10 Indigenous-Owned Beauty Brands That Should Be On Your Radar
October 11, 2021, was the first time the United States formally recognized Indigenous People's Day (per The White House). While it took that long to acknowledge their contributions to the country, Indigenous people have not let that stop them from putting their mark on every industry. In recent years, more beauty brands have been popping up with products not only inspired by traditional Indigenous recipes and uses but also owned by Indigenous peoples.
Indigenous-owned beauty brands use their culture's vibrant colors and patterns in their designs and incorporate recipes that have been passed down for generations. While they all have different reasons for starting up their own brands — whether it's the inclusivity of skin color or fulfilling a dream of running a beauty business (via PureWow) — there are a few similarities between them. These include their desires to create a community where Native Americans are represented in the beauty industry, to create sustainability, and to give back to their communities.For instance, Prados Beauty proudly invests in Prado's Promise, committing time, money, and mentorship back to Indigenous communities across North America. And Cheekbone Beauty focuses on giving back to its community through product, monetary, and project-focused foundations benefiting Indigenous youth.
So, as you are shopping for loved ones and start thinking about your own holiday wish lists, here, are 10 Indigenous-owned beauty brands you should know more about.
Blended Girl Cosmetics
Shí-Fawn, the founder of Blended Girl Cosmetics, was raised by her grandparents and two aunts and fell in love with all things makeup and beauty at a young age. In 2019, while at college, she launched her brand, Shí-Fawn Cosmetics. The company originally sold beauty boxes but as demand increased and her company gained momentum, she added eyeshadows and other beauty products. Then, the company made the decision to rebrand to relate to a wider audience and Blended Girl Cosmetics was born.
Blended Girl Cosmetics sells a variety of products today, including palettes, eye masks, lip glosses, lipsticks, eyeliners, body spray, and brushes. The products are all inspired by Shí-Fawn's heritage and include the colors and scents that she loves. The body spray is a mix of Sweetgrass and Peaches, a combination of scents favorited by many of the brands on this list, and the collagen eye masks use collagen and seaweed to boost their impact on the skin.
Blended Girl is also dedicated to giving back to the community, especially those in Indigenous communities. Shí-Fawn tells Native Hoop Magazine that their focus is the local community and they hope to continue to give back through certain projects such as providing coats for the elderly, firewood donations in the winter, and makeup workshops for the youth. The brand has also now expanded and donated to Black Lives Matter, Page Outreach, and the Navajo/Hopi COVID Relief (via PureWow).
Cheekbone Beauty
Cheekbone Beauty is one of the most prolific companies on this list. Based out of St Catharines, Ontario, the brand is known for creating high-quality products that not only pay homage to Indigenous ancestry but are cruelty-free and have a low environmental impact. Anishinaabe-Canadian founder Jenn Harper first got the idea for the brand in 2015 after a midnight epiphany. "A few months after getting sober, I had this dream to start the business and I jumped out of bed in the middle of the night to write down the idea," she told InStyle. "I wanted to make lip gloss and start a foundation in my grandmother's name." A year later, the brand officially launched.
Cheekbone Beauty products include brushes, lipsticks, eyeliners, bronzers/highlighters, and makeup palettes. Its line of environmentally friendly lipsticks, named SUSTAIN, launched in 2020 and has expanded to include mascaras, lip glosses, and bronzers, all in sustainable packaging and made with as many natural ingredients as possible. Products range in price from $7, for an eyeliner pencil sharpener, to $96 for the bundle of Jenn's SUSTAIN favorites (via Cheekbone Beauty).
Cheekbone Beauty aims to make a difference in the lives of Indigenous youth through the brand and the foundations that it sustains. To date, Cheekbone Beauty has donated more than $150,000 in funds to Shannen's Dream and the FNCFCS, the Navajo Water Project, One Tree Planted, and a variety of non-profit organizations across North America (via Cheekbone Beauty).
The Yukon Soaps Company
Handcrafted with ingredients and beading of various Indigenous populations, The Yukon Soaps Company has not only created beautiful products for the past ten years but also connects those outside the Indigenous community with the Native Americans that have been living in Yukon for generations. Founder Joella Hogan wanted to create a company that bonds people to the land and to the culture around them (via PowHerHouse).
The Yukon Soaps Company is so much more than just soap though. Although it was its original creation, the company has expanded to include body oils, bath salts and scrubs, shampoo, grooming products, essential oils, sanitizers, and sprays. The ingredients of each product are carefully selected and usually hand-picked by locals (one of the ways Hogan connects her people to the land) and are blended in the original ways and recipes using Na-cho Nyak Dun beadwork and plant knowledge. Hogan also sprinkles in Northern Tutchone language into her products and brand, according to PureWow.
