EP243. Meet the inspirational entrepreneur rebuilding the beauty industry from seed to shelf

A big shift I'm seeing in the independent beauty world is that small business owners want to use their brand to be a force for good in the world. Just generating a profit alone isn't seen as enough anymore. Instead, many of the brand founders I'm meeting now want to be the change that they want to see globally. And this is so inspiring because it shows a grassroots shift in the way that beauty brands are set up and run. Imagine being able to create a business that gives hundreds, if not thousands of people economic, social, even environmental opportunities. This is what I'm seeing take shape in beauty. And it won't surprise you to hear that this sea change is not coming from the big legacy brands. No, instead it's coming from the indie founders. Now, my guest today is on a mission to have a positive impact in the world through her skincare working with cooperatives across northern Ghana, creating a maker's space where other skincare brands can collaborate and really, I suppose, building the blueprint for other beauty brands to be a force for good as well. In her words. She's figuring it all out as she goes along, but from what I can see, she's going to inspire thousands all over the world with the work that she's doing by showing people what's possible. You are going to be so inspired by today's episode, I promise you. Welcome to Green Beauty Conversations in which I challenge the beauty industry to become more sustainable, champion, independent and green beauty and encourage you to join me in changing the beauty industry for the better. I'm your host, Lorraine Darmeyer. I'm a chartered environmentalist, biologist and the CEO of award winning online organic cosmetic formulation school Formula Botanica. We have tens of thousands of students in over 190 countries around the world who study with us to become organic beauty formulators and entrepreneurs. Visit our website@formulabotanica.com to try our free online formulation course. And if you want to be the first person to know what's happening in green beauty, make sure you subscribe to this podcast in your favorite podcast app. So in today's episode I'm joined by Rahama Wright, ambitiously driven entrepreneur and founder of Shaia Yeleen, a social impact company that creates living wage jobs for women owned shea butter cooperatives in Ghana. She actively contributes to promoting financial empowerment for women in rural villages by delivering training to produce, market and sell high quality shea butter. Additionally, Rahaba was appointed by the US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker to the inaugural Presidential Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa and then reappointed by Secretary Ross to council on strategies to transform and improve commercial engagement between the US And Africa. Rahama believes strongly that women, when given access to the right opportunities, can become respected leaders in their families and their communities. Her story has been featured in many media outlets including, oh, the Oprah Magazine, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post. And she's had the opportunity to speak at over 150 events globally, including the United nations, the World bank and the Global Entrepreneur Summit. Hi Raham, how are you doing today?

I'm doing pretty good, Lorraine. Thank you so much for having me on your show.

Oh, I'm so thrilled that you're here. This is so interesting and I know that our listeners are going to love your story. So let's start with your story. Could you please introduce yourself to our listeners? What do you do? What is your business called?

Yeah. So my name is Rahma wright. I'm a first generation Ghanaian American. I live in Washington D.C. and following my service in the Peace Corps, I launched a social impact beauty business, Shailene, as a way to support income generation helping women in rural communities take plant based ingredients and connect it to the beauty industry. And now I am building a commercial share manufacturing facility in D.C. called Yaleen Beauty. So that is the second company that I founded and the goal of that company is to really help early stage small businesses, indie brands, access manufacturing solutions and a whole suite of services to help them successfully launch and scale their indie beauty businesses, really focusing and targeting underserved entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color.

Oh, amazing. Well, there is so much to unpick here. But before we get into that, where did the name Yaleen come from?

When I was a Peace Corps volunteer, I learned the language called Bambara. And Yaleen is a Bambara word and it means light and hope. So we're bringing light to the issues of the disparities facing the women and the cooperatives that we work with. Economic disparities, but hope by connecting their products to market, we're giving them the ability to generate living wages and get fair and good employment and jobs.

Oh, I love that so much. That's so beautiful. And that makes so much sense. Well, talk to me a little bit about why you got started because I know you've already hinted at it a little bit, but what was the big passion, the big mission behind your business?

