To say that African American women spend a lot of money on beauty products would be a gross understatement. It is estimated that African American women spend over 7 million a year on beauty products, 80% more than any other racial group. With so much of our hard earned cash being spent in the beauty industry, isn’t it time for more of us to start caring about what companies receive our hard earned cash?

Now more than ever, African Americans are in a position of power within the beauty industry, “mom and pop” beauty companies are springing up with fervor. With many of these black owned companies devoted to making our people, environment, and communities beautiful, African Americans can now choose who we’ll support and on what terms.

The three companies featured in this article cover the gamut of the beauty business, from hair care, to body, and makeup as well. African American owned beauty companies are not only inspiring in what they’ve been able to accomplish, but also in their commitment to rejuvenating the catch phrase, black is beautiful.

Whether you decide to “go natural” or just want to support positive businesses, these natural beauty queens are on a journey to not only inspire, but also to forever change the way that we view beauty.

Valana Minerals

Best Selling Products: Foundation, Faux Vegan Brushes, and Lip-gloss

New Products: Liquid Foundation, Lip Balm

Valana Minerals began as a third career for Valerie Reed. Raised in Southern California, Valerie went to college to study fashion, but soon found she didn’t have the heart for it, “I loved the artistic aspects, but not the industry.” In the next phase of her career, Valerie became a sociology professor, a position she loved because it involved working with people. Her foray in education could only last so long, as she soon realized she missed fulfilling her creative side as well.

By creating a product to help people embrace their inner beauty, the make up industry gave Valerie an avenue to combine everything she loved. Valana Minerals is now carried at select Whole Foods and other retailers. Valana Minerals cosmetics is known for its wide selections of shades for every skin tone, but the fact that Valana Minerals is a black owned all natural makeup company, is icing on the cake.

C+C: How was the idea of Valana Minerals born?
Valerie Reed: I’d transitioned to natural skin and hair care after suffering a severe illness that left my skin very sensitive. My skin always cleared up when I used my own creations. I also got lots of complements on my makeup. I felt the need to create Valana Minerals because I knew that there were lots of other people who had trouble finding makeup to match their skin and if I could create it for myself, then I could create it for others as well. Now, I have customers who tell me that they were never able to find foundation that matched their skin until they discovered ours, or that our lipstick is the only brand that doesn’t cause them to develop breakouts.

C+C: Describe your company’s stance on giving back.
VR: Giving back to the community is not just part of my company’s mission but it’s part of my life in general. I believe that communities can only survive through ‘interdependence’ and that’s possible when we share our blessings, which may come in the form of time, money or experience as a mentor, whatever is needed. I give money to various charitable organizations but I also give to individuals and families in need when I can. I regularly donate to Habitat for Humanity, The Buckner Foundation and Heifer organization because I believe each does great work in addressing basic human needs of shelter, family and food. Each of those organizations gave me permission to list their websites on our company site but I don’t ‘fundraise’ for them or use ‘cause marketing.’ I think that if people donate to these organizations, they should do so because they believe it’s the right thing to do. I believe these organizations do amazing work and I plan to continue to support them and their mission.

C+C: Why do you believe that it is important for women of color to buy natural products?
VR: People of color disproportionately suffer from diseases like breast cancer, lupus and illnesses related to environmental hazards. Using all natural skin and hair care products is one way to lessen long-term exposure to synthetic ingredients. All natural products, especially those with minimal ingredients are beneficial in that they are less likely to lead to allergic reactions.

C+C: Can you offer any natural beauty tips to Clutch/C+C readers?
VR: The two most important all natural beauty behavior tips I can offer are to drink lots of water and protect your skin from sun damage. When it comes to natural products, use products that are all natural, not partially natural. Look for products that disclose ingredients and be patient because it may take time to find the all-natural products that work best for you.

Karen’s Body Beautiful

Best Selling Products: Butter Love, Heavenly Jojoba Hair Oil, Creamylicious

Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Karen Tappin always had a knack for business. While only a freshman at the University of Virginia, Karen began her first business venture, Karen’s Delicious Deliveries. After graduation Karen landed a well paying job on Wall Street, but left soon after to pursue a more fulfilling career as a New York City public school teacher. Unable to leave behind her passion for business, Karen began Karen’s Body Beautiful. Now in its 7th year of operation, Karen’s Body Beautiful is an example of the success that a great product, coupled with word of mouth marketing, can produce.

C+C: Your product line is a really great example of grass roots product movement in the black community, how do you think the original buzz began?
Karen Tappin: The buzz first started when we built the kitchen in the store. When we first started we would work very long hours making the products at home and schlepping them to the store. So we thought, ‘Why not bring the kitchen to the store’? Once we did that, customers felt that it was so real, because they could see the kitchen, they could see the products, and they could see me mixing the products.

C+C: You mentioned the idea about starting the beauty brand with your husband can you talk more about how Karen’s Body Beautiful came into existence?
KT: When I was dating my husband, in the beginning, all the women that he knew were natural. One day I was at his apartment and I told him I was going to get my hair done and I say that in air quotes because I really meant that I was going to get a touch up. And he asked me why? He didn’t say anything else. He never had said anything about my hair before. But I knew what he meant was, ‘Why are you doing this to yourself?’ So I didn’t go and get a touch up, and I kind of sat around and thought why, why am I doing this? Why am I destroying my hair? Why was I going through the trouble of getting my scalp burned? Why couldn’t I just accept my kinky, nappy, curly hair? I then made the decision to go natural.

