6 Black-Owned Beauty Brands To Try This Black History Month And Love All Year Round
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Black History Month often serves as a reminder to support Black-owned businesses. However, every month of the year is always a great time to purchase from these companies, especially with how much Black entrepreneurs, particularly Black women, contribute to the beauty and wellness industry.
According to reports by Nielsen, Black Americans account for about 90% of ethnic hair and beauty sales. When it comes to bath and body purchases, they buy 19% more than any other racial demographic, spending $573 million on these items. For beauty and skincare, Black women spend around $7.5 billion every year, using 80% more money on makeup and double the amount on skincare when compared to other purchasers (via WWD).
Aside from propping up the beauty industry with their spending power, Black women also contribute to it by setting trends. Sleek buns, glossy lips, and gold jewelry have been a staple within the Black community for years, yet they're attributed to the recent "clean girl" trend, notes i-D. TikTok has even gone as far as praising Hailey Bieber for her inventive "brownie glazed lips" despite the fact that Black women have used dark eye and brow pencils on their lips because makeup brands lacked products in their shade (via Time). Despite constant contributions, Black-owned brands get only 2.5% of revenue within the beauty industry, says McKinsey. After upholding the industry for so long, Black beauty lovers deserve to be supported in a more direct way.
Topicals
Founded by Olamide Olowe at 23, Topicals uses science-researched ingredients to transform the way skin looks and feels. All of its products are formulated alongside a scientific advisory board, composed of a board-certified dermatologist and postdoctoral fellow in chemistry at Stanford.
Using eye-catching marketing and colorful branding, Topicals simultaneously addresses skin issues and mental health, a core part of its brand. The company recognizes the connection between facing chronic skin issues, such as psoriasis and hyperpigmentation, and having anxiety and depression, and donates to various mental health organizations as a result. Apart from Topicals' commitment to social awareness, its commitment to science has won the brand a growing consumer base. According to Forbes, the company sold one product every minute in 2022.
The Topicals Faded Serum is one of the brand's best-selling items. Created for all skin tones, the serum decreases even the most stubborn hyperpigmentation, scars, and discoloration. Formulated with kojic acid, niacinamide, and melatonin, this powerful serum can reduce the appearance of discoloration within two weeks. With a 4.6 rating, many consumers praise the serum, saying it's made a noticeable difference in the overall evenness of their skin tone.
Danessa Myricks Beauty
After working as a sales and marketing director in publishing, Danessa Myricks pivoted to the makeup industry. Although this career change came at the age of 30, she had long been a lover of beauty, with her passion born out of the difficulty of not being able to find a proper foundation shade (via Allure).
After researching and learning about different makeup methods, Myricks started a masterclass for other makeup artists. With the knowledge she gathered, she created Danessa Myricks Beauty. Known for her flawless makeup looks and unconventional techniques, her makeup brand is innovative and barrier-breaking in such an exclusionary industry.
Her Colorfix Pigment is a unique product, a cream that can be used on the eyes, cheeks, or lips. The highly-pigmented product comes in over 30 shades with a matte, metallic, or high-shine finish. The Danessa Myricks Yummy Skin Serum Foundation is another standout item, combining skincare and makeup with its hydrating formula and radiant finish. The foundation leaves an ethereal glow, as seen on "Abbott Elementary" actress Sheryl Lee Ralph at the Golden Globes (via Prevention).
Briogeo
Following the death of her mother, Nancy Twine realized that she wanted to spend her life doing something purposeful. As a doctor and chemist, Twine's mother would create beauty products at home. Inspired by her upbringing, Twine left her job in finance and went on to create Briogeo. As the CEO and founder, Twine wanted to create clean hair products that catered to everyone.
From the straightest of strands to the kinkiest curls, Briogeo's expansive range of hair products is suited for every type of hair. The brand is a 6-free hair care brand, meaning all of its offerings are free of harsh sulfates, silicones, phthalates, parabens, DEA, and artificial dyes. Instead, Briogeo uses plant-based ingredients with effective formulas that have earned the brand countless praise and awards.
