Africa's beauty and wellness sector continues to grow, with new and exciting products coming onto the market every day, most of them celebrating the unique, natural ingredients that are produced on the African continent. This month at Lionesses of Africa, we celebrate 30 women entrepreneurs whose remarkable startup stories we have featured over the past year and who are building great brands and developing world class products from all corners of the African continent.

Leading the pack is Tara Fela-Durotoye, founder of House of Tara in Nigeria. She is a wonderful example of how to build a proudly African brand that prides itself on its world-class approach to products and services, and one that is now set to really take itself to the next level globally. Tara is a great example for other African women brand builders to follow. Read more about Tara and the 30 women entrepreneurs from this exciting business sector who are making the world sit up and take notice with their great beauty and wellness brands and products.

*Tara Fela-Durotoye addressing the Lionesses of Africa Annual Conference 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa*

Tara Fela-Durotoye is a Nigerian-born lawyer turned Africa's leading beauty and makeup entrepreneur. She started House of Tara at the age of 20, from her living room, whilst an undergraduate at university back in 1998. She's since gone on to launch Nigeria's first ever bridal directory in 1999, and in 2004 she opened the country's leading beauty academy. Today, Tara has over 10,000 reps spread across Nigeria and 14 stores to her name and she is steadfastly dedicated to realising her vision of building a globally respected beauty company of African origin. Tara remains an inspirational role-model and mentor to make-up artists and aspiring beauty business owners across Africa. In 2013, Tara was nominated as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and was also named one of Forbe's '20 Young Power African Women'.

Meet 30 incredibly talented beauty and wellness entrepreneurs we've been privileged to feature over this past year....

Featured

Sep 15, 2024

Bophelo Mohapi, a South African mobile spa business builder bringing beauty therapy directly to her clients

Sep 15, 2024

Bophelo Leah Mohapi is the founder of ChamomileSpaAndBeauty in South Africa, a growing mobile beauty treatment spa. She is solely responsible for running her mobile spa but has a team of 17 therapists that she hooks up with for gigs. Bophelo also has 7 promoters helping her reach more clients as part of her growth journey. ChamomileSpaAndBeauty has been operating since 2015, originally as a side hustle. The business started operating under the name of ChamomileSpaAndBeauty in 2022 and was formally registered in 2024.

Sep 15, 2024

Aug 11, 2024

Gisela Monteiro, a Mozambican natural cosmetics and artisanal perfume brand builder

Aug 11, 2024

Gisela Leonor Monteiro is the founder of Sublime Produtos Cosmeticos Naturais in Mozambique, a business dedicated to the production of 100% natural cosmetics and artisanal perfumes. Having completed a hotel and tourism course as a student, she embarked on her entrepreneurship journey when she was 26 years old after taking cooking courses, cooking for events, and providing meals to companies close to her area of residence. She worked in several businesses, including catering, event promotion, culinary training, and clothing sales, always with the dream of becoming a businesswoman. Her entrepreneurial journey kickstarted after participating in business management and financial education courses, undertaking transformational training at IDEIALAB, the FEMTECH training program, FÓRMULA MILIONÁRIA and OFFICINA DE NEGÓCIOS with coach Arcelio Tivane.

Aug 11, 2024

Jul 28, 2024

Ginette Blackbeard, a South African sustainable beauty brand builder with a passion for the circular economy

Jul 28, 2024

Ginette Blackbeard, founder of ENOUGH. Upcycled Beauty-Health in South Africa, is harnessing her upbringing which instilled in her a profound respect for the environment and an unwavering commitment to minimizing waste. Her passion for the circular economy and sustainability inspired her to establish her business, driven by a belief in the essential shift towards circularity for the future of our planet. Ginette brings over two decades of experience in entrepreneurship across diverse sectors, from creative enterprises to manufacturing and engineering. She is also a co-founder of Emrin, a manufacturer of PLA filament, a biodegradable plant-based polymer.

