The uncover journey of Oyateru, Lee and Mehta

To help women gain confidence in their skin, a leading African skin care brand, Uncover which combines Korean Beauty with African Botanicals, has infused centuries-old knowledge with new and innovative, state-of the art technology in its pursuit to empower women to wear their skin proudly.

A community-built skincare brand that believes no woman should lose confidence in her skin, Uncover has its core beliefs of patience, consistency, and self-love inspired through healthy, effective, nourishing products and lifestyle. The brand seeks to celebrate every blemish and stretch mark on every woman, and encourages you to wear your skin with pride.

In this interview with IJEOMA THOMAS-ODIA, the founders Jade Oyateru (Nigerian), Catherine Lee (Korean) and Sneha Mehta (Indian) share their Uncover journey, which began during the global pandemic, including their desire to challenge the status quo and push the boundaries of what skincare should be for women in Africa and around the world.

Mehta

‘Women Should Know Skincare Is A Journey’
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Sneha Mehta, had a traumatic experience where a visit to a Nairobi dermatologist, due to acne, left her with burns all over her face and a low point in her confidence. She is driven to ensure no woman ever loses her confidence because of her skin. Sneha’s work experience spans a decade of scaling businesses across the African continent with firms such as Grassroots Business Fund, Helios, McKinsey, and the World Bank with a degree from the London School of Economics.

You had a defining experience that informed your passion to ensure that no woman loses confidence in her skin, how is Uncover helping you achieve this aim?
I have always had acne-prone skin with stubborn hyperpigmentation and was constantly looking for solutions for my skin. I was always trying new treatments and concoctions. When my skin broke out in my late 20s, I went to a top Nairobi dermatologist who gave me unlabeled products that burned my whole face. It was quite a traumatising experience, and I have witnessed the lack of safety in ingredients and misinformation in this market firsthand.

I am driven by empowering women to know that skincare is a journey and embrace patient, healthy care over quick fixes. This experience was one of the lowest points in my confidence. By building an organisation that embraces the philosophy of healthy self care and inclusive and real skin, Uncover is helping me drive my mission of empowering women to be confident in the skin they are in and not using quick fixes.

With a degree in Economics, how are you infusing your skill to drive this brand?
Studying business, math, and stats at university, followed by a decade in private equity and consulting, I have acquired invaluable skills to drive the brand. I have worked closely with entrepreneurs in over 10 markets and am now able to play the role of entrepreneur myself. It’s exciting to be able to take everything you’ve learned and apply it: I am using all my knowledge in business strategy, financial, cash-flow modelling, operations and more to build Uncover.
That being said, a start-up (especially in the early days) means that you do everything and I’ve learned a lot too. As co-founders, we are an incredibly complimentary team, which means we all bring a unique skill to the team.

What skincare tips do you have for women, especially in Africa?
Women should wear Sun Protection Factor (SPF) everyday; it can be easy to forget, but it is so important. Both aesthetically for hyperpigmentation and wrinkles/fine lines also for your health to avert skin cancer and sun damage. Be consistent and patient. The power of this will do wonders for your skin. Love the skin you’re in – you are beautiful!.

Our aim is to empower women wear their skin proudly’
Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer, Jade Oyateru, is a nutritionist and consumer goods expert. A firm believer in holistic self-care, she is determined to help women understand the importance of good nutrition, gut health, its impact on skincare and overall self care.

With an MBA from Imperial College London, Oyateru has over a decade’s experience on the African continent at Unilever/Nestle, as well as e-commerce players Kasha and Jumia.

What does self-care mean to you and what role is Uncover playing in achieving your aim?
Self-care to me simply means loving myself. I am a firm believer in holistic self-care. To love myself means taking care of my physical, emotional and mental well-being through the things I enjoy doing like good nutrition, taking healthy care of my skin, getting enough sleep, dancing, quiet time of prayer and positive affirmations. These are very important to me, especially when it is so easy to get sucked into this very busy lifestyle.

