Black History Month: 5 Black-Owned Skincare Brands To Shop Year Round.

February 26, 2020

For many years women of color have been asking to be considered when beauty products are being made. Given that we spend Billions of dollar each year worldwide on beauty products, that is not really a big ask. When it came to makeup, the lack diversity in shades was very disappointing to say the least. For skincare, no one wanted to address our specific skincare issues.

At the end of the day many women of color realized that if the beauty industry was not going to include or consider them in their beauty product research and production, then they will have to step up and do it themselves. These powerful and fearless black women bossed up and went to work on creating beauty products specifically addressing the brown skin.

To celebrate black history month, here are 5 awesome black-owned beauty brands who are providing solutions to the skincare needs of people of color.

Epara Skincare

epara cleaning lotion — Epara Cleansing Lotion

“Epara is a brand born out of a need to provide luxury skincare products to women with dark skin tones. The skin issues women have present differently in Women of Colour.”
Ozohu Adoh

Epara Skincare is an uber-luxurious skincare brand founded by Nigerian Native Ozohu Adoh. Adoh understood that the unique skincare needs of women of color was significantly underserved by the beauty industry. So, Adoh created Epara to address those needs. Epara means “to cocoon oneself” in the luxurious and high quality ingredients sourced from Africa. Each product from Epara is carefully formulated to be effective on the exact issue it is addressing. This is a brand that celebrates the brown skin of women of color and believes that they deserves the best. If you want to wake up every morning with radiant supple skin, try Epara’s Brightening night balm.

Kayaire

CBD in skincare products is currently booming. Guess which group of people are largely being ignored and underrepresented? Again. People of color. Ebony Clay saw the gap and opportunity and founded Kayaire. CBD (Cannabidiol) is an active ingredient in hemp plant known to have anti-inflammatory effects on skin. This means CBD has a calming and soothing effect on reactive skin. Knowing this, and also due to her own struggle with psoriasis, Clay developed products that released her from steroid use and healed her skin. For irritated dry skin, try Kayaire’s Hydrating Cream Moisturizer.

Okoko Cosmetiques

OKOKO Cosmétiques innovates the skincare arena with natural products impeccably designed to make beautiful skin a reality by supporting the five vital functions of a healthy, youthful complexion: moisture, nutrition, protection, renewal and radiance.
Okoko Cosmetiques

Founder Oyeta Kokoroko wanted to bring innovative formulation to green beauty and that is what she did with Okoko Cosmetique. Okoko’s high-performance formations of natural ingredients delivers impressive results. If you live and work in the city you know everyday pollution and other stressors can be very damaging to your skin, leading to dull and tired skin. Revive your skin with Okoko’s Detox Purifying Facial Mask -La D’Tox Noire.

Black Girl Sunscreen

Shontay Lundy created Black Girl Sunscreen because she likes the outdoors. She like protecting she skin with sunscreen. However, she did not like the unappealing white cast the sunscreen left on her skin. A problem that many people with brown skin deal with everyday. Her research led to her developing Black Girl Sunscreen with a formulation that works on people of color without leaving a white residue. Recently, the company released a kid’s line of sunscreen because your children need protection too. Check out BGS Kids with SPF 50 for the face and body.

Kaike

Kaike is a plant based skincare brand created by founder Keli Smith. Her products are formulated with minimal but effective ingredients that serve multiple purposes. Smith designed her products to address the skincare issues people with melanin face daily. However, she wanted to put a fun spin to it. Her goal is for you to be happy and have fun while celebrating your skin. Try Kaike’s Chocolate Mask + Scrub. Just don’t eat it.

Do you shop black? What other black-owned beauty and skincare brands do you know or patronize? Share in the comment section.

Do You Know Your Brown Skin? A Brief Re-Introduction.

O. Ilogu

February 17, 2020

Chocolate, golden honey, diverse, ebony, caramel, regal, rich, beautiful, unique, magic. Allow me to reintroduce you to your beautiful brown skin. Brown skin is pigmented skin tone. It is very diverse because it is represented by the many shades of skin color seen on people of color. From fair light brown skin tone to medium brown skin tone to dark brown skin tone. Pigmented skin tones can be seen on people from Africa, the Caribbean, South America, South Asia like India, and Southeast Asia like the Philippines. From the fair and caramel shade of Ayesha Curry to the very dark shade of delicious chocolate on Khoudia Diop, brown skin is amazingly beautiful.

Melanin, Melanin, Melanin.

Your brown skin is characterized by a natural warm tone made possible by its higher level of melanin. Melanin is made in special skin cells located at the bottom layer of the epidermis. These special cells called melanocytes are practically the same in all human beings regardless of race. However, the darker you are, the more active the melanocytes are. The more active they are, the more melanin they make, and therefore the darker you are.

