The 15% Pledge Is a Mixed Blessing for Black Beauty Brands
The costs of dealing with a major retailer can be overwhelming for some small businesses.
Lauren Napier photographed at the Conservatory Garden in New York’s Central Park on Aug. 31.
Photographer: Myesha Evon Gardner for Bloomberg Businessweek
Six years ago, Lauren Napier founded her namesake beauty company with her tax refund check and American Express card after she was denied a $50,000 bank loan. Today, Napier is suddenly fielding hundreds of emails and Instagram DMs from venture capitalists and retailers who once wouldn’t take her calls. The financiers want to hear about her line of makeup wipes, and the retailers want to stock it; it’s a rapid reversal triggered by the violent murder of George Floyd in May that ushered in widespread global calls to “Buy Black.”
Beauty retailers, long the arbiters of a feminine ideal that skewed skinny, rich, and White, have leaned into the cultural moment. Sephora has signed onto the fledgling 15 Percent Pledge to reserve that share of shelf space for products from Black-owned businesses, and Estée Lauder Cos. plans to more than double sourcing from Black suppliers over the next three years. Clothing chains and department stores are also reaching out to Black-owned beauty brands as they try to capitalize on the current public interest in equality.