Six things to know before you buy Amanda du-Pont's new skincare range

With small indie beauty brands popping up everywhere and more and more celebrities launching consumer-opinion-driven product lines, it’s no surprise that yet another local A-lister has announced they’re going into the beauty business.

However, Swazi-born, SA-based actress Amanda du-Pont’s new skincare range is not your average celebrity-founded beauty brand: the products are not only beautiful to look at but have promising formulations too.

Here are six things to know about it:

1. The brand is called lelive and it's all about inclusivity 

The name lelive (pronounced "leh-lee-veh") was inspired by Amanda's unofficial Swazi name meaning "of the nation or world".

As such, it’s fitting that African relevance and inclusivity are big factors for the unisex brand, which caters to all skin types and skin tones.

As lelive skincare products were developed with input from a largely South African audience, they address common African skin concerns such as dryness, hyperpigmentation and acne.

2. There are seven products in the range — and they're reasonably priced 

The full lelive skincare range includes two cleansers, a brightening serum, an exfoliator and three moisturisers.

All of these products are affordably priced (prices range from R259 to R329) and come in decent sizes — the cleaners are 200ml — so they’ll last you for a while. You can also take advantage of bundle promotions such as buying the seven-piece collection for R1,643, which amounts to a 20% discount.

3. The formulations are a mix of local and global influences

With a mindset that “celebrates local but thinks global”, lelive not only used a combination of a social media community and expert formulators to develop their skincare products, but also took influences from K-Beauty (Korean beauty).

The formulations include both local ingredients (think aloe, shea, marula and rooibos) as well as those found in globally-renowned skincare brands such as niacinamide, hyaluronic acid and vitamin C.

4. Some of the products have more than one use

There is nothing better than a product that gives you more bang for your buck by doing double duty. We love how the multipurpose formulations of some of lelive’s products help to expand the range and give you added benefits depending on how you use them.

The lelive Save Our Skin (SOS) Peach + Aloe AHA/BHA Exfoliator, for instance, can be used as a night-time resurfacing treatment to refine texture, combat hyperpigmentation and target blemishes. It can also double up as a spot treatment to quickly deal with acne redness and calm down inflammation.

The lelive du-Pont Shea Butter Lush Moisturiser can be used as a rich, hydration-boosting moisturiser for dry skin in winter, but it also doubles up as an overnight, leave-on mask if you’re in need of a more intensive hydration fix.

5. It's an eco-conscious brand

We love an eco-conscious brand and lelive’s skincare products have the ethos of “good for you, good for the planet” at their core with the use of ingredients that are 95% natural and up to 5% high quality plant-identical actives.

The sleek, minimalistic packaging not only looks good, but is made mostly from aluminium due to its recyclability. The use of plastic has been avoided wherever possible.

Did we mention that the range is also vegan, cruelty-free, dermatologist-tested and reef safe?

6. Pre-orders are limited to the first 1,000 customers

Pre-orders for lelive skincare products opened on Thursday and du-Pont announced on Instagram that they're limited to the first 1,000 customers.

You can purchase them online at leliveafrica.com.