As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither were these brands.
Behind every one of these brands is a woman who started from humble beginnings to become the inspiration she is today. In honor of Women’s History Month, check out these women-owned beauty brands that have created brands close to their hearts through all of the love, sweat, and tears.
This month is a special celebration of women and their history.
Basma Beauty
Basma Hameed founded Basma Beauty to create makeup that looks good on real skin. It includes all shade ranges that can correct and perfect all hues.
Hameed’s founding story impacts many and is inspirational. She has been a three-degree burn survivor since she was two years old. Because of this, she was thrilled to get involved in the beauty industry and would even opt for makeup that covered her scars as an adolescent, but she was never satisfied with the coverage.
After creating the ScarCamouflage Procedure on her clients, a treatment that involves implanting skin tone pigments into scar tissue, she turned to formulas for a soon-to-be award-winning stick cream foundation after 17 years of intense research on thousands of clients’ textures, skin tones, and conditions. The flexibility and numerous shades guarantee that everyone finds a shade.
In 2021, Basma Beauty was born with the Foundation Stick launching in 42 unique shades fit for everyone.
Glossier
Glossier wasn’t always a makeup brand. Actually, it was a blog. Founded by Emily Weiss, who you may have spotted on MTV’s The Hills as an intern, turned her words into products.
Into the Gloss, founded in 2010, was a beauty blog targeted towards millennials. The blog featured trends, products, profiles, and a column that gained much attention: “The Top Shelf,” a play on words to describe everyone’s go-tos and try-on hauls, before the call-to-action videos on YouTube now. “The Top Shelf was the first time loyal audience members could relate and refer to how the products they’ve purchased or are curious about purchasing worked on real skin, a true testament and example, not just a commercial.
In just four years, Glossier launched four products: the soothing face mist, priming moisturizer, balm dotcom, and a foundation. Weiss included an ode to Glossier on Into the Gloss, praising entrepreneurs, women, and brains that all inspired this project. She vocalizes what Glossier stands for: “a celebration of freedom.”
Huda Beauty
Huda Beauty was introduced first through a blog paired with a YouTube channel. After completing college and getting a job in finance, Huda Kattan would often be ostracized in the office due to her makeup and office wear. The corporate world was not for her. After getting fired, Kattan invested her time into her passion: beauty.
After graduating from Joe Blasco Makeup School in 2010, she transformed her beauty blog into a beauty empire. The initial brand featured the OG lashes she was known for, which garnered the attention of celebrities and other makeup artists. Soon, the influencer became a mogul, making 10 million in sales in just two years.
With a humble beginning of $6000 from her sister Alya, Huda was able to create a billion-dollar cosmetics brand with more than enough to pay her sister back.
The Lip Bar
Melissa Butler, who founded The Lip Bar, continues to be a heartening story. From Wall Street to cosmetics, Butler eventually found her calling.
After becoming overly frustrated with the beauty industry’s code for Black women’s beauty products, “one shade fits all,” Butler took it upon herself to create bold and vegan lipsticks for Black women. Not only was she fed up with the lack of diversity, but she was also disappointed in the product ingredients. After committing to creating a formula and experimenting in the kitchen, she left Wall Street as a financial analyst. She welcomed new customers to her side hustle of selling vegan lipsticks.
Once she moved back home to Detroit, Michigan, from New York City, she fully invested in herself and pitched her brand ‘The Lip Bar,’ as essentially a “lip-emporium.” The brand would daringly take on dashing and eye-catching colors like blues and yellows, which no brand was doing, all while being vegan.
Once Butler had a vision, she appeared on Shark Tank to pitch investors, but she was harshly critiqued and even encouraged to quit. However, she didn’t let it discourage her; the brand was born in 2012.
The Lip Bar has multiple stand-alone shops and is sold in Target, Walmart, CVS, and many other stores.
Thrive Causemetics
Thrive Causemetics founder Kariss Bodnar used a personal story that deeply impacted her to fuel the brand’s startup.
After a dear friend passed away from a rare form of cancer, Bodnar created Thrive Causmetics with clean and effective ingredients for people with compromised immune systems.
In 2015, Thrive Causemetics was founded on giving back to women, creating products, and a brand philosophy of being ‘bigger than beauty.’ Therefore, in its launching stage, each product was designed for women undergoing cancer treatment or women who have lost lashes due to medical causes. Welcome to the first product to launch: false eyelashes and a lash glue designed for people with or without lashes.
Thrive Causemetics continues to donate to and give back to organizations that support women with cancer, homelessness, domestic abuse, and more.
