Akilah Releford-Gould thrives on the idea of juxtaposition. While her family’s Casa Locé Vineyards takes some effort to find, along the backroads of California’s Ojai Valley, the entrepreneur’s recently launched and elegantly packaged Lucky Girl Rosé is readily accessible in terms of its flavor and price point. It’s fitting that the wine’s launch was staged at her family’s sustainably managed farm/event site. Even if the launch was everything one would imagine a glamorous Southern California shindig would be, with spicy D.J. music, delicious cookout fare, and free bottles of Sun Bum sunscreen pouring as freely as the wine, the hostess remained calm and cool amidst the flurry of activity.
The Los Angeles native is no stranger to the serial entrepreneur lifestyle. In 2017, while still a student at Howard University, she founded Mary Louise Cosmetics. Observant of her friends’ and classmates’ diverse skincare needs, she felt there was space in a crowded marketplace for a line that allowed each woman to pick and choose the products that fit her routine, lifestyle, and wellness concerns.
Another common denominator tying Releford-Gould’s companies together is the spirit of family, as the cosmetics line’s name is a tribute to her grandmothers, the winery is on her family’s property, and her husband—entertainment executive Andrew Gould—is also a sounding board and a source of support through the highs and lows she may encounter.
Millennium caught up with Releford-Gould a couple of weeks after her mid-summer launch party, where influencers, media, and tastemakers from Los Angeles traveled by bus caravan into the heart of Ojai’s remote valleys to get a taste of the good life as she lives it.
Millennium: How does the name “Lucky Girl,” describe your approach to living your best life personally and professionally, and those who purchase it?
Akilah Releford-Gould: I’m big on positive thinking and being mindful of my thoughts throughout my personal and professional life. Lucky Girl embodies my optimism and our customers’ optimistic outlook. The Lucky Girl Rosé girl is mindful of what she consumes in terms of food, beverage, TV, and even the forms of social media she digests. It fits in with an overall lifestyle of being positive and remembering to always be grateful and rooted in positive thinking.
What inspired you to focus on rosé production?
Releford-Gould: When my parents acquired the winery almost two years ago, we were lucky enough to be working with Dom O’Reilly, who was already the winemaker at Casa Locé and the chef when they bought the property about 18 months ago. As a fan of rosé and the wines of Bordeaux, France, I knew I wanted to come out with a beverage just for my friends. Rather than start a rosé company, my intention was to create something for people who enjoy hosting parties and sharing with friends and family.
I also let Dom know I wanted my rosé to be zero carbs and zero sugar. After a bit of testing and blending, we were able to come up with a final product that reflected what I felt was missing in the rosé space that contained the flavors and aromantic notes I love, including candied cherry, strawberry, rhubarb, and wildflowers.
How long did it take you to learn about the fine points of viticulture as you established the winery?
Releford-Gould: It has been a learn-on-the-go process for me, and I had to learn a ton of information in a couple of years. The process involved tasting wines already produced at Casa Locé, so I could tell Dom kind of where I wanted to fill the gaps in the marketplace. I also wanted it to stand separately from wines available in the existing membership program. Now that the product has officially launched, I think we did a fine job of creating an accessible product, not only in terms of price point but also with luxury packaging and luxury taste.
How is Lucky Girl Rosé dovetailing into other projects?
Releford-Gould: As an event venue, Casa Locé has really been an amazing component in our bringing in that in-person element (to launch events, business luncheons, and other gatherings) that I think a lot of us missed in the wake of COVID. People are looking for a special place to get together, sit down, and serve good food and wine. As it is over 18 acres, it’s an amazing place for full activations with influencers, connecting potential buyers for the skincare brand, and even things like wellness retreats.
Did you always know you were going to be a “serial entrepreneur”?
Releford-Gould: The line started from my love of DIY skincare, and my admiration for my grandmothers. Mary is my maternal grandmother, and Louise is my paternal. There are also a lot of aunts, and with it, many beauty secrets are being passed down and shared. This is what inspired my love for the beauty industry and interest in starting the brand. While at Howard University, when I was a pre-med biology major, it was during a big boom of beauty tutorials on YouTube. I loved watching skincare ones, and I would take that hobby to my dorm room and make skincare products for myself to treat eczema. Then, word got to some of the other girls on my floor. I eventually put the products online after I went home one winter break and did some testing on my first products.
Were there family members, professors, or prominent business figures who inspired you to go the entrepreneurial route?
Releford-Gould: Definitely my dad. I get a lot of my work ethic and work habits from him. He’s an amazing entrepreneur and helped me with my skincare brand by suggesting ways to develop and formulate various products. Many people don’t know that he developed our hero skew, Miracle Serum. I shared that some girls at school wanted something to target acne scarring, hyperpigmentation, and dark spots. He came up with the formula for Miracle Serum. It remains one of our bestsellers today. I’m not as extreme as he is as he is always up before 5:00 a.m., but I appreciate his drive and remain inspired by his approach to business and how he runs his companies.
What research did you do to differentiate your line from other cosmetics producers? And how did you research potential investors, chemists, producers, etc.?
Releford-Gould: We knew that moving forward, we had to really differentiate our brand from other skincare branches because it’s such a crowded space. And this was before “clean beauty” became so mainstream. My original goal was to create beauty products that would inspire users to try out effective beauty rituals from the past, such as blending essential oils to nurture different parts of the body and seal in moisture.
The idea of bringing a new outlook to time-tested beauty habits helped us differentiate our line. For example, I tapped into that familiar jar of Pond’s we all remember seeing on our mom’s or aunt’s vanity, which triggered our curiosity about beauty products. I wanted to take the idea of time-tested products like Pond’s to inspire a better, cleaner night mask.
What is your trial-and-error process when introducing people to your new products?
Releford-Gould: When I started my skincare brand, the girls on my floor at Howard were my first focus group. And it was successful, as I received honest feedback about what they liked and didn’t like. I used the same process with Lucky Girl Rose, during the pre-launch. I served it during gatherings with friends and family and got some honest feedback.
What other business sectors do you want to get into and why?
Releford-Gould: My family also owns a ranch in Acton, California, called Bloom Ranch, and we want to bring at least one ingredient from there into our skincare products. We just launched an olive oil face cream that includes olives from the olive trees at Bloom Ranch. It really ties in with the ideas of the farm-to-table narrative, passing down family traditions, and the premise of creating new products inspired by older beauty rituals passed down from family members to the world.
The more I think of it, “lifestyle” ties everything I am doing and hope to do together. You can fit a whole bunch of industries and brands into this neat category. Something I’m really passionate about now that I’m a new mom is the baby industry, which is a part of that. Now that I am shopping for my daughter, I am paying attention to how I can be more sustainable and incorporate more sustainability into her life from the food that she eats, the clothes that she wears, the toys she plays with, and even the beauty products and bath products that she uses.
How has your husband contributed to your personal and professional success?
Releford-Gould: We are very in sync in how we can amplify some of the brands I’m working on or showcase the projects he’s currently producing. We’re always sitting down bouncing ideas off of each other about what works, what doesn’t work, or where we can fill the gap and amplify something. I think it goes hand in hand. I also feel fortunate to have a very creative husband and parents who are supportive and collaborative.
What advice would you offer others gravitating toward entrepreneurship rather than 9-to-5 careers?
Releford-Gould: Social media has done a great job of romanticizing what it’s like to be a company founder, showing all the positives and none of the negatives. When you are in the midst of things, and not sure if your ideas will fly, I would advise budding entrepreneurs to take one day at a time and put effort into what they want to do, even if it’s 30 minutes to an hour a day, to move the needle forward with a career transition.