It started in a bathroom in Durban, 2022. Founder Anika Dlamini had just burnt her ear with a drugstore curling wand — again — and watched yet another R1,200 expire at the salon before her locs even dried properly.
She wasn't looking to start a business. She was just tired of choosing between tools that were either cheap and damaging, or professional-grade and priced like a car payment.
So she spent six months sourcing, testing, and rejecting. She visited manufacturers in three countries. She burned through a lot of prototypes (and a few more ears). What she found was that salon-quality didn't have to mean salon prices — it just meant knowing where to look and refusing to cut corners on what actually matters.
Aura Beauty launched with 4 products and sold out in 11 days. The community grew before the brand even had proper packaging. Women across South Africa started tagging their glow-ups, their length retention journeys, their first home facials. It became something bigger than tools — it became a ritual.
Today, Aura ships across South Africa with 11 products, 1,000+ glowing customers, and one unwavering promise: you deserve professional results without the professional price tag. Every tool we carry, we'd hand to our own mothers.
