The past year has devastatingly shaken the world and shocked it into looking inwards regarding racism, discrimination, and injustice within the Black community [1]. Whilst these serious world matters are forcing different industries to have an uncomfortable but necessary conversations, we look into how we can currently support and stand with the Black community in creating a permanent change. [2]
The beauty industry itself has many seats at the table, and for so long people of colour have been locked out of the boardroom and overlooked in terms of representation, no matter the economic profit that they provided. In more recent years, we have been forced to create our own narrative and create our own seats at the table. With brands such as Fenty Beauty [3] and Pat McGrath Labs [4] making a clear stand for representation, we also have brands that have been catering to our community from the beginning.
Understanding our unique curl patterns and concerns for hair care, rich and nourishing ingredients for our body care, cosmetics that stand out yet suit our different complexions, and skin care that focuses on our primary concerns, we now have a plethora of brands that are for us, by us, and have our needs at the core of their ethos. Powered by representation and supported by the community, these brands are worthy of your investment.
It is so important when focusing on change to support and buy into Black brands beyond the movement. Whilst the 40 brands ahead lift the platform for many Black-owned beauty businesses, there are hundreds that deserve you time, attention, research, and money.
Uoma Beauty
Founded by former beauty executive Sharon Chuter, Uoma Beauty is about forming and empowering a tribe that is rich in people, language, and colour. Uoma, which means "beautiful" in Igbo (one of the main languages spoken in Nigeria), is rewriting the rules when it comes to makeup, formulations and undertones. Creating a message based on self-expression, colourful living, African pride, inclusivity, beautiful rebellion, and empowering tribes, Uoma challenges outdated notions from the inside out with products that stand against the grain of the beauty industry.
Check out: Uoma Beauty Black Magic Color Palette [5] (£43)
Holy Curls
Born in Sweden, founder Badria Ahmed didn't have many options when it came to styling her tight coils. After years of chemically straightening it, Ahmed set out to learn more about her hair type and how to care for it, mixing up moisturising creams and gels in her kitchen along the way. The result? Holy Curls, an all-natural hair-care range geared towards wavy, spiral, tight, or kinky curls. The collection is small at the moment, just four products, but their gorgeous formulations and luxurious textures (minus sulphates and cruelty free, of course) are all worth your attention.
Check out: The Holy Curls Discovery Kit [6] (£28)
By Joy Adenuga
By Joy Adenuga is a luxe line of professional makeup brushes and luxurious false lashes created by Nigerian-born, UK-based makeup artist Joy Adenuga [7]. Many of these cruelty-free, synthetic-bristle brushes have become staples in our makeup bags, including the Little Mama Multi-Use Face Brush (which is perfectly shaped to set under the eyes, contour cheekbones, and dab on highlighter) and the Hey Guys Foundation Brush 002 (a buffing brush that blends foundation and cream blushes/bronzers beautifully).
Check out: By Joy Adenuga Little Mama Multi-Use Face Brush [8] (£13.50)
Sdot Beauty
Stripping away the impurities from its ingredients, Sdot Beauty — created by Stephanie Coker — was formulated after years of her own experience finding the perfect products that would combine superior quality with environmental consciousness. Refusing to formulate with dyes, parabens, mineral oils, phthalates, sulphates, SLS, TEA, alcohol, lanolin, petroleum, PEGs, silicones, or petrolatum, Sdot offers natural remedies with all of the enriching benefits.
Check out: Sdot Beauty Satin Rouge Body Polish [9] (£29)
Anita Grant
After winding up in the hospital after a lotion left her hands blistered, Anita Grant swore off non-natural beauty products and set out to create her own line from her kitchen using natural oils, butters, clays, creams, and herbs. Fast forward 15 years, and her award-winning beauty products range from hair care to face and body treatments. Grant uses ingredients like shea butter, cacay oil, and plantain spinach, all of which are purchased directly from farming communities that house fair trade and organic suppliers.
