Jay Ablah’s latest venture is a big detour from his career in the oil business

There are a lot of things someone could do after leaving the oil business, but you probably wouldn’t guess that launching a skin care line would be one of them.

It made sense to Jay Ablah, though.

Ablah left the oil business in 2019 and spent $1 million on developing a brand called Raybae, a name that’s a combination of a ray of sun and a term for a girlfriend or boyfriend.

Raybae is a “line of natural, clean beauty skin care” that Ablah said takes the best of Mother Nature and combines it with safe science to create gender neutral products for all skin types.

Ablah said he and his family are the majority stockholders, but he’s sold stock to 90 others at a minimum of 10,000 shares for $20,000. He said his list of stockholders reads like a who’s who of business in Wichita. About half of the stockholders have invested at the base level, and some have invested significantly more.

Ablah said he still has 100,000 shares left to sell.

“The company currently has no debt,” he said.

Ablah said $5 million in inventory is ready to go at www.raybae.com. His next step will be making presentations in early 2022 to enter retail stores.

As of Tuesday, the products will be available in Gentry Ltd at the Waterfront.

Ablah said he’s outsourcing manufacturing through a company in Boca Raton, Fla.

Ablah said a lot of natural products “are sticky, they’re heavy, they don’t do well with makeup,” but Raybae is different.

To start, the company is offering facial skin care regimens in full-size and travel-size versions.

“Everything we do is about a regimen,” Ablah said.

That includes day and night creams, wrinkle serum, an overnight collagen mask and a cleanser in what Ablah called luxury-level packaging.

He called the products “upper-middle to a lower-luxury” level in the mostly $40 to low $50s for the full-size products and $18 to $28 for the travel-size ones.

Ablah is a longtime photographer and has worked with aestheticians through the years and a lot of female models.

He said he knows the skin care world “is a very busy space.”

“It is very saturated. This is a tough road. I’m not gong to lie to you, but there’s always room for something that’s special and unique.”

Ablah said the company already has almost 200,000 followers across social media platforms.

“We are just really now kicking out hard on developing our customers,” he said.

Ablah said the plan is for the company to be worth a billion dollars within five to seven years.

He said he believes he has an exceptional product that’s worthy of his lofty goal.

“This is a swing at the fences.”

This story was originally published November 15, 2021 at 5:00 AM.