Four years after a long-overdue reckoning, seven Black beauty-brand founders reflect on what’s changed—and what hasn’t.

Four years after a long-overdue reckoning in the beauty industry, it’s time to take a hard look at where things stand.

The summer of 2020 brought on a wave of change. The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery made the reality of racial inequality for Black Americans unignorable. As momentum behind the Black Lives Matter movement peaked, the nation reckoned with how to carve out a more equitable future—an objective that was particularly resonant in the beauty industry. After all, according to McKinsey research published in 2022, while Black consumers are responsible for 11.1 percent of total beauty spending, Black brands make up only 2.5 percent of revenue.

Black leaders began speaking out about the industry’s lack of inclusivity and calling attention to the barriers that both customers and founders face. Fashion designer Aurora James was one of the most influential voices, catalyzing both conversation and forward momentum with her Fifteen Percent Pledge, a call to action for retailers to stock at least 15 percent of their shelves with products from Black-owned brands. As Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye, founder of makeup brand Ami Colé, puts it, “The Fifteen Percent Pledge helped put up a mirror to the industry giants to ask the question: ‘Are you diverse enough to service all your consumers?’”

Retailers panicked and set out to course correct. In some instances, this sparked meaningful initiatives and partnerships that led to enduring change beyond ticking a box. For example, Sephora pivoted its Sephora Accelerate program to focus solely on brands from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) -founded brands. “Sephora Accelerate will always be one of the most transformative opportunities for my business that I feel lucky enough to have experienced,” says Maeva Heim, founder of hair-care brand Bread Beauty Supply.

However, this wave of corporate support also resulted in disappointing and, in some instances, detrimental outcomes. "Today, many of the [Black-owned] brands that I looked up to have now shut down, what feels like overnight, due to limited funding and predatory terms on investments," says N'Diaye-Mbaye.

While the urgency to uplift and support Black-owned brands has waned, the need to keep doing so has not. Here, InStyle spoke to seven Black beauty founders about what’s changed—and what hasn’t. Plus, what intentional and meaningful shifts are needed for a more equitable future.

Maeva Heim, founder of Bread Beauty Supply

Bread is one of the most basic yet vital food items. Bread Beauty Supply applies this idea to textured hair-care routines. Its tagline? Hair care basics for not-so-basic hair. When the brand launched in Sephora in August 2020, it increased the retailer's tally of Black-owned brands from seven to eight. Now, it’s one of 24.

“We are somewhat in a state of limbo,” says Heim of where things stand for Black beauty founders today. “Gone is the rush of support that we saw in 2020, but we still have such a long way to go. People thought the momentary uplifting of Black-owned brands and the push for inclusion in brands and products would fix every issue—but it’s not the kind of thing that can be fixed overnight. There’s still more to do…Operating as a beauty brand today means that inclusion is essentially table stakes. While lots of brands are still falling behind, the sheer number of brands that now ensure their product releases are inclusive has come leaps and bounds compared to five or even three years ago. There’s still such a huge opportunity to make prestige shopping and beauty spaces more inclusive for the needs of Black consumers—but that takes the work of the entire industry to help correct. It is shifting, but slower than it should be."

Nyakio Grieco, founder of Thirteen Lune

Founded in December 2020, Thirteen Lune is a beauty retailer offering products from primarily Black- and brown-founded brands. While it started as an e-commerce platform, it now has a flagship store in Los Angeles and is the official beauty retailer for JCPenney, operating in more than 600 stores nationwide.

“[The industry is] seeing more inclusion in product offerings, shade ranges, models, and marketing—but capital is key,” says Grieco. “The numbers for funding for Black-owned brands have dropped since 2020. In 2021, Black-founded startups received 1.4 percent of all U.S. venture funding. In 2022, it was 1.1 percent. We have seen many Black-owned brands [that] had initial access to capital prove successful and build a great business, yet still not be able to access additional capital. If we are founded but not funded, then there is no sustainable path to growth and profit.”

Danessa Myricks, founder of Danessa Myricks Beauty

Danessa Myricks Beauty is an eponymous brand founded on the ethos that anyone—regardless of race, gender, age, and personal style—should feel free to experiment with makeup as a mode of self-expression. Myricks is a celebrity makeup artist and product developer with decades of experience.