Well, I grew up in a family where my dad had an advanced degree and my mom had a sixth grade education. My dad is from America, my mom is from Ghana. And so growing up in a family I could Tangibly see how depending on where you grow up, depending on how you grow up, there can be a lot of limitations. And I was always, always interested in African issues, particularly issues surrounding women. And when I joined the Peace Corps, living in a village for the very first time as a Ghanaian American and experiencing and seeing a lot of the things that my mother faced growing up, that really changed what I wanted to do with my career. Initially, I thought I would become a foreign service officer and work as a diplomat, travel the world working at various embassies. And I actually did serve and interned at an American embassy in Burkina Faso. But after living in the village and experiencing that connection to community, I wanted to figure out a way to help women in rural villages be able to improve their standards of living simply by benefiting from resources that are right in their community. And when it comes to the beauty industry, we talk a lot about sustainability. We talk a lot about making sure that the products that we use are clean, making sure that the packaging is sustainable. But I don't believe we talk enough about the poverty that's created in the beauty supply chain, where many of the ingredients that are used for come from indigenous communities who've been using these ingredients for hundreds of years. And yet, as these ingredients have become globalized, as they've become the foundation of so many big brands in an industry that's worth billions of dollars, they're being left out and left behind. And being a Peace Corps volunteer and living in the village and just seeing that huge disconnect, seeing these women who are making these amazing products, amazing plant based ingredients, but then not seeing them from products that are sold for $50, $120, and seeing that disconnect, I wanted to create a connection. I wanted to help women in their communities to take these, their traditions and financially benefit by linking them directly to consumers.

Oh, wow. And I absolutely love your mission. And I know that many of our listeners will be feeling so inspired at the moment hearing you talk about this and how much this will resonate. Because I think this is something that many indie beauty brand founders really want to do. They want to give back, they want to have that social impact. So I love what you're doing. Can you paint a picture for us of the scale of what you're working with in northern Ghana, which is, I think, where you're predominantly located at the moment? How many women are you working with? Like, how many cooperatives are you working with? Paint a picture for us, please.

Yeah, so prior to Covid, we had about 800 women within our Supply chain after Covid, it's been reduced dramatically simply because of the lack of resources. And then some of the communities that we worked with, there were challenges in terms of being able to continue working in those communities. And so now we work with cooperatives outside of the Damongo region. And we also have a pilot in Wall and we have roughly 800 women that we work with. We have a team of four individuals on the ground who are Ghanaian, who work with them. And what we do is we save from seed to shelf, so when they harvest the raw material, we help them with accessing the capital to be able to purchase their inputs for production. We provide safe processing facilities. And so we have built centers where they can make their shea or make their black soap. We invest in training, capacity building, we make sure that they have a full ecosystem of support and resources to take a raw material, turn it into a value added ingredient. We import that ingredient to the US and then we create a line of our plant based body care products that we distribute to U.S. retailers. And by doing that, we are able to increase women's income five times their country's minimum wage, giving them a living wage for the very first time. Which for me is why I do this work. I see just in one generation, between my mom and me, all the resources that I've been able to have access to is because of the ability for my parents to take care of us, right? The financial ability. Knowing even in my life how that has changed, I know that when a woman has access to five times her country's minimum wage, the people who benefit the most are the children. They're being sent to better schools, they're having access to better nutrition. It changes the next generation. And I think that's such an important thing that when we consider a lot of the areas of the world where there are systemic issues around poverty, disparities, access, we need to think about how can we help people change the lives of the next generation. Because that's what any parent wants to be able to do, is just give their, their children a better chance and a better opportunity to live at a higher standard, more sustainably. And that's what we're doing with our business.

And it's through really passionate entrepreneurs such as yourself that this change can be brought into the world. But saying that, I can imagine there are people listening, going, okay, so you're on the east coast of the us You've created all this infrastructure in western Africa, in northern Ghana, that can't have been easy. I mean, you're not even Talking like another country. We're talking an entirely other continent, different time zones, quite a distance away. How did you go about setting all of this up? I understand you have four people on the ground there, but nonetheless, this can't have been an easy undertaking.

