Our Story

Discovering the power of palm kernel oil

As a young girl in a remote village in the southern part of Nigeria in 1978, my grandmother was our sole carer and with little cash available, she depended on the land for natural resources and survival.

Most of our resources came from the palm nut. During the palm nut processing season, we would go into the forest to help the elders pick the palm nut fruit. We would then help my grandmother to process the palm fruits, which were boiled and ground in a traditional mortar and pestle to extract the palm kernel.

It was fascinating to see that no part of the palm nut was wasted. Every part of the nut was used in one way or another.

We did not have the luxury of crisps or many of the conventional snacks we have today, so we would often eat the seed of the palm as a healthy snack.

We would sit in groups and crack the nuts using stones to extract the goodness inside, which we ate on its own or sometimes accompanied with ‘garri’ (a cold cassava porridge with water and sugar).

The excess nuts were dry fried or roasted in an open pan under a high heat, producing a beautiful natural roasted aroma.

Growing up this way, using the land for food and supplies was very common in our community, and I believe it is the reason why I have so much respect for nature and the incredible benefits it can offer for our skin, hair and wellbeing.

The many skin benefits of palm kernel oil

As a child, I witnessed natural beauty amongst the women in our village — a beauty that was different to the women who visited the village from the big cities during the festive seasons.

I remember listening to the village women talk about how they make their own body creams and moisturisers. This fascinated me, pricked my interest and made me want to learn more.

As time passed, I leaned further towards natural and organic products. My preference has always been the natural look, and natural products contributed to this, but access to such a precious natural commodity was difficult until cross-border trading and logistics made it easier.

This gave me the boost to source these natural products for my personal use, and later as a mother for use on my children — especially my daughter, who had eczema.

Caring for my daughter and finding solutions to moisturise her skin and alleviate her discomfort reminded me of home: the natural products I had grown up with, and how they had soothed my skin as a child. So I took my roots and my heritage of using the gift of natural resources to maintain and enhance beauty and wellbeing.

Natural skincare with authentic ingredients

The purity of the palm kernel oil, its incredible uses and how it could help so many people is what created Mara MMA Cosmetics.

Authenticity is at the heart of everything we do — our products use natural ingredients, just like all those years ago in that small village in Nigeria.

My experience with natural products and ingredients has set us on this path of discovering natural products to help more people care for their skin and hair without the use of artificial ingredients and additives.

Mara MMA Cosmetics is proud to supply natural and authentic products to help even more people enhance and reconnect with nature.