Saryna Key

Saryna Key is an Israeli professional haircare and body-care brand built around African shea butter. It was founded in 2007 by Mike Sabag, who had earlier created the original Moroccanoil, and developed with Saryna Commodore, an anthropologist who had studied how shea was used in African communities [2]. The company is based in Rishon LeZion and sells chiefly through hair salons and professionals, positioning itself as a shea-focused alternative to conventional salon lines.

The brand remains active, with an operational e-commerce site, a current product range, and an ongoing salon-partner program.

Saryna Key grew out of Mike Sabag's earlier work in professional haircare. According to the company, Sabag created the original Moroccanoil in 2004 — described as the first argan-oil-enriched hair product on the market — before turning his attention to shea butter three years later [2]. The 2004 date belongs to that earlier venture rather than to Saryna Key, whose own founding the brand consistently places in 2007 [2].

The shift came after a South African supplier introduced Sabag to Saryna Commodore, an anthropologist with extensive experience in Africa. The company says she had studied the medicinal properties of shea nuts among indigenous communities and observed how women there used the ingredient for skin and hair. Their collaboration produced the brand, whose name the company translates as "Saryna's key for health and beauty" [2].

Saryna Key describes itself as a luxury hair and body-care company built on the power of African shea butter [2]. Its central ingredient is shea butter, which the brand presents as rich in vitamins A, E and F, essential fatty acids and proteins, and pairs with a natural keratin it says is extracted from shea nuts. Supporting ingredients named by the company include wheat, apple, cotton and silk proteins alongside amino acids.

The range is organised into collections, among them Damage Repair, Curl Control and Color Lasting, with additional styling and body lines. The tagline "Professional Shea Butter Hair Care" reflects the brand's salon orientation.

Distribution is aimed at the trade. The company states that for more than ten years it has made hair care, treatment and styling products "exclusively for professional salons and hair stylists," and it recruits salons as approved B2B partners rather than selling primarily direct to consumers [3].

The brand frames shea butter as an "age-old craft" ingredient and stresses natural formulation. Alongside this, it emphasises ethics and sustainability: the company says its bottles are 100% recyclable and its products cruelty-free, and it describes a fair-trade commitment with suppliers [2]. Saryna Key also states that it employs people with special needs and encourages community involvement among its staff. Its stated ambition is to become a leading manufacturer of cosmetics while maintaining fair business partnerships.

Third-party editorial coverage of the brand is limited, in keeping with its business-to-business focus. In a trade-publication interview with The Tease, Sabag described the venture as "putting pure African Shea Butter into professional hair care for the first time" [4].

Saryna Key is active. Its website operates as a transactional store with a current "NEW" line, and the brand continues to run a salon-partner program. Sabag has since launched a further venture, a formaldehyde-free in-salon smoothing brand called The Crown [4].