51+ Black-owned beauty brands to support in 2025 and beyond
We compiled Black-owned skin care, makeup and hair care brands we think you should know about.
Cay Skin Isle Glow Face Moisturizer SPF 45
$36.00
Sephora
$36.00
Cay Skin
$36.00
Sephora
$36.00
Cay Skin
Ami Colé is a clean beauty brand founded by Senegalese-American Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye. The brand’s name is inspired by and named after N’Diaye-Mbaye’s mother, who owned a hair braiding salon in Harlem. N’Diaye-Mbaye created Ami Colé after noticing a lack of sustainable beauty brands for women of color. All of Ami Colé’s products are vegan, fragrance- and alcohol-free, hypoallergenic and noncomedogenic.
Danessa Myricks Beauty is a favorite of Dr. Aleta Simmons, a board-certified dermatologist and owner of Simmons Skin Center in Nashville, Tennessee, who says she likes the brand’s liquid eye shadows. There are “tons of colors that make your skin pop, whatever brown skin tone you are,” she says. The brand offers a wide range of makeup products for the face and eyes, including high-impact liquid eye shadows and multichrome eyeshadow flake toppers.
Founded in Detroit, The Lip Bar — one of Simmons’ recommendations — offers brightly colored lipsticks, liquid lips and matte stains designed to stay on for around 24 hours, according to the brand. Lip Bar also offers a Complexion Quiz to show you the best product shades for your skin tone, and Virtual Try-On of lipstick shades using your camera. The Lip Bar also recently launched a skin care line that includes a moisturizer, makeup remover balm, exfoliating sponge and more.
Tisha Thompson, a former makeup artist and founder of LYS Beauty, created the brand during the Covid pandemic as a way to make clean beauty products affordable and accessible for all skin tones and types. Since its start, the brand has significantly grown — in fact, in 2021, it became the first-ever Black-owned clean makeup brand to hit Sephora shelves, according to the brand. LYS Beauty offers dozens of makeup products for the face, eyes and lips in various shades and formulas.
Janet & Jo founder Kendra Woolridge, who named the brand after her two grandmothers, created it after learning about the toxins and carcinogens found in traditional nail polishes. That aspect hit close to home after she lost her grandmother Jo (half of the company’s namesake) and her mother to cancer. Janet & Jo makes vegan, cruelty-free and vibrant nail lacquers.
Afro-Dominicana Lulu Cordero created Bomba Curls after using hair care recipes from the Dominican Republic to promote hair growth and health while suffering from severe traction alopecia. The brand has clean, pure and organic natural hair products with a focus on curly and coily hair textures. Bomba Curls offers hair masks, oils, satin scrunchies and more.
Janell Stephens created Camille Rose as a means of curing the eczema of her five young children, which was caused by severe dryness of their hair. The brand offers hair, skin and body care products that are made using natural and food-grade ingredients, and it’s a favorite of Simmons, who loves that its products provide moisture and make styling easier.
Melanin Haircare focuses on scalp and natural hair health. It was created in 2015 after years of sisters Whitney and Tafetta White recommending DIY hair care recipes and styling tips. The brand offers hair products like leave-in conditioners, shampoos and hair oils that have nontoxic, natural ingredients. Since its launch, Melanin Haircare has expanded its range to include hair accessories like satin head wraps.
Created by actress Tracee Ellis Ross, Pattern Beauty makes products like styling creams, scalp detox oils, conditioners and even blow dryers for all hair textures, including loose curls and tight coils. Pattern Beauty also offers quizzes and curl guides to find the best treatment for your specific hair type.
Taliah Waajid, the founder of the eponymous brand, is a natural hair care expert, educator and stylist who created a line of chemical-free hair care products specifically for naturally curly, coily, kinky and wavy textures. “If I have braids in my hair, I like to use Taliah Waajid products,” says Simmons. In addition to various conditioners, hair oils, curl creams and more, the brand offers educational guides to find the best treatments for your hair, including a guide for protective styles and a curly hair styling guide.
At NBC Select, we work with experts who have specialized knowledge and authority based on relevant training and/or experience. We also take steps to ensure that all expert advice and recommendations are made independently and with no undisclosed financial conflicts of interest.
Mili Godio is an updates editor at NBC Select who leads content for the site’s Identities vertical, including Black-owned, women-owned and AAPI-owned businesses. For this article, she connected with over 50 beauty brands to confirm that they’re at least 51% Black-owned. (To be considered a Black-owned business, a company must be at least 51% Black-owned, according to the Census Bureau.) She also rounded up a few notable products from Black-owned brands.
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