It doesn’t have to be International Women’s Day to celebrate female accomplishments in every industry. From the tech industry to the beauty industry, female-founded brands have made significant contributions to society and beyond through powerful innovation, representation, and dedication to sustainable practices. Whether it’s haircare, skincare, or makeup, celebrating female founded beauty brands is an excellent choice.
Via Uoma
Uoma (pronounced uh-mah) was founded by Sharon Chuter, a Nigerian-born entrepreneur and formal beauty executive that set out to create one of the most inclusive female founded beauty brands on the market. Chuter aims to not only add diversity to her makeup but include and promote diversity inside her company and other beauty companies as well.
Chuter has been listed as one of the 50 most forward-thinking executives shaping the future of the beauty industry and has a personal mission to provide products that are suitable for all skin tones and moods. Uoma by Sharon C. is cruelty-free, eco-friendly, and vegan (1).
Self-expression: “Authentic beauty is the ultimate form of self-expression”
Colorful living: “We celebrate life in all its vibrancy and color”
African pride: “We are not African because we are in Africa, we are African because Africa is in us”
Empowering tribe: “A confident woman inspires those around her – empowered women, empower others”
Inclusivity: “Every person deserves to walk in the Beauty Hall and feel inspired and included”
Beautiful rebellion: “We must be bold and outspoken to challenge outdated conventions”
Via Kosas
Kosas was founded by Sheena Yaitanes, a Biology student with a passion for light, airy, comfy formulas and a strong belief that beauty is so much more than just what’s on the surface. With her background and experience with makeup and acne-prone skin, Sheena dedicated herself to creating high-performing makeup and skincare products with gentle formulas for sensitive skin moods.
Kosas has now become synonymous with clean makeup that looks great without feeling too heavy or causing breakouts. Kosas is cruelty-free and offers vegan products in its makeup and skincare collections.
Next-level clean beauty that’s about revealing, expressing, and feeling comfy in your skin.
Skin-improving, clinically proven makeup.
Kosas keeps formulating, testing, and innovating until every product pushes beauty forward and is clean.
Via Giphy
When Jennifer Harper noticed a lack of Indigenous representation in the beauty community, she set out to bring that representation to the forefront with Cheekbone Beauty. With Cheekbone’s products, Jennifer has helped Indigenous people see themselves in a beauty brand while working to create safe products with less impact on the planet. Cheekbone has a dedication to the Earth, working to put out sustainable products with raw ingredients.
Our Mission is to help every Indigenous youth see and feel their enormous value in the world while developing sustainable color cosmetics. The Cheekbone culture and tone is based on an Indigenous worldview; our customers are our community, we gather in circles to share what we have. Social media allows us to learn as much as we can about the kinds of products our community would like to see in the world.
INTEGRITY & HONESTY
Radically transparent about our business, ingredients, and partners.
COURAGEOUSLY CURIOUS
We ask lots of questions.
ALWAYS LOVE & RESPECT
Compassion
Via Giphy
Huda Beauty was launched by beauty blogger Huda Kattan in 2013 and quickly became one of the fastest-growing female founded beauty brands beloved by beauty enthusiasts all around the globe. Taking her expertise from her career as a beauty influencer and makeup artist with a roster of high-profile celebrities, Huda continues to grow her brand to make the beauty industry feel more attainable and welcoming.
Huda prides herself on the fact that Huda Beauty is always innovating and listening to its consumers, focusing on developing products that meet consumer needs and desires and filling any gaps in the industry. Huda Beauty is cruelty-free and offers vegan products.
Giving people the power to express who they want to be no matter who they are or where they are from. Beauty is not about how much you spend, but how confident you feel.
Via Giphy
Co-founders Christine Chang and Sarah Lee founded Glow Recipe after becoming inspired by Korean beauty brands and their innovative formulas and unique ingredients. Driven by the motto, “Glowing skin starts here”, Glow Recipe is dedicated to providing innovative skin care products that deliver clinical results and offer clean formulas.
All Glow Recipe products are gentle and effective, as they were formulated with high-quality fruit ingredients that are packed with antioxidants and nutrients. Glow Recipe products are vegan, cruelty-free, and eco-friendly.
We believe we glow even brighter together. Welcome to our community that believes in inclusivity, individuality, and sustainability.
Glow Recipe is built on the philosophy of taking it day by day, skin by skin. We know that skin changes daily and we want to empower you to love and treat your skin based on its ever-changing needs.
Via Giphy
Then I Met You is one of two female founded beauty brands by Charlotte Cho, made to make Korean beauty accessible and share the things she learned in Korea about how to take care of her skin.
