Why the Dire State of Black Beauty Threatens the Entire Industry

Last month, when the British Beauty Council posted a photo on its Instagram of a group of beauty executives standing in front of 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the UK Prime Minister, a few social media users noticed something curious.

“Is there one person who is not white?” read one of several similar comments.

The group had convened during British Beauty Week for a “CEO roundtable” to promote the industry’s goals to the UK government, which had requested to meet chief executives of large organisations, said Millie Kendall, chief executive officer of the British Beauty Council. That there were so few Black executives or founders in the potential pool of invitees reflects broader issues of diversity and inclusion in the industry at-large, she said.

“When you’re curating a list for the Prime Minister’s office and they want to meet with CEOs, it is slim pickings,” Kendall said.

After a decade-plus that saw an explosion of Black-owned brands finding mainstream success, there is a growing sense among Black beauty professionals and diversity advocates that the industry is backsliding, and not just in the UK. In the past year, Black-owned US brands including Ceylon, The Established and Koils by Nature have shuttered. Others, such as Mielle Organics, were acquired by conglomerates (though founder Monique Rodriguez retains her CEO role under P&G).

This sort of churn is normal in the beauty industry. What’s troubling, advocates say, is that fresh obstacles are preventing the next generation of Black founders and executives from rising up to replace those who exited the industry.

The stalling, and in some cases reversal, of the modest diversity gains from 2020 carries serious implications for the beauty industry beyond the question of representation, experts say.

Innovations that once fuelled a more inclusive textured hair market, expanded foundation ranges, and diverse hair remedies are now at risk. At the same time, a new generation of beauty innovators are starting to look to other industries, like consumer-packaged goods or technology, where career growth and entrepreneurial opportunities seem more promising.

“The biggest risk is that the beauty industry would become stagnant and unrepresentative of … the biggest consumers,” said Jamelia Donaldson, founder of UK-based textured hair subscription box, Treasure Tress. “The representation part is so important because Black founders and creatives are the innovators.”

Defining the Problem

The industry’s recent efforts to invest in and stock Black brands and hire Black talent were positioned as social impact or philanthropy, rather than commercial initiatives, experts say.

Brands such as Mielle, Danessa Myricks and Bread Beauty that were stocked at major retailers after 2020 proved popular with shoppers, and remain widely available. As of 2023, Sephora carried 28 Black-owned brands, up from eight in 2020, representing roughly 8 percent of its shelf space, while Ulta stocked around 40 Black-owned, led, or founded brands as of 2022, making up about 9 percent of its offerings, per their impact reports. In the hair care category, Ulta has surpassed its 15 percent target.

But as the beauty industry faces a slowdown in investment and consumer spending, DEI departments and commitments to hire and promote Black and brown executives have been vulnerable to cutbacks, said Tomi Talabi, a former beauty executive and founder of The Black Beauty Club.

“Retailers like Ulta and Sephora that have made the shelf space for these brands … realise it has brought in new consumers and dollars,” Talabi said. “But for the beauty conglomerates — having a [Black] executive or leader helping to influence decisions, I don’t know if they’re seeing the value of that from a dollar perspective.”

For many Black-owned brands, the retail interest sparked after George Floyd quickly came up against harsh realities: the steep costs to fulfil large orders and high marketing expenses to sustain these wholesale partnerships.

“[Retailers] could partner more with these brands,” said Dija Ayodele, founder of the Black Skin Directory and author of “Black Skin.” “They could offer more prominent shelf spacing … better pricing on shelf spacing … more can be done to really push these brands forward.”

Since acquiring Black Opal and Fashion Fair in 2019, Desiree Rogers and Cheryl Mayberry McKissack have been successful in getting the brands new or expanded distribution in major beauty retailers like Sephora and Ulta, with Black Opal also growing its presence in Target.

Their parent company, Chicago-based Black Opal LLC, was the lead beauty sponsor of the Democratic National Convention in August. But, meagre avenues for new funding stands in the way of crucial growth efforts, like the ability to advertise Black Opal’s new skincare line or hiring more salespeople to train Sephora and Ulta staff to promote and sell their products, Rogers said.

“The need for capital is real,” Rogers said. “Money is extremely tight, and difficult to raise.”

What Happens Next?

Black founders are recalibrating in the face of these challenges — some are broadening their customer base to reach other cultural groups and getting creative with marketing, Rogers said.

In some cases, this means moving away from a focus on demographics like race and ethnicity, and instead highlighting psychographics, like shared interests and lifestyles, Ayodele said. This shift can bring in a wider range of consumers and appeal to investors eager to see a brand’s potential beyond niche markets, experts say.

“The younger generation is … trying to find more common threads that unite them with other people … rather than just their skin colour,” she said.

At Treasure Tress, Donaldson found her niche in 2015 by focusing on the “Black British curly-haired consumer,” but she quickly realised that products made for Black and multicultural women resonate across a broad range of people with textured hair.

“No one caters to us,” she said. “When in reality curly hair is prevalent not only in the Black and mixed race communities, but the white and Asian communities and Mediterranean cultural groups.”

Indeed, brands like Carol’s Daughter, Mielle and, more recently, Sabrina Elba’s S’Able Labs were famously born from kitchen concoctions and family recipes that introduced new formulations and niche ingredients into the broader beauty conversation.

“[Black] brands are innovating with ingredients found in the Caribbean and Africa that their families have been using for decades,” Donaldson said. “They’re introducing new, exciting concoctions that actually work … and keep the industry vibrant, cutting edge and forward-thinking.”

Today, Donaldson’s textured hair subscription boxes — featuring shampoos, conditioners, and styling agents from brands like Shea Moisture, Pattern and Imbue Curls — ship to 46 countries, including Saudi Arabia, France, Japan and Germany.

At Black Opal LLC, Rogers is working to strike a careful balance between being a Black-focused company — centring Black women as the brand’s muse and capturing the nuances of their melanated skin — while also recognising that “to survive, we must cross over,” she said.

Next year, Black Opal will make a bigger push into the Hispanic market via an expanded partnership with JCPenney, and is expecting to build inroads with Indian consumers via that visibility.

“We think [Fashion Fair and Black Opal] are the best in the market at two different ends of the spectrum,” she said. “We are really working hard to position them in the minds of consumers and [show] who we are and why we’re important.”