Our story begins with a young African woman who dared to dream.

A woman who wanted to share her passion for the people, natural beauty and healing rituals of her home continent. To create a brand that could change her life and others’ for the better. So she did.

In 2010, Zeze Oriaikhi-Sao launched Malée – a luxury fragrance, bath and body care range inspired by generations of African healing rituals and time-honoured beauty traditions.

This ancient wisdom advocated the powerful healing properties of 100% pure plant-based ingredients sourced from nature itself. These traditions live on in Malée, with their efficacy proven by modern science.

Meet Our Founder

“My heritage is at the heart of Malée”

A passionate entrepreneur with a love for her role as founder of one of South Africa’s successful niche beauty brands. Zeze captures the essence of wanderlust Africa in every jar, bottle or pump of Malée’s fragrance and body care products, Born in the middle of the global economic crisis in 2009. Thoroughly researched and launched with a leap of faith, Zeze is focused on turning her world class range into a global ‘cult’ brand.

Malée [Mah-lay] is named after the founder’s great grandmother. It’s a term of endearment used for a gracious learned woman in Bini, the language spoken by a tribe in the Edo Kingdom of Nigeria.