EP5. Growing a Natural African Heritage Beauty Brand

I was sitting quietly at my desk, head-down, getting on with my work (as all good working-from-home employees should do) when I received a message from Formula Botanica's Director Lorraine: ‘Two of our graduates from Daughter of the Soil are on Dragons' Den right now! You need to watch it.’ I stopped what I was doing right away, tuned in and watched Hellen Lawuo-Meena and Maria Magembe from Daughter of the Soil pitch to the Dragons. (For our readers/listeners who aren't in the UK - Dragons' Den is the UK's version of Shark Tank where entrepreneurs pitch to a panel of 'dragons' to raise funding for their business). It was nail biting and the entire Formula Botanica team was rooting for them. After watching their epic performance, I said to Lorraine: "we need to interview these two very inspiring women". We were so proud of them and what they had achieved so far and we really wanted to share their story with the rest of our community. Daughter of the Soil is a UK-based African Heritage natural beauty brand with a simple philosophy – to give back to the earth and communities celebrating the natural treasures within our rich soils. Their pledge is to make a real difference to the lives and future of African rural women in Africa – providing them with an ability to earn a sustainable and protected income. Hellen and Maria's brand goes full circle - it showcases some of Africa’s most unique and treasured ingredients so that women can look supremely beautiful on the outside – and it helps them to support the communities who give those treasures to us, so that they can harness their power and beauty from the inside too, and give something back. In this podcast you will: Hear how Maria and Hellen came up with the name and inspiration for their brand (SPOILER: it’s a great story. Like, really great). Find out how they started working together. Hear what REALLY happened on Dragon’s Den and how they supported each other through the entire process. Learn the ethos and values behind the Daughter of the Soil brand. Find out what it's like growing a natural African Heritage brand and why Hellen and Maria see such a huge gap in the market.   Visit Daughter of the Soil online: Daughter of the Soil website Daughter of the Soil on Facebook Daughter of the Soil on Instagram Daughter of the Soil on Twitter We hope you enjoyed listening to the interview with Daughter of the Soil founders Hellen and Maria as much as we did. Maybe you now feel brave enough to dare Dragon’s Den or a similar programme in your country? We hope that you enjoyed listening to this episode and please get in touch with us if you have any question or comments. Please share, subscribe and review on iTunes Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Formula Botanica: Green Beauty Conversations podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please share, subscribe and review on iTunes or Stitcher so that more people can enjoy the show. Don’t forget to follow and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.