Check out: Anita Grant Creamy Café Latte Unscented Daily Leave-In Butter [10] (£14)
Maréna Beauté
Designed after over 10 years of experience as a makeup artist, Diarry Maréna cultivated Maréna Beauté as a product line that catered to and enhanced darker skin tones. Studying colour analysis as well as working closely with darker-complexioned models backstage, Maréna Beauté promised to meet the needs of the neglected industry. Bearing witness to the African origin, the brand uses undertones, shades, and pigments to make any person of colour feel and look beautiful.
Check out: Maréna Beauté Pressed Setting Powder [11] (£37)
The Lip Bar
Vegan and cruelty free, The Lip Bar is on a mission to change the way we all think about beauty. Defying the standard of beauty and creating its own path and rules, the range bursts with inclusive shades that range up to 450 unique tones.
Check out: The Lip Bar Liquid Matte Lipstick [12] (£11)
Shedid & Parrish
Shedid & Parish is a curly-hair product range developed by British entrepreneur Jessica Parrish [13], who grew up mixed race and adopted. Her experience of not understanding how to care for her curly hair inspired her to develop a line that was affordable, accessible, and easy to use. "When I was developing the Shedid & Parrish products, I wasn't just thinking back to when I felt lost about my hair. I was also thinking about the parents of me," Parrish told POPUSGAR. "When I was growing up, being mixed race really was the minority. And while now it's so common, there are so many parents who still don't have the knowledge. And of course, they don't. If you've not grown up with a particular hair type, how can you teach your child how to look after it? And so I wanted to create something that was comfortable and attractive for any sex, any gender, any ethnicity — anything really. It's a range for everybody." You can read our review of the entire range here [14].
Check out: Shedid & Parrish Curl Styler [15] (£29)
Movita Organics
Through science and research, we have come to understand how important your gut health is when it comes to beauty and wellness. Channelling better health from the inside, Movita Organics provides a formula that meets the nutritional needs for the body. Allergen-free and loaded with essential vitamins, the brand promises to look after you from the inside out.
Check out: Movita Organics Beauty Supplement [16] (£21)
Klur Skincare
Lesley Thornton, an aesthetician and formulator, has built Klur on the back of many years of experience in and feedback from the beauty industry. Believing in simplicity, usability, and diverse skin conditions, Klur has a conscious and sustainable ethos that grounds itself in the strength of the ecosystem and the important demands of our skin as it takes on everyday life.
Check out: Klur Skincare Gentle Matter Daily Moisture Cleanser [17] (£32)
Frederick Benjamin
Frederick Benjamin is a grooming brand created by industry veteran Michael James. Taking into consideration common concerns such as ingrown hairs, razor bumps, and irritation, along with the white space in the men's grooming market, James set out to create clean products ——everything from hair stylers and skin care to an entire shaving range — that make barbershop-quality products accessible and easy to use.
Check out: Frederick Benjamin Sleek Water Pomade [18] (£13)
Created by UK blogger and influencer Jessica Debrah [19], By Jess D is a cruelty-free makeup line that's all about offering colourful, richly-pigmented products at an affordable price. "I wanted women to be able to afford quality makeup that was also cruelty-free, and I wanted all women to feel beautiful and represented," Debrah told POPSUGAR. And she definitely achieved her goal. Her lipsticks fly off the shelves (her lipstick shade Rum Cake sold out less than two weeks after the website launched), and she's already expanded into eyeshadow palettes.
Check out: By Jess D Liquid Velvet Lipstick in Rum Cake [20] (£14)
RadSwan
RadSwan is range of beautiful multitextured wigs created by lifestyle blogger and entrepreneur Freddie Harrel [21]. Made from 100 percent recycled fibres, RadSwan does not meddle with the ethics of real human hair and instead creates high-quality, affordable synthetic wigs that can be returned to the brand and safely recycled through an independent waste management company.
