A new crop of skincare start-ups are trying to rewrite the African beauty playbook.
Many African consumers have a penchant for native botanical ingredients, a tradition that spans many generations and communities across the continent. The market has long been dominated by local players who focus on natural extracts, but now, it’s undergoing a transformation, led by a cohort of local beauty brands. Emerging names like South Africa’s Lelive and Nigeria’s Dang are prioritising clinical innovation and man-made ingredients, signalling a shift toward science-backed formulations.
It’s also a twist on a historical exchange: global beauty giants have used African-grown natural ingredients for decades, pairing them with active ingredients and distributing products around the world: L’Oréal uses Burkina Faso-grown shea butter in some 1,700 of its hygiene, face, body care and makeup products.
As the market gains momentum, upstart African and diasporic brands are attempting to cash in on the increasing demand for science-backed products, whilst also spotlighting African culture and heritage. Brands are partnering with leading dermatologists who specialise in darker skin to improve their formulas, creating products powerful enough to compete with their international counterparts — something many feel has been lacking from the market.
The emergence of these science-backed A-beauty brands, including Kenya’s Uncover, Lelive and Dang, is a disruptive force both on the continent and globally, as homegrown names are more able to appeal to local customers.
“International brands may have science, but what they don’t have is our culture and ancient history,” said Amanda du-Pont, founder of the South African skincare brand Lelive, adding that her brand seeks to centre botanical ingredients as both high-performance and clinically proven.
But this pivot requires brands to close the education gap. Africa’s growing beauty industry is forcing brands to become educators, teaching consumers about active ingredients and new formulations.
“When it comes to anything new, the barrier for education is still extremely high,” said Sneha Mehta, co-founder of Kenyan skincare brand Uncover.
Winning Over the Market
With change comes hesitation and caution. Brands are now tasked with convincing consumers — many of whom grew up using these ingredients in their raw form — to invest in new science-backed formulations.
Familiarity boosts consumer confidence, so many brands pick well-known African botanicals. Uncover’s Baobab Glow-C Serum, Aloe Invisible Sunscreen and Argan Hydrating Moisturiser are among the brand’s best-selling products. Lesser-known botanicals require brands to educate consumers in order to drive sales, Mehta added. Uncover, which blends African botanicals with Korean technology, and distributes products to six African countries, including Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana and Rwanda. In June 2024, it closed a $1.4 million pre-series A funding round.
For brands, the use of native ingredients is not only beneficial to the formulation, it’s an extra element of storytelling, said Okikiola Emaleku, an aesthetician and beauty influencer also known as “The Skin Priest”. These botanicals, which are known and cherished by many African communities, add a layer of culture and depth to a brand. That, she added, is important for consumers who say a brand’s value can influence their purchases.
Now, African botanicals are getting an efficacy upgrade. “We are the last to retain this history. … We’re making sure their (our ancestors’) old ways are effective,” said du-Pont, adding that the Lelive community is growing as consumers become “more informed, more experimental” and are open to trying new science-backed formulations.
A Stamp of Approval
The “backed by science” stamp of approval means there are regulatory procedures that brands must adhere to in order to protect consumers’ skin barrier. This creates safe and more effective products for consumers, said du-Pont. “What our ancestors didn’t do was combine all these formulations together; their process was very simplistic,” she added.
For Uncover, women of colour lead the formulation process. The Kenyan-based brand works with diverse scientists “that understand the unique needs of melanin-rich skin” to create effective products, said founder Mehta.
Another key selling point for the Kenyan-based brand is its affiliation with K-beauty, a market known internationally for its technology and innovations. Uncover products are formulated in a lab based in South Korea. African consumers are familiar and intrigued by the K-beauty movement, and “[Uncover] is bridging that gap between the world’s best innovation, but making it and tailoring it for the unique needs of melanin [skin],” Mehta said.
Botanical ingredients alone are not enough to tackle some skincare concerns such as hyperpigmentation or keratosis pilaris. That’s when brands turn to man-made ingredients as they search for the best AHA or BHA to pair with the raw ingredient. For example, Baobab oil alone may not treat hyperpigmentation effectively, but when paired with tranexamic acid, niacinamide or kojic acid, the formulation is powerful enough to drive a higher degree of efficacy and treat consumers’ skincare concerns, said du-Pont.
This could help limit the use of toxic skin bleaching products, which are popular in many African nations. “If you ask people why they started bleaching in the first place, it’s usually because of dark spots, sunburn, etc.,” Emaleku said. “If you have alternatives that [consumers] can treat hyperpigmentation without causing harm to their skin, everybody will want to go there.”
Across the continent, some communities actively steer clear of products that are not entirely natural. However, “natural doesn’t mean it’s 100 percent good or better,” she added. When ingredients are refined and paired with active ingredients, the benefits of botanicals are exalted.
“International skincare has always been the ‘pioneer’ for what is tried and tested,” du-Pont said. “Sometimes it takes your neighbour or a foreign country to come and pick up what you already have, and to see them make it into a formulation, to realise that you’ve had it going on all along.”
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