Maleka Datto is a very interesting woman.
Having spent most of her life in the beauty industry launching brands such as Clinique and Lancome around the world she was fired in midlife and found herself at a crossroads. Knowing that much of what the beauty industry puts across to women didn't sit completely right with her own values she decided to launch her own skincare range, a decision she now says she's not sure she would have made if she knew what was coming.
Merumaya launched and subsequently went into John Lewis, where it reached the heights of selling the No1 cleansing balm, but Maleka didn't enjoy the experience, She found that she was spending money on in-house marketing that was supporting the John Lewis brand rather than her own. After a meet with the John Lewis buyer who put his hand up saying that he didn't want to hear Maleka's viewpoint on an issue, she took her brand out of their stores and now sells directly via her website, through Amazon, the Jewellery Channel and individual stores where the owner values match hers.
The key to Merumaya is both the incredibly potent ingredients, her desire for women to enjoy their skincare, but enjoy it fast and her desire for any woman to feel beauty confident. In fact, the ingredients are at such a high level she's still losing money on the brand eight years after launch!
The podcast interview is a great look at how Maleka is taking on the big brands, how she views influencers and beauty journalists and how she feels that we, the consumers, need to take a bit of the responsibility for how brands treat us. It's one of my favourite interviews so listen HERE.
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