Written By Tracey Khan
From the heart of Accra to the shelves of Bloomingdale’s in Lenox Square, Valerie Obaze has quietly redefined what it means to build a luxury skincare brand. For 15 years, the Ghanaian-born entrepreneur who was raised in the U.K has been creating something the global beauty industry had never seen: a fully owned, vertically integrated brand rooted in African ancestral ingredients, backed by a supply chain she controls, and now standing proudly alongside the world’s top beauty brands.
The brand is R&R Luxury Skincare. The woman behind it built every inch herself, in the motherland – Africa.
Valerie Obaze, founder and CEO of R&R Luxury Skincare, crafted the brand from the ground up using ancestral African ingredients. (Photo Courtesy of R&R Luxury Skincare)
“The Atlanta Fashion Week Incubator Program (ATLFW) has been instrumental in helping us think beyond visibility and toward sustainability,” Obaze said. “This moment at Bloomingdale’s reflects not just where we are today, but the foundation we continue to build as we grow responsibly, strategically, and with intention.”
R&R Skincare’s expansion builds on its participation in the ATLFW Incubator Program, designed to nurture emerging brands through mentorship, operational discipline, and access to strategic industry opportunities.
Raised in London and later moving to Lagos, Nigeria, Obaze faced a problem that changed her trajectory. When her first daughter was born, she searched for natural, pure skincare she could trust. What she found were imported European products, none rooted in Africa, despite the continent’s abundance of shea butter, baobab oil, and traditional black soap, ingredients that have nourished African skin for generations.
R&R Luxury Skincare products displayed in the cosmetics aisle at Bloomingdale’s Lenox Square in Atlanta. (Photo Courtesy of R&R Luxury Skincare)
She could not find what she wanted. So she created it. “I realized the purpose was bigger than creating just a beauty product,” Obaze said. “As Europeans have been building legacy brands for centuries, there was room here to create something that can turn into a legacy brand.”
Over 15 years, Obaze built a company that few beauty brands attempt to replicate. R&R owns its entire supply chain. Women’s cooperatives in northern Ghana harvest and process raw shea butter, black soap, and lemongrass essential oil at R&R’s processing center.
Women’s cooperatives in northern Ghana harvest and process shea butter, black soap, and other ingredients for R&R Luxury Skincare. (Photo Courtesy of R&R Luxury Skincare)
Ingredients travel to Accra, where they are formulated and bottled at the company’s own facility before reaching R&R stores in Ghana and Nigeria and its growing presence in the United States and the United Kingdom. No contract manufacturers. No outside laboratories. No outside hands from source to shelf.
“We are our own manufacturer, our own supplier, and our own distribution channel,” Obaze said. “Everything is done in-house.”
The result is immediately tangible. Shea, baobab, and black soap, concentrated and meticulously crafted, deliver results without explanation. The formulations are simple by design, but the efficacy is centuries deep.
“There’s beauty in simplicity,” Obaze said. “Once they experience it, they generally cannot live without it.”
After a decade building loyalty across Nigeria and Ghana, R&R is now expanding globally. European distribution is underway, trunk shows at additional Bloomingdale’s locations are planned, and a wellness center above the flagship store in Accra is already open.
Valerie Obaze saw a gap, filled it, and did it entirely on her own terms.
R&R Luxury Skincare is available at Bloomingdale’s Lenox Square in Atlanta and ships nationwide at www.randrskincare.co.
