PERSPECTIVES ON FORBES AFRICA UNDER 30 S
andra Mwiihangele is the founder of Kiyomisandz, a Namibian cosmetic- and toiletry-manufacturing company. In 2016 Kiyomisandz won the Development Bank of Namibia Innovation Award, and in 2017 Sandra was selected by Forbes Africa magazine to be on the “30 Under 30” list. Since then, she has seen her name and her brand spread across the globe. In keeping with its ethos of making a difference, Kiyomisandz recently announced its recycling programme. The programme encourages participants to bring back six empty product containers in exchange for a free Summer Rain product. Sandra, raised by a single mom, went to the Holy Cross Convent and found her calling doing her project for the compulsory Young Scientist competition. “I entered the Young Scientist competition with my best friend. An idea came to mind to create lipstick. We did some research and found that, at the age of eleven, we actually didn’t know anything about organic chemistry, so we had to figure out a way to create lipstick with the natural resources in our back yard and in our kitchen. We managed to successfully create a high-performance matte lipstick that won us first prize in the competition, and we were selected to represent the country in Pretoria at the time. “The whole process of creating the lipstick, the problem-solving and the field experiments awakened a passion in me to create a product from nothing. The problem-solving intrigued me. I love finding a solution to a problem. I told myself that when I grew up, I would own my own cosmeticmanufacturing business.” “The majority of cosmetic products contain water. Water has two hydrogen ions, which affect the pH levels in products. If these levels are too high or too low, they can burn, so you have to do a lot of tests when you create a product. “When I started, I didn’t have the funds to afford hi-tech equipment; I had to find a way to create a well-functioning product that does the job but doesn’t contain water. I wanted to create an exfoliating scrub that removes dead skin cells from the surface of your skin, but adds an extra advantage of moisturising,
20
