A few years ago, I was trying to find something (anything) that would actually help my son's skin. His skin barrier was struggling. I bought products that claimed to be gentle, nourishing, made for sensitive skin. None of them lasted. None of them really worked.

So I started researching. And the more I read, the more I realised: the gap wasn't in my son's skin. It was in the products. Most body care formulas simply aren't designed for melanin-rich skin for how it loses moisture, how its barrier functions, what it actually needs to stay soft and hydrated. We'd been handed products made for someone else, adjusted slightly, and told they'd work.

The deeper I went, the more I recognised myself in that research. I'd spent my whole adult life assuming that dry skin, that ashy feeling, that moisturiser wearing off within the hour was just something you put up with. It wasn't. It was a formulation problem. And no one had solved it for us.

So I built something that did.

What I didn't expect was to find that the knowledge already existed. My great grandmother Uká made medicines and creams for her community in Owo, Nigeria. She understood what skin needed long before the beauty industry decided to pay attention. I named this brand after her — not just because I loved her name, but because what she knew and what I was trying to build turned out to be the same thing.

Uká Skin starts with one body butter anhydrous, lipid-rich, and formulated from the ground up with melanin-rich skin at the centre. Not as a variation. Not as a footnote. As the whole point. It's designed to support the skin barrier, seal in moisture that actually lasts, and feel like something your skin genuinely wants to absorb.

I believe skincare should feel intentional, not excessive. Grounding, not complicated. And I believe people with deeper skin tones deserve to reach for a product and know without hoping or wondering that it was made with them in mind.

This is the beginning. More rituals will follow. But everything that comes from Uká Skin will be built the same way this first one was, with care, with research, and with you at the centre.

Hanah, Founder of Uká Skin