Welcome
WHO IS SHE?
Hey, I'm Valerie Obaze, a beauty entrepreneur, mother, wife and philanthropist, who founded the award-winning luxury skincare brand R&R in 2010, following the birth of my first daughter. My inspiration to create the brand arose from the life changing experience of motherhood and a deep desire to nurture and nourish both my daughter's and my own skin with the purest natural beauty products. Being a lover of nature and a beauty enthusiast with a natural affinity for aesthetics, I was drawn to seek the best products made with the most potent ingredients that nature could offer. My discontent in not finding what I so desired, started a journey of discovery that led me back to one of nature’s purest and richest ingredients, Shea, which became the core of my first beauty formulation. Today R&R offers a full range of luxury beauty products and home fragrances formulated with Shea butter and other natural ingredients, using the most meticulous production methods.
Born in London to Ghanaian parents, I was created with an ingrained entrepreneurial, independent and leadership spirit, shaped by my unrelenting pursuit of excellence from my first job at the age of 14 years while in secondary school, to date. After graduating from university with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications, Culture and Media from Coventry University; where I was also the President of the Coventry University African/Caribbean Society, I built a successful Public Relations career in the United Kingdom and beyond, culminating in the launch of my own agency in 2008.
In addition to leading my brand R&R to continuous growth, I'm also an active board director for three foundations of which I'm a founding member of two and sit on the board of one, My Sister’s Keeper Ghana, The Women of the Savannah Development Project (WSDP) and Outpouring to the Nations (OTTN) respectively. I also co-created the Mumpreneurs Network Nigeria in 2015 to support my fellow working mothers in balancing family life while becoming a successful business woman and more recently co-founded The Afristyle Lounge Collective in December 2019 to promote the extraordinary fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands coming out of the African Continent.
I'm grateful to be married to my best friend and high school sweetheart and we have three beautiful children together. I currently live in Accra, Ghana from where I oversee my ever-expanding international business organisation.
VALERIE OBAZE R&R LUXURY GHANA ENTREPRENEUR
INTERVIEWS
"African Founders Magazine"
"African Founders Magazine"
"African Founders Magazine"
The African beauty industry has experienced tremendous growth in the past three years. Huge expansion of brands and export of products has been recorded.
Our cover girl Valerie who has been a significant part of this growth shared how she has sustained and managed her brand over the years during our interview with her in page 32 as she has recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of her Business : R&R Luxury.
"Spell Magazine"
"African Founders Magazine"
"African Founders Magazine"
Spell meets Valerie Obaze, the CEO and Founder of R&R Luxury, the hottest new skincare brand that’s bringing Africa’s best-kept beauty secret to the masses. Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about shea butter…
"Women's Health" Magazine
"African Founders Magazine"
R&R Chapter Ten - The Sustainable Era
Hailed as a skincare trailblazer, beauty founder Valerie Obaze knows a thing a two about a cracking complexion.
Having set up her brand ten years ago, R&R luxury is founded on the philosophy of transforming one of nature’s best-loved ingredients –Shea butter – into the most enriching beauty products. FYI her shea sugar scrub will make your skin gleam like nobody's business.
R&R Chapter Ten - The Sustainable Era
R&R Chapter Ten - The Sustainable Era
R&R Chapter Ten - The Sustainable Era
Learn more about R&R Luxury in this short 6 minute documentary. It tells you the genesis of the brand, the evolution and R&R's plans for the future.
Directed by: Nana Kwasi Wiafe cinematography: David Boanuh 2nd D.O.P: Eroc Boama Production: Very Ghanaian and Beautiful Stories Projects Wardrobe: Christie Brown and Afrodesiac Worldwide
"The Cover" Magazine
R&R Chapter Ten - The Sustainable Era
"The Cover" Magazine
"In this week’s interview, Mrs
Obaze shares her reasons for
starting R&R Luxury and gives
insight on the importance of
having a local supply chain and
how businesses can prepare for
what is to come.
Be Your Own UK
R&R Chapter Ten - The Sustainable Era
"The Cover" Magazine
#IWILLUSEMYVOICE
In light of the recent events and in solidarity with the black Lives Matter Movement. Be Your Own UK asked me and a host of other black female entrepreneurs to write a heartfelt letter, shedding a little more light on our personal journeys throughout career and business building
Beauty in Town Interview
BBC - Smart Money Interview
BBC - Smart Money Interview
I had so much fun chatting with the ladies of Beauty in Town on their pink sofa. check out Sacha and Akai grilling me on my brand and how it came to be
BBC - Smart Money Interview
BBC - Smart Money Interview
BBC - Smart Money Interview
Ghana's Female Entrepreneurs - Check out the interview I did with the BBC late 2019 on being a female entrepreneur in the male dominated manufacturing and retail space in Africa.
Beauty & The Dirt Interview
BBC - Smart Money Interview
Beauty & The Dirt Interview
"There’s a new Ghanaian brand which combines both ultra-luxurious indigenous ingredients and ethical and clean credentials."