Jul 28, 2024

Jun 16, 2024

Tuduetso Tebape, an eco-friendly, green beauty brand-builder in Botswana

Jun 16, 2024

Tuduetso Kereeditse Tebape is the co-founder of Nubian Seed in Botswana, a business that produces natural and organic personal care products using indigenous African botanical and bio-derived ingredients. Tuduetso is passionate about educating on the benefits of these natural ingredients and showcasing Africa's natural wonders for personal care. Tuduetso supports holistic, sustainable living and strives to teach Nubian Seed product users that 100% natural products benefit not only the skin but also foster a connection to the Earth, promoting mindfulness about holistic well-being and a state of Oneness with Mother Earth.

Jun 16, 2024

Kgomotso Twagirayezu, a natural cosmetics manufacturer in Botswana passionate about indigenous botanicals

Jun 16, 2024

Kgomotso Twagirayezu is the founder of Shedol Group, a natural cosmetics manufacturing company founded in 2015 and which commenced its operations in 2018. She has an extensive background not only in the cosmetics industry but also as a businesswoman with broad experience in varied industries. The company is passionate about the use of sustainable indigenous botanicals from across the African continent while paying special attention to Kgomotso’s homeland, Botswana, by continually incorporating and researching the natural plants that are beneficial not only for ingestion but also for healthy skin. She not only caters for individual personal care but also serves the hospitality industry by manufacturing sustainable and eco-friendly hotel amenities. The business has created jobs for 10 people.

Jun 16, 2024

Apr 7, 2024

Claire Amondi, a beauty entrepreneur building a fresh skincare brand in Kenya

Apr 7, 2024

Claire Amondi is the founder and CEO of AGNES | Pure & Regal, a clean and safe skincare line made in Kenya. AGNES seeks to inspire and promote the importance of healthy skin. Born out of the founders' obsession with all things skincare and the desire to encourage the value of self love, the brand is committed to formulating simple and effective products that help enhance and maintain your glow. Launched in 2018, today the business has created jobs for 3 other people.

Apr 7, 2024

Mar 21, 2024

Lindsey Swart, a South African makeup artist creating interactive workshops for women

Mar 21, 2024

Lindsey Swart is the founder of Pretty You Workshops in South Africa, a business creating interactive makeup learning experiences for women. She has been in the makeup industry for over 20 years and has headed up some of South Africa’s finest productions. She has a great passion in making women look and feel amazing. At her interactive workshops, she shares all her knowledge in a fun and beautiful environment.

Mar 21, 2024

Dec 30, 2023

Mauricia Cox, a South African holistic wellness and beauty brandbuilder

Dec 30, 2023

Mauricia Cox is an entrepreneur and water/wastewater treatment engineer in South Africa who has witnessed at first-hand the impact of pollutants on water sources. Her company, Wellchemco, revolutionizes the beauty industry with a focus on mindful beauty and holistic wellness. Through an ethically produced range of products, Mauricia aims to inspire a cultural shift toward a more conscious approach to personal care, blending technical expertise with sustainability. Passionate about environmental stewardship, she believes entrepreneurship can drive positive change. Wellchemco reflects Mauricia's commitment to contributing positively to people and the planet, challenging beauty norms with consciousness, compassion, and intention.

Dec 30, 2023

Nov 19, 2023

Christine Chama Mulolo, a South African entrepreneur adding value to people’s beauty and wellbeing

Nov 19, 2023

Christine Chama Mulolo is the founder and CEO of the Nailporium & More Beauty Salon in South Africa. She is a motivated entrepreneur who is changing the world of beauty with her company’s focus on natural wellbeing. Christine believes that her business can add value to every person’s wellbeing by offering a range of natural treatments. What inspires her as an entrepreneur is finding new ways to better her business and educate more women to join the beauty industry. As a Trainer, she voluntarily assists and trains women of colour to have a skill as Beauticians and to be able to work and earn money.