Check out: RadSwan Radshape 02 [22] (£140)
Briogeo
Taking root in the diversity and free spirit of New York City, Briogeo is a hair-care brand that seeks individuality, positivity, and transparency at the heart of its products. Cruelty-free ingredients that are 90 to 100 percent naturally derived is indicative of the care and attention they put into making sure our hair is nourished, hydrated, and strengthened from root to tip. A product for everyone, Briogeo sees our texture and raises us high-quality curl care.
Check out: Briogeo Don't Despair, Repair! Strengthening Treatment Oil [23] (£28)
Coloured Raine
Harnessing the power of unity and strength, Coloured Raine is inspired by bringing together all shades through a standout medium that the beauty industry least expected. With no stigma between age, gender, or race, Coloured Raine is the brand to reach for today. With long-lasting lipsticks, highly pigmented eye shadows, and a range of unparalleled hues, the brand leaves a canvas for its community to get creative.
Check out: Coloured Raine Book of Shades Eyeshadow Organizer [24] (£33)
Charlotte Mensah
Trained by The Godfather of British Afro Hairdressing, Winston Isaacs, hairstylist Charlotte Mensah [25] fast became an expert in afro hair. Noting that your hair needs to be properly maintained and cared for, Mensah created her own hair products that are formulated around manketti oil, an extract sustainably sourced from the manketti nut that not only hydrates, but also smooths frizz, adds shine, and soothes dry scalps.
Check out: Charlotte Mensah Manketti Oil Conditioner [26] (£24)
Mented Cosmetics
The brainchild of cofounders KJ Miller and Amanda Johnson, Mented Cosmetics started out as a very popular topic between friends wondering why was it so hard to find a nude lipstick for women of colour. Taking the brand name form the root of the word "pigmented," Miller and Johnson wanted to bring nude lipsticks, eyeshadow palettes, and blushers to women from light and tan to dark skin tones. With an extensive shade finder across all key categories — which includes foundations and lipsticks — Mented Cosmetics has created a safe place for all shades to feel safe and beautiful.
Check out: Mented Cosmetics Everyday Eyeshadow Palette [27] (£22)
Black Girl Sunscreen
If there ever was a product so needed for Black women, it would be sunscreen. The paramount importance to wear sunscreen on a daily basis has increased as our knowledge around UV exposure damaging our skin has become a vital factor in preserving the health of our complexion. For Black people in particular, sun protection is mandatory to keep hyperpigmentation and dark marks at bay. Enter Black Girl Sunscreen, a brand that wipes out the stigma when it comes to protection. Eradicating white residue but maintaining all the benefits of an SPF, Black Girl Sunscreen is an essential all year round.
Check out: Black Girl Sunscreen Face & Body Sunscreen SPF 30 [29] (£23)
Epara Skincare
Founded by entrepreneur Ozohu Adoh in her quest to find the right ingredients that would cater to her dry and uneven skin, Epara is a skin-care brand birthed out of the rare and rich soils of Africa, the name meaning "to cocoon oneself" in the Nigerian dialect of Ebira. Epara grounds itself in luxurious and hand-crafted ingredients that help repair, pamper, and hydrate, using its heritage to mark wonders for WOC's skin.
Check out: Epara Skincare Natural Cleansing Oil [30] (£45)
Lauren Napier Beauty
Whilst we love to experiment with looks, trends, and styles, there is something about taking off your makeup at the end of the day that can often be the highlight. Ensuring every moment of your makeup removal is heavenly, Napier launched her brand to make sure we understood "there is a beauty in taking it off." Lauren Napier Beauty is founded upon the belief that whilst the industry strives for perfection, there is something beautiful with taking it off and getting comfortable. With makeup wipes that cater to everything from sensitive to oily and blemish-prone skin types, enjoy removing your makeup and flaunt what's underneath.
Check out: Lauren Napier Cleanse [31] (£33)
Baby Tress
Elevating the curl function, Baby Tress is a hair tool company that caters to the taming, styling, and defining our baby hairs. Understanding the demand when it comes to our baby hairs that is often dressed in the varying hairstyles, the brand has redefined the edge styler with their product, which combs to separate and smooth the hairline, swoops and shapes the edges, and features a a pointed tip at the end to sharpen the finishing details.
