Eco-luxury brand RAW Beauty draws its inspiration from the transitional nature of the African Sahel. Founder Ruqayya Tofa-Basheer says her own personal skin challenges led her to this line of work.   



Clean beauty is on the rise. According to researchandmarkets.com, the worldwide clean beauty industry is expected to reach $14.36 billion by 2028. Defined as beauty products that are non-toxic and free of harmful ingredients, clean beauty has gained popularity, especially with Gen Z and millennials. A January 2023 article by The New York Times stated that ‘clean beauty’ had “5.6 million hashtag views on Instagram and 1.2 billion on TikTok”.



For beauty entrepreneur Ruqayya Tofa-Basheer, clean beauty offered a lifesaving solution for her and her daughter’s skin problems, and that led to the creation of one of her luxury botanical, clean beauty brands. RAW Beauty Africa focuses on sourcing and using African ingredients as its base for products.



“We use plants like moringa, baobab, hibiscus, and we use water melon seed oil, pumpkin seed oil and extracts from different plants in Africa that have high anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory properties. We started with body products but now, we deal with face products for acne, and hyperpigmentation also came into play where a lot of people had scars from eczema that they couldn’t get rid of easily,” says Tofa-Basheer.



Her original career dream was architecture. After studying at the University of East London’s School of Architecture, Computing and Engineering, Tofa-Basheer worked with Barron and Smith Architects in Islington, London, from 2005 to 2007, before returning to Nigeria.



Over the years, she had been plagued with a skin condition which proved too difficult to handle.



“Going into beauty was really about my own personal journey with my skin. Having suffered from eczema as a baby, I had a very bad skin condition. I remember in boarding school, I was really not confident at all. During summertime, we were all going for a swim and I wanted to get out of that because I used to have a lot of boils on my body, especially during the rainy season,” Tofa-Basheer recalls.



“I remember my parents taking me to different dermatologists and I never really got a product that worked for me. When I was 19, I came across an aesthetician and she prescribed something that was way too harsh because I had sensitive skin as well, and it ended up really drying up my skin. That is really when I started trying to educate myself about clean ingredients and clean beauty.”



During her first pregnancy, Tofa-Basheer decided to take a beauty and skincare course in hopes of creating her own solution for her skin. However, it was after her pregnancy that her eureka moment happened.



“When I gave birth to my daughter, I found out she had the same skin condition as me. And I sought out companies in the US to help… I was like with all the courses I have done, I need to just order products and get to work. And that is when I created my skin butter and literally, within a week, her skin cleared,” she adds.



And Tofa-Basheer has never looked back. She started researching about the healing properties of local plants as well as different oils and began mixing clean concoctions in her kitchen before expanding to a factory in Kano and, most recently, another location in Abuja.



The brand has experienced organic growth for the past two years with its unique luxury packaging as well as brand proposition which seeks to also educate its customers about the negative impact of skin bleaching, amongst others.



For African beauty entrepreneurs that would like to tap into this billion-dollar clean beauty industry, Tofa-Basheer believes the focus should be on looking inwards first.



“Try to spread out and delve more into our natural plant resources and don’t get pigeonholed into just using shea oil and coconut oil but rather spread out and use research to process and manufacture ingredients, rather than just making products,” she says.



“Look locally for your solutions and try to solve a problem that is personal to you and your community.”

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The Nigerian Beauty Entrepreneur With A Clean Business Idea

Temitope Mayegun has made a name in Nigeria selling natural oils from fruits, seeds and vegetables, but it was a greasy path to follow.



From stock trading to skincare, in the last four years, Temitope Mayegun has built a company that sells what she calls “natural skincare products” but to achieve that, she first needed to change the mindset of Nigerians.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“I got divine inspiration,” she says, “to start a company that will enrich lives and inspire a healthier and happier world.” The founder and CEO of Avila Naturalle in Nigeria felt she needed to first educate people about the toxic and unsafe chemicals they were hitherto using for bleaching and skin whitening, considering how sought-after they are in Nigeria.



The former stock broker was also frustrated she couldn’t find an all-natural skin product without bleaching or whitening ingredients harmful to the skin, so she created her own.



Today, from a humble start in 2017, her company retails over 350 products in the skincare division, 90 products in the food division and 10 products in the water and drinks division.



But it took a lot of ground work and research to start with.



“I saw that many people believe your skincare product should enhance or change your skin color,” recalls Mayegun.



With a degree in accounting from the University of Lagos as well as an International Masters in Business Administration from Eaton Business School; and having done a Harvard Business School Executive Leadership course, Mayegun’s most valuable qualification would prove to be a diploma she obtained in an organic and natural skin school in London.



Equipped with the knowledge of the goodness of natural products, Mayegun set out on the cumbersome path of changing perceptions.



“It was difficult because a lot of people were not ready to change their bleaching and whitening products. So, we did not follow the crowd even though there was pressure to go into whitening and pressure to create products that will let customers bleach their skin,” says Mayegun.



To combat stereotypes, Mayegun knew she had to create a unique product. She began with 30,000 units of pure coconut oil.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“I had to create campaigns to educate the public on the importance of using natural products.”</blockquote>



“At the time, there was no pure coconut oil on the market. Most of them were watered down with other edible oils which reduces the quality. I had to create campaigns to educate the public on the importance of using natural products and sell them on the superior quality of our products.”



The hard work paid off and Mayegun sold out her 30,000 units, which was two cartons of pure coconut oil, in just two days. It was time to expand her business and with that, she needed to find capital.



“I started asking friends for a loan but I could not raise the money. I went to microfinance companies looking for a $10,000-loan and they said I needed collateral which I didn’t have.



“There were times when I worked between 17 and 21 hours a day. I would be trying to convince people on why they should use coconut oil for their skin. I knew people were not ready for natural products but I kept pushing and after a while, I got a lot of people asking for coconut oil and it was not easy meeting the demand,” says Mayegun.



Soon, word got out and the distributors came calling. Today, Avila Naturalle offers multiple natural essential oils made from carrots, avocado, hibiscus and mustard.



“When people saw our mustard oil, they were shocked that there were these oils in Nigeria. So, they bought in bulk to resell. We were the first to produce essential oils in Nigeria. People were asking if we bought them from abroad and dilute it with other products which was the norm. We are the only company that sells 100% pure natural oils from fruits and seeds.”



The sizeable beauty and personal care market in Nigeria is what Mayegun has sets her sights on.



“To make this happen we have created a multi-channel natural body care and household brand with multiple product lines, which combines a dynamic distribution network with a retail strategy as well as e-commerce,” she says, also referring to changing consumer habits in the post-Covid world.



With just $100 and a burgeoning global supply chain network, Mayegun has built a million-dollar company manufacturing natural body and hair care products and foods in Africa.

temitope mayegun

The Natural Route To Business Success

In Lagos, savvy entrepreneurs in the beauty business face-off the Covid-19 economic crisis by glamming up their online offerings.



From always being fascinated by brushes and make-up products and their ability to enhance a person’s physical appeal, Rasheeda Adeosun, one of Nigeria’s leading make-up artists today, was close to this profession from the beginning. When she was about seven years old, her mother ran a hair-dressing salon in Lagos, where Adeosun would spend most of her time but the interest in taking up beauty as a career came much later in life when she herself became a mother, to three children.



“While I was pregnant, I was working for Lloyds in their headquarters in the United Kingdom and I fell really ill. After I had my twins, my husband said ‘your friends are always coming around asking you to do make-up so why don’t you do something like that’. Obviously being at home, I said I will give it a try,” recalls Adeosun. She posted her wedding pictures on Facebook and people began to take note of her talent.



“People were like ‘who did your make up’, and I said ‘I did it myself’. That is when business started booming. A number of bloggers, like Linda Ikeji, posted [about] me and that is when the customers started coming in.”



But the early days were a struggle. Unlike today’s standards in the beauty business – characterized by significant access to resources and industry entrepreneurs, who can provide mentorship, as well as practically no barriers to entry due to platforms like YouTube and Instagram – Adeosun had no one that would help turn her passion for make-up into a business.



