See Why Glossier Wants You to Know These 16 Black-Owned Beauty Brands

The needs of Black women have been underwhelmingly represented in the beauty industry, partly due to systemic racism. The multi-billion-dollar industry has continuously been called out for the glass ceiling that prevents Black-owned beauty and wellness brands from thriving like their white counterparts. 

In response to the call for diversity and inclusion at the beauty counters, Glossier has decided to be the face of adversity. On June 11, the well-known beauty empire announced its $500,000 Grant Initiative For Black-Owned Beauty Businesses, which not only provides funding but also advisory support for the next generation of beauty companies ready to make an impact on the world.

“We created this initiative with the belief that we must start by driving change in the beauty industry, both within Glossier and beyond,” Glossier Senior Community Manager, Kim Johnson stated. 

After carefully reviewing nearly 10,000 applications, Glossier narrowed their selection down to 16 companies, who will become the deserving recipients of the grant.

“These 16 businesses—ranging from a superfood-based beauty and wellness company to a soon-to-launch men’s haircare brand—blew us away with their vision, ingenuity, and passion for changing the beauty industry for the better,” Johnson tells us.

Keep scrolling to learn about the Black beauty and wellness companies on the rise.

AbsoluteJOI

AbsoluteJOI is a clean skincare line that was developed by Dr. Anne Beal in response to the shocking news that 75% of beauty products marketed to Black women reportedly contain toxic ingredients. With an approach focused on “clean, effective, and simple” products, Dr. Anne is using her brand to raise awareness to the benefits of a non-toxic lifestyle while keeping melanin-rich skin glowing.

Alodia Hair Care

Alodia Hair Care uses plant herbs, extracts, and technology to personalize product choices based on scalp health, hair type, and styling preferences. Founded by Dr. Isfahan Chambers-Harris, who was inspired to create a holistic approach to healthy hair after her own personal experiences with unnatural and toxic hair care products, the line of clean hair and scalp products have made quite a name for itself. 

Golde 

Golde is a Brooklyn-born health and beauty brand, powered by superfoods. Founded by Trinity Mouzon Wofford and her partner Issey Kobori in 2017, Golde is on a mission to make wellness easy and fun. They create products—ranging from latte blends to superfood masks—that look good, taste good, and help you feel like your best self. 

Brown Girl Jane

Brown Girl Jane is a plant-based wellness collection owned and founded by Malaika Jones Kebede, Tai Beauchamp, and Nia Jones. Centering around the needs of dynamic WOC, the product line harnesses the power of broad-spectrum CBD in order to holistically address internal balance and external beauty. 

Hanahana Beauty

Hanahana Beauty is a conscious clean skincare and wellness brand founded by Abena Boamah-Acheampong, a Ghanian-American creative entrepreneur and mental health advocate. With the vision of disrupting the global beauty industry, Hanahana Beauty not only values sustainability and transparency but also keeps Black women at the forefront of their business and brand. 

Melanj Hair

Melanj Hair is a textured hair extensions company founded by sisters, Nikki and Whitney. The pair spent years sharing their healthy hair routines on YouTube before setting out to develop a product that compliments natural hair without compromising it. Their clip-in extensions are made of 100% human hair and designed to blend seamlessly into natural hair of all textures. 

Brown Girl Jane

Brown Girl Jane is a plant-based wellness collection owned and founded by Malaika Jones Kebede, Tai Beauchamp, and Nia Jones. Centering around the needs of dynamic WOC, the product line harnesses the power of broad-spectrum CBD in order to holistically address internal balance and external beauty. 

Epi.logic

Epi.logic is a powerful skincare brand created by a board-certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Chaneve Jeanniton. The line, inspired by the surgeon’s experience working with a diverse array of patients, offers a simplified approach to skin. Each product is balanced to deliver a variety of complexion-boosting results and designed using a data-driven approach to eliminate potentially reactive additives. 

Flaunt Body

Flaunt Body offers versatile, unisex, and effortless body care products focused on niche skin concerns. In 2019, founder Cameron Moore launched her hero product, an Ingrown Hair Mask, as an innovative and inclusive solution to a common body care gripe.

kanti

kanti is a skincare brand that uses their love for Black and Brown skin to push forward their mission to uncomplicate skincare routines for people of color. After connecting with other millennial women about beauty and noticing a common need across their peers, sisters Keamone F. and Alisha Ricki founded kanti as a clean, effective, and affordable solution to the most common skin concerns amongst melanin-rich skin. 

Luna Magic

Luna Magic is a beauty and lifestyle brand founded by Afro-Latina and Dominican-American sisters, Mabel and Shaira Frías. Inspired by their passion for beauty, the business duo created a line of vibrant, high-performance cosmetics that celebrates their mutual love for their multicultural heritage and Latinx culture.

Redoux

Redoux is a sophisticated line of fragrances that evoke emotion and memories through scent and storytelling. Asia Grant, alongside her co-founder Alejandro Villalba, expertly craft scents that elevate personal rituals, embody a cross-sensory experience and draw inspiration through food, art, conversation, and cultural histories. 

THE MOST

THE MOST empowers WOC to embrace their natural hair with all-in-one styling tools designed to cut styling time and minimize the invisible pain points in textured hair. Founder and entrepreneur Dawn Myers, believes in culturally-informed engineering and the power of beauty as a practice of self-worth. The brand’s upcoming hero product, THE MOST Mint, streamlines the process of detangling and applying product to highly textured hair.

DEON LIBRA

Launching in 2021, DEON LIBRA is an adaptogenic beauty brand formulated to support the body’s natural ability to handle stress and activate lasting healthy skin. Starting the brand out of a kitchen in 2018, founder Devin McGhee enlisted the help of co-founder Brittany Kirkland to assist her on the journey to finding long-term solutions for anxiety, depression, and stress-induced skin problems.

Eadem

Launching in Fall 2020, Eadem is a curated line designed by women of color for women of color. Aimed to assist with hyper-targeted skincare, founders Marie Kouadio Amouzame and Alice Lin Glover saw a space in the market for clean, effective, and thoughtfully designed skincare for women with melanin.

Pound Cake

Launching in October 2020, Pound Cake is a pro-Black, pro-fat, and pro-queer cosmetics company with a mission to represent all shades of beauty. With products designed for various skin and lip tones, co-founders Camille Bell and Jonathan Velazquez found the perfect way to provide inclusivity across every beauty category—not just complexion.

Wavy Blue

Launching in September 2020, Wavy Blue is a men’s personal haircare brand with a simple mission: give shine to Black men that make waves every day. Founders Cameron Maple and McKervin Ceme are nobly dedicated to building products and experiences that honor and acknowledge the diversity and dynamism of Black men.