Black Woman Owned Beauty and Skincare Brands to Watch in 2023
Also, PR people, I have news for you! And my Food & Wine and FOOD52 articles are out :)
TL;DR
🍔 Check out my Food & Wine and FOOD52 articles!
🪷 Quick talk about my skin woes and why skincare is important to me
🌿Black Woman Owned Beauty and Skincare Brands🌿
🚨Calling all PR Agents in food, beverage, and travel
🤫 Teaser: All the Brands I Bought Mezcal From in Oaxaca and Why
🍔 Check out my Food & Wine article about Oakland!
Here is my Food & Wine article about the food trails around Oakland, CA
Here is my FOOD52 article about Turkish hotels and chefs that are aiding in earthquake relief
It’s been a VERY busy few weeks for me but I’m very proud of the work I’ve been doing and the people I’ve been able to highlight in my editorial career! Give them a read and LMK what you think 🙂
🪷 Quick talk about my skin woes and why skincare is important to me
Currently, my skin is a mess. Not all of my skin but there’s one part of my face (my right cheek) that keeps breaking out and has been for months. I know it’s not because of my pillows or my phone touching my face. I don’t know if it’s a gut thing. I know that it all started because I was at a super stressful job that kick-started my acne, but it’s been months since I worked for them and I’m still breaking out. While diet and exercise help, having the right products for my skin is crucial. Here are a few Black lady small business owners in the skincare and beauty industry that deserve all our money:
🌿 Black Woman Owned Beauty and Skincare Brands 🌿
LaShesia Holliday, Founder and Mixologist of Bodily Love
What beauty/skincare products do you sell? What makes your products stand apart from others in the market?
Naptural Beauty Supply is a one-stop-shop for luxury hair care, body care, other self care products that are all-natural, handmade, and vegan! You can confidently use our products knowing that the products you are using are good for you as well as our environment. Our most popular and effective products include our hair growth Holy Grail Oil, the Beard Bae Bundle, facial masks, rose water, and our body butters and body scrubs. LaShesia Holiday, owner and operator of Naptural Beauty Supply, is an entrepreneur that is dedicated to improving the lives of the Black community through her community service initiatives as well as her educational opportunities about the care and styling of natural hair.
I know it's like picking your favorite child but imma ask anyway: Which of your products is your favorite and why?
Our most popular and effective product is our hair growth Holy Grail Hair Oil. My daughter, Taylor, was born severely premature at 23 weeks. Taylor was bald when she was born, while the doctors helped save her life, it was my job to help her hair. I mixed oils to help her hair grow, now her hair is down her back! The oil is now known as Holy Grail Hair Oil. This product is our top seller! I mean what more can I say?! This oil is a mixture of the best! Jojoba, Jamaican Black Castor oil, Tea Tree, Olive, Vitamin E oil, Argan oil, Coconut Oil, Orange, Peppermint oil, Hempseed & Fragrance
Holy grail hair oil can be used to:
Promotes hair growth
Seal in moisture
Heat protectant
Hair and body oil
Oil scalp during protective styles
Tell us about YOU. Why/When did you start your beauty business? Give us the story!
When asked about how she became interested in natural hair products and restoration, LaShesia Holliday explained that her own hair journey “started out rough.” There was a time when people would, due to the state of her hair, ask if she was doing okay. Now, with a full head of healthy natural hair, she is routinely asked for her maintenance and styling secrets. She also became interested in the world of hair care products at the birth of her premature daughter, Taylor. LaShesia was faced with the duty to help her daughter’s hair grow, and so she began to research the best products and methods for the process. Through her research, she learned all about how to care for natural Black hair and became inspired to discover ways to further serve and improve the lives of the Black community. LaShesia is now the proud owner of Naptural Beauty Supply, which serves as a one-stop-shop for exquisite hair products, body-care, and other self care items. In addition, she created these items to be all-natural, handmade, and vegan friendly. It is one of LaShesia’s goals to encourage women to learn about their natural hair so they may embrace their beautiful, natural selves. LaShesia has earned an Associate’s Degree in Business with a Certificate in Entrepreneurship. Along with these credentials, she graduated from the Catapult which is a “startup to storefront program” that supplied her with the opportunity to build her business in a retail space in Pittsburgh, PA. Which later closed due to the Covid-19 shutdown in March of 2020. The pandemic submerged her into an online web presence. She went from making over 95% of her sales in person, to guiding them to the website, where she now makes about 75% of her sales. She ships all over the USA and Canada, and recently shipped her 1st international order to Africa!
With her passion for supporting the Black community, LaShesia’s business adopted an empowerment initiative that has raised over fifteen thousand dollars to be given back to the community. She serves as a board member for Greenwood Week as well as the Origins Advisory Group, and she was even initiated into the Pittsburgh Courier’s Fab 40 under 40 in 2019! Through her beauty supply business as well as her community service initiatives, LaShesia aspires to create safe spaces for discussions about Black beauty. She is a teacher at heart, and enjoys providing her friends and clients with in-person hair tutorials. In addition, she is supportive of transracial adoptive parents and serves as an educational source for those wanting to learn more about caring for and styling natural hair. When she is away from work, LaShesia enjoys spending time with her three children and improving her own health through exercising and catching naps when she can. Even when she is out of the office, LaShesia can be found researching and brainstorming for the future of her business and how she may continue to serve and improve the lives of the Black community.
