Top 10 women shaking up the world of natural cosmetics in Africa.

They are impactful, passionate and they have defied all the predictions of the entrepreneurial world. They are shaking up the world of natural cosmetics in Africa. They are the women we tell you about in this article. This list is not exhaustive, but it aims to let you discover the profile of the women entrepreneurs who have paved the way in the natural cosmetics sector in French-speaking Africa and who have inspired more than one person. 

1- Anne-Emmanuelle Soumah-Yacé of the natural cosmetics brand AYES Essentielle

A lover of cosmetics and handcrafts, Anne Emmanuelle Soumah-Yacé had a classic student career. She holds a bachelor degree in business administration from the International University of Grand-Bassam, located in Ivory Coast. In this year 2023, the young woman is preparing her master 2 in Management and International Trade.

She launched her brand AYES Essentielle in 2020, during the Covid-19 period. The lockdown period did not bring only drawbacks. Thanks to that short worldwide pause, Anne developed her passion for cosmetics. 

She learned to make soaps and creams, which she tested directly on her skin. The flagship soap of AYES Essentielle, made from shea and honey, was created and tested between the end of 2019 and the start of 2020. Having noticed the benefits of her own products on her skin and on that of her close ones, she decided to share her know-how with the world. That is how the AYES Essentielle brand was born.

If you are wondering where the acronym AYES comes from, know that it comes from the initials of the founder, and the logo of the brand is nothing other than the face of Anne Emmanuelle Soumah-Yacé.

This African natural cosmetics brand offers a variety of products:

• Shea whipped butters,
• Lip sticks,
• A lip scrub,
• Soaps,
• Vegetable oils,
• A baby range fully certified by the National Public Health Laboratory.

The vision of the brand is to become the biggest natural cosmetics company in West Africa and why not in Africa and in the world. This brand means to be generational. And as long as the goal is not reached, Anne Emmanuelle will not let go.

« In terms of vision with AYES, we want to become the biggest natural cosmetics company in West Africa, then in Africa and one day in the world. So if in my lifetime AYES is not the biggest natural cosmetics company in the world, then my children will accomplish that work for me. 

But I want to create an empire, I want to create a strong brand, a unique brand, a brand that leaves a mark, a brand that does good to the people who use it. And for that, we are right now really creating the foundations of this company. Solid foundations so as then to be able to spread worldwide over time. » answered Anne when we asked her about her vision for Ayes Essentielle. 

A very big vision, which will surely be achieved! The brand today has nearly 10,000 followers on Instagram.

2- Linda Dempah of the brand Adeba Nature 

While she was working as a consultant in a consulting firm in the United States, Linda Dempah found herself facing a problem that affects many black women around the world. It is the breakage of natural hair. While doing research to find a solution to her problem, Linda made a discovery that would be the trigger of her entrepreneurial life. 

To solve her problem, the young woman had to do many fruitless searches through health blogs. She tested various products that did not have the expected effects. 

Finally, she turned to her mother, a pharmacist with more than 30 years of experience, who offered her a natural oil. 

This oil turned out to be the miracle solution to the problem of Linda: it stimulates the growth of her hair and makes it soft and silky. 

The young woman therefore shares her discovery with other women subject to the same hair problems. She gets positive feedback, which wakes up her entrepreneurial soul, long dormant. 

That is how she launched Adeba Nature in 2017, a 100% natural dermo-cosmetic brand for the skin and the hair. 

Adeba Nature became known quickly in Ivory Coast thanks to the quality of the products supplied and also thanks to the recommendations of customers. The brand also has a solid distribution network in the pharmacies of Abidjan. 

In Agni, the language of the kingdom of Sanwi, Adeba means “Pretty”, “chic”. The brand therefore uses the ancestral know-how available everywhere in Ivory Coast to make all its consumers “Adeba”, that is to say, chic. 

All the products of Adeba Nature are made by hand in Bonoua, using the traditional techniques passed down from generation to generation. Better still, the ingredients used in making these products are 100% natural and come from African soil. 