“So, I used to work for nothing and sometimes I would only have £20 left but I always say to people not all free jobs are bad jobs and I did a lot of free jobs in the beginning but I always say I gained a client later,” says Adeosun.



But that was a very long time ago. Today, she is one of the most sought-after make-up artists in the UK and Nigeria, with her established brand, OTS Beauty, boasting some of Africa’s leading celebrities like Tiwa Savage, as exclusive clients. The bridal look has undergone an overhaul. New-age make-up artists like Adeosun are the reason behind it. She has perfected her signature style which comprises of natural and contemporary looks in tune with the trend and she has gained a reputation of amping up the glam quotient of brides on their big day.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2126DAE2-6F04-4487-8092-DAD55E4E00CD-1024x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47303" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2126DAE2-6F04-4487-8092-DAD55E4E00CD-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2126DAE2-6F04-4487-8092-DAD55E4E00CD-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2126DAE2-6F04-4487-8092-DAD55E4E00CD-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2126DAE2-6F04-4487-8092-DAD55E4E00CD-600x600.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2126DAE2-6F04-4487-8092-DAD55E4E00CD-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2126DAE2-6F04-4487-8092-DAD55E4E00CD-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2126DAE2-6F04-4487-8092-DAD55E4E00CD-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2126DAE2-6F04-4487-8092-DAD55E4E00CD-2048x2048.jpg 2048w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2126DAE2-6F04-4487-8092-DAD55E4E00CD-80x80.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Rasheeda Adeosun of OTS Beauty</figcaption></figure>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">&#8220;I used to work for nothing and sometimes I would only have £20 left but I always say to people not all free jobs are bad jobs and I did a lot of free jobs in the beginning but I always say I gained a client later.&#8221;</blockquote>



This has created a huge demand for her bridal make-up services, which constitute a bulk of her revenue. In addition to this, she can charge a premium for campaigns, video shoots and photoshoots. She charges a uniform price for both celebrities and regular clients, often bringing in anywhere from £3,000-£4,000 on a good month.



But like many industries, the Covid-19 pandemic has meant that entrepreneurs like Adeosun are now faced with an uncertain future as economies continue to implement physical restrictions in a desperate attempt to curb the spread of the marauding virus. Adeosun has seen her biggest cash cow all but vanish overnight. This has led her to pivot her brand to survive the new normal.



“I am now doing a lot of online stuff. Most of my following is not from the UK but rather from Nigeria and Ghana. So, doing online classes has helped. Even though it hasn’t brought in the type of money I am used to, it has helped me make ends meet. Also selling lashes online has helped me to bring in money,” says Adeosun.



There is really no business that has not faced the wrath of Covid-19 as more and more enterprises are being forced to shut their doors due to the nationwide lockdowns in place.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="682" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/IMG_3503-682x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47304" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/IMG_3503-682x1024.jpg 682w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/IMG_3503-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/IMG_3503-600x901.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/IMG_3503-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/IMG_3503-768x1153.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/IMG_3503-1023x1536.jpg 1023w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/IMG_3503.jpg 1364w" sizes="(max-width: 682px) 100vw, 682px" /><figcaption>Nnenna Okoye of Youtopia Beauty</figcaption></figure>



Nnenna Okoye is an Accounting and Finance graduate from the University of Kent in Canterbury in the UK and is now a beauty entrepreneur. She is the owner of Youtopia Beauty, which initially began as an online beauty shop but has over the years morphed into a physical space offering everything from beauty products to skin serums. A bad case of acne, which lasted for over eight months, was the catalyst that helped her to pivot from her nine-to-five job and enter the scary world of beauty entrepreneurship.



“At the time I thought ‘what can you do with your eyes closed’ and you know you love doing and enjoy doing it and still make money from it. And products were the only thing I knew how to do but it was scary and I didn’t know where to start from,” says Okoye.



After failing to get local products that would help her with her acne problem, she had to resort to ordering the products from abroad.



That was when she had her eureka moment. From a beauty blog, she broadened her horizons into the world of beauty distribution and created an e-commerce site where customers in Nigeria could order online. Once business took off, she began introducing her own line of branded cosmetics, the first of which was her best-selling Youskin Vitamin C Serum.



“I felt that vitamin C is the most essential product in every beauty routine especially in Africa where we have exposure to the sun and a lot of pollution. We have about eight products in our line today,” says Okoye.



The company has had to make several changes to its business model over the years. Firstly, Okoye’s dream of creating the Amazon for beauty products was short-lived due to the logistical challenges in Nigeria.



“When I started, people did not have that trust to use their cards online and they had Jumia, which had an order without paying method but they are a much bigger company so they could afford to do that but we couldn’t. So, we had to devise a method where we could also do it properly,” says Okoye.



Her Nigerian consumers wanted to see the products and have a mini consultation before purchasing and it soon became apparent that Okoye would need to open a physical space in order to attract her consumers.



And that is exactly what she did. Youtopia Beauty now had a physical address and an online presence and the move led to an influx of sales.



Since then, the company has been enjoying unprecedented growth. In addition to Youtopia Beauty and Youskin, Okoye subsequently launched the Beauty Hub, a one-stop shop catering service for all the beauty needs of the Nigerian woman. Then disaster struck. Nigeria’s Covid-19 lockdown order came into effect in March and since then, Okoye’s beauty space has remained closed.



“Since the lockdown, we have seen a total decline in people walking into the Beauty Hub which has been disastrous. I shut down completely because we couldn’t do anything due to the curfew in place in Lagos. In the middle of May, I decided not to stop selling,” says Okoye.



Luckily, her major sales came from the distribution of her products, which were still being sold in essential shops like pharmacies and supermarkets that were still allowed to open their doors during the lockdown.



“Because of the pandemic, people couldn’t go out and now people who didn’t care about their skin decided that this is the time to focus on skincare. So, we are selling out on our skin products with some of our lines selling about 100 soaps a day. I have actually seen my numbers rise in the skincare products category but not the make-up line and Beauty Hub,” says Okoye.



Kwame Opoku, CEO of Reset Global and a futurist, describes the trend of increasing sales in the beauty industry during a pandemic as the ‘Lipstick Index’. “Research has shown that historically, an increase in lipstick sales occurred during difficult times like the 9/11 crisis in 2001. This was first established by Estée Lauder who saw their lipstick sales double during this period and this is used as a reliable metric to gauge consumer confidence,” says Opoku.



Kika Osunde and Chioma Ikokwu are the owners of Good Hair, a high-end provider of quality hair products for the discerning and upwardly-mobile professional woman. The starting prices for their hair units can fetch up to a $1,000 a piece. Over the years, the brand, which the women started when they met in university over 12 years ago, has attracted the crème de la crème of society like the First Lady of Ghana and the wives of politicians.



“We saw a gap in the market. There were less than 10 people selling hair and it would sometimes take you up to a year to find a good supplier. So, the market was ready for us. Girls our age could not attain and have access to luxury hair. We always knew we wanted to be a luxury brand and fresh and we targeted young professionals, our aunties and affluent people,” says Osunde.



Their love for premium hair has been supported by their wealthy clientele over the years, which has resulted in the two diversifying their brand with a presence in the UK as well as launching the Good Hair Space in Nigeria with a beauty salon, a barbershop as well as a restaurant and bar.



Today, however, the hair market is a lot different. They have still stuck to their unflinching compromise for good quality hair but are no longer the only players in the space. Instead of only a few suppliers, there are now thousands of people selling hair. The proliferation of social media means it is easier to find suppliers from all over the world. Furthermore, cheap hair products from China provide affordable alternatives to premium hair which has created a mass market.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="682" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Facetune_09-07-2020-20-47-12.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47307" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Facetune_09-07-2020-20-47-12.jpg 682w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Facetune_09-07-2020-20-47-12-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Facetune_09-07-2020-20-47-12-600x901.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Facetune_09-07-2020-20-47-12-200x300.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 682px) 100vw, 682px" /><figcaption>Kika Osunde</figcaption></figure>



“Even though the salon is closed, we are still selling hair to clients in Nigeria and the UK,” says Ikokwu. “In Nigeria, we offer a product and a service and in London, we only offer a product. So now, we focus on selling our products. We have started creating more content to increase the demand of our hair units and sales have surged during this period. We definitely fall into the lipstick index- the only thing that has changed for us is the delivery times as the post office wasn’t open six days a week anymore in the UK.”



