This article is part of our Vogue Business membership package. To enjoy unlimited access to our weekly Beauty Edit newsletter, which contains Member-only reporting and analysis, the Beauty Trend Tracker and Leadership Advice, sign up for Vogue Business membership here.
At the end of September, Armani Beauty will partner with the South Asian Beauty Collective (SABC) to host its first-ever Diwali-themed masterclass. “It will have a celebratory theme but will also address specific questions South Asians have about makeup, such as understanding your undertone and finding what works best for it,” explains UK-based South Asian makeup artist Aarti Pal, who founded SABC earlier this year.
It’s a milestone moment for Armani Beauty, one that underscores the benefits of working with platforms such as SABC that set out to improve diversity and inclusion across the industry.
“Even when brands have the right product range, they often struggle to communicate effectively with a BIPOC audience due to a lack of genuine understanding of non-Western cultures,” says Pal. “Platforms like mine can bridge this gap — but only if brands are genuinely willing to listen and engage.”
SABC joins a growing list of beauty communities aimed at creating safe spaces for people of colour (POC), which are gaining traction. One of the OG platforms is Brown Beauty Talk, which was started by Ronke Adeyemi as a hashtag in 2013 and has since spawned into a vibrant community. Author and aesthetician Dija Ayodele launched Black Skin Directory (BSD), a resource for Black and multicultural communities to address their skin concerns, in 2018. In the US, e-commerce site Thirteen Lune is leading the charge by both selling Black and Brown-owned beauty brands as well as partnering with more mainstream retailers.
Some beauty companies are waking up to the need to be more inclusive, and by extension tap into a wider customer base. But there is still a long way to go, experts agree. “While progress has been made, there is still much work to be done to ensure that people of colour feel fully included by mainstream brands,” says Margaret Johnston-Clarke, global chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at L’Oréal Group (Armani Beauty is part of the group’s luxe division).
“As someone who runs her own clinic and has a distinctly Nigerian name, I’ve had countless people ask me about skincare products that address their unique needs, often feeling overlooked by the industry. While there are many products available, including those from mainstream brands, the problem is that these brands often fail to make people of colour feel involved and included,” says Ayodele.
Brand approaches to diversity still lack depth, reaffirms Ayodele, who says that platforms like hers can also be enablers — a tool that can link them to a customer base that often feels left out of the beauty conversation. “Brands often focus on immediate return on investment. After George Floyd, diversity became a trend — but that’s the problem. Legacy brands need to stop viewing diversity as a passing trend and invest the necessary time and resources. There will be a return, but it’s long term and it comes with a cost,” she says.
Jazz Kaur Sohal, a PR professional who worked with L’Oréal and LVMH brands such as Guerlain and Benefit before transitioning to consulting for POC-owned beauty brands, echoes this sentiment: “I think some brands still see diversity as a trend that will fade away. But POC, our cultures, and our heritages are not trends — we are here every day, and we need to be accepted, celebrated and embraced. It’s up to POC in the industry to continue pushing the diversity movement.”
The question is, will mainstream brands continue to treat diversity as a fleeting marketing trend, or will they recognise the deeper cultural and commercial value of genuinely inclusive beauty?
The power of education
A recent poll of 400 of the Black Skin Directory’s most-engaged users found that over 51 per cent did not feel understood by or relevant to mainstream beauty brands. “We already know this disconnect exists,” Ayodele says. “Skincare brands have to learn that representation isn’t just about imagery and the skin colour of models used in a campaign — it’s also about pre-product research, clinical testing, language used, price point, choice of models or content creators.”
“I feel that after Black Lives Matter a lot of brands acted like they were Black and Brown skin friendly but frankly lacked the skills to do so,” says Adeyemi of Brown Beauty Talk.
Kaur Sohal adds that diversity is still very new and unknown territory for many brands. “Unless there are POC in senior positions, brands will not know how to communicate their needs, they most likely aren’t even aware of the missing piece. Brands are under pressure to do right by their community, but at the same time not to be perceived as having a ‘tick-box’ strategy; it has to be authentic. Brands should start conversations with experts to at least learn about what’s culturally appropriate.”
This is where inclusive platforms can play a role, she says, for example, in enabling everyone in an organisation, including non-POC people, to talk about these issues. “Unless you feel comfortable, empowered, inspired, motivated and armed with knowledge, you will naturally avoid the topic.”
Black Skin Directory has a BSD Insider group for its most-engaged users, who meet every quarter, but will soon begin meeting every month. It launched an education vertical two years ago, and has worked with Boots’s own brand No7 to provide in-house training for staff. “By understanding the concerns and cultural disposition of people of colour, practitioners are more confident when a Black or Brown person sits in front of them, leading to a stronger and better relationship,” says Ayodele.
From next year, BSD is looking to tap into this active community and host focus group sessions for mainstream beauty brands. “We’re working on long-term brand partnerships that foster deeper and more meaningful relationships between the brand and the Black consumers with BSD as the facilitator,” says Ayodele.
Consumers want to speak to brands that understand and know their cultures, notes Pal; and that is where masterclasses fit in, such as the one she is conducting for Armani Beauty with a Diwali theme.
Brown Beauty Talk has held makeup masterclasses with Urban Decay, Nars Cosmetics and Bobbi Brown. “The results were packed-out events where the brand sold a lot of products. Hosting a masterclass with us will help raise a beauty brand’s profile within a market with great spending power. Black women spend six times more on beauty than their white counterparts,” says Adeyemi.
The e-commerce route
In the US, Thirteen Lune was set up in 2020 — during the Black Lives Matter movement — by serial beauty entrepreneur Nyakio Grieco and 11 Honoré founder Patrick Herning. It sells brands launched by people of many cultures, including African, Hispanic, South Asian and East Asian descent. “Most beauty ingredients we use, whether it’s shea butter, saffron or argan oil, come from marginalised parts of the world. It’s exciting to tell our stories about South Asia, South Africa, the entire continent of Africa, and beyond,” says Grieco.
Some 90 per cent of the brands Thirteen Lune work with are BIPOC-founded, while 10 per cent are dedicated to fostering allyship, such as Olaplex. “This is a brand that, long before 2020, had really spoken to inclusivity within their brand, whether through their formulations, marketing or their teams,” says Grieco.
One of the biggest success stories in the beauty industry recently, Thirteen Lune achieved $1 million in turnover in its first year, $15 million in its second year and $25 million in its third year. With investors including Goop’s Gwyneth Paltrow and Stripes’s Naomi Watts, it also has shop-in-shops at over 600 JCPenney stores across the US.
Thirteen Lune opened a 1,700-square-foot store in Los Angeles last year. This year, American Airlines approached the platform to create the first-ever rotating collection of beauty brands as part of its onboard amenities, opening a new channel for brands on Thirteen Lune’s marketplace. The kits are now available on select flights in American Airlines’s First Class, Business Class and Premium Economy cabins. “It shows how mainstream brands can work with platforms that focus on inclusivity and diversity,” says Grieco.
She urges mainstream beauty brands to engage more closely with platforms that have inclusivity and diversity as their core mission. “It’s really important, when you think about growing a business and having a lasting business, to speak to that consumer now. This is a growing and important customer base that feels left out.”
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.
