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32 Black-Owned Skincare Brands to Shop Year-Round
Add these expert-approved favorites to your rotation.
For people of color and beauty lovers in general, Black-owned skincare brands provide a wide range of elevated products for face and body—from manuka honey cleansers and oil-regulating face masks to nourishing body oils and nearly invisible sunscreens—that are worthy of any medicine cabinet or countertop. It's no secret that celebration and promotion of these trailblazing companies has been scarce within the beauty industry for years, but with recent uprisings and a closer examination of the racial relations that sparked globally during the pandemic, Black-owned beauty is finally getting its well-deserved time in the limelight.
Shop the Best Black-Owned Skincare Brands
Contrary to what some shoppers may believe, most Black-owned brands create beauty products that cater to everyone, with special emphasis placed on the cosmetic needs of Black and Brown people who have been underserved for years. While the beauty landscape is currently flooded with a slew of celebrity lines—stars like Alicia Keys, Pharrell Williams, Venus Williams, and others have launched thoughtful skincare brands that serve a greater purpose through their incorporation of clean ingredients, wellness, and sustainability—there are under-the-radar brands to know too.
To honor and support a few notable Black-owned skincare brands, we've rounded up a short list of beloved and up-and-coming companies, like Oui the People and AbsoluteJoi, which are leaving their mark on the beauty industry while enhancing our complexions. Here, 32 of the best Black-owned skincare products and tools to shop now and keep on your radar for all time.
Created by founder Tatiana Elizabeth with glowing skin in mind for both face and body, skinBUTTR includes a suite of simplified beauty essentials, from cleansers to moisturizers, which promote an overall healthy and balanced skin appearance.
Featured item: Tonr
A love of ancient beauty rituals and the ups and downs of her own skincare journey inspired singer Alicia Keys to launch Keys Soulcare, a skincare and wellness brand that's rooted in self-love and positivity. Keys Soulcare takes the application of your daily skin care routine a step further by tying each of its products to a special icon and affirmation that also encourages its users to reflect and decompress.
Featured item: Golden Cleanser with Manuka Honey
Keys Soulcare is also available to shop at Ulta.
AbsoluteJoi is a brand created by Dr. Anne Beal, a medical researcher and a former biopharmaceutical executive who saw a need for clean, science-backed skincare that addressed common issues for skin of color. AbsoluteJoi's products are fragrance free and aim to reduce skin inflammation that can contribute to signs of aging and hyperpigmentation.
Featured item: Skin Refining Night Oil with Retinol
Acne-prone skin types, this one's for you: From discoloration to inflamed zits, Rosen Skincare's products cover all the bases when it comes to dealing with breakouts. The brand uses a treasure trove of clean, natural ingredients like coconut and radish root ferment, pineapple enzymes, and more to create its products. Rosen Skincare also makes it easy for customers to stick to a regimen through their choice of a pre-set four-step routine that focuses on improving texture, pimples and pustules, or old acne scars.
Featured item: Earth Mask
Rosen Skincare is also available to shop at Nordstrom, Urban Outfitters, and Target.
In an effort to celebrate their own natural beauty and women around the world, Bolden Skincare (adapted from the word "embolden") founders Chinelo and Ndidi reconnected years after meeting each other as children at boarding school in Nigeria to develop their coveted brand. In addition to their collection of brightening and acne-fighting products, like Bolden's Overnight Spot Treatment and Skin Brightening Toner, the brand also carries a range of shea butter oils for face and body.
Featured item: Brightening Glycolic Acid Toner
Bolden Skincare is also available to shop on Amazon.
Artist and producer Pharrell Williams's buzzy product company, Humanrace, is an extension of his popular apparel line and is made with an eco-friendly and nonbinary approach to beauty. Featuring standout green packaging and a curated three-product offering—which includes a cleanser, exfoliator, and moisturizer—Humanrace aims to simplify your skincare routine while placing self-care at the forefront. The brand is also sustainable, as it operates on a refill system to minimize unnecessary waste.
Featured item: Rice Powder Cleanser
Humanrace is also available to shop at Thirteen Lune, SSENSE and Goop.
KNC Beauty is named after its founder and entrepreneur Kristen Noel Crawley, and has become a celeb- and makeup artist-loved beauty line thanks to its wildly popular (and extremely Instagrammable) lip and eye masks. Crawley created KNC Beauty after a visit to Japan that inspired her to formulate natural, collagen-based products that are not only fun to use, but also expertly prep and condition the skin.
Featured item: Supa Scrub Set
KNC Beauty is also available to shop at Violet Grey, Net-a-Porter, Madewell, Revolve, FWRD, and Sephora.
Topicals is a newer, cult-favorite skincare brand that exclusively uses ingredients scientifically proven to work based on their peer-reviewed clinical trials. Each product is formulated in partnership with a skincare advisory board for effectiveness and efficiency, and helps customers positively associate with their skin and routines.
Featured item: Faded Brightening & Clearing Mist
Topicals is also available to shop at Sephora.