"Although many brands have made an effort to be a part of the complexion conversation for deeper skin tones, there are still many brands who have not prioritized real inclusion as a part of their development ethos. Performative expression can sometimes feel more insulting than the initial exclusion," says Myricks. "It takes more than a founder’s desire to make an inclusive assortment. Inclusion sensitivity is necessary at every touchpoint in a development cycle, from the types of ingredients, chemists, and contract manufacturers to quality control and production. It goes far beyond the desire to make a shade; it’s the entire industry prioritizing innovation through a global lens."

Teri Johnson, founder of Harlem Perfume Co.

Harlem Perfume Co., founded in 2022, is Johnson’s second brand. She started with Harlem Candle Co. in 2014. Both are luxury brands inspired by the heart of Harlem and the soul of jazz. Harlem Perfume Co. is in the 2024 Sephora Accelerate class, an experience Johnson describes as impactful and encouraging.

“For my brands, industry inclusion has been great. I'm working with the same perfumers that all these huge companies like Estée Lauder are working with, so the fact that the fragrance industry is recognizing the smaller brands, the diverse-owned brands is great. Even five years ago, I was working with the same perfumers but wasn't getting any recognition or love. Now the playing field is just more level,” says Johnson. "However, I work with a lot of merchants and some of them are really showing who they truly are. They reached out to us when everybody wanted to get Black-owned brands on their shelves. From day one, it was so obvious that they were checking a box. The purchase orders are so small, but they love to include us in their marketing materials.”

Kim Lewis, CEO and Co-Founder of Listener Brands

Listener Brands is the parent company of CurlMix and 4C ONLY, two hair-care brands catering to the needs of textured hair. What started with DIY curly hair boxes in 2015 has blossomed into two companies, with CurlMix available at Ulta Beauty. Lewis describes her Ulta partnership as amazing and genuine.

"In 2020, there was a massive rise in support for Black-owned brands, which we can see now, four years later, was driven in part by performative allyship. It felt very obligatory versus supportive in some cases," says Lewis. "However, some companies have genuinely invested in DEI to uplift Black voices while others slap some words on their website as an obligation to come across as anti-racist. Performative allyship appears to have decreased as fewer brands are even participating in allyship at all. Larger companies have started withdrawing from DEI initiatives therefore creating a domino effect. Many brands still show support, but without real DEI investments, their support may come across as superficial rather than substantive."

Candace Mitchell-Harris, founder of Myavana

Myavana is a beauty technology brand founded by Mitchell-Harris, a data scientist. Its artificial intelligence tool utilizes microscopic hair strand analysis and imaging technology to provide personalized hair-care product regimens from a database of more than 3,000 brands.

"I see a change in Black representation at the executive level with amazing leaders like Esi Eggleston Bracey, chief growth and marketing officer at Unilever, and [throughout] our founder community. I would like to see these trends continue," says Mitchell-Harris. "I still see the presence of grant dollars and DEI programs, particularly for Black-owned beauty brands; however, only from those companies that committed to the cause with pure intentions and now see it as a part of their ethos and expression of their values and company culture. I’m hungry to see more equity and ownership in the market that Black women drive, spending more than the average consumer on hair care products. We should have an equitable balance of ownership."

Diarrha N'Diaye-Mbaye, founder of Ami Colé

Ami Colé is a makeup brand that provides melanin-rich consumers with efficacious, sustainable, and mindful formulas. Prior to launching Ami Colé, N'Diaye-Mbaye spent more than six years in marketing and product development.

“The institutions and investors that jumped up to fill their diversity quota are not quite keeping up their end of the bargain," says N'Diaye-Mbaye. “The great news is there are many budding brands emerging in the Black beauty space; brands that cater to BIPOC audiences and beyond. We are in a multicultural climate that is demanding a changing face of the beauty industry. Our opportunity today is to create a viable, repeatable, and equitable system to ensure the brands emerging through these platforms are equipped with the tools and environments to thrive. It's not enough to just fill the shelves—building out thoughtful paths for these brands to succeed is a big opportunity and needs to be brought to the forefront."