In 2003 we were on summer vacation from teaching and I was kind of frustrated because even though I had been natural for a few years, I was having problems finding products for my hair. My hair was perpetually dry and brittle. At the time we were still running the first business Karen’s Delicious Deliveries, so we took that summer off to learn how to make products for highly textured hair. From July through August, we experimented in the kitchen and in November of 2003 we opened up our store and that was it, it was that simple.

C+C: Where do your product ingredients come from? Are any of the ingredients locally or sustainably sourced?
KT: Most of my ingredients are imported from Africa. The local farmers, they make the product themselves, they grow the product themselves. As local farmers they’re self-employed, they’re not working for some factory in unfair conditions. But most of my suppliers are independent farmers who sell to distributors.

C+C: How does your company find ways to uplift others?
KT: Growing up I went to a private school and received an excellent education; the best that money could buy. When I taught, I taught in the NYC public school system, which was the total opposite of what I grew up knowing education could be. It was a kind of a shock to see the lack of resources. So when I had the opportunity to teach economics I decided to use it to specifically teach entrepreneurship. I felt like this information that could empower my students to do something literally with their own hands to make money, to let them know that getting a job is fine but you can start your own business, which is not something that young black children or encouraged to do. When I went to school I went to school with super rich powerful people who just automatically knew that they could do any and everything. I wanted to put that feeling of power into my students. I work with YEMP, a city program that gives young people jobs at different small businesses around NYC. I specifically have girls that come in wanting to do hair, so while they’re with me I mentor them on owning their own business the challenges and the success. That’s my way of imparting my wisdom to young people, something that’s very important to me.

C+C: Our readers span the globe, and not everyone can make it to Brooklyn to get a dose of KBB, where can our readers find your products if not online?
KT: We just launched a program called Karen’s Body Beautiful Brand Ambassadors. KBB Brand Ambassadors are very much fans of the brand. There are currently about 20 ambassadors across the country and anyone can contact them to smell, touch, and feel the products before making a purchase. Besides moving the brand forward, part of why we wanted to do this is because I get asked to speak at a lot at events, and so many women approach me with the desire to own their own business. KBB Brand Ambassadors is an opportunity for me to spread that feeling of empowerment to as many people that will listen.

Oyin Handmade

Best Selling Products: Collection of Juices, Whipped pudding, Burnt Sugar Hair Pomade, Hair Dew

Products in the Works: Products for facial care as well as products for babies.

When it comes to beauty, Jamyla Bennu has found that a DIY attitude can lead to phenomenal results. Originally from New York, Jamyla is not only enthusiastic about her line of products, but also enthusiastic about educating others on how to properly care for their hair. Jamyla remarks, “I’m like so many folks in the loose, Internet-based natural hair community – just trying to learn from and contribute to the body of knowledge out there about the care and feeding of happy, healthy hair!”

C+C: How long have you been natural?
JB: I permed for about five years, and chopped in 1994. That’s… Seventeen years now? Time sure flies!

C+C: Your product line is a really great example of grass roots product movement, how do you think the original buzz behind your brand began?
JB: The web based communities that existed in 2003 when we first built the website for Oyin – most notably nappturality.com, to which I belonged, and naturallycurly.com – were excellent examples of early social networking and connectivity, before there even was such a thing. We were very lucky in that the people who were our earliest customers, within these communities and others, enjoyed our goodies enough to want to spread the word. I think also, the fact that we didn’t advertise and were so small might have helped our customers feel very special for knowing about us, like they were in on a personal secret!

C+C: Your YouTube Videos are hilarious- and educational! How did that idea come about?
JB: Thank you! They certainly crack us up! We were wary at first about sharing our goofiness with the world, but they seem to have been very well received. I think our customers find it refreshing that we make serious products but don’t take ourselves so seriously.

All credit for the media goes to my husband and partner, Pierre Bennu, who has always shaped the more fun aspects of our public presence, from the more imaginative product names like Funk Butter and Greg Juice, to the late night podcast show and re-edited ephemeral commercials. How often do I thank my lucky stars that I happened to marry an award-winning filmmaker who believes in full creative partnership and sees a creative challenge in making commercials for our customers? Very often. Like daily.

C+C: What non-profits have you partnered with in the past? What non-profits do you plan to partner with in the future?
JB: We partnered with a local high school this year to work with high school interns, which is not a non-profit, but was awesome! We also, in keeping with the ‘honey’ focus on our line, donate to honeybee health research through pollinators.org.

For the future, we have been looking into Kiva, the micro-lending organization, because we would love to lend to independent entrepreneurs in regions from which our ingredients are sourced – specifically the western African nations where shea butter is created. As a ‘bootstrapped’ small business, we have seen first hand the economic empowerment that can result when driven, hardworking people are given just one helping hand – a new piece of equipment, for instance, or a space to create. We would love to ‘pay forward’ our own success in this way. In the meantime, we purchase fair trade shea butter, created by independent cooperatives of women in Ghana and/or Togo, supporting these initiatives through our purchasing choices.

- Abiola Fasehun