Linda Dempah employs about twenty people from her processing plant in Bonoua. The majority of these employees are women. The brand Adeba Nature keeps improving its products from the plants of the Ivorian pharmacopoeia. 

Strong in its commitment to the empowerment of women, the brand sources its raw materials from local women cooperatives. In September 2019, Adeba Nature won the Sisley prize for the success of women in Ivory Coast. In February 2020, the brand ended up among the regional finalists of the Harvard Business School new venture competition. 

The vision of the founder is big: to make Adeba Nature a heavyweight cosmetics company in Africa and in the world. Her goal is to change the way the world looks at Africa thanks to innovative, quality products that are 100% made in Africa.

3- Deedi SOGBOHOSSOU of Sedami Cosmetics 

Promoter of the brand Sedami Cosmetics, Deedi Sogbohossou is an agronomist, passionate about nature and holder of a doctorate in Plant Sciences from the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands. 

Since her early childhood, she nurtured the dream of becoming a researcher in pharmacology. The gods having decided otherwise, Deedi continued her studies in plant production at the University of Abomey Calavi. Already interested in neglected food plants, it was therefore quite natural that her doctoral thesis was based on developing a program to create a variety of medicinal vegetable called Akaya (Gynandropsis gynandra), known for its many benefits for the skin. 

The passion for plants and the deep desire to create her own care products led Deedi to launch her brand in 2020. Sedami offers complete ranges of skin care that respect the environment and the health of the consumer. 

You will find there mainly two ranges of products: 

• products for combination and oily skin made from aloe vera, turmeric, jojoba oil and goussi oil. 
• products for normal and dry skin made from sesame oil, baobab oil, cocoa butter and hyaluronic acid. 

The flagship product of the brand is a natural deodorant with no aluminum, no alcohol, no parabens and no baking soda. 

Beyond these products, Sedami also offers other cosmetic products: a cream soap for the face (gentle cleanser), a serum, a moisturizing cream as well as a makeup-removing oil. 

If you are looking for products for body care, Sedami provides you with a body lotion and a superfatted toilet soap. 

Do you have sensitive skin? Do you suffer from allergies? Know that all the products of the brand are formulated to meet the needs of sensitive skin and of people suffering from allergies. 

Facial care routine, advice for improving your lifestyle, personalized support to help you get back your original complexion: everything is there for your bodily well-being. 

As Deedi puts it so well, the vision of the brand is to “make Sedami an essential cosmetics brand in the subregion in terms of product quality and customer follow-up.”  

4- Irène Léopoldine Bla of the brand Pure Bio

A lawyer by training and a skincare consultant certified at the IBBA institute in Cameroon, Irène Léopoldine Bla is the promoter of the brand Cosmétiques naturels Pure Bio. Legally launched since 2021, the brand offers beauty products from the processing of food and industrial crops into natural cosmetics. Pure Bio promotes well-being through local products and its goal is to curb involuntary depigmentation. 

Are you looking for a supplier of cold-pressed vegetable oils? Contact Tchaou Group Manufacture, the favorite supplier of natural cosmetologists.

5- Cica Yessoufou of Cica Florence 

Cica Yessoufou is a doctor of medicine and holds a master in Cosmetology and Phytotherapy from the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar. She launched Cica Florence (formerly Coco & You) in April 2019.  

Cica Florence was born from the meeting of three things: 

• a skin problem,
• a grandmother recipe and 
• the will of a young African woman to bring a solution to this problem.

Once the problem was solved, Cica made the decision to promote African natural beauty by offering quality cosmetic products that meet the specific needs of the women and men of Africa. 

Note that these products are made up largely of natural, traditional African ingredients. Cica Florence offers a varied range of products: 

• soaps, 
• aloe vera gel, 
• lotions, 
• creams, 
• body lotions, 
• serums, 
• scrubs and 
• cleansing gels.  

If the brand keeps growing today, it is because the vision of its founder is big. In the years to come, Cica Florence will certainly become the L’Oréal of Africa. 

