Aug 25

Aug 25 3 Black-Owned British Foundation Brands

Black owned brands are enjoying the spotlight at the moment, with the Black Lives Matter movement and Black Pound Day. We feature three Black-owned British foundation brands that are shaking things up.

TWOK London

This brand was founded by pharmacist, Toyin Fajemirokun Onyolu because she wanted to cater for women with different skin tones.

What makes your foundation different from others on the market?

The main feedback we get from our customers is that they love the product because it is very easy to blend. They love the quality, finish and how they look in photos. They also love that it doesn't oxidise so the colour doesn't change after initial application. The price is £16.99 but the quality is similar to the high end brands that are double or triple the price.

Describe the process that goes into making a foundation for darker shades

A lot of research goes into it and working with our production lab to identify the right shades and properties for our customer base. Our first launch product was our Flawless Filter Foundation which is a vegan product and dermatologist tested with 12 hour coverage. It has a matte finish but still leaves your skin looking healthy and radiant plus it doesn't oxidise. These are all the important elements our customers were looking for and what we incorporated in our research when we were working on the formula.

What obstacles have you faced as a Black business in the UK beauty industry?

I think as a start-up business the challenge has been scaling up. The main obstacles I would say are probably the same as others and this would mainly be access to funding and getting the brand stocked by larger retail outlets.

ColorBlend Makeup

Created by Kesha Williams to fill a gap in the market for women with deep and dark skin tones.

What makes your foundation different from others on the market?

Our customers suffer from sensitive skin and with that in mind, the formulations of our foundations are hypoallergenic, non comedogenic, fragrance free and paraben free. Our foundation is high definition - giving you a dewy, skin like glow and radiant finish. It is also water resistant and non-transferable.

How do you decide on which shades to create?

Initially, we looked at the most popular dark shades from big brands and tailored our first sets of shades to those. Over the time and using this as guideline, we have created several different shades in between those with the help of feedback from our customers. It is so important to listen to your customers as they will give you the insight on how to serve them better.

Has the Black Lives Matter movement and Black Pound Day impacted your brand?

BLM and Black Pound Day have definitely impacted the brand in an amazing way and has allowed us to see a spike in orders, interest, pending partnerships and website traffic. I’m thankful for all of it. It is a great time for the business. While it has created longer processing and delivery times, during these period we have been able to pivot, improve and launch new products and our successful 1-2-1 private makeup sessions.

Sey Beaute

This is a plant based, eco-friendly vegan brand created by Meghan Gane. The foundation is due to launch in the market.

What advice do you offer to customers on finding their match in your foundation?

Understanding your skin tone and undertone will be my best advice. A lot of the people who have tested my product got a different colour sample that they didn’t expect will work. Sometimes it’s very easy to get caught up in trends and buy what the media is telling us to buy. With the pigments/oxides being used, they are mixed together to create a red/warm undertone, yellow/neutral undertone, cool/pinkish/peach undertone. The majority of the time I will follow these guidelines for formulating.

What obstacles have you faced as a Black business in the UK beauty industry?

As a dark skinned woman, I understand the struggle of finding the right product for my skin tone. That is why Sey Beaute is designed for everyone and not just a certain group of people. Unfortunately, the main challenge is convincing dark skinned customers that my product is just as good as or even better than the big brand that they will buy from that are not black-owned. As a society we are led to believe that the famous bigger brands are better than small businesses. But small businesses cannot grow and be as successful as those brands if we don’t have customers.

Where can we buy your foundation?

The foundation is still in the experimental phase. If you are interested in trying a sample please contact us on our social media platform.