After leaving Korea, Charlotte spent years curating products that aim to transform consumers’ skin care rituals into a deeper and intentional self-care experience. With a decade of testing, personal experience, and community feedback, Charlotte has crafted a range of cruelty-free, eco-friendly, and ingredient-conscious products that are beloved in the beauty community.
We are inspired by the Korean concept of jeong, a deep and meaningful connection that one can develop for people, places, and things. We believe jeong drives us to be intentional in everything we do, be generous without expecting anything in return, and be our full selves so that we can make a positive difference in our community, beyond skin care.
Via Topicals
TOPICALS was founded by Olamide Olowe and Claudia Teng to cater to those with chronic skin conditions, setting out to destroy the notion of “bad skin” or “perfect skin”. Aiming to create healthy skin products, the co-founders of TOPICALS used their personal experiences with hyperpigmentation, skin inflammation, and more to drive their innovation. It has become one of the most popular female founded beauty brands on the market today, finding a large audience on TikTok due to their fun marketing and packaging.
You make skin look good – not the other way around.
Science-backed formulas, created by experts, made for every shade.
Topicals is transforming the way you feel about skin through effective science-backed products and mental health advocacy.
Via Vamigas
Vamigas was founded by Ann, a first-generation Chilean-American, and Christina, a third-generation Mexican-American, after Ann faced some fertility issues, which caused her to research green beauty. Based on research that showed Latinas have more hormone-disrupting chemicals in the body and higher rates of fertility issues, Ann and Christina set out to create a clean, green beauty brand for Latinas by Latinas.
Vamigas products are naturally derived, have no questionable ingredients, and are safe to use during pregnancy and on babies. Vamigas is cruelty-free, eco-friendly, and palm oil free.
Nourish, soothe, and even out your skin with wild, vitamin-packed botanicals from Latin America.
Products that celebrate multi-dimensional representation.
Via Briogeo
Briogeo was founded by Nancy Twine and inspired by the homemade hair care products that she’d help her grandmother make when visiting Nigeria in her childhood (2). The brand has a mission to celebrate clean, natural, and powerful hair care to produce healthy hair for every hair type and texture.
Briogeo is a vegan, cruelty-free, and gluten-free brand that has no harsh sulfates, no silicones, no phthalates, no parabens, no DEA, and no artificial dyes in their products.
Healthy hair is a journey, and everyone’s is different.
We empower them all with clean care made from natural ingredients that work.
We support them all with education that shows you the way.
We celebrate them all as a community of like-minded and different haired individuals.
Embrace your unique hair type, texture, color, and everything that makes you, “you”.
Via Ouai
Ouai – pronounced “way” – was founded by hairstylist Jen Atkin, who has worked with iconic celebs such as Chrissy Teigen and Kim Kardashian. With a mission to create the first socially-connected haircare brand that she and her friends could relate to, Jen has made a name for herself in the world of haircare and beauty through Ouai and ManeAddicts, a news and media website dedicated to hair.
Ouai is cruelty-free, has a whole range of vegan products, and is committed to only working with vendors that use sustainable methods.
Embracing imperfections.
The confidence to win life your Ouai.
Via Bomba Curls
Bomba Curls was founded by Lulu Cordero, who set out to create a clean, sustainable, and wellness-based brand that celebrates curls inspired by her Afro-Dominican roots (3). Lulu describes Bomba Curls as her love letter to curls and coils, and she continues to develop natural products that cater to protecting healthy curls that empower consumers to embrace their natural hair.
Bomba Curls products utilize all-natural ingredients and recipes that have been passed down through generations of families, such as castor oil and pure coffee seed. Bomba Curls is non-toxic, biodegradable, sustainable, and cruelty-free.
Bomba Curls helps you achieve healthy, luscious, beautifully defined curls…naturally.
Unique formulas tailor made to maximize length retention in curly, coily hair, and help to reduce breakage, shrinkage, and damage.
Via Curls Dynasty
Nickie Nougaisse founded Curls Dynasty in 2014 to provide hydrating, healthy-hair products for those with 4C curls like her own. Offering a wide range of chemical-free products for everyone that wishes to properly take care of and revive their natural, textured hair, Nickie helped fill a gap in the haircare market and built her brand around representation and inclusivity.
Curls Dynasty products are tailored to focus on treating hair concerns, such as dry or chemically-treated hair, to help her consumers look and feel great.
Curls Dynasty empowers women with textured hair to experience and embrace hair freedom.
Our product line is exclusively designed for women transitioning to natural hair, as well as the curl poppin’ naturalista!
Written by Selena Ponton
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