks.
This prompted gossip blog, Mapthephandaba, to take to social media to shame her for having the cheapest perfume in South Africa.
“#Boity’s perfume moved from R595 to R60. Making it one of the lowest-priced perfumes in SA. Bondaba, what does it smell like? Do you have it? Why so low? Asihlebeni (let’s gossip) below,” the blog read.
But Thulo has not let her failed business venture and subsequent criticism get her down.
She wrote on X: “The business failed. Very disappointing. Life happened. But we try again and keep moving forward.”
She also took to Instagram to encourage her 6.3million followers to not be afraid of failure.
“Don’t be afraid to try. And never allow the fear of failure to cripple you. The dream was placed in your heart for a purpose. It will eventually work out exactly the way it’s meant to. We are still learning,” she wrote.
Many have since applauded Thulo for having the guts to start a business in the first place.
“The fact that it’s still on the shelves is an achievement, she risked so much to create this. Nothing failed. I hope she keeps trying and never gives up,” Lady Du commented.
@masego_moalosi added: “Coming back in here to say - Don’t get discouraged by people who don’t have brands that failed. All of these are products that have been on a shelf - meaning the dream wasn’t just a dream, it was executed. It lived!
“Continue living your dreams and RIP to the ones that didn’t make it. Cheers to the doers, not only the dreamers.
“Thank you for reminding us to chase our dreams. We chew meat and spit out the bones, so let’s chew some inspiration and spit out anything that doesn’t encourage or build.”
And while Thulo’s perfume range has not been as successful as she hoped it would be, her body spray range with Impulse, which she launched in 2018, was so well received that Unilever couldn’t keep up with the production.
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