Hogan has created and sustained the community in and around where the company is based – Mayo, Yukon. She works diligently to not only bring traditional crafts to her community but to also educate, promote economic diversification, and create authentic relationships with customers. Hogan is still an active participant in her brand and regularly attends farmer's markets, does advocacy work, and works on oral history, projects, and academics (per The Yukon Soaps Company).
Prados Beauty
Cece Meadows created Prados Beauty to bring light and awareness to Indigenous peoples (per Prados Beauty). Born and raised in Arizona, she currently resides in the Las Cruces, NM region and takes inspiration from the land of the Piro-Manso-Tiwa people. Meadows is an army wife, mother, a published poet, and makeup artist and she's used every bit of her life experience to build her brand, which also collaborates heavily with Steven Paul Judd, a Choctaw filmmaker, director, screenwriter, writer of fiction, and visualist, and Kassie Kussman, a digital artist and designer.
Prados Beauty products include eyeshadow palettes, blushes, bronzers, highlighters, faux eyelashes, eyeliners, lip glosses, and lipsticks. Brushes, beauty tools, headbands, and bamboo face pads round out the collection. Other than beauty products, Prados Beauty also has a few duvet and sham sets for your eyes' pleasure. Products range from $15 for lashes to $250 for the bigger collection bundles (via Prados Beauty).
Similar to other Indigenous brands, Prados Beauty has commited to giving back to its community. Through The Prados Promise, the brand donates 50% of its proceeds to charitable organizations and communities in need (according to PureWow), and promotes other Indigenous brands and entrepreneurs on social media and its own website.
Sḵwálwen Botanicals
Sḵwálwen Botanicals is a plant-based, luxury Indigenous skincare brand that focuses on honoring traditional plant knowledge and sustainability. They use only organic ingredients and give each product a Squamish name to honor the place where their plant knowledge comes from, according to Ritual Skin Co. Founder Leigh Joseph is an ethnobotanist, researcher, and community activist; she draws much of her inspiration from the times she spent with her paternal grandmother's family (via Sḵwálwen Botanicals).
The products of Sḵwálwen Botanicals are all made sustainably and in the ways of Indigenous peoples — this means that they are naturally free of chemicals, phthalates, synthetic fragrances, synthetic colors, and parabens (via PureWow). Products include facial oils, toners, masques, creams, facial soap bars, clays, and lip balms. For the body, the line extends to bath salts, healing salves of different kinds, body oils, and bath salts. Additionally, Sḵwálwen Botanicals also makes tea, candles, and room sprays to bring the natural ways of the Indigenous people into your home (per Sḵwálwen Botanicals).
Sḵwálwen Botanicals gives back to its community through two main projects: the Ceremony Series and the hiýáḿ Project (per Sḵwálwen Botanicals). The Ceremony Series is a group of products of which 10% of the proceeds are donated to organizations that benefit Indigenous communities. The hiýáḿ Project is a collaboration between the brand and Satinflower Nurseries to plant thousands of seeds on Indigenous lands.
Ah-Shí Beauty
As the first beauty brand owned by a Native American in the United States (via Ah-Shi Beauty), Ah-Shí Beauty has been forging the path ahead for other brands and companies to follow. Ahsaki LaFrance-Chachere, the founder of Ah-Shí Beauty, is a proud Navajo tribal member and faced challenges in the makeup and beauty department early on as a dark-skinned Native American. Her goal is to help change the way Indigenous people are often stereotyped and portrayed in our society and to help those using her products feel empowered in their own skin.
The brand has an extensive collection of both cosmetics and skincare products. You can search the site by facial feature to find your desired product for eyes, brows, lips, and cheeks, which includes mascara, eyeliners, lipsticks, blushes, primers, foundations, and more. The Ah-Shí Beauty skincare line has cleansers, masks, makeup removers, moisturizers, serums, and toners. All products are cruelty-free, hypoallergenic, non-comedogenic, and paraben-free (via Indigenous Goddess Gang).
Chachere has won multiple awards for her brand and products, including most recently the Native Business Owner of the Year in 2021 (per The National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development). She continues to be an inspiration for the Indigenous people of North America through her commitment to helping them have a seat at the table in the beauty industry where they have been historically underrepresented.
