Nana Amobi Chambers and Kokwe Amegavie Are Changing the Face of African Beauty

For years, the phrase “nude manicure” came with a silent asterisk. In the global beauty vocabulary, “nude” meant someone else’s skin tone—a pale pink or a soft beige that washed out or looked stark against darker complexions. But if you walk into top-tier beauty spaces from Accra to Lagos today, that narrative is completely dissolving.

The architects of this shift? Nana Amobi Chambers and Kokwe Amegavie.

Friends for 30 years and business partners for over a decade, this powerhouse duo is rewriting the global beauty playbook. What started as an obsessive commitment to craft at their acclaimed Accra salon, Polish’d Beauty Bar, has evolved into Rooted.—a clean, inclusive nail and body care brand that is quickly becoming one of Africa’s most formidable beauty exports.

We started this brand to honor where we come from while creating something the world could embrace.

Nana Amobi Chambers

Most product launches are born in marketing boardrooms, but Rooted. was forged on the salon floor. Over a ten-year period at Polish’d, Nana and Kokwe had front-row seats to the specific gaps global beauty conglomerates were ignoring. They observed which formulas damaged natural nails, which ingredients triggered sensitivities, and how difficult it was for dark and deep complexions to find a true, complementary nude.

Instead of waiting for international brands to pivot, they turned their salon into a real-time laboratory. They gathered market intelligence from thousands of clients, translating ancestral care traditions and technical service knowledge into proprietary formulations.

When Rooted officially debuted in early 2026, it didn’t just step into the market—it set a new standard. The debut collection features six meticulously designed shades of nude builder gels with names like Purpose, Resilience, and Faith.

But they didn’t stop at color matching. Nana and Kokwe introduced critical technical innovations to the African market:

• HEMA-Free and TPO-Free Formulas: Eliminating common harsh allergens to prioritize nail health over simple cosmetic finishes.
• The SPF 50 Hand Cream: A brilliant masterstroke of preventative care designed to protect hands from the UV rays used during gel curation.
• Intentional Rituals: Transforming a routine manicure into a mindful self-care practice.

While many emerging African brands look immediately toward Western capitals for validation, Chambers and Amegavie chose a more intentional, pan-African route. Following an explosive reception in Ghana, they strategically chose Lagos, Nigeria as their first export market in March 2026.

The move was a masterclass in regional expansion. Within weeks of their Lagos launch, Rooted. secured shelf space in major beauty hubs like Beauty Hut Africa and premium nail studios across Lagos and Abuja. It proved a vital thesis: African beauty brands don’t need external permission to build empires; they need regional synergy.

The rest of the world is already paying attention. On March 6, 2026—coincidentally Ghana’s Independence Day—the brand received a massive global nod, featured by Allure magazine as one of the best Black-owned skincare brands in the world. Features in Marie Claire Nigeria and BellaNaija Style quickly followed.

Beyond the bottles of gel and cuticle serums lies the true engine of the brand: a 30-year friendship. In an industry where partnerships frequently fracture under the weight of scaling, Nana and Kokwe lean into their bond as a competitive advantage. Their synergy balances visionary dreaming with disciplined execution, anchored by an unwavering rule of radical honesty and mutual respect.

Nana Amobi Chambers and Kokwe Amegavie are living proof that Africa’s most valuable exports will no longer just be raw materials dug from the earth. They will be finished, sophisticated luxury products, formulated from raw experience, branded with absolute confidence, and sold to the world on entirely African terms.