As an entrepreneur 18 years in at that point, I thought, This is what it took for me to land on the map? Yes, I had some happy moments and key wins with Nyakio, but I’d also had some brutally challenging on-your-knees-in-tears moments of not feeling seen and not feeling supported. I was always the tiny, niche, Black-owned brand. I decided to take my pain and turn it into purpose, and I just started shopping the list because what else were we going to do? I wanted to be part of the change. I wanted to be part of the movement.
I was shocked when I would look at these lists, and I would find these beautiful brands that I’d never heard of before. When I would go down a rabbit hole and look at their Instagrams and websites and saw that they had very little distribution and some of them didn’t have a lot of followers… We’re seeing amazing, beautiful initiatives like the Fifteen Percent Pledge and Pull Up for Change happening, but in my head, I thought, It shouldn’t be this hard to get an enormous amount of brands on shelf.
My co-founder Patrick and I came together. This was our aha moment in June of 2020 in the midst of everything happening after the murder of George Floyd. I said out loud, “If I were to open a store tomorrow, I would have 90% of my brands be created by people of color from all over the globe,” because that’s where all of our beauty secrets and ingredients come from. I wanted to debunk the myth that Black and Brown people only make products for ourselves, which is categorically insane because we know that shea butter and marula oil and all these ingredients that come from the continent of Africa show up in all brands across the industry, so of course, you can use what we make with our ingredients on your skin.
We launched Thirteen Lune in December 2020 with 13 Black-owned brands. Ninety percent virtually and IRL will always be dedicated to BIPOC brands from across the globe, but 10% are dedicated to fostering allyship. Because the other opportunity and responsibility are to bring us all together. Beauty is universal. It’s a way to connect. It’s a way to heal. We’re in some deeply painful times, and in order for Black and Brown people to take up more space, we deserve all the eyeballs. An allied brand we define as a brand that long before 2020 was thinking about all people when it came to shade ranges, formulations, those in front of the camera, behind the camera, and in their hiring process. We’ve done a lot of diligence on brands we invite to be a part of the platform. We know them to be non-performative, true allies.
Sixty days after launch, we got a call from JCPenney saying, “We’re looking for a new hyper-inclusive beauty retail partner to join us on a mission for our new JCPenney beauty space.” While we always knew we’d be omnichannel, 60 days in, to have this opportunity to partner with America’s oldest retailer was just a divine, amazing, incredible gift. We’re now in the process of opening 600 Thirteen Lune stores in JCPenneys nationwide. We also now have over 165 brands and my new baby, Relevant: Your Skin Seen.
That’s incredible. Speaking of Relevant: Your Skin Seen, I’d love to know how you came up with that. What was the genesis?
I believe in science-led and -backed formulations but bringing in heritage ingredients as well because I say the proof is in the pudding; it’s my story. It’s my authentic truth. The real truth is I never had access to the opportunity to really deliver on better serving all consumers, but coming from the lens of a melanin-rich skin consumer. We all have melanin. Relevant: Your Skin Seen is a melanin-safe brand made for all.
I also had the opportunity to learn so much over the last 20 years and work with amazing chemists. Even if they weren’t working on the formulas for my brand, I really took advantage of where I was to learn. I would see these new acids and peels come to market that were touted as safe for all skin tones. Because of the experience I’ve had, not only with my own skin but in this industry, I knew when I turned it over and read the ingredients and the levels of acids that it wasn’t melanin-safe. But I didn’t want to feel left out. Who doesn’t want a great peel? Who doesn’t want the experience of being able to benefit from these ingredients at safe levels?
The same goes for sunscreen. I wear sunscreen every day. I always have, but it’s been a real challenge for me over time to find sunscreens that are noncomedogenic and that don’t cast white or purple on my skin as a person of color. As I would look at how melanoma numbers are going up in Black and Brown communities, it makes perfect sense because we’re not being marketed products that feel good to us or luxurious. Everybody wants to look like themselves after they put their sunscreen on. They don’t want to transform into something they don’t like, so they’ll opt out as a result.
So Relevant: Your Skin Seen is a couple of things. As I said before, it’s the first time that I, as a Black female entrepreneur have had the runway, the autonomy, the support, the access to data, and the opportunity to create the brand of my dreams. I believe that all people deserve to be seen. It’s a running theme in my life, and it has been long before Thirteen Lune and Relevant: Your Skin Seen. How can I bring something to market that will better help others to see themselves and feel considered and feel appreciated and feel nurtured and treasured? That is at the heart of Relevant.
I have to say as far as products go, I’ve tested the eye cream, and I love it.
Agh, yes, the Beam + Glow!
Yes, and I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m prone to dark circles. It’s hard to find an eye cream that I like enough to consistently use. I’ve gone through that tube in record time.
Same. I think I’m on my fourth tube in six months. I’m also prone to dark circles. We went through so many different formulations, and I was like, it’s there, but it’s not there. As a brand founder, you’re always creating products you want to use and then inviting others to enjoy. Even in that, it’s like you have less melanin than I have, but we both have melanin and we’re both prone to dark circles, so my goal is to help everyone achieve results.
I would say this brand is unique because there are a lot of heritage ingredients that many brands use, but they’re not being marketed toward everyone. You mentioned you want to debunk that myth. Can you tell me a little bit about the development process of Relevant? Were there any unique challenges in the formulation process so that they would be safe and efficacious for every skin tone?
Meeting my chemists really allowed me to get the process going even when we couldn’t physically be in the lab. They both, luckily, had their own lab setup at home, so we were able to continue with the development work. I worked with these two chemists specifically because not only are they seasoned, award-winning chemists, but they’re also people of color who know the science of skin and know how to safely create, for example, Sol Tone, a five-acid toner that can work for all people and not cause hypo or hyperpigmentation or making the most stable vitamin C on the market in a way that wouldn’t turn and would help with discoloration. The number one skin concern is dry skin. How were these things going to be hydrating while also helping to slough off dull skin, helping to minimize the appearance of dark circles and puffiness, etc.? It was a fine balance.
On a personal note, just like everyone else, supply chain issues! Starting to develop a brand in 2020 that came out in 2022, I mean, who’s to say it wouldn’t have come out six months earlier if we didn’t have those things? But everything happens as it’s supposed to.
