Luvha centred on the business of scents

As a qualified cosmetologist, Lutendo Malambe was not satisfied with just making everyone look good, she wanted people to smell good.

That was in 2018.

Today, the 38-year-old from Centurion, Gauteng toils in her informal home laboratory experimenting with different scents for fragrances and candles to be sold to the public.

Malambe’s business Luvha Designer Scents is self-funded.

 “The journey started when I wanted a fragrance for myself. Coming from a cosmetology background, I loved things that smelt good so I decided to mix certain things to get a unique smell,” she told Vuk’uzenzele.

A cosmetologist is a person who provides cosmetic treatments to the hair, skin, and nails.

While she acknowledges that her journey has not been easy, she remains optimistic.

“There has been a slight growth. I would love for [the business] to grow rapidly but every year I see progress in terms of more clients and sales.

“This year we are looking at getting resellers and salespeople in all the provinces because we get enquiries from customers around the country.”

She said it was critical to have salespeople in different areas so that customers can easily sample her products.

“Seeing that it’s a fragrance, it becomes quite challenging when someone makes an order but they are not exactly sure how it smells.”

Malambe says Luvha has an online shop where products were sold and also supplies its products to beauty salons in Centurion.

The business has two directors who are its employees. Luvha does at times rope in temporary workers.

Malambe’s ultimate goal for the business is to one day have a factory.

This would enable Luvha Designer Scents to produce large quantities for major retailers.

She explained that the goal was to get bigger space for manufacturing her products which would allow her to take big orders.