I am determined to help women change the way they view self-care. You don’t have to book a spa appointment before you selfcare. It’s in the little things like sheet masking for 20 minutes at home or speaking continuous affirmations to yourself. Affirmations are a great way to build self confidence and self-love and this is why you will find affirmation statements on all Uncover products. I believe in the power of positive affirmations (emotional).

At Uncover, we believe that taking care of our skin is an important aspect of overall wellness and self-care. By using high-quality ingredients, and developing effective skincare routines, we aim to help women feel confident and empowered in their own skin. We believe that regular skincare practices can not only improve the health and appearance of the skin (physical), but also promote a sense of relaxation and mindfulness (mental well-being).

Overall at Uncover, we believe that investing in our skin is investing in ourselves and our well-being. This is how we tie it all back to holistic self care. Taking care of the physical, emotional and mental well-being.

With your experiences, what skill set are you bringing to champion Uncover expansion?
I have over a decade’s experience working with FMCG multinationals and leading E-commerce players across different markets and feel empowered to build the Uncover brand having worked in leadership roles that cuts across sales, brand building, digital marketing and e-commerce, coupled with an MBA from Imperial college Business School. These transferable skills enable me to position the brand not just for exponential growth, but also to understand, speak and connect with our consumers as it is important that our community is at the heart of everything we do at Uncover.

Uncover has an incredible team of achievers and while we pride ourselves on having a great team, we also understand the need for constant learning. As with any startup or company for that matter, we always strive to keep learning and take progress over perfection in the way we work.

What stands Uncover out from other brands?
Uncover is not just another skincare brand; we are a community-built skincare brand that aims to empower women to wear their skin proudly. There are lots of international products on our shelves today that are simply a geographical expansion strategy, with little thought on tailoring products to women in Africa. We are on a mission to change that, to make Africa a priority and not an afterthought.

Our products are backed by science and formulated by a board of experts. We harness advanced, innovative K-Beauty skincare technology with African Botanicals and work closely with our community of 100,000 plus women across Africa to test the formulation, so we meet your skincare needs.

We also understand that skincare can be confusing for lots of women, so it’s important to us to make skincare easy, healthy and fun wherever women are in their journey. We provide tools that help women make the best choices for their skin using video tutorials, blogs, quizzes and safe, nourishing and effective skincare products made specifically with you in mind.

‘lightening products are widespread and a real health crisis’
Co-Founder and Advisor, Catherine Lee is a Korean living in Kenya. She got inspired to use the best global skincare technology and innovations from her home country to create the best formulas for the market.
An economist turned filmmaker, she has worked on women’s empowerment projects in 19 countries, with degrees from Yale University and Harvard Kennedy School.

How are you infusing technology to drive the Uncover brand?
On the products side, Uncover is leveraging Korean-Beauty technology to make products for the African market. K-Beauty is known to be the Paris of skincare with cutting edge innovation in skincare. By using the best technology in the world specifically for Africa, we are truly using global best for our needs.

On the business side, Uncover is a data-driven, digital first brand, which means we have built digital product discovery tools for the consumer, including virtual consultations and a skin quiz that helps identify the products that are best suited for you. We are also heavily data driven.

At a time where lightening products have become the order of the day, how is a botanical brand like yours helping to change the narrative?
Uncover is much more than a products’ company; we are a community-built skincare brand that is pushing the narrative on beauty standards. Our mission is to empower women to wear their natural skin proudly by building a brand that encourages you to love the skin you’re in and provides you with effective, safe products take healthy care of yourself.

On the brand side, we do this through creating video-based content, newsletters, and blogs that educate and encourage healthy skin practices, self love and real skin over flawless skin. Moreover, our packaging has affirmation statements to inspire women to love themselves.

On the products side, we have extremely effective, focus group tested products (on women in Africa) leveraging K-Beauty. technology. We believe in patience, consistency, and lifestyle to achieve lasting results.

Lightening products are widespread and this is a real health crisis. Many lightening products are not safe and can cause long term health issues. The perception of ‘fairness being beautiful’ is deep-rooted and one that has been passed on through generations of media, commercials, and societal expectations. By building a purpose driven brand, we hope to start changing the narrative around beauty to help women feel more confident in their skin.