For most entrepreneurs in the beauty space, content remains king. Providing engaging content to their followers either through tutorials and giveaways to keep online audiences engaged has become the new norm if they want to keep building brand loyalty. The Covid-19 pandemic has led to changes in every industry and for the beauty sector, these new changes will require entrepreneurs to put in more hours in front of the camera and utilize social media to remain connected to their consumers, until the world returns to a semblance of its former self.

CHI2

Nigeria’s Beauty Entrepreneurs: Making Up For Lost Business

In what will be the second major Kardashian cashout in a year, Kim Kardashian West is selling a 20% stake in her cosmetics company KKW Beauty to beauty giant Coty&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/coty-inc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">COTY</a>&nbsp;for $200 million. The deal—<a href="https://www.coty.com/in-the-news/press-release/coty-and-kim-kardashian-west-announce-strategic-relationship-expand-beauty" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced today</a>—values KKW Beauty at $1 billion, making Kardashian West worth about $900 million, according to&nbsp;Forbes’estimates.



The acquisition, which is set to close in early 2021, will leave Kardashian West the majority owner of KKW Beauty, with an estimated 72% stake in the company, which is known for its color cosmetics like contouring creams and highlighters.&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates that her mother, Kris Jenner, owns 8% of the business. (Neither Kardashian West nor Kris Jenner have responded to a request for comment about their stakes.) According to Coty, she’ll remain responsible for creative efforts while Coty will focus on expanding product development outside the realm of color cosmetics.



Earlier this year, Kardashian West’s half-sister, Kylie Jenner, also inked a big deal with Coty, when she sold it 51% of her Kylie Cosmetics at a valuation of $1.2 billion. The deal left Jenner with a net worth of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2020/05/29/inside-kylie-jennerss-web-of-lies-and-why-shes-no-longer-a-billionaire/#6e35ef4c25f7">just under $900 million.</a> Both Kylie Cosmetics and KKW Beauty are among a number of brands, including Anastasia Beverly Hills, Huda Beauty and Glossier, that have received sky-high valuations thanks to their social-media-friendly marketing. 



“Kim is a true modern-day global icon,” said Coty chairman and CEO Peter Harf in a statement. “This influence, combined with Coty’s leadership and deep expertise in prestige beauty will allow us to achieve the full potential of her brands.”



The deal comes just days after Seed Beauty, which develops, manufactures and ships both KKW Beauty and Kylie Cosmetics, won a temporary injunction against KKW Beauty, hoping to prevent it from sharing trade secrets with Coty, which also owns brands like CoverGirl, Sally Hansen and Rimmel. On June 19, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2020/06/23/the-company-that-makes-kim-kardashians-cosmetics-is-suing-her-to-protect-its-trade-secrets/#1f7f0b0aaac0">Seed filed a lawsuit against KKW Beauty</a> seeking protection of its trade secrets ahead of an expected deal between Coty and KKW Beauty. The temporary order, granted on June 26, lasts until August 21 and forbids KKW Beauty from disclosing details related to the Seed-KKW relationship, including “the terms of those agreements, information about license use, marketing obligations, product launch and distribution, revenue sharing, intellectual property ownership, specifications, ingredients, formulas, plans and other information about Seed products.”



Coty has struggled in recent years, with Wall Street insisting it routinely overpays for acquisitions and has failed to keep up with contemporary beauty trends. The coronavirus pandemic has also hit the 116-year-old company hard. Since the beginning of the year, Coty’s stock price has fallen nearly 60%. The company, which had $8.6 billion in revenues in the year through June 2019, now sports a $3.3 billion market capitalization. By striking deals with companies like KKW Beauty and Kylie Cosmetics, Coty is hoping to refresh its image and appeal to younger consumers.



Kardashian West founded KKW Beauty in 2017, after successfully collaborating with Kylie Cosmetics on a set of lip kits. Like her half-sister, Kardashian West first launched online only, but later moved into Ulta stores in October 2019, helping her generate estimated revenues of $100 million last year. KKW Beauty is one of several business ventures for Kardashian West: She continues to appear on her family’s reality show,&nbsp;Keeping Up with the Kardashians,&nbsp;sells her own line of shapewear called Skims and promotes her mobile game,&nbsp;Kim Kardashian Hollywood.&nbsp;Her husband, Kanye West,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2020/06/26/gap-stock-surges-after-kanye-west-signs-deal-to-sell-a-new-yeezy-clothing-line-with-struggling-retailer/#2807b5361437">recently announced a deal</a>&nbsp;to sell a line of his Yeezy apparel in Gap stores.



“This is fun for me. Now I’m coming up with Kimojis and the app and all these other ideas,” Kardashian West <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2016/07/11/kim-kardashian-mobile-mogul-the-forbes-cover-story/#46bf36907e4f">told Forbes</a>of her various business ventures in 2016. “I don’t see myself stopping.”



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/">Madeline Berg</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/hollywood-entertainment">Hollywood &amp; Entertainment</a>

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Kim Kardashian West Is Worth $900 Million After Agreeing To Sell A Stake In Her Cosmetics Firm To Coty

As a teenager, Mabel Ledwaba turned her bedroom into a
beauty parlor. Today, her brand has made a mark on the local beauty industry.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



An 83km drive to the&nbsp;
industrialized Vanderbijlpark in the southern parts of Johannesburg
presents an undulating green and brown landscape. 



In the midst of all the dullness, we are greeted on arrival
by a well-groomed beauty entrepreneur in this town in South Africa’s Highveld. 



Like an Egyptian goddess, make-up artist Mabel Ledwaba
glides in, in a full-length, draped black dress, and recollects her
entrepreneurial journey.



“It was a long ten years of trial and error,” says Ledwaba,
arching her well-shaped brows.



Ledwaba, who initially planned on opening a nail and eyelash
bar, founded a make-up line that is today worth over R2.5 million ($181,000),
and has a presence in all nine provinces of South Africa.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="926" height="613" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mabel2.png" alt="" class="wp-image-39839" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mabel2.png 926w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mabel2-300x199.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mabel2-600x397.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mabel2-768x508.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 926px) 100vw, 926px" /><figcaption> Havillah Beauty makeup products by Mabel Ledwaba. Picture: Gypseenia Lion </figcaption></figure>



The transition from employee to employer took six months
before Havillah Beauty officially launched in 2008.



In just two years, the business grew from occupying 20
square meters to a 50-square meter establishment in a commercial office space.



“You can have a business plan but you never stick to it,”
Ledwaba says.



Tapping into a market at a time when international cosmetics
dominated in South Africa, Ledwaba was determined to make a mark as a local
brand.



With a dream and passion for business, as a teenager, the
township beauty queen converted her bedroom into a beauty parlor.



The informal business operated from Monday to Saturday when she would return from school, without extra time for social activities. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“You prepare them [clients] to go see their boyfriends and to go to the clubs. It kept me out of mischief,” she says. </blockquote>



As her popularity grew throughout her community, she took
her talent beyond the streets, and she pursued a qualification in cosmetology.
She also honed her talent for hair-dressing, infusing a local feel to different
hair textures and styles.



“I gave them that township feel of doing hair in a white
salon. I remember I was the highest paid because everyone got paid on
commission, and everybody wanted me to do their hair. That, as well, taught me
business skills. I saw the professional side,” she says.



With a starting capital of R80,000 ($5,700) that she
received from her husband, she never looked back.



Importing the make-up products from Germany, Ledwaba mixes
the powder pigments to cater for the African market.



“Reach out in aggressive marketing; reach out in terms of
being aggressive where you make sure they feel and they touch the product. They
will not buy the product based on trust, they will buy it because you have
given them enough proof that it works. An international brand, they buy on
trust but with us, they buy based on proven facts, so we have to do double the
work,” she says.