Satya Organic Skincare
After a doctor prescribed a steroid-based cream to treat the relentless itching due to eczema that Patrice Mousseau's daughter suffered from, the determined mom wasn't willing to accept that as the only solution for her baby girl. She did her own research to create a balm that ultimately cleared up her daughter's eczema in just two days, and Satya Organic Skincare was born (per Satya Organic).
Satya Skincare's mission is to improve the skin and create a clean palette for all your beauty products. The company makes two different types of creams: an eczema-specific cream specifically for irritated skin and a multi-use cream for all kinds of skin rashes. The creams make use of nature's ingredients such as calendula, oatmeal, sweet almond oil, jojoba, and beeswax, to deliver soothing relief to irritated skin. Each product comes in an eco-friendly container or refillable pouch (via The Brand is Female).
Satya means "a higher truth" in Sanskrit (according to Satya Organic) and the brand strives to adhere to that mantra. Satya Organic Skincare's products are certified organic, steroid-free, packaged in sustainable materials, cruelty-free, 100% plastic-free, and 100% carbon-neutral. They've taken every possible precaution to make sure that the products aren't going to be inflammatory or irritating to anyone that uses them and that the company makes as small of a footprint on the planet as possible.
Sequoia Soaps
Sequoia Soaps was founded in 2002 by Michaelee Lazore who is Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) from Akwesáhsne and Northern Paiute from Nevada (via Sequoia Soaps). The brand is proudly Indigenous and does all of its own design, production, and packaging in its local studio.
The products' ingredients are all ethically sourced and draw inspiration from Native American roots. Lazore especially adored sweetgrass, cedar, and sage smells and could not find any products that were locally produced in such scents (per Women's Health). Today, Sequoia Soaps produces products not only with these scents, but also with wild berries, plumeria, and eucalyptus. The brand's inventory has expanded to also include face and body scrubs, mists, oils, lip balms, candles, and incense (via Sequoia Soaps). Each product is carefully crafted in the local studio to ensure sustainability of their products and the highest quality possible.
Lazore named her brand after the tall Sequoia trees that dominate forests in North America, according to Liv'Ez Blog. As the tree itself is named for the Cherokee chief that also developed the alphabet of the Cherokee language, it seemed a fitting name for the brand that Lazore wanted to develop when she started out.
Sister Sky
Sisters Marina TurningRobe and Monica Simeon founded Sister Sky more than 20 years ago to honor the heritage of the Spokane people (via Women's Health). Their goal was to share effective, yet gentle products inspired by Mother Nature and packed with natural ingredients. The company took off after Monica's son, Kevin, was born with severe eczema and they created "Kevin's Care" lotion to treat it (per PureWow). Their products are vegan, clean, sustainable, and cruelty-free.
Sister Sky hair care products include shampoo, conditioner, and bamboo combs and brushes. The brand's body products include body wash and body bars, lotion, and healing salves. Body mists and bath bombs round out the collection. Each one is made with scents that are particular to the Indigenous community such as sweetgrass, white willow, chamomile, and olive and argan oils (per Sister Sky).
Sister Sky Incorporated, an off-shoot of Sister Sky, works with federal and tribal clients to help them with training and research and giving back to the Indigenous community (via Sister Sky Incorporated). Their contributions have been in all branches of the community, including training and technical assistance, providing meeting facilitation services for tribal-state work groups, training and technical assistance for Native language revitalization, and congressional report writing for international food assistance programs.
Niawen
When she found out she had late-stage kidney cancer at just 37 years old, Niawen founder and Mohawk Tara-Tekahentakhwa decided that she wasn't going to just give up and let the disease win (per Niawen). She continued to face each day with her daily practice of finding inner peace and stunned her doctors when she recovered and beat her cancer.
She founded Niawen after she struggled to find products that were made by Indigenous peoples and with the kind of ingredients and sustainability practices that she wanted to support. "Nia:wen means thank you, to give thanks in the Mohawk language," she told Indian Country Today. The brand strives to produce products that are powered by both modern science and the traditional healing rituals of the Mohawk. With 28 years under her belt as a Master Aesthetician and the knowledge of the Mohawk traditions, Tara-Tekahentakhwa makes sure that each product is potent in its effectiveness as well as being clean, natural, and representative of the culture of her people.
The products of the Niawen brand include skincare, body care, makeup, and a self-improvement course (via Niawen). Their skincare collection comprises eye balm, an exfoliation product, serum, cleansing oil, and toner. Most of the brand's products are completely customizable in usability. For example, the highlighter, contour, and color sticks can be used in many ways to create your desired makeup look.