Without the Black community, the beauty industry would not exist as we know it today. Far from just offering inclusive shade ranges, our favorite Black- (and frequently female-) founded beauty brands play an integral role in expanding the conversation around race, representation, and diversity in the beauty industry. We all know about the big players in the makeup industry but what about the many makeup brands owned by Black British people?
Black Pound Day, which falls on the first Saturday of every month, began as a day for the Black community in the UK to reinvest their spending power and has now extended to become a way supporters can support Black-owned businesses. That said, these excellent brands are our go-to all year round for their efficacy and innovation. We’ve rounded up eight of the best Black-owned British makeup and skincare to add to your collection.
The Afro Hair and Skin Company
The Afro Hair and Skin Company was founded by beauty expert Ibi Meier-Oruitemeka and uses locally sourced and grown ingredients to create their products. This award-winning afro beauty and wellness business is located along the beautiful English coast, and they are dedicated to creating truly organic and natural products carefully crafted by hand, using fresh natural, and locally sourced ingredients that will feed your skin and hair with all the goodness necessary to blossom and be truly healthy.
Ibi began researching and developing her powerful line of holistic products over a period of 5 years, seeking to eliminate all of the common toxins that she felt contributed to the undermining of black women’s health and well-being. Through The Afro Hair & Skin Co., Ibi aims to share her love of natural beauty and educate her on how these ingredients can best be harnessed in beauty products specifically for black women. Having recognized the need for a more ethical and sustainable approach she is an advocate for the use of locally sourced and grown ingredients and actively supports British artisans, makers, and small-scale producers by buying British ingredients that make up much of her range.
Liha Beauty
This beauty brand was launched by two friends, Abi Oyepitan and Liha Okunniwa. You definitely can’t go wrong with the Liha beauty brand when it comes to a wide variety of products. It’s a combination of African roots and a British flair. Their products stem from the Yoruba tradition of making soaps, body lotions, and all kinds of beauty oil from nuts, plants, and tree backs. All our products are made by hand in the UK. All their products are water-free and the majority are multipurpose, meaning you can cut down on the amount of beauty products and resources you consume.
According to Okunniwa, her mother was an English aromatherapist, and this was how she got her skills that have significantly thrived. As Liha Beauty grows we intend to empower our Shea co-operatives and communities to grow with us. The brand always uses glass, paper, or aluminum packaging that can be widely recycled and reused, and they are always looking at new innovations in packaging.
Danessa Myricks Beauty
In a world focused on labels, Danessa Myricks has continuously broken boundaries and built a world of beauty for people from all races, ages, and genders. Starting out as a self-taught makeup artist, Danessa learned how to use products in unconventional ways to create stunning looks. Ignoring industry norms, she began to teach other artists about her techniques and product selections and created a name for herself in the beauty world. The brand’s high-performing products give makeup artists and consumers alike the freedom to play outside the box.
Danessa Myricks has become a well-known brand and is still gaining ground all over the US because of its flair for experimental make-up looks. This amazing brand thrives with an international fanbase like Lisa Eldridge, Katie Jane Hughes, and Delina Medhin.
bea Skin Care
Bianca Estelle is a Harley Street-trained skin specialist, clinical trainer & director, and the founder of the award-winning product line bea Skin Care. After studying Applied Sciences at the renowned University of the Arts in London, Bianca achieved advanced-level accreditations in cutting-edge aesthetic skin procedures, representing several well-known cosmeceutical brands at the same time. After establishing a UK-wide network of clinics, she launched her own signature product line in 2015.
In formulating her own products, Bianca’s passion is driven by the application of cosmeceutical science to everyday skincare. Designed to support healthy, radiant skin and correct difficult problems, bea Skin Care’s ethos is to encourage consumers to better understand and improve their skin in a market that, historically, has been saturated by brands that overlook many of their specific needs. They choose to use glass for their product packaging wherever they can, as it’s fully recyclable and helps to minimize our overall plastic consumption. Bea Skin Care is also very committed to using biodegradable ingredients and packaging.
Uoma Beauty
Founded by one of the key drivers behind social justice in the beauty space, Sharon Chuter, Uoma is everything regarding inclusivity. Chuter has had a career that has spanned multiple continents and has worked with major multinational beauty and consumer brands including Revlon, L’Oréal, GSK, and most recently Benefit Cosmetics. Chuter was named one of the 50 most forward-thinking executives shaping the future of the beauty industry by WWD Women’s Wear Daily. She originally established the business in 2018, with the desire to fill a gap in the beauty market for products that better suited women of color. The business then launched into the UK one year later exclusively with Selfridges. She started the Pull Up For Change Challenge which put the spotlight on prominent companies to share the ethnic representation of their teams, particularly at executive levels, and push them to do better. Uoma Beauty is the most inclusive black-owned beauty brand.
Flora & Curl
Rose Ovensehi launched Flora & Curl Haircare in 2017 to satisfy her own demand for a plant-derived haircare system for people with dry, textured hair. Ovensehi now has online customers in over 70 countries. Flora & Curl has a variety of products generated from plant-based ingredients like Brazilian oil and Ghanaian butter. These products are generated from natural and non-harmful chemicals, perfect for moisturizing and strengthening the hair. These black beauty brands’ products help you achieve and maintain curls for all hair types. They formulate our products with a high proportion of botanically-derived, cold-pressed, and raw ingredients so that less means more, and a little goes a long way — the compliment we receive often from our customers! Botanicals are extracts, waters, powders, oils, and kinds of butter derived directly from flowers, herbs, nuts, seeds, roots, leaves, barks, and berries.
Naomi Sadé London
Naomi Sadé London believes in inclusivity and doing what is right within the world of beauty. Naomi is a makeup artist with several years of managerial experience specializing in the beauty industry, starting out as a freelance artist after obtaining her Business Economics Degree. She worked for various brands under the umbrella such as Bobbi Brown, Clinique, Crème de la Mer, Estée Lauder, Tom Ford plus many more at some of the most prestigious flagship stores across London as a beauty consultant.
The Bronze Lookbook was created after Naomi noticed that the most requested look as a MUA was a bronze smokey eye. But she had not found a palette she could use on all her clients or herself which was vegan, cruelty-free, highly pigmented, and rich enough to compliment every skin tone at an affordable price. This UK-based cosmetics brand is situated in the heart of London, specializing in PETA-certified vegan and cruelty-free cosmetics. They are committed to ensuring that our ingredients are sustainably and ethically sourced and we promise to maintain this commitment. Their products are truly created for all, with a strong understanding of deeper skin.
Rich Skxn
Rich Skxn is a personalized retail store that will eventually transition into an app to help people find products suited to their skin. Founder Abi Shokeye’s journey with skincare started during her time at university. She’d had enough of putting makeup on every day before leaving the house. She wanted to head out every morning with her skin looking fantastic, and naturally so. She discovered that she had acne patches and hyperpigmentation — a problem many people with melanin-rich skin suffer from. None of the high street stores had anything to help. Now, Abi has helped over 8,000 customers on their skincare journey. This brand aims to empower those with melanin-rich skin by demystifying myths about skincare for black and brown skin, showing more representation of black and brown skin, and giving black-owned brands a platform to showcase their amazing skincare products.
Source
Boitumelo Masihleho is a South African digital content creator. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Rhodes University in Journalism and Media Studies and Politics and International Studies.
She’s an experienced multimedia journalist who is committed to writing balanced, informative and interesting stories on a number of topics. Boitumelo has her own YouTube channel where she shares her love for affordable beauty and lifestyle content.