Nov 19, 2023

May 7, 2023

Vivian Savia, a natural skincare brand builder in Nigeria

May 7, 2023

Vivian Savia is the founder and CEO of a natural skincare brand, Nature's Bar in Nigeria, which has been in operation since 2017. It currently creates job opportunities within her environment while partnering with local suppliers of raw materials and supplies. She is a chartered accountant with an MA in International Business Management from Middlesex University, London, and B.Sc. in Accounting from Imo State University. As a chartered accountant by profession, her basic skills and experience were in accounting, grants management, retail marketing, financial management, donor reporting, procurement, and communication within the banking and non-profit sector.

May 7, 2023

Mar 10, 2023

Mandy Dube, a serial business builder creating economic empowerment opportunities for women in Zambia

Mar 10, 2023

Mandy Dube is the founder of Yinu Custom Creatives in Zambia, a business which she runs alongside her professional role in international development. Yinu Custom Creatives is a collection of five brands covering fashion (Bonisa Tailoring), beauty (Simple SkinCare), food (Wadya Chani) and entrepreneurship (Atuule Hyesu) all underpinned by mental health or as Mandy likes to put it, Mental Muscle. The focus of the business is to promote mental health, wellness and economic empowerment for women.

Mar 10, 2023

Mar 5, 2023

Ayanda Majola, a South African entrepreneur building a niche beauty brand for sensitive skin

Mar 5, 2023

Ayanda Majola is the founder of Yanda Cosmetics which is a local South African beauty brand that specializes in scientific skincare made specifically for sensitive skin. As well as being a beauty entrepreneur, she is also a medical science student. Her business is committed to bringing non-toxic, simple, effective and affordable skincare products made with clinically proven active ingredients that were carefully selected from her background knowledge in both Medicine and Science. Despite her young age and being a full-time health science student, Ayanda has been able to grow her brand in a short space of time. Her products are now available on Zando and Takealot which are the leading online platforms in the country and she has recently signed a deal with an international shopping platform that will stock and sell her products in the United Kingdom.

Mar 5, 2023

Feb 19, 2023

Tania Morgan and Britt Marki, creating a self-care focused feminine wellness brand in South Africa

Feb 19, 2023

Tania Morgan and Britt Marki are cofounders of MiQuann! a South African feminine wellness business focused on female self-care, hormonal health and ageless lifelong sensuality. This dynamic team are developing a community platform to empower women to make lifestyle and self-care choices to optimise their hormonal health enabling a better quality of life and lifelong sensuality.

Feb 19, 2023

Jan 22, 2023

Barbara Kleinschmidt, South African entrepreneur tapping the healing properties of Aloe Ferox for her brand

Jan 22, 2023

With 30 years of experience in the aloe industry, Barbara Kleinschmidt is a founder and Director of Totally Wild (Pty) Ltd, a 13 year old Cape Town based company, specializing in natural and organic products, made from South Africa's wild-grown, indigenous Aloe ferox plants. Barbara, a single mom with 3 grown up sons, has always had a strong interest in naturopathy, traditional and natural medicines, and focuses on products that will help to improve the health of their customers. In addition, the aloe industry in South Africa relies on a large rural workforce to harvest and pre-process the aloe leaves, providing jobs and upliftment for entire communities who were previously disadvantaged.

Jan 22, 2023

Sep 25, 2022

Anotida Nyowani, an entrepreneur creating a natural and affordable skincare company in Zimbabwe & Mozambique

Sep 25, 2022

Anotida Nyowani is an entrepreneur and the co-founder of Luxury Junkies, a natural skincare company in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. She is also a physiotherapist by profession, with a talent and a passion for formulating natural, cruelty free skin and haircare products. Her sister Chido Mhindurwa has a psychology degree with years of human resources management and business development experience under her belt. Together they teamed up to create a luxury non-toxic skincare company that runs in Mozambique and in Zimbabwe. Their drive is to offer sustainable, healthy and clean skincare at an affordable price.

Sep 25, 2022

Aug 21, 2022

Narcia Walle, a Mozambican entrepreneur building a growing beauty business

Aug 21, 2022

Narcia Taalumba Walle is the co-founder and ceo of Margarida & Rose Beauty Bar in Mozambique. Margarida & Rose is a nail spa, make-up studio and cosmetics store that provides offers high quality products and services in a relaxed environment. The business was founded through a joint venture in 2021 and employs 4 women from the local Mozambican community. Narcia has 7 years’ experience in the beauty industry as a cosmetics retailer through her company Rose & Rose Store that has been catering to the Mozambican market since 2015. She is also a corporate lawyer, certified SAP consultant, and a humanitarian working for the UN WFP.