“We do not manufacture from scratch, but we are mainly responsible for the colors we mix. We have a supplier in Germany, who supplies other brands. We tell them to mix the colors in a specific way so that we have our colors,” she adds.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2019/03/11/the-businesses-of-the-future-20-new-wealth-creators-on-the-african-continent/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Businesses Of The Future: 20 New Wealth Creators On The African Continent (opens in a new tab)">Businesses Of The Future: 20 New Wealth Creators On The African Continent</a>



Testing the market in a Johannesburg mall paved the way for
business development and strategies.



Online and pop-up stores propelled the brand into a
competitive market.



In a market research report on the cosmetics industry in
South Africa 2017, published by ReportLinker, “the value of the sector, which
includes the manufacture of cosmetics, perfumes and other personal care
preparations, is estimated to have grown to R27.35 billion at retail level and
R19.69 billion at manufacturing level”.



“What feeling do you get when you see somebody you have
applied make-up on and their face just shines,” asks Ledwaba as she turns the
mirror in our direction.



She also imparts her know-how to other aspirants in the
industry, adding value to the skills of young people.



Makgotso Mpalakanye, a 22-year-old make-up artist who works on South African soapie Generations The Legacy, had completed a course at Havillah Beauty. 



“I started doing make-up at a young age, and I took it
seriously at the age of 20. I was lucky to find a lady who took me to school
and paid my fees,” Mpalakanye says, who now has an academic understanding of
the beauty industry.



“It helps you improve and know different make-up types,” she
attests.



As Ledwaba’s business continues to grow, her determination
to develop a culture of entrepreneurship in the make-up industry is showing no
signs of fading away.

Mabel1

Her Brush With Business

Nompumelelo (Mpoomy) Ledwaba is the darling of social media. In a mere 12 months, she has grown her Instagram following to close to 100,000.

The 24-year-old was first introduced to the media-crazy masses when she married South African Idols finalist and recording artist, Brenden Praise (Ledwaba). It intrigued thousands and generated quick clicks, likes and follows. She is today an influencer in her own right.
It is a warm Friday afternoon in Melville, a hip suburb in Johannesburg, South Africa, when we meet Mpoomy and Brenden at their nail and coffee bar located on the bustling 7th Street. The salon is packed with women getting their nails done for the weekend. The room is painted grey and decorated in white and spurts of pink and yellow.
Stars such as Mapaseka Koetle-Nyokong, Mmatema Moremi, Jessica Nkosi and Thickleeyonce come here for nail pampering.
This is a world away from where it all began in Middelburg, a farming and industrial town in eastern South Africa where Mpoomy was born. She moved to Johannesburg to study accounting at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). In her second year, she took on a job as a banker at Investec to pave the way for a career in corporate.
“It was a busy year. I worked from 4PM until midnight or from midnight till 8AM. In between, I had classes to attend. It was fun at first until I got bored and frustrated,” says Mpoomy.
It marked the beginning of a journey that broke and built her.
First, she quit her job.
“I didn’t diagnose it as depression but now because I understand what depression is, I know it could have been that,” she says.
Then, she did something no one thought she would.
It was in one of UJ’s exam halls where she was scheduled to take her finance exam. On this day, she says she was well-prepared. The examiner gave students 10 minutes reading time before the exam started. During this time, students plan their answers to the questions but Mpoomy says she was planning a business.
“When the examiner said ‘you may start’, I hadn’t read through the exam questions. I tried to page through it but I just couldn’t start. I stood up and I left the room and I never went back,” she says.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2015/04/01/the-man-in-the-beauty-business/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Man In The Beauty Business</a>
It was a brave move. She had no money, no experience and she knew her parents would not be impressed.
“I went home to my parents immediately. I think my mom knew this could happen. She wasn’t shocked but she was hurt… My dad was upset. I stayed home for a day and my mom told me to go back to Johannesburg to write my exam and I refused but still went back to Johannesburg.”
Her father cut her off financially. It was time for Mpoomy to fend for herself. The road to entrepreneurship was cold, lonely and frustrating.
“I didn’t even ask my dad why he wasn’t sending me money anymore. I knew I had lost the right to do so because I had decided to be an adult by making that decision. He didn’t owe me anything. I was hurt and upset but I’m grateful that happened because it gave me the push to hustle. I even tried to borrow R10,000 ($703) from my mother to do a nail course and she refused,” she says.
Although the plan was not clear and everyone around her said she was making a mistake, Mpoomy says she had faith her dream to open a nail business would one day come true.
<blockquote>“I spent my days crying and praying. It was a tough time. I knew I had made the right decision but everyone and everything around me tried to break me,” she says.</blockquote>
According to Mpoomy, Brenden, her then boyfriend and now husband, is the only one who shared the same faith.
“He was there with me all the way no matter what. He supported me and told me everything will be ok,” says the now-pregnant Mpoomy.
While trying to find her way, she joined a modeling agency. Her first job was a billboard and a TV advert that paid her R22,000 ($1,546). Following in her father’s footsteps, she invested it in a cleaning business.
“My dad’s business started as a cleaning company. He was a hustler trying to figure things out. Now, he manufactures various cleaning products and has a safety line…one day, when I was home, my mom was reading a magazine and came across an article that listed 10 businesses that require no startup capital and she showed it to me and I knew I had to start,” says Mpoomy.
She made a flier of her new-born cleaning business and posted it on WhatsApp groups. She found her first customers. She ran it for a year until she had to clean client homes herself.
“In December, all my helpers went home for the holidays and I had to clean for our clients. It was tough and I learned you can’t start a business in something you don’t know or you are not passionate about,” she says.
In January 2017, she got married and Brenden gave her R15,000 ($1,054) to go to nail school.
“He had just paid lobola and we had just gotten married which didn’t come cheap and now he had just invested in my education. Although my fees were paid, we didn’t have money for transport. At our wedding, someone gave us an envelope with R2,000 ($140) and that is what we used,” says Mpoomy, her eyes watering.
Life got tougher.
“We sacrificed everything we had to get started. We had financial problems at the time. It was the first year of our marriage and we had so many things to do. We just worried about getting through the day. I remember there was one time I didn’t know if we were going to have food for the rest of the month,” she says.
After three months, she was ready to get working experience but no one would hire her. She then mounted a poster on her car advertising her services and started a mobile nail salon.
“I did my nails every three days. We would go to a restaurant every week because they have a lunch special for R50 ($3) that comes with unlimited wifi. We would download videos so I learned how to be better.”
The mobile salon grew and she started making about R1,000 ($70) a day. She knew it was time to grow, open a shop and employ staff. With the help of a mentor, she opened Aneno Nail &amp; Coffee Bar.
<div id="attachment_37613" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37613" class="wp-image-37613 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Mpumi-153-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="740" height="494" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Mpumi-153-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Mpumi-153-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Mpumi-153-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Mpumi-153-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Mpumi-153.jpg 1654w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" />Mphoomy Ledwaba. Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla</div>
“A week before our opening, I asked a family friend, who is a celebrity, to help me by coming to my nail bar and have her nails done for free and advertise on social media so I can get clients, but she undermined me. I could tell from the way she looked at me. She told me she works with big brands…I was hurt but I understood that you don’t need anyone to make something successful. God is the one who makes things happen.”
Today, she employs six people and plans to get into the hair industry, create a nail product line and then franchise the business. This is definitely not the last time you hear about this small-town girl with big dreams.