6- Séfa DOKOTO of PurEthnik 

A state pharmacist, Dr Séfa KPOKANU DOKOTO has been able to find her place on the Beninese market with her range of natural cosmetic products “PurEthnik Cosmétiques et Bien-être”. 

Holder of a state doctorate in Pharmacy, this young woman created her company specialized in making cosmetic and well-being products in 2020. Her goal is to enhance the natural beauty of black and mixed-race skin. She is one of the women who shake up the world of natural cosmetics in Africa the most. 

There are plenty of good reasons to go back to natural: 

• softening the skin and the hair, 
• avoiding the skin conditions linked to using cosmetic products made from chemical ingredients and 
• contributing to the preservation of the environment.

PurEthnik works to create healthy products that respect the body, health and the environment: effective products, made from natural ingredients that have proven themselves. 

You are reading the TCHAOU 2023 ranking of the women shaking up the world of natural cosmetics in Africa.

7- Aimée Abra Tenu Lawani, the woman shaking up the world of natural cosmetics in Africa and particularly in Togo

Since the age of 14, Aimée Abra Tenu Lawani has been involved in many social and ecological initiatives. Her brand Kari-Kari Africa comes to her from her mother, once a soap maker.  

She therefore carries on the know-how of her mother through her brand. Made up of a young, dynamic team, Kari Kari Africa works to create quality products for the Togolese people and also takes part in creating protected, sustainable jobs. 

8- Caludia Togbe of “Origine Terre” 

Holder of a master in diplomacy and international relations, Caludia Togbe heads the brand “Origine Terre”, specialized in the making of natural cosmetic products. The brand uses raw materials coming from the villages of Benin, the country of origin of its founder. 

Better still, Origine Terre owns its own farms and invests in the production of its own raw materials locally. All the ingredients used in making the products are therefore fresh and organic. 

The brand has many shops in the main cities of Benin as well as hair salons. Whether you are in Benin, in the West African region or in Europe, you can get the products of the brand.

To make up for the lack of jobs, Origine Terre mainly recruits young people from the local market and gives part of these revenues to orphanages. These also have the possibility of growing plants that the brand buys back to make its products.

The products of the company are certified by independent outside laboratories. This criterion lets it compete with big international brands. Origine Terre is indeed the proof that beautiful things can come out of Africa.  

9- Fatour Sarr of Takhar Aloe Vera

Fatour Sarr is one of the women shaking up the world of natural cosmetics in Africa. She proves to us that age is only a number through her brand Takhar Aloe Vera. 

To make her products, Fatou tapped the potential of aloe vera, when this miraculous plant was not even known yet in Senegal. She very quickly discovered the potential of this plant with a thousand virtues. She therefore invested in growing it in 2016. Today, she is a reference in French-speaking Africa and she supplies this raw material to other brands, whether in Senegal or beyond. 

The products of her brand are made from aloe vera and are very competitive in terms of purchase cost. You will find there: 

• hair gel, 
• facial gel, 
• moisturizing gel, 
• soaps, 
• creams. 

A few years ago, nobody wanted to bet on this plant. Today, it is essential in the world of natural cosmetics in Africa. 

 10-Victorine Sarr of Lyvv Cosmetics

Of Senegalese origin, Victorine Sarr is a woman for whom state borders are only lines on a map. She founded Lyvv Cosmetics, a line of lipsticks and lip inks, intended for every skin type. 

A true globetrotter, Victorine has travelled through many countries of the world. Her many experiences as well as her collaborations with big groups such as Apple and L’Oréal were an asset for her in developing her brand. 

In 2015, the young woman took part in the YALI MANDELA FELLOWSHIP, a program started by former American President Barack Obama with the aim of boosting the projects of innovative young Africans. After that experience, Victorine launched her brand Lyvv Cosmetics. It is in fact one of the first makeup brands in Senegal and in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa. 

Her brand is set up in several countries around the world : South Africa, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast, United States.  

This list is not exhaustive, but it highlights women who are shaking up the world of natural cosmetics in French-speaking Africa. Share this article with your close ones and with everyone working in the field of cosmetics to motivate and inspire them.