The diversity dig the beauty industry needed

Whether or not as industry specialists or beauty brands we thought we were doing enough to represent true diversity, it has become evident via recent movements that we are not.

When social injustices take place, it is a bleak, but truthful reminder that things need to be frantically and dramatically improved. The Black Lives Matter movement resulted in man of us striving to educate ourselves on subjects we may have been unaware of and in this blog, we would like to discuss how, although it might seem an unimportant industry to focus on, beauty is a symbol of power and has the ability to incite change.

With huge names such as Naomi Campbell (who was the first black model to appear on the cover of Vogue France and Time Magazine) stating “…now the whole world is on the same page. The voices are coming out now... and I look at that with optimism that we will get our change…we spend a lot of money. We are big consumers” when discussing how companies were now likely to finally expand their cosmetic range skin tone offering – it would seem that eyes are finally being opened wide and with the recent reckoning for greater representation, brands are ready to define a new beauty era.

Over the past few weeks, we have seen many of our loved beauty brands making generous donations to various charities and pledging to make changes within their structures. Key examples are:

Glossier

• One of the first brands to pledge their support, they donated $500,00 across Black Lives Matter, The NAACP Legal Defense, and Education Fund, The Equal Injustice Initiative, The Marsha P. Johnson Institute, and We The Protesters

Anastasia Beverly Hills

• Pledged $1million across Black Lives Matter, The Innocence Project, The NAACP Legal Defence and Education Fund, Black Visions Collective and The Marshall Project

• Discussing internally initiatives that will support black-owner businesses in the beauty industry

The Inkey List

• Donated $100,000 to NAACP Legal Defence and Educational Fund

• Donated £8000 to Voyage Youth

• Have pledged to make partnerships with charities and non-for-profit organisations further to existing partnerships, create new brand initiatives to fight inequality

• Will support their internal team to educate and support initiatives at an individual level and create a company policy to track, measure and sustain anti-racism  

Honest Beauty

• Jessica Alba wrote “Being Honest means talking about the things that hurt, the things that are the most difficult, even when it’s uncomfortable” and donated $100,000 to NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Equal Justice Initiative, as well as matching all employee donations made towards civil rights organizations

Quai

• Have committed to provide on-going education and development for their teams as they believe that change starts from within so they will prioritise diversity and inclusion into their culture

• Will use their platform to amplify injustice and black voices, black creators and black organisations to ensure the conversations are not forgotten

• Over the year, will donate $100K this year to organizations that support the Black community and the advancement of an actively anti-racist society, starting with $25K to Black Lives Matter

Many of you have shared your experiences of biased treatment in our stores. We hear you, and we take those accounts seriously. In January 2020, we commissioned a national analysis of racial bias in retail in an effort to provide an unbiased experience for BIPOC clients at Sephora and across the industry. Now we're sharing some of our initial findings and the changes we're making as a first step. We're thrilled that our trade association Rila, diversity expert Diversity Best Practices, and @rei have joined us in supporting this research. Together, we are ready to continue this important work and drive necessary change in our own businesses and across the retail industry as a whole.

It is great to see so many beauty brands, no matter the size, expressing their support and pledging to make a change, but consumers will continue to call on manufacturers and retailers to do even more. Imani Jahann, an East Liberty make up artist, stylist and owner of Imani Jahann Vintage voiced her concerns that “once the hashtags stop trending, things will go back to normal” and that the change the beauty industry needs “has to be structural”. A next step movement which has gained huge traction is the 15% pledge which was created by Aurora James from the stat that nearly 15% of the US population is made up of black people. It has called on major retailers to devote 15% of their in-store shelf space to black-owned brands. Those who take on the pledge have been asked to take ownership of their findings, publish the brand results, and provide an action plan to do better.

The first (and probably most major!) retailer to take the pledge is Sephora who currently report that they offer 7 black-owned brands including: Fenty Beauty, Pat McGrath Labs, Adwoa Beauty and KNC Beauty. The leading beauty retailer confirmed during a press release “this is only the start. We know with over 290 brands we can and will be doing more”- a full FAQ from Sephora about diversity in its product offerings, and its plans to implement the 15% Pledge, can be found here and they share their initial findings and groundwork to change in the Instagram post shown on the left - also linked here. With this being only the start of their commitment in this area, it will be interesting to see how their brand offer is shaped in the future to support this policy.

This has only been a brief look into how beauty brands have reacted to the Black Lives Matter movement and are (finally) making promises to redefine the beauty industry. If you take anything away from this read, we hope that it motivates all of us to think about the responsibility we collectively have to speak out if things do not seem right, or instigate changes where they are needed.  

THE BEAUTY BRAND COACH