Clean Beauty South Africa: The Indigenous Oils the World Quietly Borrowed
Unfortunately, like most of us, I scroll far too much for my liking, but every so often, someone sends me a gem. In this case, it was my daughter who knew I would be absolutely enamoured with Allison Turquoise, an Instagram influencer who is after my own heart, all about beauty packaging education. She did a brilliant post about why we need to stop calling African beauty the “next big trend". This got me thinking about how I actually got introduced to shea butter - and what clean beauty South Africa really means at its roots.
The Night I Nearly Burnt the House Down
Whenever I mention the years I spent slaving in the shipping industry, I have a lovely friend who always pipes up with “back in the day”, and it never fails to make me laugh. But this is not a story about “back in the day” in the shipping industry. This is about the time, just after I left, when I went on the "big search" to reinvent myself in a space where I felt comfortable. (Trust me, I’m still searching.)
I went to New York for the birth of my first nephew, a very big day in my family as we all got married and “babied up” later in life, so the stakes felt high. My sister had to return to work after her maternity leave, and I was there to help with the transition. As it turns out, that was a terrible decision. I didn’t just boil the water; I set off the fire alarm and brought a swarm of irritated New Yorkers to the door. They asked if this was something I "intended to do again." I thought that was a bizarre question - honestly, who intends to actually set light to a building if you are not a mass murderer by inclination?. Needless to say, my sister and her husband were out looking for a professional caregiver the very next day.
The Wonderful Mary Akosua
They found a woman who was legendary in her circles: Mary Akosua. She was a nurturing force, but she also had a secret weapon for keeping the babies she carried in the most beautiful, comfortable skin imaginable. No, it wasn’t AYA Balm; I hadn’t yet embarked on the journey of marriage, motherhood, or creating the multi-tasking AYA Balm, but Mary was already showing me the simplest, most natural blueprint: what I'd later come to call seed-to-skin healing balm thinking: raw, pure, bio-active ingredients and cold-pressed oils for skin that needed nothing added and nothing taken away.
Mary’s story was the American Dream viewed through the realities of life as we know it. Her parents arrived in New York from Northern Ghana in 1956. Her father was part of that brilliant wave of Ghanaian intellectuals studying at NYU, preparing to lead their brand-new nation. But New York in the fifties and sixties presented high barriers. Degrees didn’t always translate, and the "dream" required immense sacrifice. Mary found her way into childcare to help keep her younger siblings in school. Fortunately for her and the many new parents she nurtured, it blossomed into a lifelong passion.
The Irony of the "Trend"
This is where I first began learning about the wonders of Shea butter. The irony wasn't lost on me: I was a South African visiting New York, learning about the foundational power of an African ingredient from a first-generation American.
Looking back at this pivotal moment for me, I realised that Shea butter was part of Mary Akosua’s cultural history and ancient legacy. It was not a modern discovery. While it is now a global beauty staple, its history is deeply rooted in African tradition and survival.
Shea butter is extracted from the nuts of the Shea Tree (Vitellaria paradoxa). These trees grow wild and can live for over 200–300 years. They are indigenous to 21 African countries, and you will not find the Shea tree growing naturally anywhere else on Earth. It is strictly endemic to the African continent, specifically from a vast region known as the "Shea Belt." This belt stretches over 5,000 kilometres across the dry savannah regions south of the Sahara, from Senegal in the west to Sudan and Ethiopia in the east.
Here is where it gets really interesting, just like many of the natural beauty techniques and rituals espoused by the modern-day beauty industry are actually all about refining and restructuring beauty regimes from ancient times. In reality, the depth of African beauty is anchored in a history that stretches back long before the first modern cosmetic was ever formulated. Archaeologists have uncovered shea butter production sites in Burkina Faso dating back to A.D. 100, providing evidence of beauty rituals established well over two millennia ago.
And as the OG influences, legends of Queen Cleopatra’s shea-filled caravans are fodder for today's promoters of the next best thing. And while the Cleopatra 'receipts' might be legend, the archaeology of other African botanicals is undeniable. In the tombs of ancient Egypt, jars of castor, sesame, and moringa oil were found.
