From Makeup Must-Haves to Skin Care Superstars, These Black-Owned Beauty Brands Are Best-Sellers
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In addition to red carpet-ready fashion brands owned by inspiring Black creatives, the world is also becoming more diverse in the booming beauty industry, thanks to platforms including Color May Vary and Thirteen Lune, glam legends like Pat McGrath and rising stars like Renée Loiz.
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While your closet is becoming more inclusive as you support founders from all walks of life, don’t sleep on these best-selling Black-owned beauty brands, from favorites led by notable names like Rihanna and Pharrell to viral products from Shani Darden and KNC Beauty.
1. Danessa Myricks Beauty
After leading product development for brands like Kiss and Benefit Cosmetics, self-taught makeup artist Danessa Myricks took the beauty industry by storm when she launched her own brand in an effort to create looks for individuals who felt underrepresented, unseen or ignored by beauty brands. Ignoring industry norms, she began to teach other artists about her techniques and product selections, offering a cult-favorite brand with products beloved by industry pros and celebrities alike.
Danessa Myricks Beauty Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder
2. Ami Colé
Founded by Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye, Ami Colé (pronounced Ah-Me Co-Lay) is a clean beauty brand made for melanin-rich skin. Best-sellers include their Lip Treatment Oil ($20), Skin-Enhancing Concealer ($24), and Skin-Enhancing Tinted Moisturizer ($32), and eco-friendly packaging features materials that are either recyclable, reusable or biodegradable.
Ami Colé Skin-Enhancing Concealer
3. Shani Darden Skin Care
Shani Darden trained as an esthetician under a leading dermatologist, eventually going out on her own. Her Retinol Reform Treatment Serum quickly built a huge celebrity following, and scoring a coveted appointment with her is as difficult as reserving a table at your favorite Hollywood restaurant. With star clients and friends including Shay Mitchell, Jessica Alba and Kelly Rowland, Shani Darden and her best-selling products are Hollywood glam gold.
Shani Darden Retinol Reform Treatment Serum
4. Golde
Founded in Brooklyn in 2017, Golde is on a mission to make wellness easy, accessible and fun for all. Available at many major online and brick-and-mortar retailers including Target and Amazon, Golde notes that their 100 percent natural and vegan-friendly products are a celebration of superfoods to effortlessly boost your daily routine, from morning smoothies to skin care.
Golde Clean Greens Superfood Face Mask
5. Kinlò
Olympian Naomi Osaka is behind Kinlò, a skin care brand designed to protect melanin-rich skin from the sun and elements. The tennis star previously The Hollywood Reporter, “I’ve found that many of the other products on the market are either not tinted enough for melanated skin which means they often leave a white residue, or they are very drying, or in many cases they are both. I wanted to create products that offered great quality moisturizing ingredients and a functional tint that can be worn every day whether it’s under your makeup or on bare skin.”
Products such as the Golden Rays sunscreen with SPF 50+ feature a lightweight, mineral-based formula that’s non-comedogenic (so it doesn’t clog pores), water-resistant and sweat-proof, while the eye cream and other items boast rejuvenating ingredients like red algae, known for soothing and moisturizing the skin as well as reducing the appearance of fine lines and protecting the skin from dark spots and sun damage.
Kinlo Golden Ritual Set
6. Glosshood
Founded by Sienna Brown, Glosshood is fun from the moment you catch them on Instagram — think bright colors, clever caption, and a Gen Z point-of-view. This on-the-rise brand’s hero product is their Holyyy Gloss Balm Hybrid, and the founder describes it’s origin best: “It has always been a part of my personal brand to keep a lip gloss on me at all times. Yes — I had a personal brand to maintain at the age of 4. To me, this is part of my identity. Whether dressed up or dressed down, my lip gloss has always made me feel like Superwoman. Recently through much research, I’ve found that people across the board, no matter their gender, age, race, neighborhood/region or lip size can identify with this sentiment.”
Holyyy Gloss Balm Hybrid
7. Pat McGrath Labs
Pat McGrath was being called “Mother” before it was a trend. Known for her iconic runway glam all through fashion month, the renowned makeup artist was bound to create her own best-selling beauty brand one day — and that, she did. As soon as Pat McGrath Labs hit the market, the eyeshadow palettes quickly became not a want, but a need, for makeup artists across the globe. As Renée Loiz tells The Hollywood Reporter: “When anyone asks what’s my favorite product in my makeup kit, the first product I mention is Pat McGrath’s eyeshadow palettes! Every single one of them is so gorgeous and thoughtfully put together.”
MORE BUYING OPTIONS: Pat McGrath Labs | Sephora
Pat McGrath Labs Mothership V Eyeshadow Palette – Bronze Seduction
8. KNC Beauty
Founder Kristen Noel Crawley is a style influencer in her own right, making the rounds at fashion weeks across the world wearing looks designed by everyone from Rihanna to Prada. She created her beloved beauty brand after a trip to Tokyo, witnessing a wall of lip masks. She brought the idea stateside, but with an all-natural, collagen-infused formula. In addition to her oft-imitated lip masks, KNC Beauty’s product range has since expanded to skin care for the eyes, face, lips and beyond.
KNC Beauty 5-Pack Collagen Infused Lip Masks
9. Namesake
Namesake was born out of founder Davlyn Mosley’s time spent at her mom’s dermatology practice and in hospitals, learning the ins and outs of skin care. From new products to the latest treatments, she was exposed to and deeply enamored with it all. Equipped with years of knowledge and the advisory of her dermatologist mother, Namesake launched with the goal to specifically cater towards the care of melanin-rich skin. The journey begins with The Daily Moisturizer — a lightweight cream that instantly smooths, plumps and hydrates skin — and Davlyn’s just getting started.
Namesake The Daily Moisturizer
10. Human Race
Global, ageless superstar Pharrell Williams has been hearing “drop that skin care routine” for so long that he created his own skin care line. In addition to just being a genius move in general and one of the most on-brand celebrity launches out there, we also love that the ethos behind the brand positions self-care as an act of service: “Pharrell created Humanrace in the belief that taking better care of ourselves can teach us to take better care of each other.”
Humanrace Rice Powder Cleanser
11. Fenty Beauty
Everything that Rihanna touches turns to gold, but the launch of Fenty Beauty solidified her position as a brilliant businesswoman — a billionaire one, at that. Not only is the superstar-founded brand known for hit products like its addictive Gloss Bomb Heat Universal Lip Luminizer + Plumper, the brand’s ultra-generous shade range is the definition of inclusive.
MORE BUYING OPTIONS: Fenty Beauty | Sephora | Ulta
Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb Heat Universal Lip Luminizer + Plumper