Well, it also has happened over almost two decades. So when I first started, it was 05. We're now heading into 2025. I would say it's been a trial and error process for me. I would try some things that wouldn't work out. I'd try something else. I wish I could say I had this very clear step by step guidebook that just gave me the answers. And all I had to do was flip to page 40 and to figure out, oh, how do you get items cleared out of the port? You know, I've made tons of mistakes. I failed forward, as I kind of hinted to my background. I really had no business starting this business. I didn't know anything about beauty. I didn't know anything about production. I didn't know anything about creating a brand, marketing, none of it. I didn't even have much money when I started because I had been volunteering the last two years of my life. It really has been learning as I go tapping into other people. I think at the end of the day, business is about people. It's about relationships. It's about creating trust and really leaning on the traditional knowledge of the local folks within the communities that we work with. We're not coming into a community and importing knowledge or solutions. We're taking homegrown solutions, figuring out how to improve it, and then bringing those solutions to market in partnership with the local community. And so that is how I believe I've been able to step by step go from not knowing much about the industry and not knowing much about how to bring products to market, to now working in several communities, having our products and retailers in the U.S. like Macy's, MGM and now building a manufacturing facility in Washington, D.C. amazing.

Well, we'll come on to that in a minute because I realize that's like the second phase of this enormous undertaking you've put together. And I know you said you didn't have the step by step guidebook, but something tells me you could probably write that now actually for other people who want to go down that route, because I'm sure there are other people. Before we start talking about what you're doing on the other side of the water of the Atlantic, tell me more about the impacts that you've had on the lives of these women in Northern Ghana, because I know you're talking about five times the minimum wage. You're having this generational effect. What sort of stories have you heard back from the cooperatives that you're working with?

Well, the cool thing about our business is we let the women tell their own stories. And I think that's also really important. I really try to not be the person, the foreigner who comes in and then is making all this change. And now I get to, like, be at this. I don't even know how to describe it, like, because I also want to be careful. But you know how, like, the kind of cliche, like, oh, I've come in, and the savior complex. That's what I wanted to say, the savior complex. I really try to not be that. And so one of the things that we invested early on is having the women in our communities come to the US and walk into a Whole Foods, tell their own story. We had them go to universities and talk to business school students and talk about what they're doing in their communities. We are a partner, a facilitator. But at the end of the day, I'm not a shape producer. The women in the communities are shape producers. They're the ones making these products. And so we've always wanted to be able to give them that ability to come and share their own story and feel what it's like to be on this side. Many times in these indigenous communities, they don't get a chance to come to the market side. They don't get a chance to walk into a store that's selling their product. And one of my most favorite experiences is when two of our co op members came and toured 26 whole food stores we were in and getting and having them see the product on shelves. But not only that, see how much we sell it for, see how much other competitors sell it for, for really understanding, like, talking to a buyer, what is that experience like? And so those are some of the, you know, qualitative, you know, benefits that you can't really, like, sum up in a number, but has transformational impact because it's giving them the ability for them to experience a much different part of the supply chain that they don't typically experience. But at the end of the day, we're here to increase the income of women and that five times multiplier. I want to talk a little bit about how we got there. It was a combination of looking at minimum wage data. So what is the Ghanaian minimum wage? What's the standard there? And then doing interviews with the women on Things like how much does it cost to have access to better food? How much does it cost to pay for the school supplies or even the fees that you need to for your kids school, how much does it cost for transportation, you know, what is an electricity bill or a water bill like? And figuring out other income generating activities you may want to invest in, what would it cost if you want to. For example, one of our cooperative members, she wanted to create a food stand to be able to sell food and use her income, a portion of it to invest in that. So we collected that data, we interviewed them and from there we looked at the minimum wage and they're like, and figured out it would have to be about five times the minimum wage for them to be able to achieve these things and not feel strained or stretched. So that's how that number came about. It wasn't just plucked out of thin air. We actually did quite a bit of research and data collection to get to that number. The number one thing women put their increased income towards is the education of their children. Whether it's giving them an opportunity to go to better schools or just giving them the resources to be able to send them to school, or the fact that they have increased income. That child now is, now is not having to go to a market to sell items or go to the farm instead. Now the child can go to school. So that is one of the number one. When we collect data, I'm like, okay, so how are things going? The other thing is investing in other income generating activities. And so the woman I was mentioning, Gladys, when she created her food stand, she was able to hire her neighbor. And so that neighbor isn't part of the cooperative, but because now her neighbor is creating something that she can now work at. So those are some of the stories and the impacts that we've been able to have with the community members that we work with and the women in our community. And then of course, just other things in terms of like just accessing health services. The women in our communities all get access to a health insurance card that is subsidized by the government. But many times they can't even afford the subsidized card. And so we help them gain access to that registering them being able so that they can access health services at clinics in their nearby communities, whether it's in their actual village or a nearby village.