Mpumi-182

The University Drop Out Who Built A Beauty Business

Bisola Adeko is always on the hunt for that perfect made up look. The 35-year-old investment banker from Edo State, Nigeria, is particular about having the right look for the right event and is more than willing to pay top dollar for this service.
“I attend a lot of formal events because of the work I do and I believe you have to always look picture-ready. Personal presentation is very important due to the nature of the clients we work with who are, mainly high net worth individuals and private investors,” says Adeko.
According to Adeko, makeup is all about the perfect foundation and the right application process that requires a certain talent and skill, a skill she attributes to Joyce Jacob, a sought-after celebrity makeup artist in Nigeria’s competitive beauty industry.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/10/16/oprah-keeping-promise-made-mandela/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Oprah Keeping The Promise Made To Mandela</a>
Jacob is a millennial America returnee, having grown up in Philadelphia and New Jersey, and now promoting an African brand.
“The vision behind my brand is to empower women of all ages, of all backgrounds and race to feel beautiful at all times through the power of beauty and makeup. Part of that vision is to have a premium line that all women can use and create a truly authentic African beauty brand,” says Jacob.
Jacob has worked with some of the biggest female powerhouses, such as Cherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/cover-story/2016/08/01/head-business-fists-fight/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Folorunsho Alakija</a>, Africa’s richest woman.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/10/18/israel-home-home-ethiopian/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Israel Is Home From Home For This Ethiopian</a>
With her eponymous business, the 28-year-old has a signature style that has made her a household name in just five years.
“I felt like there was a large gap in the beauty industry in Nigeria and I felt I had so much to offer and bring back to my country. That is why I relocated and started Joyce Jacob Beauty. I felt like I had a lot of expertise to share and since I have been back, I have noticed a tremendous growth in the makeup industry which I am happy to see,” she says.
For Jacob, it is much more than a pretty face. It’s about giving something back to her clients.
“When women think of my brand I want them to think of confidence and self-esteem, knowing their worth and knowing their value. It is amazing watching the transformation from a quiet insecure woman into a bold and confident diva after working with a client and that is so fulfilling. I want to impact women’s lives in this way and help drive the narrative of women as confident and powerful people,” she says.

Making Africa Look Good

They say ideas can strike at any moment. For South African Robyn Smith it was a London beauty store that inspired her to start a R41–million ($3-million) online African business.
“I was looking to buy a night cream for myself. I’ve got a background in marketing, so I didn’t want to be duped into buying the best creative agency advertising it; I wanted to buy the best product.”
“It was the first time I started looking at the ingredients’ list to find that the ‘natural night creams’ that I was picking up didn’t have a single botanical name in the listing. Some didn’t even have ingredient lists.”
So Smith founded her own, called Faithful to Nature, a South African online health shop. It sells anything from lipstick and underwear to spices and chocolates; so long as they are natural, organic and ethically sound.
“When you’ve got an infant industry like this it’s frustrating on the one hand because you are dealing with so many teething issues and on the other it’s exciting because there is so much opportunity,” she says.
Few people would have heard about ethical consumerism when Smith started her business. But, eco-friendly alternatives are on the rise.
“When I started in 2007, there was this misnomer that if a product contained aloe vera it was natural and organic. It didn’t matter what it was preserved with. There was a completely wrong idea on what actually constituted a natural organic product.
“When I got back to South African soil, and started looking for natural and organic stuff on the shelf, I realized there was no structure to the industry at all.”
Right up until 2012, Smith felt like she was chasing shadows, she calls them pink fluffy clouds. She was R2.5 million ($184,000) in debt; experts told her to run for the hills. She also faced divorce.
“When we got divorced, I had a 16-month-old baby, I didn’t own a car, I didn’t own a house, I had a business that was millions of rand in debt. My family couldn’t financially back me. My parents actually took a R500,000 ($37,000) mortgage on the house to keep the business going.”
“I didn’t have a choice but to turn the business into a profitable enterprise.”
Now, Smith is reaping the rewards of hundreds of hours spent scrutinizing the ingredient labels on products and ignoring the naysayers.
“I believe in 10 years, it’s going to be, you go and buy me a shaving cream and it will be organic, it’s a no-brainer. Once you start using natural organic products, you can’t go back.”
Smith’s ticket to success has been strict quality control. If new research shows that a product isn’t safe, she has to be brave enough to take it off the shelf, even if it’s a best-seller.
“I always had a very strong ethical compass. Even at school, I was always getting into trouble for being outspoken on the right thing. It didn’t necessarily make me quite popular,” says Smith.
“Ingredient integrity isn’t a static product. As more interest grows, more research is done on it.”
Smith’s warehouse can take 400 orders per day and delivers across the country. So determined is she to keep the company environmentally friendly, she reuses packaging from suppliers for her own customers.
“You can imagine; there is a huge amount of packaging coming into the business. Sometimes we will send out an order in a box that was actually used to bring in stock. So, it isn’t this beautifully branded Faithful to Nature box, but it’s the right thing to do. On the box we will write ‘reused box, please recycle me because I want to be in a bag next time’.”
With stock lining the rafters of her warehouse, and packages going out by the truckload, Smith is going to be a busy bee, the naturalists would be happy to let her buzz.

