A CONVERSATION WITH A SUSTAINABLE BEAUTY BRAND: HANAHANA BEAUTY BY MOJI IGUN

ABENA BOAMAH IS THE FOUNDER OF HANAHANA BEAUTY. SHE SHARES HOW SHE STARTED HANAHANA WHILE SHE WAS IN GRAD SCHOOL, WHAT SHE WISHES SHE KNEW WHEN SHE FIRST STARTED HER SUSTAINABLE BEAUTY BUSINESS, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF BUILDING A TRUE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE WOMEN IN GHANA WHO SUPPLY THE SHEA BUTTER FOR HER BEAUTY PRODUCTS.

sustainable beauty hanahana beauty

Can you tell me a little bit about the journey to starting hanahana beauty?

Abena: I started HanaHana Beauty in 2017. It’s about to be two years.

But before then, I was just making shea butter. I was teaching and in grad school. I just started making it because I was really interested and curious about what I was putting on my body, and being able to recreate that. I would just make it for friends and family, and they kept encouraging me to sell it. So, when I decided to sell, I wanted to make sure that everything that we did was with the mission of being sustainable, transparent, and also providing access. I wanted black women to always be thought of while creating, and I wanted to make sure that everything we were doing was not harmful.

It’s become more than a beauty skincare line. It’s about community and working with those who are sourcing from us and who we’re sourcing from. We want to create learning experiences.