That's amazing. And it must be so wonderful to see your plans for the business come to fruition now and to have that impact that you initially set out to have. I'D love to talk to you a little bit now about the shea butter. I mean obviously they must be producing quite a lot by the sounds of things. Is it hard to get it over to the us I personally have never had to transport large quantities of shea butter across an ocean. How does that work?

I just like received this week at 10 o' Shea and so I like it was on a palette and I just sat on a pallet and took a photo. And so the first time in the very early days, I shipped using air freight, which I do not recommend because it's very heavy and incredibly expensive. And so now we figured out a system where we use sea freight and so it's put into a container and shipped over. And then what happens is that we first it has to go to a port. So there's a port in Ghana, it's put on a ship. That ship goes to either a New York port or Baltimore port and then it's cleared from customs. And so there's some regulations and forms that we have to fill out. I have to use freight forwarders and you know, various intermediaries on this side to clear it. But it is a duty free product so we don't pay tariffs on it.

Amazing. So tell me more about the products you make with it. What sort of products are you making and selling?

We butter people up. That's what we do over here. So we create products that moisturize and cleanse the skin. Our focus is really looking at how to help alleviate dry, itchy skin. So everything that we do is based on utilizing the skin moisturizing power of shea. So we have plant based soaps, we have body moisturizers, creams, and we also have shea butter in its purest form for folks like me who have really dry skin, especially as we approach the cold winter, you know, the fall and as the temperature drops and our products, I say anyone with skin can use our products and they're made to be multi use. So you can use our, our soap for as a shampoo bar or a face cleanser as well as body. Our pure shea butter can be used as a scalp moisturizer in addition to being a body moisturizer.

Amazing. It sounds like you've got a fantastic range there. Now most people would go, I've spent two decades creating this incredible supply chain. I'm having an impact with my supply chain. I've got this fantastic ingredient. I've managed to ship it halfway across the world. I'm making this wonderful range with it and they probably go, okay, I'M going to stop there. But you're not stopping there, are you? Like, what's the next stage of Shayaleen? What's the, the next sort of incarnation of what you're building?

