Cynthia Thanda

From a small-town girl who grew up in Orapa to now a final year law student, Karabo Angela Bokwe is a creative hardworking 21-year-old who has revolutionized people’s thoughts with her Freagra lip-gloss.

When she was 8 years old, Karabo knew that her purpose was in alignment with being a creative but she didn’t know it would be a lip-gloss business.

What inspired the young, tenacious lady to do lip-gloss was a severe case of cold sores. She stopped using lip-gloss when she was 12 years old because her lips would get extremely painful despite any lip-gloss she used.

She decided to learn how to make her own and how she could make it medicinal for people with different lip conditions. She created the perfect formula for blisters, sores, dry and sensitive lips.

Karabo works with three people; her managing director Kabo Ratshee, her financial advisor Emmanuel Mudongo and her shipping agent Shadrack Patauli.

She sources her raw materials and ingredients depending on their reviews. Her tubes, pigments and base come from different continents. She makes and packages the lip-gloss.

The challenges she has faced include shipping costs and time. She uses TKB for her pigments and they can take up to two months for them to arrive.

However, to cut the costs and the shipping time as well as to cater for her being a student she moved from Ali Express to Ali Baba.

“Marketing in Botswana is difficult because for your business to work is for you to trend on Facebook and get people talking.

“Nonetheless I think the solution for that is to do the groundwork, go around knocking on doors and convince people to be interested in your products. Sponsor your products on adverts and pages”, Karabo advised.

Her biggest achievements were when she made it through her second year of law studies and the positive response she got from her first lip gloss launch.

Her latest achievement is the Freagra Fragrances featuring her two scents; Reign for men and Dynasty for women.

People can have access to her products by contacting her on all her social media platforms.