15 Black Owned, Beauty Brands to Embrace this Month
To celebrate Black leaders and innovators in the beauty industry during February’s Black History Month, we’ve curated a list of brands to add to your skincare and hair routines. Here’s the list of those 15 skincare, hair care, and self-care brands with products that deserve a spot in your everyday routine.
Starting with Black Girl Sunscreen, the founder Shontay Lundy started the brand due to a lack of products designed specifically for melanin rich skin tones. Their sunscreen is unique in the way that it doesn’t leave behind a white cast when applied to the skin. The company aims to educate and protect those with darker skin tones worldwide and to remain clean of harmful chemicals.
With formulas and ingredients inspired by global beauty secrets and family traditions, this brand holds a multitude of anti-aging oils and cleansing balms. The founder, Nyakio Kamoche Grieco, spent considerable time in Africa surrounded by medicine people and farmers, and learned generational beauty techniques. Her memories with her grandmother teaching her mother and herself about the richness of crushed coffee beans and sugar cane as a remedy for dry skin inspired her to create the brand and share the memory with the market.
Founded by the wife and husband team of Holly McWhorter and Bjarke Ballisager, this organic, vegan, and cruelty-free line of bath, grooming, and skincare is committed to upholding an eco-conscious mindset through packaging and production. With a variety of skin types and skin concerns in mind, like dullness to texture and uneven tone, this brand is formulated to cure your needs through their products.
The formulas in this Oye Shea Butter are designed to renew, heal, and hydrate hair and skin. The ingredients are sourced from Nigeria, where the founder, Tolu Oye, grew up watching her mother collect nuts from shea trees, using the shea butter extracted from them to address her eczema, her sister’s burns and to hydrate their hair. Tolu began the brand after moving to the U.S. and striving to share the natural healing powers of shea butter.
Kristin Nicole Crowley launched this brand in 2016. The Collagen Infused Lip Mask is a cult favorite across all social media platforms, as well as the ultra-instagrammable eye masks. There is a plethora of collagen-infused products to try as well as moisturizing sugar scrubs that exfoliate to leave behind smoother and hydrated selves.
Formulated by female chemists of color, who studied dermatology and tested on models of color, the products are a fan favorite for melanin rich skin tones. Cofounder Marie Kouadio started this brand with the mission of bringing women of color together through skincare. The Milk Marvel Dark Spot Serum creates an allover even tone due to its brightening ingredients that make dark spots and hyperpigmentation marks fade.
Desiree Verdejo founded this brand after her pregnancy when she experienced extreme hyperpigmentation and dark marks, and there was nothing on the market that catered to her needs. The product Hyper Even is packed with natural ingredients that brighten skin, smooth texture, and treat hyperpigmentation. Next, the Brightening Dark Spot Serum reduces the look of hyperpigmentation and hydrates skin with its superpower formula of anti-inflammatory turmeric and hyaluronic acid.
This brand invites consumers to embrace their hair and heritage celebrating natural beauty pulling inspiration from African, Mediterranean, and Ayurvedic hair-care traditions to address moisture concerns for drier and damaged hair. Felis Butler founded the plant-based and clean brand, which is great for dry hair types with all their moisturizing blends. The leave-in conditioning treatment, Alma and Olive Heavy Cream, is a go to, being the most hydrating product of the brand with a trio of cast, olive, and Indian amla oils.
Wanting to invent a more playful aesthetic in the skin care world, founder Olamide Olowe achieved just that. The serum Faded, is one of the brand’s most sought after picks for its ability to minimize the appearance of dark spots and hyperpigmentation. Along with the product’s ability to create a radiant complexion, it is also free from dyes and animal testing.
If you’re looking for a curated selection of makeup products under $25 and that are gentle on your skin, head to this brand founded by Tisha Thompson. She created a line of makeup products that is affordable and makes your skin look and feel better after every use. Th brand uses Higher Standard Satin Matte Cream Blush with the moisturizing avocado oil, mattifying kaolin slay and soothing vitamin E, a cult favorite.
Not only does this brand pay homage to the rich culture of Africa’s 54 countries, but it is also one of the most indulgent moisturizers. The company exclusively sources its ingredients from Africa and is full of skin-care products with rich creamy textures like the African Beauty Butters that bring Oprah to purchase and label them as one of her favorite beauty products.
Carol Price’s daughter, Lisa Price, founded this brand, starting it in the family’s Brooklyn based home. It has since become one of the most popular natural hair, scalp, and body-care brands since it is created for all types, textures, and beauty needs.
This halal-certified skincare line is packed with powerful and effective ingredients, from shea body butters to powerful Vitamin C serums. It’s no surprise as founder Jordan Karim, a pharmaceutical consultant, started the brand after her struggle to find halal products that worked for her melanin-rich skin.
Taking inspiration through ingredients native to the founder’s, Dr. Rose Ingleton, Jamaican heritage, this dermatologist founded skin care brand is rich in exfoliating and hydrating properties. From lightweight moisturizers to serums, they all treat a multitude of complexion and texture concerns so that you feel good no matter which product you choose from her line.
Founded by Keenan Beasley, this brand has a bunch of hair care offerings for those days you need a lightweight and cleansed feel for those no-wash days. The Revive Me Daily Moisturizing Spray focuses on absorbing excess oil and sweat and giving your scalp a fresh, soft, glossy feel while also acting as a moisturizing treatment for your curls. The ingredient, antioxidant-rich green tea, helps to fight dryness and inflammation, especially with the addition of argan oil truly creating a masterpiece in haircare.
Article by Caroline Milo, Contributor, PhotoBook Magazine
Tearsheets by Alexa Dyer, Graphic Design Intern, PhotoBook Magazine