Check out this interview I did with UK Beauty blog, Beauty and the Dirt. Talking all things R&R Luxury.
ig live & Podcast features
Women About Business
R&R Luxury x HIBS Africa
R&R Luxury x HIBS Africa
Award winning beauty entrepreneur, Valerie Obaze (@valerieoba), founder of R&R Luxury, hailed as an ‘African skincare trailblazer’, is the special guest of today’s show. Not only is she a true inspiration to black women in business, but Obaze also shows how it can be done for the up-and-coming women in future, women already in business o
Award winning beauty entrepreneur, Valerie Obaze (@valerieoba), founder of R&R Luxury, hailed as an ‘African skincare trailblazer’, is the special guest of today’s show. Not only is she a true inspiration to black women in business, but Obaze also shows how it can be done for the up-and-coming women in future, women already in business or anyone with an interest to grow in their professional lives.
Alongside MS.ABA and Kimberley Ofori, Obaze discusses how one should spread their wings and fly. Starting only as a small business with one product, R&R Luxury has become an international success operating in Ghana, Nigeria & England.
Obaze, has truly shown how one can flip passion into international success and make even more money in times of a pandemic. Obaze highlights the importance of having a team that can all bring something to the table, the right links, connections, mentors, and above all the faith you have in yourself. Join the ladies as they discuss business, timing & opportunity, African market and the bigger story.
R&R Luxury x HIBS Africa
R&R Luxury x HIBS Africa
R&R Luxury x HIBS Africa
Let the countdown to @randrluxury at @hibsafrica begin!!
I hate watching myself on camera, but whatever...
R&R Luxury x HIBS Africa
R&R Luxury x HIBS Africa
R&R - Chapter Ten Film Trailer
Blk Oasis in conversation with Dr. Kristian Edwards of @blkandgrn (PT 1)
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R&R - Chapter Ten Film Trailer
EP65. What Africa can teach the world about green beauty
R&R - Chapter Ten Film Trailer
As we celebrate the tenth anniversary of @randrluxury, it was important to tell our story; Why we began and where we are heading.
So humbled to have worked with some of Africa’s finest creatives on this and excited to share the full short docu-film coming soon.
Directed by: @nana.kwasi.wiafe
cinematography: @gospellifestyle
2nd D.O.P: @bo
As we celebrate the tenth anniversary of @randrluxury, it was important to tell our story; Why we began and where we are heading.
So humbled to have worked with some of Africa’s finest creatives on this and excited to share the full short docu-film coming soon.
Directed by: @nana.kwasi.wiafe
cinematography: @gospellifestyle
2nd D.O.P: @boama_official
production: @veryghanaian
@beautifulstories.projects
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Back to School
EP65. What Africa can teach the world about green beauty
EP65. What Africa can teach the world about green beauty
2 weeks ago today, I was fortunate enough to have the privilege of spending one week attending a business Bootcamp at the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (aka MIT).
Besides learning and networking, the opportunity to reflect on my business journey to date, and get the framework for propelling it into the future was an awes
2 weeks ago today, I was fortunate enough to have the privilege of spending one week attending a business Bootcamp at the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (aka MIT).
Besides learning and networking, the opportunity to reflect on my business journey to date, and get the framework for propelling it into the future was an awesome takeaway. Thank you @prof_loredana founder of @nail_it_scale_it_sail_it framework , #ChrisYeh co-author of @blitzscaling and the rest of the @mitbootcamps faculty for an unforgettable
EP65. What Africa can teach the world about green beauty
EP65. What Africa can teach the world about green beauty
EP65. What Africa can teach the world about green beauty
The story of green beauty in Africa is simply not shouted about. The natural cosmetics' world is familiar with African ingredients in their raw state, such as that mainstay of anhydrous formulations shea butter or newer oils on the market such as baobab and moringa.
But what do we know about African green beauty entrepreneurs who view the
The story of green beauty in Africa is simply not shouted about. The natural cosmetics' world is familiar with African ingredients in their raw state, such as that mainstay of anhydrous formulations shea butter or newer oils on the market such as baobab and moringa.
But what do we know about African green beauty entrepreneurs who view their native ingredients as an integral part of their cultural heritage and who are pioneering beauty brands within their continent?
They are not only working with the raw natural ingredients their forebears did, but they are also creating innovative, high-performance cosmetics from their native, plant-based resources.
The world just doesn't hear much about how the African green beauty industry is growing rapidly, creating and responding to demand for quality and high-performance cosmetic products. It deserves recognition as a rich, diverse and valuable economic sector not just as a raw ingredients' supplier.
Today, for the most part, the rest of the world has little exchange with the African beauty industry apart from its commodities. But we hope this will change, and soon.
To find out more about the green beauty sector in Africa, we talked to two amazing women pioneers of green beauty within Africa.
Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier hosted a panel discussion with Nancy Ndukwe-Ositelu, Executive Director of BeautyFestAfrica, the first and largest learning conference for pan-African beauty business professionals within Africa and the diaspora; and Valerie Obaze, beauty entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded the award-winning skincare brand R&R Luxury in 2010, following the birth of her first daughter.
The two guests explain the main challenges facing beautypreneurs across the continent and about some solutions that the international cosmetics and business world can help with. Importantly, we explore what green beauty in Africa can teach the global beauty and cosmetics world.