I am not a beauty industry outsider who stumbled into skincare. I am a Certified Holistic Health and Wellness Coach, a Certified Herbal Skincare Formulator, a Certified Menstrual Cycle Care Practitioner, and a Crystal and Chakra Healer. I have spent over a decade studying what plants can do for the human body. And I built Dame Body from the ground up, starting in 2012, because I needed something that did not exist yet.
I needed skincare that was honest. Plant-based. Made with intention. Made fresh. Made for women who actually want to glow, not just cover up what is underneath.
THE FARM STORY
In 2021 I did something most people thought was wild. I packed up my life in Los Angeles and moved to a farm in rural West Alabama. And honestly? It was the best decision I ever made for myself, and for Dame Body.
Out here, I am surrounded by land. I garden. I raise chickens. I grow and harvest botanicals. I have rediscovered what it means to be connected to where your ingredients actually come from. Every product I make carries that energy. Farm to skin is not just a tagline at Dame Body. It is a way of life.
THE MADE-TO-ORDER PROMISE
Every single Dame Body product is made to order. That means when you place your order, I make it. Fresh. Just for you. No warehouse. No sitting on a shelf for months. No mystery about when it was made or what went into it.
- That is not just a quality standard. It is a statement about how I feel about the women who trust me with their skin.
MY CERTIFICATIONS AND CREDENTIALS
- Certified Holistic Health and Wellness Coach
- Certified Herbal Skincare Formulator
- Certified Menstrual Cycle Care Practitioner
- Certified Crystal and Chakra Healer
- Founder, Dame Body (est. 2012)
13+ years of botanical skincare formulation
PRESS AND FEATURES
Dame Body in the Press
Bust Magazine | Mille Magazine | LA Weekly | ABC 7 News | AOL Holistic Homes Docuseries
THE DAME GLOWING SKIN METHOD
Everything I do at Dame Body is built around one framework that has helped hundreds of women transform how they show up in their skin. I call it the Dame Glowing Skin Method.
Cleanse. Exfoliate. Tone. Treat. Moisturize. Seal.
It is not complicated. It is consistent. And when you follow it with products that were made fresh, just for your skin, the results speak for themselves.
MY MISSION
"I believe every woman has a radiant glow that is already hers. Sometimes she just needs the right plants, the right ritual, and someone who actually gives a damn about what goes on her skin. That is why I do this."
With love and roots,
Dame Sannae Hopson
Founder, Dame Body | West Alabama
When L.A. native Sannae Hopson made the decision to stop coloring and heat-straightening her hair in her mid-20s, it was just the first step in her natural beauty journey. “I decided to start taking better care of myself—my hair, skin, what I eat, what I do,” says the self-proclaimed “nerd” who became obsessed with reading product labels and researching ingredients. “I was making all these changes, but it was like, ‘Wait a minute, I still have dry skin!’” she says. “The more I learned about all these ingredients in the stuff I was using, it was like, ‘Holy fuck! None of this is actually intended to do the things these products say they do.”
Hopson found that many of the products she was using were filled with ingredients that, at best, have no benefit, and at worst, can irritate skin, cause dryness, or, with long-term use, raise more serious health concerns. So in 2012, she founded Dame Body Butters and Scrubs, creating a line of products that uses active natural ingredients—like shea, mango, and cocoa butters; avocado and sea buckthorn oils; essential oils—and no fillers. The name of her business was just as intentional: “I love the language of old mobster movies. The dame was always the bad bitch everyone wanted but couldn’t be with,” she says. In 2014, Hopson quit her corporate job to focus on her line—which now includes everything from soap, scrubs, and butters to face wash, serum, and herbal bath bags.
One of the keys to Dame’s success is Hopson’s commitment to listening to her customers’ feedback and adjusting her products, and marketing approach, accordingly. “At first, I wanted to talk to people about ingredients all the time,” she says. “Here I was screaming about parabens killing us and all people wanted to know was what [a product] smelled like.” For the record, they all smell fantastic, with scents like jasmine, rose, eucalyptus, and orange blossom. For Hopson, Dame is about connecting with women on a level deeper than skincare. “As women, we have a very love/hate relationship with our bodies. We only love them when they look the way we want them to look or do what we want them to do,” says Hopson, who often asks her customers,
“How do you show your body love?”
To learn more about Dame Sannae, read our article published by Bust Magazine
By Sabrina Ford
Photographed by Lauren Crew
This piece originally appeared in the January/February 2019 print edition of BUST Magazine.