Why stop? You know, keep going? Well, it really happened because of COVID As I said, Covid had a huge impact on our supply chain. Ghana closes borders for about four months. There was mandatory shelter in place. Our facilities were not operating, so getting our supply was impossible. And then the contract manufacturer I'd been working with for years right before COVID went out of business. And one of the biggest challenges to growing my business has always been around manufacturing. So the women, they create value to a certain step, but we have to do the finishing here. And that requires working with a manufacturer. And when you're a small business, finding a manufacturer that's willing to work with small businesses that, you know, doesn't require really high minimum order requirements is very, very challenging. And even companies that say they do short runs or they specialize in smaller batches, I've had even challenges and difficulties working with folks that market themselves that way. And part of it is your business just isn't seen as important as a large company. And so there's, you know, lots of really poor customer service. I've had instances where I've paid for orders and they never shipped it. Like just really. Yeah. And it's more, they know that it's more expensive for you to find a lawyer to try to get, you know, and so lost thousands and upon thousands and thousands of dollars really working with the wrong manufacturers. And then not everyone really knows how to work with plant based ingredients because there is so much fillers that are put into our personal care products. A lot of times because we don't have, because we are using natural ingredients, they require a specific skill set to really know how to use them, blend them in formulas, et cetera. And so I share all of that to say it's been hard and challenging. And so when my manufacturer that I loved went out of business, I had to start from scratch again. And it was during a time where we were also losing huge amounts of revenue. Everywhere we sold was in person, whether it was doing demos at Whole Foods or the products were being used in spa treatments at mgm, we were selling through airport retail. And so there was like travel bans and all these things. So the world just shut down. And so my business was like.

Oh my goodness.

And so I had a lot of time to kind of take a step back and think. And I was like, oh, If I, you know, I thought, I mean it was also like, hey, do I give up? This would be a great time to just be like, oh, just oh no, you know. But I didn't give up. I decided, you know, after taking a step back and thinking, I was like, you know what if I'm going to come back from this and relaunch, I need to control my manufacturing. And that idea evolved into well, you know what? I know a lot of so many people reach out to me, whether it's in LinkedIn or social DMing me, asking me for help and support and I'm like, hey, listen, I don't know, I'm just figuring it out as I go. But apparently they think that I can help them. And so I was like, well, what if I could create a shared manufacturing facility? Because food businesses have access to this. Food businesses have access to commercial kitchens where one person comes in and makes chocolate chip cookies. They leave, another person comes in and makes granola or you know. And so I was like, well, why don't, why don't we have this in the beauty space? We're using similar equipment because we're using food grade ingredients and many plant based. It's very similar. So maybe there is something like this out there. Let me look. And I, and I did. And I tried to find a place to just join as a member. I couldn't find it. And I was like, okay, I'm sure it's in Europe. Europeans typically are much more advanced when it comes to doing things that are good for the environment. And no, could not find it. I said shared manufacturing, indie beauty, Googled all over the place. I could find places where people could do co working. Yeah, right. Or come in and get like training or a studio to come in and take your photos of your product. But no one was really looking at the making. And there is this huge community of beauty indie beauty brands that are making products in their home using their home kitchens, making products in their basements. There's so many stories like Here in the U.S. carol's daughter is a famous one woman in Brooklyn who was making her products. Brooklyn or Harlem, I can't remember making her products in her home. And then she got investment from like celebrities. She blew up, she sold, eventually sold her business. And so many companies start out like that. And I felt like, well we could probably do better if we had the same facility that we could leverage for each brand to make products, to access a full suite of services and build an ecosystem designed for indie beauty brands so that we can Address our pain points collectively. The industry is so competitive and I honestly believe we can go further. Working together versus working against each other, feeling like we have to compete on certain things. For example, the economies of scale of ordering bulk for 20 or 50 brands reduces cost of manufacturing for everybody, whether it's buying sustainable packaging together or buying ingredients together. And what I'm really excited about is the supply and value chains I've meticulously built over the last almost two decades can now be amplified for other businesses. And we're now looking at not only bringing Shea and soap from our communities in Ghana, but we're also looking at Moringa, we're also looking at Baobab and Argonne. And we want to be kind of this one stop shop where you can come and whether it's figuring out, getting access to a template so you can figure out how long it'll take you to be profitable, or figure out how to build out your financial model, or if it's, this is an ingredient that 50 brands all use or 10 brands use, let's come together and order it together so that we can reduce that cost. Or simply say, I really had a tough day today and I just want someone to talk to and know that, you know, this community has your back. This community is about lifting each other up. And I remember growing up, so my mom sold Mary Kay and so she was like, you know, immigrant Ghanaian woman. And she. We grew up in upstate New York. It wasn't very diverse. And so she was this black woman in a group of like white women selling Mary Kay. And she was amazing at it. And I just remember when they would do their Mary Kay parties, I was like, these women really support each other.

