In the coming weeks, West Africa’s Ghana and Nigeria will erupt into celebration as “Detty December” kicks off.
The region will see tourism levels spike as many dual-nationals and diasporans return to the continent in time for the season, which lasts from mid-December to mid-January and spans daily events from beach parties that last until sunrise to music festivals featuring international artists. The festivities span far and wide, reaching Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya and South Africa.
This season, a similar set of events will unfold, as a wave of big and small global beauty labels — like YSL Beauty from France, Danessa Myricks from the US and Sliq from the UK — will travel to West Africa to hold marketing events, while local beauty brands offer up retail spaces, hold joint marketing activations and share client lists.
An early mover was US skincare label Topicals. Back in December 2023, the indie skincare brand founded by Olamide Olowe took a handful of influencers on a press trip to Accra, Ghana’s capital, to experience Detty December. The marketing activation, which featured a mix of club nights, music festivals and sightseeing around the city, sent the internet into a frenzy; Olowe said the trip helped the brand’s signature eye mask maintain its place as the number one eye product at Sephora for the last 18 months. It offered a much-welcome twist on influencer trips, whilst also placing culture and community at the centre of its marketing strategy.
“We have to rewrite [the rules of the beauty industry] with our community in mind; if not our brands will cease to exist,” said Olowe.
While tourists and African consumers get to interact with some of their favourite international brands on home soil, a long-term distribution model is needed to boost sales beyond the festive period.
“If you are a brand that is designing products that work better on people of colour, the entire globe should be your customer base,” said Olowe, who added the brand is “really building financial roots across the diaspora, not only when people come home during Detty December.”
Detty December’s Gold Rush
Starting in mid-December and stretching until mid-January, Detty December is a month-long celebration. The name was coined by Nigerian musician Mr Eazi, who released a song titled “Detty Yasef” in 2017 and held a concert in Lagos the following year promoted with the hashtag Detty December; it has since become synonymous with the festive season. The word “Detty” is Pidgin, a local language used in West Africa, and means to celebrate and have fun.
But not every event is centred around partying; some brands host networking dinners in buzzy high-end restaurants or 10k runs around the city. The festive season is also a time to reconnect with family.
“December — for a lot of folks like me and the rest of our team — is a time where we’re able to go home,” said Manacoro Mbaye, the Senegalese co-founder of London-based textured hair care brand Sliq. As the brand is rooted in heritage, culture and identity, Mbaye believes it was a necessary step to expand the business into Africa, particularly to give back to the market that produces a number of their ingredients. In Senegal, Sliq plans on entering the market through partnerships with stylists and beauty salons.
After recently launching at Nigerian retailer Beauty Hut Africa, Danessa Myricks is partnering with celebrity makeup artist Chelsea Uchenna to host a masterclass that is “Detty December-proof,” Uchenna said in a recent TikTok video. YSL Beauty is returning to Lagos to host its annual Live in Lagos party, featuring popular DJs and live performances.
For African brands and retailers, it’s a welcome influx of sales. “A lot of businesses are looking forward to that huge increase in dollar-denominated currencies,” said Chika Uwazie, a tech entrepreneur and co-host of the Afropolitan podcast, noting that consumers who are coming from markets like Europe and the US, and earn in foreign currency, are valuable to local businesses. “They have dollars, and they are ready [and] open to spending,” she said.
Africa’s tourism is growing rapidly. In the first half of 2025, the region recorded the strongest growth in global tourism, up 12 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the United Nations Tourism. Ghana and Nigeria are two nations benefitting from an uptick in diaspora tourism, particularly during the festive season.
What It Takes to Win the Season
Many international indie brands that have limited experience in the African market are leaning on local players to help them get it right. “Every year, Detty December brings thousands of diaspora entrepreneurs back to Nigeria, and while they typically spend heavily during this period, they rarely have structured opportunities to also earn or showcase their work,” said Adeola Adeyemi, the founder and chief executive of Nigerian cosmetics label Beauty by Ad.
There’s a unique opportunity for brands to build visibility with both local and diaspora consumers, and establish a footprint in West Africa during the busiest retail period of the year, Adeyemi added. This festive season, Beauty by Ad will run a series of pop-up events, designed exclusively for diaspora beauty, fashion and lifestyle brands, a move Adeyemi believes will help test the Nigerian beauty market without incurring huge financial costs.
While the festive season is exciting for both consumers and brands alike, Olowe stresses the importance of giving back to the local community. “It has to be a cross-cultural exchange,” she said, adding that brands should not extract resources or profit off of the local community without giving back and investing in the region. Topicals has donated to a girls’ school in Accra, Ghana, a creative hub in Lagos and a mental health organisation in Bermuda, where it held an influencer brand trip in 2023.
This year, Topicals will not hold its usual marketing events in Lagos or Accra. Instead, the beauty brand is sending select Topical consumers to West Africa so they can experience Detty December for themselves. The move is also part of its Faded Fridays campaign this December, which will see the company pay for flights to different locations, including Brazil and Thailand.
Coming to Africa and Staying There
Nigeria’s beauty market is shifting, and it’s luring international brands to the sub-region, with several brands exploring retail opportunities on the continent. Topicals was one of the first indie Western brands to establish its retail footprint in West Africa. “We are changing the narrative of what it means to participate in the diaspora, particularly in West Africa, financially,” said Olowe. “People are seeing the community members, the citizens of the different West African countries, as real buyers.”
Investing in culture pays dividends, both in Western markets and the diaspora, said Abiola Babarinde, head of brand marketing at Topicals. Topicals has seen significant commercial growth, she said, as it’s opened its West African sales channel and evolved its brand trip strategy.
Growing demand is forcing brands into new territory. Sliq is building its retail footprint across Africa, starting with Nigeria. The four-year-old brand is partnering with Beauty Hut Africa to sell its products in the country after receiving a number of requests from consumers on the continent.
“People are waking up to the fact that [Africa] is an incredibly slept-on market,” said Mbaye. “Beauty is very instrumental to a lot of African societies. … Every activation, every endeavour is a learning opportunity.”
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