The shea butter that Syra Traore uses in her body balms travels a long way before it reaches a customer in Lyon or Marseille. It starts with women in her parents' village in Mali, who produce it by hand using methods passed down through generations.
Traore imports the raw material to France, where she formulates the balms herself. The rest of her skincare range — shampoos, hair masks, creams — is produced in partnership with certified French laboratories, all built around the same West African ingredient her mother once told her was the only thing she'd ever need for her skin.
That advice turned out to be the seed of a business. Traore, now 36, is the founder of Karité Mix, a natural skincare brand she bootstrapped in 2021 with no outside funding. She financed everything herself, without bank loans. After completing professional cosmetic formulation training, she started making products at home and selling to people around her. As demand grew, she reinvested the profits to work with laboratories and scale production. Today, about 70 percent of the brand's products contain shea butter.
Stuck in Paris
For years, Karité Mix was essentially a Parisian brand. Traore built a loyal customer base through Instagram, TikTok and beauty events in Île-de-France — physical gatherings where small brands rent a stand and sell directly to consumers. Customers who discovered her products in person became regulars who reordered online. But the brand's reach stopped at the edges of the Paris region.
Traore tried listing on other e-commerce platforms to break out of that geographic bubble. She gave up because there were many steps to follow, many requirements to understand, and there was nobody to guide her through it.
A different kind of platform
In August 2025, a friend already selling on Temu, a global e-commerce platform, recommended she try it. The experience, Traore said, was different from the other platforms. At Temu, a dedicated account manager helped her with product listings, compliance requirements and platform setup.
"Without that support [from Temu], I think I would have sold much less, or I might have given up," Traore said. “It quickly became our fastest-growing channel.”
Three months after listing, her monthly sales had nearly doubled. And for the first time, customers are coming from all over France,not just the Paris region.
"Without that support [from Temu], I think I would have sold much less, or I might have given up." - Syra Traore
A family operation with bigger plans
Karité Mix is a family affair. Traore runs the business with her two sisters: one handles social media and the website, the other manages logistics and customer service. The higher revenue from Temu has allowed them to begin hiring additional staff and investing in their operations.
But Traore's plans extend well beyond France. She wants to place the brand in major retailers and eventually open a showroom — a physical space where customers can see, touch and try the products. And she wants to sell in Africa, a market she has been thinking about for some time.
She has already received inquiries from customers in North Africa, but high shipping costs have made it difficult to fill those orders. The possibility of using Temu's logistics infrastructure to reach African markets — the platform is active in several countries across the continent — is something she is now actively exploring.
"I want Karité Mix to be perceived as luxurious in quality but affordable in price," Traore said. Her goal, she added, was always to make quality skincare accessible, particularly for young people just starting their professional lives who do not yet have a skincare routine — or the budget for an expensive one.