Alaina Hoskins started over at 54—now she’s bottling affirmation for  women of all ages

With her new Divine 9 collection, The Strongest Fragrance Bar, founder Alaina Hoskins is supporting HBCU scholarships for single mothers.

If you’ve ever needed a reminder that your best chapter hasn’t been written yet, allow Alaina Hoskins to be your proof. At 57 years old, nearly 58 (and yes, she wants you to know exactly how old she is), Hoskins is a perfumer, an entrepreneur, a soon-to-be college graduate, a newly initiated Delta, a mother, and the founder of The Strongest Fragrance Bar. But before all of that, she was a woman who had lost nearly everything: her marriage, her homes, her financial security,  and somehow, on the other side of all that loss, found herself.

“I love to share my age because I believe I give hope,” Hoskins told theGrio. “I went through a very, very ugly public divorce, and [I knew that] was not supposed to be my end. I will be graduating on May 9 from the University of the District of Columbia, projected to be magna cum laude. I am 57 years old. I will be 58 in December. And I reinvented myself. I started over.”

Hoskins had been making perfumes for over 30 years. Long before it was her business, it was her gift. For much of her adult life, she channeled her creativity elsewhere: into a career as a hairstylist, into writing her 2016 book “Behind Church Doors: Overcoming Church Hurt,” and eventually into fashion styling. It was that last pivot that cracked open something new. After her divorce, she found her footing again and landed a styling gig for a Nike campaign spotlighting the LeBron James 16 shoe — a shoot built around 16 strong women that would change the trajectory of her life. The campaign led to a five-year run as Gloria James’ personal stylist, and its celebration of feminine strength planted the seed for everything that would come next. 

At 54, she launched The Strongest Fragrance Bar, rooted in the mission of “empowering women and girls.” 

“We call it affirmations in the bottle,” she explained. “So not only do you smell good, you shift atmospheres, you wear how you want to feel, even if you’re not feeling it. So it kind of boosts you.”

The brand’s original five scents, Compassion, Fearless, Ambitious, Empowered, and Selfless, are just as much fragrance as they are an intention you carry on your skin. And most recently, she’s expanded her “affirmations in a bottle” to include a first-of-its-kind fragrant tribute to the Divine 9 Greek organizations. During her time as a student, she pledged UDC’s undergraduate chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., which inspired her to create her latest scent, “Crimson.” But one wasn’t enough. She’s now developing what may be the very first fragrance collection dedicated to all nine organizations of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, a Divine 9 collection. 

Though the collection feels like an intentional love letter to Black Greek organizations, Hoskins carefully designed these so that anyone can wear them regardless of their Greek affiliations. 

“I didn’t name it where it was owned by a Delta, but a Delta would understand it,” she explained. The Strongest Fragrance Bar’s Divine 9 collection will include: “Standard” in honor of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., “Simply Pretty” in honor of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., “Ikonik” in honor of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., “Instinct” in honor of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., “Crimson” in honor of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., “Noble” in honor of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., “Eloquence” in honor of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.

But for Hoskins, honoring legacy also means investing in it. A portion of the proceeds from The Strongest Fragrance Bar D9 collection will go toward scholarships for single mothers attending HBCUs, a commitment she says was personal. 

“I became a single mother. I was married for 25 years, we owned several homes and cars, and I lost everything. I became homeless, and I had to figure it out. I had to raise two daughters. I was on welfare. And the one thing that I wanted; I didn’t want our pain to stop them from their future or their purpose, and so I worked overtime to make sure that they got what they were supposed to. I know how important it is for scholarships. I see students dropping out every day, whether they had a child, or they can’t afford it. And so I wanted to give back.”

Hoskins knows what it means to be expected to hold it all together when you’re quietly falling apart,  and she wants other women to know they don’t have to pretend otherwise: 

“Women are expected to show up. We’re expected to have the answers, even when we don’t, and a lot of times we don’t want to share that. We don’t have the answers, because then we’re looked at a certain way. And so we just keep moving. They say ‘Never let them see you sweat,’ but we’re sweating. So I wanted to be — even if it’s just one person, if it’s just two people who get a scholarship — to make life easier for them.”

That’s the throughline of everything Hoskins has built: a business, yes, but really a message. A message that says you are not too old, not too broken, not too far behind. Grounded by her faith, the founder understands that her life is a testament that the detours were not defeats. 

“Everything is new,” she said, reflecting on this season in her life. ‘It’s not just the business, it’s my marriage, it’s everything, and I’m not gonna quit. I can’t quit because I understand that everything I went through was for a purpose: the divorce, the public humiliation, the being blackballed by pastors, becoming a single mother, being on welfare, and the list could go on and on and on. Now I’m able to be an example to show that if I can do it, you can do it.”

“It’s not too late, don’t quit, and bet on yourself,” she advised women. “Women should give themselves grace. Don’t look at what you didn’t do. Don’t look at how old you are. Give yourself grace, because we are so hard on ourselves. We’ve got the world being hard on us. But not only should we give ourselves grace, but give another sister grace as well.”