Where can we find you (website, socials, etc)?
https://www.facebook.com/NapturalBeautySupply
DISCOUNT:
Use code "HTA" for 20% off of your 1st order! enter the code at checkout on our website www.napturalbeautysupply.com
Chantee Butler, Founder & CEO
What beauty/skincare products do you sell? What makes your products stand apart from others in the market?
Nayko Naturals creates natural, handcrafted, preservative-free skincare products that get back to the basics. At Nayko Naturals, integrity is at the core of what we do. We believe in self-care, and that our products enable consumers to take the worry out of product purchasing. There is comfort in knowing that you are using clean, all-natural products and that it is safe for your entire family. We sell body butters, hand salves, and more!
I know it's like picking your favorite child but imma ask anyway: Which of your products is your favorite and why?
The Hand Salve is my absolute favorite product. It fits in your pocket and provides nourishment to your skin all day long!
Tell us about YOU. Why/When did you start your beauty business? Give us the story!
I searched for YEARS, looking for a skin moisturizer that did not have a laundry list of ingredients. Oftentimes, companies would brand their product as “all-natural” or “shea butter body butter”, and I would be tricked into buying it. When I got home and peeled back the label to inspect the ingredients, there were a slew of ingredients that I could not pronounce - many of which were toxic and unsafe. Personally, I live by the motto if you can’t find it, create it. So I did just that. I have spent the past 4 years testing, obtaining feedback, and iterating my proprietary formula to create the best product possible. Most of my product feedback and iteration took place during my time in business school at The Wharton School in 2019, after which I launched the business in 2020. This personal motto inspires me every day and encourages me that the product I have created has a value proposition that is unmatched, and that I am destined to serve in this space.
Where can we find you (website, socials, etc)?
DISCOUNTS:
Go to www.naykonaturals.com, select your fav product and during checkout enter code 'HTA20' for 20% off of your order
Telecia Knight, Founder of Asili Living Company
What beauty/skincare products do you sell? What makes your products stand apart from others in the market?
Body oils, luxury detox salt soaks
Which of your products is your favorite and why?
Luxury sea salt soaks. Creates an amazing detoxifying bath using sea salt, floral, bstanuvals and a blend of essential oils.
Tell us about YOU. Why/When did you start your beauty business? Give us the story!
Asili Living Company is a Black woman owned business that handcrafts skincare and bath products free of hormone-disrupting ingredients that negatively impact women's reproductive health.
I created this brand when I was diagnosed with a larger uterine fibroid (non-cancerous tumor) that expanded my uterus equivalent to someone who is 5.5 months pregnant. I consulted with my gynecological surgeon and inquire lifestyle changes to consider implementing and she advised that she would refrain from beauty products that contain parabens; a hormone disrupting ingredient used in many skincare brands.
After extensive research, I learned that many products marketed to women, particularly Black women, contain hormone-disrupting and carcinogenic ingredients.
I went looking for "cleaner beauty products" and found that even products marked as cleaner and natural contained many harmful ingredients that I wished to avoid.
As such, I created Asili Living Co with the reproductive wellness of women in mind.
Where can we find you (website, socials, etc)?
DISCOUNT:
15% discount code
🚨 Calling all PR Agents in food, beverage, and travel
If you happen to work in food, beverage, and/or travel PR, feel free to reach out to me with any stories, locations, destinations, or clients you’d like to see covered. Before you send me your pitches though, here are a few important things to know:
While I don’t exclusively cover topics focusing on marginalized people, they are my priority
While I have focused on wellness topics in the past for my editorial career, my culinary and travel writing has really been taking off.
Please DO NOT send me pitches about non-Native people in Native spaces (for example, anyone who opens a food business in Hawaii who isn’t native to Hawaii).
Please DO NOT send me pitches about supplements right now. If there’s a space for them in the publications I work for then I’ll let you know but that’s not the case right now.
PLEASEEEE send me pitches about Black and brown owned distilleries, wineries, food destinations, restaurants, etc. My food-meets-travel writing is HOT right now so I’ll probably be able to get you coverage if the pitch resonates with me.
🤫 Teaser: All the Brands I Bought Mezcal From in Oaxaca and Why
I’m leaving Oaxaca in less than 12 hours and my bags are filled with over 4 liters of different Indigenous woman-owned mezcals. While I can’t share the stories behind these brands right now (because I’m writing about that for Wine Enthusiast) I’ll definitely share what I bought and why I bought it.
Note: All of the businesses I’ll feature sell multiple types of mezcal and the bottles I bought were hand selected. I’ll explain tomorrow WITH PICTURES!