Robyn-Smith_JC-2-of-5

Back To Nature: Why Even Lipstick And Shaving Cream Should Be Organic

Our beauty editor was the only journalist from Africa to meet Sharon Stone in Berlin, Germany, where the 57-year-old actress was launching the Restylane Proof in Real Life campaign as its brand ambassador. We asked her what keeps her going:
&nbsp;
<h4>Do you fear ageing? How do you feel about ageing gracefully?</h4>
No, I would not fear ageing. I had a massive brain hemorrhage in 2001 and I nearly died. I have the experience of knowing what it is like to consider the possibility of not ageing.
In reality, it is a stupid concept to fear ageing. Ageing is a beautiful thing. Ageing is a gift, a gift that we need to embrace. We don’t have to embrace it by thinking it would just be great to shrivel up, and bend over and then fall down and die.
We can embrace ageing valiantly; we can embrace ageing gracefully. I love the saying ‘gracefully surrendering the things of youth’. I think that is a beautiful thing. Sometimes when we surrender the things of youth, we surrender them wistfully. We have moments of sadness, moments of little heartbreak for not having the things we had when we were younger. It is a fact. You see them go by, and there is a wistful sadness when they go, but you have to let them go. It is ridiculous to try and keep them. It’s beautiful then to look at who you are.
And if you have to lock yourself in the bathroom with a bottle of booze and stay in there until you get it, it is a good thing to do! Make friends with the one you are right now, and your former self. You have to do that, because that is the now that you are, and you want to stay in the now and move forward.
If you keep looking backwards, you are just going to fall down. All you have is the possibility of looking forward.
&nbsp;
<h4>What is the campaign about and why did you get involved?</h4>
Proof in Real Life is a project I am working on with the pharmaceutical company Galderma to challenge misconceptions that aesthetic treatments create extreme results.
Many people are interested in aesthetic treatments but some are put off because they only see one side of the story – the images in magazines of extreme looks and altered facial features.
People these days want more subtle enhancements so they look like a healthier version of themselves, just taking off a few years or refreshing their appearance.
I got involved because I was excited and interested by the idea of providing first-hand evidence that allows people to judge the results for themselves. I myself had fillers to rebuild my face after my stroke.
I really support the concept of encouraging greater openness and awareness of aesthetic treatments. Although it is becoming a much more accepted practice, people can find the choice daunting and are scared of making inappropriate decisions.
I hope that this project will improve awareness of aesthetic treatments and the results so that people are better able to make an informed decision.
[Ten sets of identical twins were used in the Proof in Real Life campaign. One twin of each set had treatments since February. They were introduced on stage by Sharon Stone to compare and prove how good and natural the results of aesthetic treatments in real life can be. Restylane fillers helps add volume and definition to the skin, whilst Restylane Skinboosters increase hydration.]
&nbsp;
<h4>What would you tell a younger woman about growing older?</h4>
‘Don’t try so hard.’ I think, when we’re young, we try way too hard. We don’t realize simply being young is enough. There’s nothing wrong with being young and not knowing &#8211; that is the beauty of being young.
Now that we are living so much longer, we over-think age, but we have to stop and reframe it. A lot of us, we buy into the concept ‘this age means that’. But we have to put a pin in that and step back and realize: a certain age just doesn’t mean what we were told it was going to mean.
You have to think: I really could live a whole lot longer than I depended on, my life could be a whole lot different. I’ve got a lot more life ahead of me than I thought I was going to! So if I want energy, and I want to have hope and dreams, I actually can. I have to reframe this now. In order to get my energy, how do I take care of my health and wellbeing, to get this all back together again for this piece of my life that I’m going to have.
Because this is the age where we didn’t think we were going to have another big chapter of our lives. And we have – we can have another career if we want. We have an opportunity to look at the world and shape the world.
When we were children, women weren’t out there fighting to see if we could shape the world. Women that were ahead of us were out there trying to fight so that we could break the glass ceiling with our heads, and our generation did break the ceiling with our heads. Guess what, we didn’t just get a broken head, we get to have another chapter.
This is what is very exciting for me: If we’re going to have another chapter, let’s look damn good while we have it. Let’s look great, let’s feel great and let’s go get it. And let’s not blow up the f*^$#g planet while we’re doing it. Let’s see how we have a peaceful future; let’s see how we have a feminine reality. How can we create a beautiful future, let’s see what we want to do with this next piece, because we have it, and I don’t think we knew we were going to.
We’re going to have to blast that engine again, and it is just such a great opportunity, because we’re up to that. It’s like they are calling our name. We’re the women who have experience, we’re the women who have the education and we are the women who have wisdom.
We all know, because we all were younger, that there is a power in looking good. It is not a secret, but it is a secret we never openly said: If you look good, you get your power. You get stuff done! However you do it, there is a power in looking good. We want to look good, because there is stuff we need to do and we need to get it done!
&nbsp;
What is your best treatment before a red carpet appearance?
Before a red carpet, I put my makeup on, and then I get into the bathtub. It makes my skin look radiant and my makeup look really good after it has been a bit steamed up.
&nbsp;
<h4>If you have fillers or an aesthetic procedure, what would you ask the doctor beforehand?</h4>
I would ask: How much downtime? Will it bruise? Will it hurt, because I am a real baby?
Aesthetic procedures have improved and evolved enormously over the years: For example, think back to our parents’ generation, when women got these horrible facelifts and they would look like they’ve been sucked through a wind tunnel and their hairline would recede – we can all see the evolution. We’ve been through the phase where everyone wanted gigantic lips, and now everyone wants gigantic butts, right? All these different phases…
The thing, for me, that you want to stay true to, which never goes out of style, is classic beauty. And that is a subtle thing. It’s staying true to your own self.
I tell my children (they are boys) that boys are like trees and girls are like flowers. You have to remember every flower is not a white rose. There are a thousand flowers in the garden and it is important to remember what flower you are, and try to turn yourself into a different flower.
We need to keep ourselves fresh and make ourselves into the best flower that we are. I think that is the key here with these aesthetic treatments. It allows us to stay fresh, but who we are. The best evolution of aesthetic treatments is that it allows us to not change ourselves into someone else. It allows us to stay who we are, and make a subtle change to feel fresh and happy. I noticed with the treated twins in the campaign that they just felt happy; they didn’t feel different. That is a good thing.
&nbsp;
<h4>Do you have a secret to beauty?</h4>
It’s a mystery to me. My parents were gorgeous, they were so good-looking, it was just crazy. For me to be good-looking was no mystery, my parents were just beautiful.
I think, as you get older, it’s not as much about the looks you were born with. It’s about the way that you live your life. If you are a mean person, you look like it when you get older. It is about having happy thoughts. You never look bad with lines around your eyes – I think everybody with lines around their eyes looks great because you know that person lived their life laughing and they had a happy life. But happiness is a discipline. Pleasure is a thing you have for a second and it goes away. Happiness is a choice that you make that sustains you. If you go two-three days and you’re unhappy, you have to stop and look at your life and think ‘what do I have in my life that is crushing me?’ And cut it loose. A person, situation, food, drink, whatever it is. You’ve got to stop it. You have to stay with the discipline of happiness, it is like burning at the gym, it’s a real thing.

Sharon-Stone-etch

‘There Is A Power In Looking Good’

The year was 1980, when Zimbabwe gained independence and thousands of educated black Zimbabweans found new opportunities in government and public institutions.
Around the time, Kubi Chaza, an international model, actress and nurse trained in the United Kingdom, had just returned home to Zimbabwe.
The opportunities in her country did not challenge Chaza (now Indi) enough, so she chose to defy the odds, deciding to plunge into the hitherto unknown cosmetic industry catering to black-skinned women.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30648 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Kubi-Edited-2-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Kubi-Edited-2-225x300.jpg 225w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Kubi-Edited-2-300x400.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Kubi-Edited-2-600x799.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Kubi-Edited-2.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Kubi-Edited-2-769x1024.jpg 769w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" />
At the time, there were only beauty products for the white-skinned.
Before returning to Zimbabwe and becoming known in her country as a businesswoman, Chaza had trained as a nurse in Scotland, worked as a model in London and even appeared in a James Bond film.
“I was tall and decided to take up modeling at the London Academy,” she recalls. Soon after, she found herself traveling to Europe for assignments.
Her modeling work soon caught the attention of film producers and her career took a critical turn. She became an actress, working with Hollywood legend Roger Moore in the 1973 Bond film Live And Let Live (in which she plays a saleswoman).
Chaza later married John Indi, a film producer and actor, who has played a part in films Mandela (1987) and A Far Off Place (1993). In 1981, the couple decided to return to Zimbabwe.
It was not a bad decision as soon, Chaza established a hair salon at Machipisa, a teeming shopping center in the bustling suburb of Highfield in Harare.
“That is when I discovered there were no cosmetics that catered for black people, especially women. There was a huge demand for cosmetics for black women, [but] none were available,” says Chaza.
Noticing a gap in the market, she grabbed the opportunity and established an eponymous beauty business.
“At first it was not easy as some people felt that the name Kubi was not marketable for cosmetic products,” recalls Chaza.
Despite the discouraging remarks, she was determined and soon was able to build the House of Kubi into a renowned brand.
With a factory in the industrial area of Msasa, Harare, the House of Kubi produces popular products to redefine the beauty of the African woman.
However, like most companies in Zimbabwe, Kubi was not spared by the economic downturn. The operating environment for most companies has made profit margins smaller and recapitalization has become a major challenge.
The House of Kubi has been affected by the influx of cheaper products in the market. Most of these cosmetics are skin lighteners, harmful to the user and sold illegally on the black market.
To cushion her brand from this harsh environment, Chaza has now expanded her business to South Africa, where the cosmetics are manufactured and distributed.
Despite her busy schedule, she is also the patron of the Our Children Our Future Trust (OCOFT), an organization that assists children whose parents are serving time in prison. Through Chaza, OCOFT is planning to establish a center where these children are trained various life skills whilst their parents also benefit from the program once released from prison.
Chaza and her husband now spend most of their time traveling between Zimbabwe and South Africa.
The enterprising businesswoman continues to have a lot of passion for the film industry; she is a member of the Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe.
It’s not time yet for Chaza to say
‘The End’.

Kubi-Edited-3

Beauty & the Bond

In 2004, after selling his company Super Mart to the Edcon group, Ian Fuhr decided to venture into unknown territory – the beauty industry. This would eventually lead to the creation of professional beauty therapy salon Sorbet.
“I used to go to this beauty therapist every couple of weeks for a massage and she said to me, ‘why don’t you look at opening some beauty salons?’ At first, I just laughed at her – I don’t exactly have the look and feel for the beauty industry,” says Fuhr.
He adds that while there were several independently-owned stores in operation, there were no branded salon chains.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29994 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/DSC_6010-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DSC_6010-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DSC_6010-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DSC_6010-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DSC_6010-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DSC_6010-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DSC_6010.jpg 682w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
“I started looking into it and realized that there was an opportunity there. As an entrepreneur, I don’t particularly look for industries, I look for a business, and if it happens to be in the beauty industry, then it is fine.”
Sorbet, which offers beauty therapy for both men and women, as well as hair and nail treatments, currently has 117 stores and, according to Fuhr, is set to see another 20 to 30 stores come online this year .
“People ask us, ‘how did Sorbet manage to grow so quickly?’ I don’t think we took our business from other competitors, I think the strength of the brand managed to enlarge the size of the market.
“It has made it accessible and more affordable, and that is perhaps one of the big reasons for our growth.”
When he started, one of the biggest challenges was staffing. “It’s hard enough to get staff motivated and productive in a single salon but to try and get a thousand people all at the same level of service quality and motivation – that’s the challenge.”
Sorbet is now taking its business to foreign shores, with Fuhr citing the United Kingdom (UK) as its next possible destination.
“The UK doesn’t seem like a natural place to go. Most people were saying, ‘why are you going to the UK? It’s so difficult there’. We were recommended to go by our biggest supplier Dermalogica,” he says.
“We’ve had a look there and there’s definitely an opportunity.”
However, Fuhr also hopes to have Sorbet’s first couple of stores in various African markets by the end of the year.
He cites Angola, Zambia, Namibia and Botswana as the immediate markets of interest, with Tanzania and Nigeria being future possibilities.
Fuhr also stated that while the growth of the brand is undeniable, the focus remains on furthering the company’s current ventures such as Sorbet Man and the Dry Bar Salon, as well as its expansion into new markets.
“The beauty industry will always be there, because women, in particular, will always want to look after themselves, to varying degrees. If they can’t afford some of the more luxurious pampering-type products, they’ll cut back but they won’t stop doing their nails or looking after their skin.”