Best known for its effective yet gentle single-blade razors, Oui the People was born in 2015 out of founder Karen Young's desire to create body care products with sensitive skin in mind. Since the brand's official debut, Oui the People has expanded its offerings to incorporate a wider collection of essentials and tools, including bikini sheet masks, bath soaks, and even a glycolic- and lactic-based body serum.
Featured item: Shave Starter Set
Rose Ingleton MD Skincare
Dr. Rose Ingleton started her namesake brand in an effort to directly translate the beauty of her native Jamaica into her work as a dermatologist. The brand delivers simple and effective skincare products that combine a range of potent Jamaican-based ingredients like bilberry and sugarcane with skincare staples like hyaluronic acid for brighter, more radiant skin.
Featured item: Complexion Brightening Booster
Rose Ingleton MD is also available to shop at Sephora, Net-A-Porter, Violet Grey, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Revolve.
Base Butter started as a passion project in 2015 for founders She'Neil Spence and Nicolette Graves as a solution to manage their own oily and acne-prone skin. The brand's top-rated Radiate Face Jelly Balancing Daily Gel Moisturizer uses a water base and other natural ingredients, like beta-carotene and vitamins C and E, to hydrate and balance skin without clogging pores or contributing to breakouts.
Featured item: Radiate Face Jelly Balancing Daily Gel Moisturizer
Base Butter is also available to shop at Madewell, Urban Outfitters, and Design Milk.
Beloved by beauty enthusiasts and tastemakers, Eadem started as a lifestyle blog aiming to foster an online community for people of color. Now, as a beauty brand, the company maintains the same community ethos by developing products, like their culty Milk Marvel Dark Spot Serum, to meet the specific needs of melanated skin of all types.
Featured item: Milk Marvel Dark Spot Serum
Eadem is also available to shop at Sephora.
Created by supermodel Winnie Harlow, sun care brand Cay Skin offers a range of sensitive skin-friendly face and body essentials with vegan, reef-friendly formulas. Each product contains a blend of island-sourced ingredients, like sea moss, plus actives like niacinamide, and more.
Featured item: Isle Nourishing Body Mist SPF 50
Cay Skin is also available to shop at Sephora.
Founded by actor and model Dorion Renaud in 2018, Buttah Skin was created to target dryness, discoloration, and breakouts while ultimately helping people of color find confidence in their skin. Each Buttah Skin product contains organic African shea butter to boost skin's radiance and provide long lasting moisture.
Featured item: Vitamin C Serum
Buttah Skin is also available to shop at Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, and Cult Beauty.
The products from skincare brand 54 Thrones are powered by plant-based botanicals like roots, herbs, and oils, and are anchored by Nigerian culture and common African beauty practices. Founder Christina Tegbe created the brand in 2015 to spread the message of the continent's origin of clean beauty while celebrating its 54 interior countries.
Featured item: Minona Glow Body Oil
54 Thrones is also available to shop at Sephora and Nordstrom.
Epara—meaning "to cocoon oneself” in the Nigerian dialect of Ebira—provides luxe, handcrafted products tailored to address common skincare needs of people of color. Epara skincare harnesses the power of natural ingredients to help regulate oil, improve dark spots and hyperpigmentation, and remove the skin's impurities without stripping it of moisture.
Featured item: Hydrating Serum
Epara is also available to shop at Dermstore, Net-a-Porter, and Revolve.
We awarded Klur's Symmetry Fluid with a 2023 Skincare Award, and the rest of founder Lesley Thornton's brand is just as swoon-worthy. From daily cleansers to skin-restoring serums and moisturizers, Klur combines clean, natural ingredients in a holistic and highly effective approach to beauty.
Featured item: Symmetry Fluid
Hanahana Beauty is probably best known for its highly nourishing and Ghanaian-sourced shea body butter, and recently expanded its offerings to include a range of products just for the face—from this exfoliating cleanser to a water-activated face mask.
Featured item: Black + Brown Exfoliating Cleanser
Hanahana Beauty is also available to shop at Ulta.
Each plant-based product from Kaike (which is pronounced like "cake") is intended to celebrate the skin you're in, and developed for multiuse purposes to address issues directly relating to skin of color. Kaike creates face and body essentials for just about every skin type, including dry, oily, acne-prone, mature, and sensitive skin.
Featured item: Lip Frosting
Vegan beauty brand Pholk Beauty was created by aesthetician Niambi Cacchioli after frustration of not being able to find the right products suited to address her specific needs as a woman of color, including dark spots and ingrown hairs. The brand's name and overall ethos is inspired by folk beauty rituals practiced across the African diaspora.
Featured item: Moringa Pore Teatox Mask
Tiffany Dodson is currently the associate beauty commerce editor at Harper’s Bazaar, where she specializes in trend forecasting, building relationships with major and emerging brands, and crafting shopping stories—from holiday gift guides to product road tests. Tiffany's work has previously been featured in outlets like SELF, Bustle, and Teen Vogue, and she's been quoted as a commerce and beauty expert in publications and platforms like The Business of Fashion and NPR’s Life Kit podcast.
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