In South Africa, we all know Moringa oil and its local success story, as it has become a significant hub for high-quality Moringa production over the last decade. It did, however, originate from the northeastern corner of this beautiful continent. And yes, we all think of sesame oil as originating in India, playing such a huge role in Ayurvedic beauty, but some botanists argue that sesame oil actually comes from an early wild ancestor in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Whether it is the Marula oil used by the Zulu and Tsonga people for centuries to preserve and protect, or the Baobab oil from trees that have stood for 5,000 years, these are not just ingredients; they are legacies of this beautiful continent. From the Qasil powder of Somalia to the Mongongo oil of the Kalahari, these products represent a sophisticated understanding of skin health that predates any modern-day beauty trend. There is nothing new about these raw skincare ingredients - they are magnificent precisely because of that - and referring to them as the 'next big trend' misses the point entirely. To label it as a trend is to suggest it is new, when in reality, it is the very foundation upon which global beauty as we know it today was, in fact, built.
The Industry's Open Secret
Perfect examples of this are L'Occitane en Provence Iconic Shea Hand Cream, having sourced shea butter from Burkina Faso since the early 1980s. Similarly, the French giant Clarins has long utilised the "luxury slip" and barrier-protecting properties of shea in its staple body lotions and lip treatments. Elizabeth Arden has integrated shea-derived emollients into the lineage of their legendary Eight Hour Cream, which has been soothing skin since 1930. And it isn’t only shea butter, Kiehl’s has used Moringa oil in hair and skin treatments to provide shine without weight since 1851.
The list goes on, and so does the greenwashing in skincare that keeps these origins conveniently uncredited. The reality is that these ingredients didn't just appear on the scene recently; they have been the quiet, powerhouse "secret" behind the world's most famous beauty labels for nearly a century.
The Cost of Getting It Wrong
And the kicker is, that while today's beauty industry goes on about its latest and greatest, the reality of fair trade, equitable and ethical sourcing doesn’t hit centre stage.
The challenges in sourcing ingredients begin at the start, with the unrecognised labour force that harvests and prepares them. The reality is hard to face, but the jarring economic discrepancy is that a single "Baobab serum" sold on a shelf in New York or Paris can retail for more than an average worker harvesting the crops earns in an entire month. It is because of this that a Fair Trade logo isn’t just a nice marketing tool; it's the first line of defence against greenwashing in skincare.
Coming from a background in the shipping industry, I know how murky a supply chain can actually get. Supply chain transparency is the bridge between a vague marketing claim and a true ethical commitment - and it starts with something as specific as knowing exactly which beekeeper's hive your beeswax came from. At AYA, we really mean it and don’t just say it to fill the marketing hype; it's our whole story. Read The Buzz About Our Beeswax.
Supply chain transparency and INCI transparency go hand in hand - both are about showing the customer exactly what they're getting and where it came from. What this means is actually pulling back the curtain to reveal the entire journey of an ingredient. I personally believe this is virtually impossible, which is why at AYA Natural Skin, we base our formulation philosophy on seed-to-skin, making the journey as transparent as we possibly can. Choosing petroleum-free, liquid plastic-free skincare is not just a formulation decision - it is an ethical one.
Another imperative element of this discussion is sustainable sourcing, not only what it means but how it is actually implemented. At its essence, sustainable sourcing is a commitment to the future that begins with a deep respect for the land and the people who tend it. It is the practice of harvesting ingredients such as wild-grown Shea and resilient Moringa to ensure the ecosystem remains vibrant and productive for the next 200 years. This means moving away from exploitative, high-yield farming and instead embracing methods that honour natural cycles, protect local biodiversity, and prevent soil depletion. At its heart, sustainable sourcing is about balance; it ensures that the "Miracle Trees" of the African savannah continue to thrive, providing not just a bounty for today’s beauty rituals, but a permanent source of economic stability and environmental health for the communities that call these landscapes home.
What Seed to Skin Actually Means
So when you look at the whole picture, you see a legacy and culture of beauty traditions rooted in ingredients that have been tended, harvested, and understood for millennia. To look at it as just the latest beauty trend not only undermines that vast and vibrant history - it allows unacceptable practices to continue quietly in the background.
For us at AYA Natural Skin, seed-to-skin has always been the only way to work. It means acknowledging and appreciating that every tin of AYA Balm holds the full essence of every ingredient it contains - nothing hidden, nothing synthetic, nothing that wouldn't pass the "would I put this on my newborn" test.
Every tin is petroleum-free, made from bio-active cold-pressed oils and raw fermented papaya, stabilised in-house since 2012. Its papain enzymes work the way traditional fermentation always has: gently, intelligently, and without stripping the skin of what it needs.
And while I may have almost burnt a building down in New York, Mary Akosua came into our lives and gave me a blueprint I didn't know I was looking for. She showed me that the truth of real beauty is, and always will be, found at its most natural - and that it was never a trend. It was always the foundation.
Want to go deeper on how fermentation actually works? [This is where to start.]