FOUR INGREDIENTS | BIODEGRADABLE | SUPERIOR FACE HYDRATION
Launched on International Women's Day 2026.
Sold out at first appearance.
Each batch is hand-crafted in Oakland, California, U.S.A. (Confederated Villages of Lisjan and the territory of Huichin)
ORIGIN STORY: NILOTICA SURF CREAM
I've been surfing for 19 years. After a decade, the damage was visible — my face was chronically dehydrated and my skin was discolored from the sun. I tried everything from department store staples like Clinique and Kiehl's to high-end organic lines from my local, progressive grocery stores. Nothing worked.
The damage became most prominent while I was in Morocco. Surfing regularly under the strong African sun, I developed splotchy patches across my cheeks, and my skin felt like leather. While traveling up through France and Switzerland, I asked pharmacists for their most hydrating formulas. All I found were creams formulated in labs, packaged in plastic, and full of ingredients I couldn't name that didn’t really solve my issue.
Back home, I'd heard about Nilotica shea butter — a superior form of shea butter cultivated by women's cooperatives and only grown in parts of East Africa. I decided to try formulating a face cream with this ingredient. It worked. Friends with the same chronic dry skin issues tried it. It worked for them too. I soft-launched a small batch of cream on International Women's Day at a pop-up in Oakland. They sold out.
Nilotica Surf Cream is the only face cream in my 19 years of surfing that has actually hydrated my skin. It's made from the philosophy that the simplest formulas work best — formulas where you can name every ingredient, know exactly where it comes from, and create real economic opportunity for women in the process.
The damage became most prominent while I was in Morocco. Surfing regularly under the strong African sun, I developed splotchy patches across my cheeks, and my skin felt like leather. While traveling up through France and Switzerland, I asked pharmacists for their most hydrating formulas. All I found were creams formulated in labs, packaged in plastic, and full of ingredients I couldn't name that didn’t really solve my issue.
Back home, I'd heard about Nilotica shea butter — a superior form of shea butter cultivated by women's cooperatives and only grown in parts of East Africa. I decided to try formulating a face cream with this ingredient. It worked. Friends with the same chronic dry skin issues tried it. It worked for them too. I soft-launched a small batch of cream on International Women's Day at a pop-up in Oakland. They sold out.
Nilotica Surf Cream is the only face cream in my 19 years of surfing that has actually hydrated my skin. It's made from the philosophy that the simplest formulas work best — formulas where you can name every ingredient, know exactly where it comes from, and create real economic opportunity for women in the process.