our origin story
Nokware began far from home, in Paris, where Tutuwa, a Ghanaian, met a fellow African (from Southern Africa) while studying for their master’s degrees. As the only two Black women in their school, they naturally found each other. Friendship followed quickly, built on shared experiences, long conversations, and the small rituals that make life abroad feel familiar.
African ingredients deserve to be respected.
They shared everything; food from home, wigs, and the everyday products that lived in Tutuwa’s bathroom. That’s where her friend discovered African black soap and shea butter for the first time. She used them without expectation, and something unexpected happened: her acne cleared completely.
Until then, she had never heard of either ingredient.
African ingredients deserve to be shared with the world.
After graduation, they returned to their home countries, but her friend never forgot what those simple African ingredients had done for her skin. She kept asking Tutuwa to send more, first for herself, then for friends.
That’s when Tutuwa had a thought; If an African woman could grow up without knowing the power of African skincare, what else had the world been missing?
Nokware was born from that question, and the belief that African ingredients deserve to be understood, respected, and shared with the world.