The Man In The Beauty Business

Let’s face it – literally. In an environment where women work hard, live hard and play hard, they want to stay looking as young as possible for as long as possible.
Women nowadays are healthier and fitter than ever. They want to look as young as they feel, to remain competitive in the career place and social environment. So they need to appear younger and fresher to hold on to their careers and self-confidence.
Thanks to non-invasive aesthetic procedures or ‘liquid facelifts’ with a combination of rejuvenation aids like Botox, fillers, volume enhancers, Fraxel lasers, ultrasound, Intense Pulse Light (IPL) and skin resurfacing technology, surgical procedures like facelifts and mini facelifts can now be considerably postponed.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29742 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_188711069-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_188711069-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_188711069-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_188711069-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_188711069.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
According to a New York Times report, the waiting lists of A-list plastic surgeons in the Big Apple have shortened from almost a year to a matter of weeks. Women are postponing ‘taking the cut’ thanks to non-invasive alternatives.
The good news is: unless your skin has lost all its elasticity, the knife can wait. But you will have to combine several procedures for the best, holistic rejuvenation results.
Two issues need to be addressed, says aesthetic doctor Alistair Clark of Sandton Aesthetic Institute (www.sandtonaesthetics.co.za) in Johannesburg, South Africa: loss of firmness and loss of volume.
Loss of volume is getting a lot of airtime at the moment. With age, the natural volume in the upper part of the face shifts downward, resulting in double chin, slack jowls and turkey neck. The face looks ‘flat’, having lost its sweet youthful curve, explains Johannesburg dermatologist Dr Pholile Mphofu.
The answer lies in a combination of Botox to iron out wrinkles, fillers like Restylane SubQ to repair loss of volume (cheeks, temples, lips) and a procedure like Ulthera ultrasound (which Madonna reportedly does) to stimulate collagen production and firm up features. Ultherapy can make one look 10-15 years younger, says Dr Natasha Chapman from Laserderm MedSpa in Sandton (www.laserderm.co.za) in Johannesburg and the results can last for two to five years.
One of the most exciting new treatments with Botox is its use for the so-called Nefertiti Facelift, relaxing the tight horizontal platysmal bands in the neck, softening horizontal neck lines and giving the neck and jowls a firmer, younger appearance says Dr Mphofu. Dr Nanita Dalton from Centurion (www.nanitadalton.co.za) says this is one of her favorite treatments for patients, because of marvelous results.
<h4>Other Rejuvenation Procedures</h4>
<ul>
<li>Carboxy therapy helps to improve blood flow to an area, delivering oxygen and nutrients, and stimulating wound healing and collagen formation. In France, carboxy therapy is used in many major operations to speed up recovery.</li>
<li>Fraxel laser treatments reduce and improve the appearance of marks and scars. They are very effective in removing sun damage and pigmentation. It can significantly reduce scarring after any plastic surgery, including facelifts, neck lifts, breast augmentations, tummy tucks, and even mole removal.</li>
<li>Ulthera and Thermage can be used to help tighten loose skin.</li>
<li>Chemical peels improve the appearance of the skin, particularly significant sun damage, fine lines, or poor texture. A peel increases cell turnover by removing layers of dead skin cells. As we age, our cell turnover rate decreases, leading to a build-up of dead cells, which makes skin appear dull, lifeless, and unevenly pigmented.</li>
</ul>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29741 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_170628404-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_170628404-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_170628404-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_170628404-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_170628404.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
<h4>What it means</h4>
Botox: Botulinum toxin is a naturally occurring protein. When used as a drug it blocks the signals from the nerves telling the muscles to contract. It is used for expression lines like frowns and crows’ feet.
Fillers: Filler is a generic term for the 200+ products on the European market, of which about 10 are used in South Africa. The quality of fillers varies enormously and problems generally occur with inferior products and inexperienced injectors.
Fillers are a wonderful way to add volume, soften lines and take years off your age. The art of injecting fillers lies not only in the injecting technique, but also in being able to see what effect injecting fillers into certain areas will have on the patient&#8217;s appearance, says Dr Chapman.
Only reputable hyaluronic acid fillers should be used for lip and volume rejuvenation. There are hundreds of new hyaluronic fillers that have flooded the aesthetic market over the last few years. If cheap fillers are used and they are not FDA approved or are not a safe tried and tested filler that has stood the test of time, they could cause problems such as granulomas, keloids and infections.
Peels: Peels are generally acids that come in different strengths. Mid and deep dermal peels should only be done by doctors who are experienced.
Lasers: Laser treatments are suitable for hair removal, skin rejuvenation, skin resurfacing, treatment of pigmentation and melasma, skin tightening, acne scarring, vein removal, birth mark removal, wart removal, tattoo removal&#8230; the list is endless. Different wavelengths are used to treat different problems, and the laser operator needs to have a good understanding of laser physics and treatment protocols to avoid serious side effects. Certain lasers are not suitable for African or Asian skin, so do your homework beforehand.
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<h4>Facelift Safaris</h4>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29743 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_109377494-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_109377494-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_109377494-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_109377494-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_109377494-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_109377494.jpg 682w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
Cosmetic and medical tourism is growing amongst the wealthy and emerging middle class in Africa and also those from the UK and Europe, says Lorriane Melvill, founder of Surgeon and Safari in Johannesburg. Well-heeled women from neighboring countries like Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Kenya and Tanzania are increasingly choosing to combine a South African ‘holiday’ with some cosmetic surgery. “Surgery in South Africa offers them value for money,” she says. Clients can choose whether they want to combine a Cape winelands and coastal experience with a nip and a tuck, or opt for a bush experience during recuperation and follow-up doctors’ visits. The most sought-after procedures for medical tourists are breast augmentation, liposuction and tummy tucks amongst younger women, while facelifts and eyelid surgery are popular with women who are over 50.