Aug 21, 2022

Aug 14, 2022

Irene Mavie, a Mozambican entrepreneur producing a natural cosmetic line

Aug 14, 2022

Irene Isac Mavie is the founder and CEO of Mavie Cosméticos in Mozambique. As a lover of creativity, her business is focused on the supply of natural and handmade cosmetics which are of good quality. Her business model takes into account ensuring accessibility of the product range for her customers.

Aug 14, 2022

Jun 19, 2022

Ruth Obizo, a Nigerian beauty entrepreneur creating professional make-up experiences

Jun 19, 2022

Obizo (Ruth) Chiamaka is the founder of GlambyRuthie in Nigeria, a brand focused on providing the best makeup services for women across the nation and the training of aspiring makeup artists. She is also studying accountancy at Nnamdi Azikiwe University and currently pursuing her ICAN qualification. Ruth founded GlambyRuthie in 2020 and is focused on growing her brand, getting involved in fashion shows, and looking for collaborations in the beauty industry.

Jun 19, 2022

May 1, 2022

Marie Behrens, a serial entrepreneur in Mauritius building a pan-African marketplace for beauty and wellness professionals

May 1, 2022

Marie Behrens is the founder and CEO of Kipepeo in Mauritius. She is a serial entrepreneur with over 13 years experience developing beauty salons and spas internationally, and with that skillset and passion for the industry she is now building a pan African marketplace that provides beauty and wellness professionals with a management and booking solution to optimize their business. It is the first start up of its kind in Mauritius and has been operational for more than a year, creating a community and business support to over 100 professionals. Her vision is to create equal growth opportunities for these professionals across Africa by using an end-to-end digital solution.

May 1, 2022

Mar 13, 2022

Rachel Kobo, a South African natural hair care brand builder

Mar 13, 2022

Rachel Kobo, founder of The Fro Avenue in South Africa, is a devoted natural hair care lover. With a background in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, her brand, The Fro Avenue, was born from her love for and interest in natural hair care. This led her to start up her business in 2020 which is aimed at natural hair care education and product manufacturing. She truly enjoys learning and sharing her knowledge base about natural hair with fellow naturalists and anyone starting out on their natural hair journey. Her aim is to promote a community that embraces their natural hair while learning to understand and love it for the beauty it is.

Mar 13, 2022

Feb 27, 2022

Anna Karina de Sousa, a Mozambican entrepreneur passionate about aesthetics and beauty

Feb 27, 2022

Anna Karina de Sousa is the founder of Executive Nails in Mozambique, a business she launched specializing in aesthetics and beauty in 2019. Her business is dedicated to the treatment of hands and feet, with a range of specialist treatments on offer to customers. Executive Nails is highly differentiated with Anna creating and bringing to the Mozambican market a premium space with investment in the refinement, dedication and implementation of unique details such as gourmet catering, excellent service, investment in staff training, and official distribution of the Andreia Professional brand in the country.

Feb 27, 2022

Oct 10, 2021

Kintu Jovia, a Ugandan entrepreneur building a local organic hair care brand with big ambitions

Oct 10, 2021

Most successful haircare brands start because they look to solve a problem for consumers, and in the case of Kintu Jovia, founder of Kia Cosmetics in Uganda, that was certainly true. Her inspiration was to give consumers the choice to use chemical free products that would be good for their hair and the environment.

Oct 10, 2021

Aug 1, 2021

Fatou Sarr, a Senegalese entrepreneur turning aloe vera into a natural cosmetics and food supplement brand

Aug 1, 2021

Fatou Sarr is an entrepreneur and the founder and ceo of Takhar Aloè Véra which is a company producing and processing aloe vera into cosmetic products and natural food supplements. She is also the ceo of its market gardening business which focuses on agricultural production. Fatou was born in the region of Fatick in Senegal and her entrepreneurial journey started after she completed her scientific studies in high school, where she took professional training in computer networking. Today she is also a computer network technician.