Check out: Baby Tress Edge Styler [32] (£12)
A Complexion Company
Understanding that beauty starts from within, A Complexion Company is a luxury beauty and wellness company that offers solutions for women of colour within, across, and rooted in the African diaspora. Designed to take care of your skin from the inside out, the range is inspired by native African holistic practices passed down from generations and instilled in the supplements and skin-care formulation today. Get lost in the natural face masks and supplements that target the concerns of darker skin tones.
Check out: A Complexion Company Organic Raw Moringa Oleifera Beauty Powder [33] (£30)
The Afro Hair & Skin Co
Approaching hair and skin through the eyes of wellness, The Afro Hair & Skin Co harmonises between philosophy and organic ingredients. Believing in replenishing beautiful energy as well as sourcing the finest quality ingredients that are grown and harvested within the UK, the brand delivers an honest and healthy approach to beauty that is refreshing, to say the least.
Check out: The Afro Hair & Skin Co Rebirth - Glow Recovery Clay Mask [34] (£18)
Candour Beauty
Consider this your online arsenal of beauty products that are hand selected and tailored for your needs. Candour Beauty was born from a place of gratitude that sees, hears, and appreciates women's beauty needs. Focusing on brands that are socially conscious and intrinsically aware of their ingredients, Candour Beauty is a space where women can feel confident in purchasing from brands that have their needs at the core.
Check out: Olaplex Hair Perfector via Candour Beauty [35] (£26)
Sensual Candle Co
Harnessing the ritual of reconnecting with ourselves and alerting our senses for a deeper connection, Sensual Candle Co brought together an array of scents and auras for us to be in touch with our surroundings. Slowing down and promoting self-love, peace, and sustainability, the collection pushes the self-care narrative to the forefront. Indulge in the Shai, Lowkey, or Femme scents and be transported to a place of calm and serenity.
Check out: Sensual Candle Co Femme Sensual Candle [36] (£29)
Maya Njie Perfumes
When developing this perfume line, founder Maya Njie set out to capture scents that would help revive the memories so engrained in her family photo album. From her small Swedish summer house to her grandparents' visits on a Sunday afternoon, these perfumes capture the soul of Njie's Swedish-Gambian heritage, whether that's with hints of leather, bursts of sweet summer fruits, or a unique combination of vanilla and cardamom that's particular to Swedish tradition.
Check out: Maya Njie Les Fleurs Fragrance [37] (£85)
MDM Flow
Swapping pharmacy and prescriptions for cosmetics and formulations, MDMFlow's founder, Florence, went from studying pharmacy to learning cosmetic science at London College of Fashion. And at 22, she created her own cosmetics brand, MDM Flow, which is a culmination of all her interests: hip hop, beauty, fashion, and science. Heavily inspired by the late '90s/early aughts, MDM Flow is abundant in nostalgia and the reigning years of hip hop and all its glamour. Bursting with colour, exuberance, and personality, MDM Flow is a brand for those who embrace beauty with their chest.
Check out: MDM Flow Lip Collection [38] (£13-£15)
Liha Beauty
Shining a light on founders Abi and Liha's mixed heritages, Liha Beauty combines the Yoruba (Nigerian) tradition of handmaking beautifying oils, soaps, and lotions with English aromatherapy. The brand offers a range of skin and wellness products that promote self-care and slow-yet-purposeful living, including the beautifully scented Queen Idia candle and the incredibly lush Idan Oil. Either way, you'll be sure to enjoy every butter, oil, and candle in this vegan and organic range.
Check out: Liha Beauty Idan Oil [39] (£16-£39)
Pear Nova
Nails are so personal to your style and understanding that — as well as understanding the tones and formulations required for polishes to shine on darker complexions — founder Rachel James brought Pear Nova to the table. Inspired by the colours and fabrics she sees on fashion runways, the polishes are 5-free (so no formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, camphor, toluene, or dibutyl phthalate DBP), with collections like BRWNGRLMGC and Trips to Tulum, that will turn your nail-painting session into an at-home salon-finish treatment you won't forget.