shutterstock_109378910

The Surgeon’s Knife Can Wait

Renowned Nigerian public relations executive Bukky Karibi Whyte has, through her business, The Bobby Taylor Company, represented top local and international brands and managed some of Nigeria’s leading public personalities. She is a regular fixture at some of the country’s acclaimed social events. FORBES WOMAN AFRICA got Karibi Whyte to take a morning off her busy schedule to meet 22-year-old Nigerian celebrity makeup artist, Theodora Mogo, whose company, Dorrane Beauty, counts corporate divas and media personalities such as Toke Makinwa, Mo Abudu and Seyi Shay among its clients. As Mogo worked her magic with the brush, beauty and banter resulted.
Bukky Karibi Whyte
PR professional
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29737 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-BOBBY-TAYLOR-69-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-BOBBY-TAYLOR-69-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-BOBBY-TAYLOR-69-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-BOBBY-TAYLOR-69-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-BOBBY-TAYLOR-69-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-BOBBY-TAYLOR-69.jpg 1023w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Q: Are there enough women in public relations in Nigeria?
A: The industry has undergone feminization globally. Women run most independent PR agencies I know in Nigeria. Women pay more attention to detail.
Q: Tips for being a successful PR executive?
A: It’s important to believe in the brand you represent. Understand your clients’ target audience and be persistent.
Q: The brands you have managed over the years…?
A: Estee Lauder, M.A.C Cosmetics Nigeria, Fela! On Broadway, Walt Disney Africa, D’banj etc.
Q: Why are more international brands penetrating the African market?
A: It’s due to the confidence in the African market. It’s not news that we have a strong appetite for international brands. Africans are some of the top travel consumers too. The brands have noticed we are one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and they want to be a part of that.
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Theodora Mogo
Makeup artist
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29734 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-BOBBY-TAYLOR-91-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-BOBBY-TAYLOR-91-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-BOBBY-TAYLOR-91-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-BOBBY-TAYLOR-91-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-BOBBY-TAYLOR-91.jpg 682w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
Q: The best part about your job is?
A: Making my clients smile. I come across a lot of people from different backgrounds. It is really motivating for me, when I can, through my makeup, to help them be who they want to be. At the end of a job, when my client picks up the mirror and grins from ear to ear, that’s my greatest high.
Q: What does makeup represent to you and the African woman?
A: What makeup does is project your inner beauty. As humans, once we feel there has been work done on us, we feel transformed, renewed, confident and flawless. Makeup is the little magic wand that reminds us that acne, or an overbearing boss, does not undermine the beauty within us.
Q: How did you get into this business?
A: I have been obsessed with makeup since I was a young girl. I have always been fascinated by how creative the art is – using a human being as a canvas, working your magic and transforming them.
Q: Are African women purchasing more African products as opposed to international brands?
A: As Africans have only started to embrace makeup, this limits the number of local makeup brands in comparison to the international brands; which in turn makes it inevitable for the bulk of the products purchased by African women to be international brands. Thankfully, there are certain brands proving us wrong. Another important factor is pricing. The average woman here does not understand why she should pay the same amount (sometimes even more) for an African brand when she can get a bigger name for the same price or less.
Q: How expensive are good makeup products in Africa?
A: Makeup products in Africa are pretty pricey. Thankfully, there are drug store products that are affordable in comparison. The average woman will need at least $300 for a full starter kit.

FORBES-BOBBY-TAYLOR-26

Her Brush With Fame

Four days after the horrors of the Westgate siege, the mall’s business owners shuffled back to what was left of their businesses. Among them was Joyce Gikunda of Lintons Beauty World, a Nairobi spa and beauty chain. Her Westgate store was the oldest and most profitable of her three branches.
<div id="attachment_3025" style="width: 209px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3025" class="size-medium wp-image-3025" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Dr.-Joyce-Gikunda-new-199x300.jpg" alt="" width="199" height="300" />Dr. Joyce Gikunda</div>
“I never recovered anything as mould had set in due to flooded water and our insurance cover didn’t include terrorism,” she says.
Scores of business owners in Westgate rued their insurance. Up to then, terrorism came under political risk and many didn’t know about it and therefore didn’t sign up.
This is changing. The head of the Association of Kenya Insurers, Tom Gichuhi, told London-based ‘Africa Insurance Review’ a few weeks after the attack that business owners had been given a wake-up call.
“Especially for firms with no terrorism cover, and those who have terrorism cover, to evaluate their current contract to make sure they are properly covered,” he says.
The concern is the cost. Earlier this year, Kenyan reinsurers pushed up terrorism premiums by 40%. Set against an environment of increasing attacks since Westgate, from Nairobi to the coastal cities, these rates may continue to climb.
“Risk perception is rather high,” says Kenyan analyst Aly-Khan Satchu. He estimates the cost of terrorism cover for businesses to stand at 1% to 3% of annual revenue.
That may be too high for some. Gikunda recently opened a new Lintons outlet at another shopping mall, the Village Market, just a 15-minute drive from Westgate. She is considering terrorism cover options. But, after losing close to KES20 million ($230,000) after the mall attack and being forced to open a new store, Gikunda is not sure whether she can afford it.
“It’s quite expensive insurance,” she says.
Despite grim tidings for small business owners, it seems that the economy, as a whole, is pulling through. While concerns rest on the worsening security crisis, which has already hit shopping and tourism, foreign investment from the North American and European markets is still flowing into Kenya. More investment is also coming in from fellow African countries.
“It’s the resilience of the market,” says Satchu.
Gikunda mixes resilience with a generous dash of hope. She admits fear from Westgate is still hurting her business in other Nairobi malls, but presses on.
“I am still opening new stores because this is my country and we must invest and live in it successfully as citizens,” Gikunda says.
Luckily for Kenya, many other business owners feel the same way.

In The Cold Shadow of Westgate

Roxy Marosa is a true example of success through relentless reinvention. And she has been an ardent proponent of that, traveling the world as a motivational speaker, telling people of all ages and statuses that basically, life is what you make it.
The statement sounds easy and effortless when you are blessed with the kind of looks like Marosa’s, but charmed as it might seem, her life has been no fairytale.
Born Rosalia Maletsatsi in Kimberly, the diamond town of South Africa’s Northern Cape, 45 years ago, she was only 10 when she first started entering – and winning – beauty pageants.
At a glance, her life seems to have come full circle. Marosa runs an eponymous beauty studio in Cape Town and has a successful personalized skincare range. It almost seems a given for a former beauty queen to work in a sector affiliated to beauty. But there is more to this soft-spoken beauty with the direct yet friendly gaze.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29482 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Roxy-Pic4-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Roxy-Pic4-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Roxy-Pic4-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Roxy-Pic4-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Roxy-Pic4-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Roxy-Pic4-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Roxy-Pic4.jpg 682w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
More than once, her dreams were shattered. First, when she fell pregnant with her son Tumi a mere two years after matriculating. The pageants and modeling assignments had to come to an end.
Marosa then joined retail major Edgars as an accounts clerk and was later transferred to Cape Town, where she moved in with her partner. For a while, life in the city was ideal.
“I quit my job to study full-time, while my partner took care of our son,” says Marosa. The couple wed in 1998, when Tumi was eight.
The world of glamor beckoned again, when she had taken Tumi for an audition for a commercial, and she was offered a role as well. It was a godsend really, says Marosa, who realized “the man above” was listening to her hopes and dreams.
But her journey was destined for another detour when, in 2000, she was diagnosed with HIV after contracting it from her husband. The couple separated, divorcing seven years later, and Marosa threw herself into facilitating HIV programs and roadshows for corporate giants, and was even sent by the United Nations to do the same in places as disparate as Cape Town and Korea.
“When I returned from a World Aids Conference, my work as a speaker escalated,” says Marosa, who was an ideal candidate to discuss HIV.
“It was a road I had traveled, from fear and negativity, to living positively.”
Marosa turned the hurdles into springboards.
“When I was diagnosed with HIV, I was walking dead. Seven months later, the virus was undetectable. ‘You defy nature,’ my doctor told me before he died.”
She conquered the disease with medication and by practising what she preached as a motivational speaker with international organization Landmark.
“I developed an interest in ontology (the philosophical study of the nature of being) and how people respond to what life brings them,” she says of her four-year stint with the organization.
“I started taking responsibility for the choices I had made. That was the beginning of something really important in my life. I also saw a whole lot of people who were broken by their past – people of different calibres, nationalities and all ages. The outcomes were phenomenal, I knew I was on the right track. I got to be grounded and I realized it doesn’t matter what I did, whether I was on TV or not, I was the same. Because we are all dealt the same stuff.”
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She also developed an interest in chemical products versus natural, organic products. In 2010, Marosa realized a longtime dream when she released her eponymous skincare brand, available online and from her Beauty Studio in Wynberg, Cape Town. Her passion for holistic natural healing led to her meeting Japanese chiropractor Yukari Abe, a keynote speaker at the International Women’s Club, who taught her the Japanese massage technique she now offers clients.
“I develop myself, my business and the people around me on an ongoing basis,” says Marosa, who employs sales consultants countrywide.
Her next goal is to grow her beauty salon brand countrywide. Luckily for her now, time is on he

Tag: Beauty

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