Aug 1, 2021

Apr 25, 2021

Clara Njeri, a Kenyan entrepreneur creating a natural bath and beauty product manufacturing business

Apr 25, 2021

Entrepreneur Clara Njeri is the Director at Naturalglam, a business which she started at the age of 21 as a result of trying to clear her own acne. The business started more like a hobby, but three years later, the company has grown to having one major physical shop in Nairobi and a network of distributors. Her Instagram Sensation business is slowly growing to be a powerhouse.

Apr 25, 2021

Thokozile Mangwiro, a South African premium quality, natural hair care product manufacturer

Apr 25, 2021

It is in growing her own natural hair for the past 15 years that Thokozile Mangwiro found her inspiration to create a natural hair care product line. After going to several salons and an endless search of locally produced products that truly work for afro natural hair, it was clear that there was a HUGE gap in the market for professionally formulated products for natural hair. Thokozile, like many other women, struggled with extremely dry hair. This, and the lack of knowledge, led to intense research and experimentation with natural ingredients such as Shea butter and avocado oil for skin and hair. After several years of research, formulations and product testing, Thokozile launched Nilotiqa, a line of products that are proudly made from organic and naturally formed ingredients to deeply moisturize and nourish natural hair.

Apr 25, 2021

Mar 28, 2021

Sandra Mauricio Vuvu, an entrepreneur from the DRC, now building an organic beauty brand in South Africa

Mar 28, 2021

The rapidly growing global market for organic beauty products is one that Vuvu Organic Beauty, founded by Sandra Mauricio Vuvu, is now tapping into. Born in Angola, originally from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo DRC, and growing up in South Africa, Sandra’s passion for beauty and skincare started when she was 17 years old. She watched her mother have such beautiful fashion sense and the beauty products that she used made her want to know more about beauty herself. Sandra qualified as a beauty therapist where she gained more insight in beauty before launching her business.

Mar 28, 2021

Feb 21, 2021

Didintle Leatile Moreki, an organic skincare manufacturer celebrating nature’s ingredients in Botswana

Feb 21, 2021

Many people battle acne in their youth and throughout their lives and it can be challenging to find a solution that is both effective and natural. This was a challenge that entrepreneur Didintle Leatile Moreki, founder of Organic Natural Skincare in Botswana, successfully took up in starting her business.

Feb 21, 2021

Feb 13, 2021

Chipo Aaron, an entrepreneur in Botswana building a cosmetic manufacturing brand and spa

Feb 13, 2021

Frustrated by the uninspiring, chemical-intensive, highly synthetic formulas which have pervaded the skincare market for too long, entrepreneur Chipo Aaron, founder of Cutikles, decided to do something to change the situation. Today, her cosmetic manufacturing brand is creating high quality spa products that harness the healing power of Africa’s indigenous oils.

Feb 13, 2021

Jan 24, 2021

Noushinah Ganey, a South African entrepreneur passionate about wellness and aesthetics

Jan 24, 2021

Noushinah Ganey is the Founder and Managing Director of Cowey Park Pharmacy and Skin Time Aesthetic Clinic. She has been a part of the Aesthetic industry for 18 years and the pharmaceutical industry for 5 years. She has been interviewed on many radio platforms and been a TV personality for 2 years hosting a weekly lifestyle show targeted at females. Noushinah was also recently selected to participate as a panelist for an International Cosmeceutical Company.

Jan 24, 2021

Jan 10, 2021

Pitsi Ledwaba, a South African entrepreneur building a natural, organic beauty brand

Jan 10, 2021

Pitsi Ledwaba is from Polokwane in the Limpopo Province of South Africa and the founder of Bonolo Naturals, a growing natural, organic beauty brand. For the past 12 years she has been in the retail industry managing both local and international brands. It is where she fell in love with beauty, fashion and everything that makes people look and feel good.

Jan 10, 2021

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