Clean Beauty Archives

Q&A: R&R Skincare’s Valerie Obaze on growing Africa’s beauty industry

Valerie Obaze launched R&R Skincare in 2010 after becoming a mother for the first time. Wanting to find only the best natural products for her baby, she experimented with making products using locally sourced botanical ingredients. “When I discovered that...

May 26, 2025

Review: Looking for clean make-up? We tried Essence

Beauty Guides

Review: Looking for clean make-up? We tried Essence

Now more than ever, people are serious about what they put into their bodies—but what about the stuff we put on our bodies? As the conversation around harmful food ingredients and chemicals found in certain fabrics grows louder, one sector...

February 24, 2025

The Bathroom Guide: Take stock of your beauty regime

Features Guides

The Bathroom Guide: Take stock of your beauty regime

Reason to care: The beauty and wellness industry overwhelms us with more products than we know what to do with and with constant calls to buy more. It’s an industry that pushes hard at convincing us that we need the...

January 9, 2024

4 Shampoo bars that will leave your hair and the planet squeaky clean

Beauty

4 Shampoo bars that will leave your hair and the planet squeaky clean

The wellness and beauty industries bombard us with products that promise to transform us into our “best selves”. As a result, our bathroom cabinets have become hotspots for packaging waste and harmful chemicals. But growing consciousness about sustainability and the...

August 22, 2023

Toxic chemicals in cosmetics remain in our bodies and environments

Beauty

Toxic chemicals in cosmetics remain in our bodies and environments

Cosmetics and personal care products enhance the way we look and feel. During the pandemic, I started a self-care facial routine. It helped me cope with lockdown orders, while simultaneously adjusting to my new identity as a mom. I applied...

May 15, 2023

6 Ingredients in your care routine that could be polluting oceans

Beauty

6 Ingredients in your care routine that could be polluting oceans

Picture this: it’s Sunday evening, you play smooth jazz and unwind with a bubble bath and clay mask. Sounds euphoric, doesn’t it? Self-care routines have become popular since the pandemic. Dedicating time to look after yourself and destress is important,...

September 27, 2022

Q&A: Afari creates clean skincare with an indigenous ‘hero’ ingredient

Beauty

Q&A: Afari creates clean skincare with an indigenous ‘hero’ ingredient

In South Africa, we live in landscapes rich with indigenous plants that have wide-ranging benefits from medicinal to skincare. Afari is a clean skincare brand embracing just this. Margaux Knuppe founded Afari after exiting her previous company, rubybox, in late...

July 29, 2022

Ash & Mill creates skincare inspired by ancient practices and local botanicals

Beauty

Ash & Mill creates skincare inspired by ancient practices and local botanicals

Combining his knowledge of chemistry with his passion for sustainability, Dr. Brian Watson created Ash & Mill to honour South Africa’s rich biodiversity. The name ‘Ash & Mill’ is inspired by the history and chemistry behind soap making. During the...

January 24, 2022

Why using the Daily Peach earth-friendly re-usable face pads is good for our planet

Beauty

Why using the Daily Peach earth-friendly re-usable face pads is good for our planet

To adapt our lifestyles to become more sustainable and to help slow down global warming, innovations and products like Daily Peach are crucial to making simple switches that together add up to make a big difference. What started as a...

August 12, 2021

Beauty

Lelive is a beauty brand on a mission to care for people and the planet

Earlier this year, actress and model, Amanda Du Pont released her skincare brand Lelive. Lelive (pronounced leh-lee-veh) is Amanda’s unofficial Swazi name that means ‘of the nation or world’. Building a strong community; and listening and working with people to...

August 4, 2021

Beauty

Indigenous plants make up the growing organic beauty industry

African clean beauty brands have been stripping back cosmetic recipes to their natural roots. By following the practices of their ancestors, beauty brand entrepreneurs are harnessing nature’s healing powers, and guiding us away from our dependence on synthetic, and often,...

June 2, 2021

Beauty

Easy ways to switch up your bath and beauty routine to lower your impact on nature

The bathroom is one of the main culprits of the endless demand for products contained within single-use plastics. I’m afraid a lot of the responsibility for this, as in many other cases, is down to the advertising and marketing campaigns...

April 28, 2021

Skin Minimalism: Using only 3 products will reduce waste and help save the planet

Beauty

Skin Minimalism: Using only 3 products will reduce waste and help save the planet

Simplifying your skincare is not just better for your skin, but better for the planet too. We should all be familiar with the three R’s of waste hierarchy – reduce, reuse, recycle. While there is a focus on reusing and...

February 24, 2021

Beauty

Beauty Spot: How O’live grew from passion project to livelihood

Husband and wife team, Sipho and Zikhona Tefu started their organic, handmade and natural skincare brand O’live in their kitchen in 2011. Zikhona produced a batch of 10 soaps as a personal experiment to move towards a more natural lifestyle...

September 9, 2020

Tag: Clean Beauty

Q&A: R&R Skincare’s Valerie Obaze on growing Africa’s beauty industry

Review: Looking for clean make-up? We tried Essence

The Bathroom Guide: Take stock of your beauty regime

4 Shampoo bars that will leave your hair and the planet squeaky clean

Toxic chemicals in cosmetics remain in our bodies and environments

6 Ingredients in your care routine that could be polluting oceans

Q&A: Afari creates clean skincare with an indigenous ‘hero’ ingredient

Ash & Mill creates skincare inspired by ancient practices and local botanicals

Why using the Daily Peach earth-friendly re-usable face pads is good for our planet

Lelive is a beauty brand on a mission to care for people and the planet

Indigenous plants make up the growing organic beauty industry

Easy ways to switch up your bath and beauty routine to lower your impact on nature

Skin Minimalism: Using only 3 products will reduce waste and help save the planet

Beauty Spot: How O’live grew from passion project to livelihood

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