Yeah.

And they're all selling the exact same thing.

Yes, yes, the exact.

There's no difference. They're selling the same thing. And they would do their little parties and they would like cheer each other on. And it was a real thing. Right. I was like, how can we build that in the indie beauty space?

Yes.

Where it's like, you can have your brand and be successful and I can have my brand and be successful and we can actually build business and community. And so that's what I'm creating now in D.C. with our Maker space. And the goal is to launch it here, but then grow it to other markets as well.

Yeah, I absolutely love this. And we see this in the Formula Botanica community as well. You know, there's this real sense of community, of wanting to support each other. The one thing you said earlier, which I thought was fascinating was you said, you know, people approach you and they're like, how can I do this? And you go, I don't know, I'm just figuring it out as I go along. But you are. Not only are you figuring it out, you're also creating opportunities everywhere you go, which is different to what other entrepreneurs do. It's quite unique the way that you approach problems, create solutions, but then build solutions that other people can access as well. So do you think that the model that you've built, do you think that other beauty brands could follow that model to build their own supply chains as well, to have a more positive impact around the world and then create that sense of community and what they do?

No, absolutely. I think that every time someone says, oh, well, your business, is it a nonprofit? Is it, you know, this idea? There typically is a pause when people hear what I'm trying to build, because it doesn't make sense that a business would be structured to not just focus on the bottom line and money and profit. There's kind of this disconnect that we have when we think about business doing good, because we think, oh, that's just the nonprofit. That's the nonprofit world. Or this, you know, social enterprises. I don't think we should have social enterprises. Every business should be a social enterprise. Every business should be doing good. Every business should care about our environment. Every business should. Should care about eradicating poverty in their supply chain. Every single business should double down on that and actually be horrified that they sell products that are keeping children out of schools, putting children in danger, that are creating these systemic issues around equality, around giving people a better chance at life. Every business should care about that. It shouldn't just be the nonprofit world or social enterprises or these new age entrepreneurs. No, we deserve to live in a world where we don't look out and see our brothers and sisters suffering simply because we live on this part of the world and not that. Or we live in this zip code and not this other zip code or this area code and not this area code or this country. You know, it's. And so when you're asking me, should other businesses care about building better businesses that are making change? Absolutely. But I don't think they have to do it alone. And part of building this community and creating the makerspace is saying, let's do it together. Because oftentimes we have this image of successful businesses. It's always about one person climbing to the top of this very high mountain and being successful. And I think that story is outdated. I want to be one of many, all committed to making the world a better place and not having this like competition around doing good. No, doing good should be the baseline. It shouldn't be something we compete on.

How would you like to see that filter through into the beauty industry in general then? Because I love what you're saying and I know our listeners will be resonating with your message very well. Much as well. What changes would you like to see in the beauty industry as a whole then?

Part of it is on the manufacturing, I think that is one. And on the sourcing. Being able to care about how our products are made goes to plant based, making sure the ingredients are non toxic, etc. And then who is making our products goes to the sourcing from these communities as well as the makers in the indie beauty space. That's one. Those are two areas. And then I think that we should redefine what competition should be. I understand putting your best foot forward. I understand wanting to make the best product and brand possible. But I think we should redefine the idea of doing that at the detriment of other brands. I've seen folks, for example, at demos, when we would do demos in Whole Foods, like move my products out of the way, not knowing that I was the founder, like just doing like these little. Yeah. And just those little like really competitive, you know, things. And I think that we can change this belief that in order for me to be successful, someone else has to fail. And I don't think that's true. I think that there's probably another dimension of if we're all doing what we are authentically born to do, we all succeed. It amplifies success. They actually creates versus detracts or reduces. And I think having the ability to share. It's okay that I'm using Shea butter and you're also using Shea or you know, it's always like, oh, I want to be the only one. And I think that, you know, There were almost 8 billion people in the world. I think it's okay if we have more than one. Fair enough.

