TANZANIA: BY day, Happyness Lupamba is a hospital pharmacist. After hours, she is the founder of Cocovich Naturals, a Tanzanian hair and skincare brand that began with a batch of hair oil and a few friends willing to try it.
“I haven’t left pharmacy; I am a hospital pharmacist and am currently doing a master’s in clinical pharmacy, specialising in oncology,” says the 33-year-old. “Instead, I see entrepreneurship as another way of applying what I learned.”
Small start, honest feedback
In October 2023, Happyness began making hair oil in her kitchen, with no factory, large investment or employees. She shared the first products with friends, inviting them to try them and give honest feedback.
“I was making the products and giving them to my friends,” she recalls.
Their feedback helped her refine the formulations and encouraged her to keep going. In 2024, she expanded into skincare, testing products and making adjustments before introducing them for sale.
What began as a small haircare venture has since grown into Cocovich Naturals, a Tanzanian brand offering more than 10 hair and skincare products.
The business has also expanded into baby care products, which offers baby shower gel and baby balm for babies with skin concerns.
Happyness financed the early stages with a small portion of her savings, initially concentrating on haircare before customer interest encouraged her to venture into skincare.
“I learned to start with what I had, improve gradually, listen to feedback and remain consistent,” she says.
Safety first
Her pharmacy background influences how she approaches beauty. For Happyness, selling skincare products also means helping consumers understand what they are using and what to expect.
“I don’t want someone simply to purchase a product; I want them to understand why they are using it, how to use it correctly, what results they can realistically expect, and when they should seek professional help,” she says.
She is particularly cautious about skincare advice shared on social media, where popular routines can encourage people to use products without considering their individual skin types, sensitivities or existing conditions.
“Different people have different skin types, sensitivities, conditions and routines. Using too many strong products can damage the skin barrier and cause irritation rather than improve the skin,” she says.
She encourages consumers to introduce new products gradually and understand how their ingredients work before adding them to an existing routine.
She is also wary of combining strong active ingredients, such as exfoliating acids and retinoid-type products, without understanding whether they are suitable for use together.
Happyness challenges the assumption that burning, peeling or excessive dryness means a product is working.
Instead, she encourages people to pay attention to their skin, protect it from the sun and seek professional advice when problems such as acne or hyperpigmentation persist, become severe or cause scarring.
“Cosmetics have limitations, and knowing when professional treatment is needed is part of responsible skincare,” she says.
She applies the same caution to the growing popularity of natural beauty products.
Although Cocovich Naturals uses natural ingredients, she warns that natural does not automatically mean safe.
“Natural ingredients can also cause irritation or allergic reactions,” she says, adding that a product’s price is not necessarily a guarantee of effectiveness.
For Happyness, helping consumers make informed decisions matters more than persuading them to buy more products.
Beauty beyond skin
Her philosophy extends beyond product formulations to the relationship between appearance and self-esteem. Happyness recognises that acne, pigmentation and other visible skin concerns can affect people’s confidence.
However, she believes skincare should support how people feel about themselves rather than determine their sense of worth.
“Your value should never depend entirely on your appearance. Skincare should support confidence rather than become the condition for having confidence,” she says.
She also challenges the pressure to achieve flawless skin or change one’s natural skin colour to fit prevailing beauty standards.
“Beauty means being comfortable and confident in yourself. Skincare can enhance how we feel, but beauty should never be reduced to having flawless skin or meeting somebody else’s standard,” she says.
She believes the beauty industry should give people the knowledge and choices to care for themselves without making them feel that their natural appearance needs to be corrected.
Women as creators Happyness wants women in the beauty industry to see themselves not only as consumers but also as innovators, business owners, employers and leaders.
“Women have enormous potential not only as consumers but also as innovators, business owners, employers and leaders in this industry,” she says.
She acknowledges that women entrepreneurs can face barriers, including limited access to capital, competing family responsibilities, weak professional networks and societal expectations.
For her, financial independence involves more than earning an income. It also requires understanding budgeting, saving, investing, managing debt and making informed financial decisions.
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“It is also about having knowledge, understanding budgeting, saving, investing, managing debt and making informed financial decisions,” she says.
Her own leadership lessons have come through experience, including learning to take responsibility when problems arise.
The cost of doing it all Building Cocovich Naturals while maintaining her hospital work and pursuing further studies has required Happyness to learn how to manage competing responsibilities.
Production remains kitchenbased, and she has no formally employed workers, although her father and younger siblings have supported her along the way.
Sourcing ingredients and packaging, managing stock and earning customers’ trust have all presented challenges.
Balancing these demands with her professional and academic commitments has been another learning experience.
“I am still learning that balance,” she says.
“You cannot sustainably build a business if you are constantly exhausted.” Rather than rushing to expand the product range, she is concentrating on improving existing formulations and responding to customer needs.
Her longer-term ambition is to establish a local manufacturing facility and grow Cocovich Naturals into a stronger, more trusted brand with a wider customer base.
For young women considering entrepreneurship, Happyness’s advice reflects the way she began: with limited resources, a willingness to learn and a clear determination to improve.
“Start with what you have, but start with knowledge,” she says.
She encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to understand their markets, know their customers, manage their finances and identify genuine problems they can solve.
Above all, she cautions them against measuring their early progress against somebody else’s established success.
“Most importantly, do not compare the beginning of your journey with someone else’s established business,” she says.
Her experience has reinforced her belief that professional expertise and entrepreneurship can complement one another.
“My journey has taught me that professional knowledge and entrepreneurship do not have to exist separately. Sometimes the skills you already have can become the foundation for something much bigger than you originally imagined,” she says.
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