Modupe Ozolua, known in and outside Nigeria for her body enhancement project, who is also the owner of BEARS Foundation, actually brought breast enlargement to our doorsteps some years ago, throwing her name up as one of the pioneers in the cosmetology business in the country. A year ago, the woman moved up the ladder with the introduction of Indulge Spa, her beauty outfit. In this chat with Tunde Ayanda, she spoke on why she started the business, the journey so far, among others.

WE all know Modupe Ozolua for body enhancement and not long ago, you started Indulge Spa, how did you come across that?
Indulge opened almost a year ago, the reason for this is: with every brand, you talk about expansion and a lot of clients ask for services like massage, facial treatment and a lot of that.

Initially, I didn’t want to go into it, but after doing my own research in health care, I became engrossed in it. When you hear having a massage, people think “oh! It’s just a body massage,” but it actually has some health care inclination.

People do have hypertension, diabetes, what have you. Here, massaging may help and  the ailment would determine  the kind of massage necessary. Now we have the spa, we have a cosmetics service, we have body enhancement, we also have the BEARS Foundation to take care of our clients.

What was your target when you started  Indulge?
The target was to cater for people like the executives, the housewives and for people that have very hectic schedules and need a place where they can have a treat without leaving the country because it’s not just a matter of having money, you can have all the money in the world, but may have no time.

It’s not so easy to walk into the plane and say you are going to the UK for a spa, we can have that privately now. There was a foundation in the equation of Indulge because we have different rooms, we have the medication rooms with massage chairs and we tell our clients after their treatment to come down to our relaxing room. We have our own made in-house lemon grass tea, ginger tea which have health benefits. So, we have been able to accomplish all that successfully and we are taking it a step further.

There are more to massaging and we have a wide variety of different massages, we have a wide variety of different scrubs like body mud, body wrap, body bathing. We also have a wide variety of services and we want the people to sample the experience and we also want to push in forward our membership packages because our own spa is not just a spa but that which offers a lot.

We have 21 different massage oils with health benefits, even if you are not leaving the stress environment, we can create an illusion by setting up all what you need to make you extremely convenient because we also understand what the traffic can be. With this, we are trying to create flexibility for our targets which are the very busy people.

The body enhancement thing is no more like it used to be when you first started, why?
I was with a friend and someone asked for her number and she said “if the person does not have a business card, the person does not deserve to have her number, I like that, very chicky!” The body enhancement thing has put in quite a lot already and I don’t think I need to make any unnecessary noise anymore.

I do my surgery twice a year and people know this and I am actually preparing for my surgery next month. Everytime this is coming on, I put up a reminder to people and once that is done, I shut it. We made it known when it first started, but now people are used to it and look forward to the surgery that comes twice in a year.

Talking about the enhancement, you are in charge, now with the spa thing, you have a managing director (MD) and different people working there, what will you be doing?
Last Saturday, I received a call and the person was like, ‘happy anniversary’ and I asked, “for what?” He now said, “today is the ninth year of body enhancement.” I was like, “oh my God! So it’s nine years already that I’ve been in this!” Come on guys, I’ve done my own part! I’ve taken the baton from you people, I’ve done the whole thing and I’m still doing it. Everyday, I consult for clients, I give treatment to ladies and other things like that. No doubt, it’s taking a toll on me but it’s a huge sacrifice in my personal life. I have a son who is now 14 years old and all I do is to work from morning till evening. I wake up 5.00 a.m. and I usually work till late into the night and I’ve been doing this for the past nine years.

I live in Abuja all these nine years and I travel back and forth from Abuja to Lagos. At times, I’m, exhausted and I’m tired and it’s not easy to find someone I can hand the baton over to.

As for my MD, it’s new to her because she came from an entirely different background but she shares the passion and the vision. I’m in control because my business means so much to me; it is my baby.

But now, I’m learning to let go gradually, I’m looking forward to sitting down and waiting for reports. Of course, I’m still active in body enhancement and for now I’m still here at Indulge, it is a transition.

There was a report recently in one of the foreign magazines, GQ to be precise, it was reported that in the UK and the US, more women are dropping from the “boob-job,” how true is this?
I don’t know, what is GQ, the International?

Yes, the December edition.
That I find very hard to believe, so, what is the substitute now? If they are saying women are dropping the “boob-job,” what are they doing now?

The report says it’s having a psychological effect, maintaining that there is no way a fake boob can be made to look natural…

That is rubbish! It’s not true. It’s difficult for me to comment without reading the magazine, hearing the fact and the comment and the reason, it’s simply untrue. There is an uproar against this because people are lot more informed; they read from the Internet and come for consultations. I really don’t think that is true.

Your clientele base in Nigeria, has it grown more than your own expectation?
I will talk about Indulge. With Indulge, I love the conception people have, thinking the body enhancement thing is strictly for women, but for Indulge, it’s amazing. I have women and a lot of men, especially expatriates, because they know the benefits of a proper treatment that saves life. I have clients that come every day, even today, we are close to the public and by 9.00 a.m., I had a couple of clients here. The clientele base is very large. We have both  men and women, Nigerians and non-Nigerians, which is what I yearn to have.

Who is modupe Ozolua?
Who is that? (laughs). I’m a simple but a complex person. Those that meet at first are usually very shocked when they later know who I really am. I can be an extrememly fabulous person and at times may not be. I am a very easy-going person; I laugh,  play and joke, even with my staff I love to know what is happening around me and create a peaceful environment.

In my office, I will fire a million people to get the right person I want for a job. I’m a no-nonsense person and you don’t have to be deceived by my appearance. I am a complete disciplinarian. I am straight-forward.