Check out: Pear Nova BRWNGRLMGC Collection [40] (£35)
R & R Luxury
R & R Luxury basks in the beauty of shea butter. The brand infuses the natural ingredient into all of its products, including soaps, candles, home fragrances, and moisturising balms — transforming the raw, age-old ingredient into truly luxurious and elegant formulations.
Check out: R & R Luxury Black Soap Collection [41] (£6-£12)
Beauty Bakerie
Known for its smudge-proof lip whips, Beauty Bakerie [42] is as sweet as it looks. Loved by YouTubers like Jackie Aina [43] and Tati [44], this vegan, cruelty-free brand is shaking up the beauty game. All of its products have cute baked good-related names — like Cake Mix Foundation [45] and Cake Pop Lippies [46] — and they're super affordable.
Check out: Beauty Bakerie Matte Lip Whip [47] (£19)
Fenty Beauty
When Rihanna [48] launched Fenty Beauty with 40 foundation shades in 2017, it highlighted the serious gap and demand in more diverse representation in the makeup category. The proof of its impact? In the first 40 days, the brand made $100 million in sales [49] — and it's still going strong today.
Check out: Fenty Beauty Cheeks Out Freestyle Cream Bronzer [50] (£28)
Pat McGrath Labs
Pat McGrath is undeniably the most important makeup artist of our generation. Born in Britain to a mother of Jamaican heritage, McGrath is a trailblazer in every sense of the word, breaking beauty boundaries every chance she could — whether that was for a runway show in Paris or on the cover of some of the world's biggest fashion magazines. Growing up in an era when it was difficult to find makeup shades that suited her complexion, when it came time for McGrath to create her own line there was no question it had to be inclusive. From her vast foundation shade range, to her richly-pigmented eye shadows and lipsticks, McGrath's luxurious makeup products are truly meant to be enjoyed and experimented with by people of all complexions.
Check out: Pat McGrath Labs Skin Fetish: Sublime Perfection Concealer [51] (£26)
Skin Gourmet
"Pure raw wild" is Skin Gourmet's motto, a beauty brand started by Ghanian-born Violet Awo Amoabeng. Everything about the brand is done by hand: the ingredients hand-picked, the formulas hand-mixed and hand-packaged, in jars and bottled that you can return to the brand to be reused. As for the "pure" part? Because the brand uses absolutely no preservatives, stabilisers, parabens, artificial colours, or fragrances these creams and scrubs are truly good enough to eat.
Check out: Skin Gourmet Baobab Sugar Scrub [52] (£37)
Flickerwick Limited
Flickerwick Limited [55] is a London-based, vegan brand specialising in high-quality soy wax candles, wax melts, and room and car diffusers. Following a diagnosis of polycystic ovary syndrome in 2013, founder Frances Gardiner, wanted to create an array of scents that would uplift people's mood, reduce stress, and create a beautiful ambience. As a female Black entrepreneur and PCOS sufferer, Frances has faced many challenges in her career, but despite all of it she's successfully expanded Flickerwick Limited, which is now sold in the UK, the US, Dubai, and Ghana.
Cienna Rose
Cienna Rose [58] is a natural, cruelty-free, vegan-friendly, and 12-free (polishes that do not contain dibutyl phthalate, TPHP, toluene, xylene, ethyl tosylamide, camphor, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, parabens, and tert-butyl hydroperoxide) nail brand founded by Carla Opoku in 2018. While living in Ghana, Opoku found that there was limited access to good nail products, so she created her own. She wanted to provide quality nail products with formulations packed full of nail-loving ingredients. After many formulation experiments, Cienna Rose was born, named after her daughter, Cienna, and her love of flowers.
Opoku is now living in the UK with her husband and two children and has successfully expanded Cienna Rose to offer 30 nail shades and 10 nail care treatment products, with prices starting from just £9.