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ANELE MSWELI’S ALL-NATURAL PRODUCTS ARE FINALLY GETTING THE RECOGNITION THEY DESERVE, WRITES KATRINE ANKER-NILSSEN
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is how Mare & Itis was born. “I found a South African expat selling essential oils and started tinkering away in my little kitchen,” she says. Not only focusing on skin and hair products, Anele had also realised that cleaning products in China had harmful chemicals that would cause a rash or peeling. “That’s when I made the first prototype of the Zesty Kitchen Cleaner.” Anele moved on to Wuqing, a small district in Tianjin, and worked long hours as a Montessori English teacher and co-ordinator. “I was also studying interior design online,” she explains. “I was exhausted all the time, so I needed to make another plan as I couldn’t continue working myself to the bone.” Anele’s partner back home in South Africa, Kyle Watkins, told her to sit
nele Msweli and her three sisters were raised by her mom in Montclair. “At Mowat Park High School I was a bit of an odd ball, I was a library monitor and organised cake sales for Animal Action,” she laughs. “But a lot of my childhood was just me in my own head, dreaming big. And I was obsessed with South Korea and Japan, everything about the East fascinated me. “Some of the best days of my life were spent at Rhodes University, where I studied a Bachelor of Science,” continues Anele. “After university I volunteered for Greenpeace Africa. The most memorable part of this journey was onboard the Rainbow Warrior, sailing with an eclectic and multi-national crew I learnt so much from.” In 2016 Anele moved to Harbin in China. “I needed change, adventure and well, money, to be perfectly honest,” she says. Completing an online TEFL certificate, she secured a decent entry level job. “The first three months were hard, I missed home and it was just the biggest culture shock,” says Anele – who chose Harbin because it was a city most unlike Durban, with long and freezing winters. “I remember being absolutely down with my dry hair, scalp and hands in Harbin. Everyone blamed the harsh weather,” she says. “After a YouTube rabbit hole spiral, I learnt so much about essential and carrier oils, and started making concoctions for my dry hair.” And this
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