Cultural skincare products, trends and even standards have taken over the beauty world. From K-Beauty’s 10-step routines and glass skin serums to red lipstick and the “French pharmacy” buzz in French beauty, the standards often revolve around what’s trending at the moment. Now, with African pop stars like Tyla, Tems and Ayra Starr increasing in visibility and brands pumping out routines for melanin-rich skin, African beauty, also known as “A-Beauty,” is starting to gain more and more traction. “A-Beauty is currently having a cultural renaissance,” moderator of Essence Festival’s “The State Of Beauty: The Power Of A-Beauty” moderator Tariro Makoni said on the Beautycon stage today.
Panelists Sabrina Elba, Delanique Millwood and Abena Boamah-Acheampong weighed in. “Historically, there’s been a slight appropriation of these ingredients… the culture behind that ingredient has been lost,” Elba told Makoni. As the founder of skincare brand S’Able Labs, she centers her Somali roots. Her products target hyperpigmentation (which disproportionately impacts darker skin tones) by blending science with African botanicals. The use of plants like Somalia-native qasil, West African black seed, and South African rooibos shows part of A-Beauty can be using effective ingredients.
Meanwhile, A-Beauty brands found on Millwood’s new retail platform Skintellect, including Koba skincare and Boamah-Acheampong’s Hanahana Beauty, show the other sides of the trend. “A-Beauty is a social responsibility,” Millwood says. According to a BBC investigation, brands L’Oreal and Estée Lauder are linked to child labor in their supply chain, meanwhile Madagascar’s over 580 million dollar vanilla industry is powered by children and poverty. “That opens up a bigger question: we’re doing it as a smaller brand, what are the bigger brands doing?” Elba said, calling out Unilever, L’Oreal and Estée Lauder for African exploitation.
From ethical sourcing to fair wage, “sustainable farming needs to become front line in the conversation when it comes to A-Beauty,” Elba continued. “There’s a level of responsibility when that person’s survival is directly related to those ingredients. Their crops are their capital.” For Boamah-Acheampong, this means offering loyal consumers equity in Hanahana Beauty and paying farmers above market rate for their ingredients. “We have the opportunity not only to utilize ingredients but reflect on sustainability from the producers to farmers and in our community.”