The Briogeo Don't Despair, Repair! Deep Conditioning Mask has won an Allure Readers' Choice Award multiple times thanks to its ability to revive dry, damaged hair. The deep conditioning mask was created for dry, damaged, and chemically-treated hair, as well as hair that just needs a bit more life in it. Using rosehip oil and algae, the mask boosts strength and shine in hair, leaving softer, more hydrated hair.
Hanahana Beauty
In her Ghanaian household growing up, Abena Boamah-Acheampong's family's focus on beauty stemmed from cleanliness and well-being (via Bustle). Shea butter, a simple, yet highly versatile ingredient, was a staple for her, just as it is for many Africans. Although Boamah-Acheampong had long created products for herself, encouragement from her community pushed her to create Hanahana Beauty.
Shea butter is the focus of a lot of Hanahana Beauty products. From its famous shea body butters to its shea lip balm, the hero ingredient plays a large role in the company. Yet, at the center of Hanahana Beauty is social responsibility. Its shea butter is sourced from the women of the Katariga Cooperative in Tamale, Ghana. On top of paying the cooperative twice the fair trade price, it uses its Circle of Care initiative to provide healthcare and educational workshops to the community.
Through sourcing pure, ethical shea butter, Hanahana is able to create renowned products, such as its Amber Vanilla Shea Body Butter. Made from shea, cocoa, and mango butters as well as almond and jojoba oil, the body butter is perfect for parched, flaky skin, emitting a scent of soft amber and creamy vanilla. Its 2-in-1 Body Bar is an after-shower bar that sloughs off dead skin and locks in hydration. Intended to be used on wet skin, the rice, brown sugar, and cloves in the bar gently exfoliate, leaving the shea butter, cocoa butter, and avocado oil to provide soft, supple skin.
Ami Colé
A former employee of Glossier and L'Oreal, Diarrha N'Diaye-Mbaye saw a gap in the makeup market. While clean, minimal brands are on the rise, none of them specifically catered to the needs of darker-skinned women (via Today).
In 2019, she set out to make her makeup brand come alive. A celebration of melanin, Ami Colé is inspired by N'Diaye-Mbaye's home country of Senegal, using ingredients such as baobab seed extract and hibiscus that are great for the skin. Her company is named after her mother, whose hair salon in Harlem served as a common reminder of the joys of Black beauty. The brand strives to make all of its products cruelty-free, vegan, and clean, stating that the EWG found that women of color are more likely to be exposed to harmful chemicals in their beauty products than white women.
Its complexion products, such as the Skin-Enhancing Tint, keep the various undertones of darker-skinned women in mind, something that's hard to find among other brands. The skin tint, which won a Byrdie Beauty Award, comes in six shades. Flexible and lightweight, the tint blurs the skin while allowing your natural complexion to come through. The Lip Oil Treatment is an oil-to-gloss product that nourishes the lips with baobab seed, camellia, and passionfruit seed oils. With a high-gloss, non-sticky formula, the treatment comes in four shades: Excellence, a rose-tinged brown; Bliss, a soft pink; Reflection, a clear gloss; and Smitten, a radiant red.
Epara
For a number of people, luxury skincare means products created and formulated in France or Japan. Yet when Ozohu Adoh struggled to find a solution for her chronically dry, sensitive skin, she turned to her country of Nigeria. In Ebira, a language in Nigeria, Epara means "to cocoon oneself." Frustrated with the countless products that didn't help her skin, Adoh returned to African ingredients to create a luxury line of skincare ingredients that have worked for generations.
After obtaining an MBA at Oxford University and working in finance and strategy, Adoh turned to her passion for making luxury skincare using organic ingredients sourced from Africa. With ingredients like shea butter, moringa oil, and frankincense, Adoh works with a lab in the U.K. to formulate high-quality products that solve an array of skin issues.
Although based in the U.K., its products can be found in Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue in the United States. Its Intense Hydrating Mask softens and moisturizes the skin while reducing fine lines thanks to marula and moringa oil. Using plankton extract and allantoin, discoloration and sebum production on the skin are reduced. Winner of an Allure Best of Beauty Award in 2020, Epara's Cleansing Lotion is the perfect soothing cleanser for dry, irritated skin. Formulated with ylang-ylang, frankincense, and marula oil, the product gently cleanses the skin, removing makeup and dirt while decreasing discoloration and fine lines.