Benefits

The higher level of melanin in your brown pigmented skin comes with a lot of wonderful advantages, and some of those are:

Photo-protection: Brown skin provides a natural protection against sun damage, like major sunburns and blistering. Did you know your brown skin has built-in SPF? Oh, you didn’t know? Well it does. Research shows that your natural brown skin can give you protection of up to SPF 13. That’s free of charge, no money-required-free. Now say thank you to your melanin.

Photo-aging: Brown skin helps prevent premature aging. Signs of photo-aging like fine line and wrinkles are delayed in brown skin. Melanin is the main reason they say “black don’t crack”. Well it does crack. We are just lucky that it tends to happen much later in life, and when it does start to wrinkle, it is usually wrinkles at a relatively slower pace. Did you say thank you to your melanin yet?

Skin Cancer Rates: Brown skin helps lower your chances of getting skin cancer. Did you know that? Well, research has shown that people with pigmented skin have significantly lower levels of skin cancer. Below is a chart from the CDC showing the huge difference in skin cancer numbers between ethnic group. “People of color” have the lowest numbers. Thank your melanin.

Drawbacks of Brown Skin

Now while having brown skin comes with a ton of benefits, having all this amazing melanin in your brown skin also comes with some drawbacks. Some of those are:

Hyper-pigmentation

Brown skin is continually prone to skin discoloration like hyperpigmentation. Brown pigmented skin is very delicate and any damage to it like acne leads to spots and scars that easily becomes hyperpigmented. This means the damaged skin is darker than the normal surrounding skin due to the excess melanin. This is why brown skin needs to be well cared for.

A proper skincare regimen for your skin type will go a long way to help keep acne away. And the resulting acne scars and spots. If you do get acne don’t pick at it. Easier said than done right? But picking makes the acne spots and scars darker and harder to remove, so don’t pick. Also, always wear sunscreen because the sun makes dark spots and scars darker.

Oily Skin

Brown skin tends to be on the oilier side. Not everyone with darker skin has oily skin. However, research shows that darker skin types may genetically have more oil glands that are also more active. And because they are more active, they make more oil and sebum.

But having oily skin is not entirely bad news. The good thing about oil on your skin is that it also helps to prevent wrinkles. Oil is a lubricant, a moisturizer. If your face is moisturized, then it is not cracking (wrinkling). Think wet clay vs dry clay. However, in excess, oil can mix with dead skin cell and clog your pores which essentially will cause acne. A proper skincare regimen for oily skin type is important to remove excess oil without striping your skin.

Reactive

Brown skin can be highly reactive. Changes in temperatures, pollution, and the use of harsh products can affect our skin by damaging the epidermis. A damaged epidermis can lead to all types of skin issues like dryness, dehydration, itchiness, ashiness, dullness, and graying skin.

This is why brown skin can sometimes require special attention. You should try to stay away from harsh environments (severe heat and severe cold). Also, protect your skin during temperature and season changes. Additionally, avoid putting harsh products on your skin like baking soda because they can be very damaging to your skin.

Keloids

Brown skin can be easily and severely scared (ex. Raised scars like keloid scar). Keloid usually occurs when an injury to the skin is healing. The exact cause of keloid scars is currently unknown, except that they are a result of a defect in the wound healing process. Keloids are most common in people with dark skin. It is one of the top most common skin issue for adults of African descent.

Knowing that your brown skin can make you genetically predisposed to keloids, it is therefore important that you try to consciously minimize the number of skin injuries and scars you get. You need to properly care for your delicate skin because first, skin injuries and scars are not pretty and second, no one wants an unsightly keloid on their skin.

It is important to note that some of the above drawbacks mentioned are not directly linked to melanin. However, they are just some things that people with brown skin are genetically prone to. Like oily skin and large pores. Your genes determine how oily your skin will be and how large your pores will be. Just like your genes determine how much melanin your skin will make.

Brown Skin Beauty

Now that you have been reacquainted to your beautiful and unique brown skin, you can now understand that having brown skin is a huge blessing. Therefore you should love it, care for it, and be proud of it.

To properly care for your brown skin, you will need to spend some time with your individual skin to learn what it like and dislikes. Find out which products work the best on it and help it glow. Also find out which products irritates it and avoid them. Because brown skin is different, you need to understand that not all products that work on Caucasian skin will work on your skin.

Before making any skincare purchase, do your due diligence. Look for product research, word-of-mouth recommendation, and product reviews from people that look like you; and choose wisely. Your brown skin is precious, so take proper care of it.

What relationship have you had or are you currently having with your brown skin? Comment below.

This Brown Skin