I am so glad to be writing this post as we are well into the final countdown to launch what has been a 2-year project in the making – Malée Online, our skin care temple. This opportunity to reflect I have found reassuring in between the nerves and the final decision making.
I believe the beginning is always a good place to start.
Creating Malée happened by chance for me. I started Malée out of necessity, I had just moved back to Africa, South Africa to be exact. It was 2009 and the recession was in full swing, no one was hiring and my skin was crying out for help. Nothing seemed to work; all my trusted skin care products somehow were not able to battle the ‘perfect’ sunshine weather and uncomfortable dry winters.
As I grew up, I learned these mini DIY guaranteed fixes passed down to me from my mother and from her mother and from my mother’s mother (basically generations). Whenever my skin was dry, sensitive, I had a cut, a graze, a scald. Coconut Oil, Olive Oil, Palm Oil, Shea Butter and Cacao Butter mixtures were a staple when you needed a sure bet. The perfect combination of unique scents, indulging, pampering and nourishing ingredients working on all possible skin types from dry skin, sensitive skin, itchy skin to flaky skin; however, was something of an enigma.
I was curious to find a complete solution, one that I felt I could also connect with as a global 1980s baby; touch, feel, smell, healthy, conscious and working as promised. What I didn’t know was that my love for three things which I always took for granted would be my biggest source of inspiration; Africa, fragrance and beauty products.
So thinking I was not alone, and with more than enough time on my hands, I set out to create my own solution. This time I was doing it with the knowledge of science. I teamed up with 2 amazing cosmetic scientists, a leading perfumer, the best food-grade for cosmetic ingredient suppliers and set out to create what I described in my first product briefs as ‘power bomb’ natural skin care products that only did what we said on the bottles and captured the way I saw Africa, my ‘African beauty’.
A nod to tradition yet embracing the knowledge of modern science. No compromises made on quality in the formulas but something that can stand the test of time like my passed down from generation to generation, age-old DIY guaranteed fixes. An evolution.
Fast-forward 5 years and a big thank you to everyone who has supported and bought a Malée product over the years.
I hope our Malée universe online gives each and every one who visits a window into what and who makes each and every Malée product.
