Place Description

Dada – Cosmetics

Dada stands for a Zanzibari network of local cooperatives running and managing their own businesses. The women of the Mama Matemwe cooperative created over sixty different kinds of natural beauty soaps and wellness products. This includes hotel bath and beauty amenities as well as natural skin care, spa products, aromatherapy, mosquito repellents and household laundry goods.

Dada’s eCosmetics are the only ones in Zanzibar to offer such as vast variety of natural soaps, so you can be sure to find your favorite product among them. The products only use spices and essential oils instead of fragrances, making it an all natural beauty line. Many of the carefully selected ingredients such as lemongrass, aloe vera, moringa and soap nut trees are cultivated on their production plot in Zanzibar and ingredients such as tamarind and baobab seeds are wild-harvested in Tanzania.

The nearby beach provides fine-grain white sand for the scrubs and the sea offers salt and seaweed cultivated by women from the village. The packaging of the products is upcycled from empty bottles, empty Pritt glue sticks for the mosquito repellent or aluminum cans for mosquito candles.

The Dada founders are supporting the network and the village through micro-loans, permaculture and beekeeping courses for school children and villagers, the creation of a tree nursery and the education of environmental friendly agroforestry techniques to overcome unsustainable concepts such as slash-and-burn methods. Furthermore, they support the cooperative with training in sales and profits, production planning, sourcing, storekeeping and accounting.