Yeah. Doing similar things. So tell me, what's next for Shea, Yeleen?

Oh, well, getting this makerspace, the Yilleen beauty makerspace, off the ground, growing our supply, like I said, from not just where we are, but looking at other ingredients, building a team to really like take the makerspace to the next level because I can't run both. And so really finding a strong operator who can take the charge of running the makerspace. And I want to get more into kind of the teaching. I've been doing a bit of work on the policy side, so I think I want to also do. I serve on the President's Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa. I co chair it with Citi. And so we're always looking at how to strengthen the ties between the US and African countries when it comes to trade engagement. And I come with the lens of, well, how can we incorporate communities that often are not at the table during these conversations? You know, women in rural areas, SMEs, small businesses, youth businesses. And so I think that I want to continue to kind of focus on that work, grow it as we get more into also supporting other businesses here in the US which is really exciting. Our partnership, we've been funded, for example by the mayor's office, the deputy mayor for planning and economic development here in D.C. and then there are some community based organizations that we've developed some partnerships with. So I'm really excited to like to create a greater tie to the small business community here in the US to Africans on the continent who are, you know, right there making these products, understanding their traditions, understanding why these ingredients are great and really creating that bond that I had the fortune of building my business on that foundation, but passing it along to other businesses as well.

I love this. You are such an incredible force for good and you are a truly remarkable entrepreneur. And may I just add one suggestion to your list of the many things that you need your own podcast, quite frankly, because, oh my God, a lot of people would listen to you. So thank you so much. Thank you so much for sharing your story today.

Thank you so much, Lauren. And I just want to say I love what you've built. Formula Botanica. I get the newsletters. I learned about you all years ago. So thank you for what you've built for this community. And I'm just really excited to see how we can work together.

Absolutely.

This is exciting.

Well, for all of our listeners who are sat there thinking, wow, Raham is an incredible, remarkable entrepreneur and I want to follow her and I want to follow her businesses. Where can people find out more about you?

So with Shailene, you can follow us on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. S H E A Y E L E E N and then for the Yaleen Beauty makerspace, you can follow us on Instagram as well as LinkedIn. Y E L E E N Beauty.

Amazing. We'll include all of those links in the show notes. So make sure you go and follow Rahama and her team and all the incredible things she's building. Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. It was such a privilege.

Thank you so much. Have a great day.

You too. I would love to hear your thoughts on this episode. How can other beauty brands follow the blueprint that Rahama is creating for the industry? How can we all partner to build more positive change? Leave us a comment on our social channels as both the Formula Botanica team and I love hearing from you. And if you want to hear more about some of the topics we covered today, please do delve back into the podcast archives. So some great Examples include episode 65 in which I interviewed Nancy Ndukwe Oshitalu and Valerie Abazi on what the world can learn from green beauty across the entire continent of Africa. We talked about many of the points that Rahama raised today too, including the way that these heritage ingredients such as shea butter, originated across Africa and are now used all over the beauty industry. This interview is not only available as a podcast episode, but also available as a video on our YouTube channel for Formula Botanica or more recently, go and listen to episode 230 in which I talk about human rights abuses in the cosmetics industry. Rahama rightly mentioned that the beauty industry doesn't look after the people in its supply chain properly, and two of the examples I mention in this episode clearly shine a spotlight on what needs to change. There's a wealth of information in our old episodes and I do encourage you to go back and listen to them. Thank you for joining Rahama and I for this latest episode of Green Beauty Conversations. I really hope you enjoyed it and if you did, please do leave us a five star review so that other people can enjoy these conversations too. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or whatever your favorite podcast app is and stay tuned for the next episode. Follow Formula Botanica at Formula Botanica on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest. We're everywhere and come and give me a Follow Lorraine Dallmeyer on LinkedIn and Instagram, visit our website at formidable botanica.com and sign up for our free online formulation course today.