About · Who is Dr. Kita?
dó·kítà
/DOH-kee-tah/(noun)
Physician; Healer
The everyday word for doctor across much of West Africa.
Dr. Kita represents more than a person.
The name comes from dókítà, the word for doctor in Nigerian Pidgin and much of West Africa. Beyond the letters in front of one's name, a dókítà is the person who you go to when something is wrong and you want the truth about it. A healer's first job is to see clearly: what is a wound versus what is simply the way a body is made, and never to confuse the two. Dr. Kita is that idea, and the circle of people who practice it here.
How it started
Why we exist
Somewhere along the way, many of us have been told that our skin would be more beautiful if it were a few shades lighter. Some of us believed it long enough to try. Whole industries were built on that wish, and many of them have left scars worse than the ones we've tried to hide.
We started Dr. Kita for a different reason. Not because dark skin needs changing, but because it has been under-cared for. Under-studied, under-photographed, under-treated. The marks it carries were treated as vanity, or as something to bleach away, when the real question was always simpler. How do we best care for our skin?
That question is our mission.
“All I wanted was to fix it without doing more damage.”
What we believe
Heal, then correct. In that order, every time.
- 01
Comfort first.
If it stings, it isn't working. Deeper skin answers irritation with pigment, so gentleness is the method, not a compromise. Correction that costs comfort just starts the next mark.
- 02
A mark is a mark. Your tone is not one.
We work on dark marks and texture. We will never sell you a product to change the color of your skin.
- 03
Made for this skin.
Formulated for melanin-rich skin and tested on the skin it's made for, in our own facility in California.
- 04
Nothing hidden.
Key actives printed with their concentrations. Every product's cautions shown before you buy. Every ingredient traced to where it comes from. And when we don't know, we say so.
How we test
Most skincare research was done on light skin; in the standard dermatology textbooks, fewer than one picture in twenty shows skin like yours. We test on the skin these products are made for, and we publish what we find, including the parts still in progress.
Where it comes from
Our ingredients come through a network of suppliers our father built over twenty years of making products himself, and we hold new ones to the same standard.
Where it's made
Formulated and manufactured in our own facility in California, under cGMP and ISO 22716. We know every batch because we made it.
What we promise you
- We will never sell you a product to change the color of your skin.
- We will publish the concentrations of our key actives, so you can compare us to anyone.
- We will put a product's cautions where you can see them, before you buy it.
- We will give you timelines that are true, even when they're long.
- We will say what we don't know.