Nelly Tuikong is a Kenyan critical care nurse, entrepreneur and business executive, who is the founder and chief executive officer of Pauline Cosmetics Limited, a Nairobi-based company that she founded in 2013, with business operations in 2014.
However, in 2010, she began to explore the possibility of starting a beauty line of products geared towards African women.
She researched online and approached Kiralee Hubbard, an American makeup artist who owns Eye Max Cosmetics for advice and mentorship.
After about three years of making start-up mistakes (she ordered her first large batch of cosmetics before she developed the market), she started to distribute her line through retail outlets in a sustainable manner.
As of February 2016, she was supplying to over 40 retail outlets in Kenya, with plans to expand to other East African countries, including Uganda and Rwanda.