Back in August, Glossier announced the 16 recipients of its Grant Initiative for Black-Owned Beauty Businesses—one (industry-focused) part of the brand’s wider pledge to racial equity and inclusion. To give you some context, the grant initiative provides advisory support and $500,000 in the form of grants for “the next generation of leading beauty companies.”
Not surprisingly, the response was overwhelming, and according to a statement on Glossier’s website, the brand received nearly 10,000 applications. (Imagine how difficult it was to whittle the applications down to a final 16!) You can read more about the process, results, and recipient brand details here, but since we’re entering peak gift-giving and beauty shopping season, we wanted to reshare Glossier’s list of up-and-coming Black-owned beauty businesses in hopes you’ll support and contribute to their growth and success. We encourage you to buy Black year-round, but the holidays are an especially opportune time to be mindful of the companies you’re choosing to invest in. Complete with Glossier’s seal of excited approval, we’re sharing 24 products from 12 different brands we recommend gifting yourself or any of your loved ones this season. Keep scrolling!
Follow: @absolutejoi. AbsoluteJoi is a clean skincare line specifically formulated for women of color. After discovering a horrifying statistic that 75% of beauty products marketed toward Black women included toxic ingredients, founder Anne Beal, MD, took matters into her own hands by creating her own line of nontoxic skin essentials for melanin-rich skin. The brand’s Skin Refining Night Oil with Retinol and Vitamins C+E (above) is its signature best seller, but you’ll also find every other skin essential to complete your routine—from mineral SPF to a hyaluronic acid–infused toner to a lush cleansing oil.
Follow: @alodiahaircare. Finding a clean yet effective haircare line is no easy feat, but Isfahan Chambers-Harris, PhD, has managed to do just that with her green, holistically inspired line of scalp and haircare products, Alodia. Plant herbs and technology are at the root of the brand’s good-hair powers, and a handy Hair Care Quiz and strategically assembled Healthy Hair Kits help streamline your shopping experience.
Follow: @golde. We haven’t been shy about our obsession with Golde, and we can’t wait to gift all of our loved ones the brand’s holistic assortment of superfood-spiked skincare and beauty bevies. Founded by Trinity Mouzon Wofford and her partner Issey Kobori in 2017, Golde’s mission is to help make wellness easier and more fun to incorporate into our day-to-day. We’re rather addicted to its delish latte blends, and we’ve been known to let the brand’s Superfood Masks marinate on our faces while we sip. (The Cacao Turmeric Latte Blend is our fave!)
Follow: @hanahana_beauty. My fellow beauty editor Courtney Higgs and I agree—no one, literally no one, can hold a candle to Hanahana Beauty’s dreamy Shea Body Butters. Hanahana Beauty represents everything that we crave in an amazing beauty brand. Founder Abena Boamah-Acheampong has created some of the most luxurious body butters and balms you can slather over your dry skin, and she recognizes the importance of transparency and full-circle sustainability. For example, the brand’s hero ingredient is fair-trade, ethically sourced shea butter, which comes directly from the Katariga Women’s Shea Cooperative in Ghana. Through its commitment to giving back, the brand nurtures a holistic, bottom-up support approach that works to improve the economic health, environmental conditions, and self-sustainability within the shea trade.
Follow: @melanjhair. Before they created their own line of textured hair extensions, you could find Melanj Hair founders (sisters Nikki and Whitney) on YouTube sharing all of their healthy-hair tips and routines. However, after feeling bored and uninspired with their go-to styles, the sisters decided to come up with their own line of extensions, which are made with the highest quality human hair and purposefully customized hair textures for flawless application and blending.
Follow: @itsbrowngirljane. If you’re keen to give the gifts of glow, balance, and peaceful sleep this season, Brown Girl Jane’s beautiful collection of CBD-spiked beauty and self-care products is a must-stop. Owned and founded by Malaika Jones Kebede, Tai Beauchamp, and Nia Jones, the line is thoughtfully designed to help women safely and holistically tackle internal balance and external beauty. The brand works directly and closely with farmers, chemists, and manufacturers to bring you the highest quality plant-based, broad-spectrum products money can buy.
Follow: @epi.logic. Meet Epi.logic. Created by board-certified plastic surgeon Chaneve Jeanniton, it’s an ultra-potent line of skincare laden with glow-enhancing essential actives and data-driven research. According to the brand’s website, Jeanniton was inspired to create her own “benefits-based” skincare brand after years of working with diverse patients and desiring a unique and simple yet effective line of products that could combine her in-clinic experience with the best multitasking active ingredients.
Follow: @flaunt_body. Just last year, the founder of Flaunt Body, Cameron Moore, launched the brand’s first hero product (a brilliant mask for ingrown hairs), and the rest is history. In the first week of December, the brand will launch its second product (a two-in-one luxe body polish that’s packaged with a silicone brush head for pre- and post-shave exfoliation), which aligns with Moore’s focus on creating simple yet effective bodycare antidotes that are quick and easy to use, regardless of your schedule or lifestyle.
Follow: @kanti.us “In a market where diversity and inclusion have become a trend, we didn’t want to create products that merely considered melanin-rich skin and diverse tones as an afterthought—we wanted to lead with diverse skin at the forefront of our brand,” explain Kanti co-founders Keamone F. and Alisha Ricki on the brand’s website. Although the brand only has two hero products at the moment, each product is designed to celebrate and nurture melanin-rich skin, especially considering darker skin tones are more prone to conditions like hyperpigmentation, dark spots, eczema, dehydration, oiliness, acne, uneven texture, and more.
Follow: @lunamagicbeauty. If you or your giftee’s vibe is fun, bright, ultra-bold makeup, you’ll love Luna Magic. Founded by two Afro-Latina and Dominican American sisters, Mabel and Shaira Frías, the L.A.–based brand was born from their passion for beauty and their craving to create vibrant, high-performance makeup that would celebrate their multicultural heritage, Latin culture, and music.
Follow: @redouxnyc. As the brand puts it best on its website, “Redoux is a line of sophisticated scents and vegan skincare for the modern nostalgic.” With a shared passion for skincare and the catalytic effect scent can have, founders Asia Grant and Alejandro Villalba began their venture to bottle their best memories through scent, which ultimately led to their stunning bottles and potions that will not only enhance your glow but that will also help you time travel via their carefully curated fragrance.
Follow: @themostcurls. The Most’s founder and CEO Dawn Myers has been concocting natural-hair solutions in her kitchen for years, and now, she’s bringing all of her personal intel to The Most—a shoppable hub where friends with natural hair can go to look for and learn about “the latest and greatest in Afro Tech.” The collection is small for now, but we’re keen on Myers’s organic Super Strength Castor Oil, and we can’t wait for the anticipated launch of one of the coolest hair tools we’ve ever seen, The Mint.
Up next, 32 Black-Owned Skincare, Hair, and Makeup Brands We Love and Support
