Inkuto Organics offers a wide range of sustainable, fair-trade, natural and organic skin and hair care products, African print cloths, & hand-made cotton bags.
Inkuto’s Story:
Inkuto is a Finnish company founded in 2007 and all its products are handmade in Herttoniemi. Edem Agbekey-Taylor, founder and CEO of Inkuto, moved to Finland to continue her studies. Prior to that, she had worked as an automotive engineer in a multinational company. However, life took an unexpected turn: Edem’s newborn daughter suffered from a severe rash, and nothing seemed to help.
Edem’s mother recommended trying traditional African black soap and shea butter, both of which have been used in African countries for centuries as a traditional and natural treatment for various skin conditions. Within a few weeks, her daughter’s skin had healed. This also sparked the interest of the staff at the maternity clinic. They wanted to know more about black soap and shea butter so they could recommend it to other mothers. To meet this need, Inkuto Organics was born, which today offers a wide range of skin and hair care products enriched with organic and African ingredients, which are manufactured and packaged by hand at the Inkuto factory in Herttoniemi, Helsinki. Our aim is to produce cosmetics that are efficient, natural, and which we believe in.
Ethics and community spirit:
The main ingredients of Inkuto products are shea butter and African black soap. The production of these raw materials is done by hand in Ghana, using traditional methods. The principles of fair trade are important values for us. We want to source our raw materials as ethically as possible and therefore we buy them directly from producers we know. The production of shea butter and black soap in Ghana employs e.g. widowed women who would otherwise find it challenging to earn a living. By removing the middleman, we make sure that they are paid fair compensation for their heavy, skilled work.
We believe in empowering people, and we want to give back to the community. That’s why we started a project in 2022 with the aim of helping Ghanaians with disabilities and their families find employment. We will use 10% of our profits to build an accessible production facility in southern Ghana, where people with reduced mobility and their families can make various handicrafts, such as soap, which we will teach them to make after the production facility is completed.
Responsibility and sustainable development:
In the formulation and packaging of the products, efforts have been made to consider sustainable development and the effects on the environment. We do not use anything extra in our products. Only high-quality ingredients that are good for the skin and hair. We prefer certified organic quality raw materials and all our products have been awarded the Finnish key flag mark. Whenever possible, we also use raw materials from Finnish nature, such as birch sap. Utilization of side streams is planned.
Efforts have been made to keep the carbon footprint as small as possible, e.g. by purchasing raw materials directly from the producer in large batches, then shipping rather than flying, and manufacturing all products at our factory in Herttoniemi, in order to minimize emissions due to transportation. We avoid excessive packaging, using as little material as possible, and the packaging we do use is designed to be easily recycled.