38 Black-Owned Skincare Brands That Should Be on Your Radar

Black-owned Epara skincare offers an incredibly opulent range of products with chic-as-hell packaging that’ll look sooo pretty on your bathroom counter. Both their face and body products are powered by African botanical ingredients to create a high-performance experience that’s well worth the sliiightly higher price tag.

✨ Must-try product: Natural Cleansing Oil

If you struggle with stubborn, acne-prone skin, listen up: Rosen’s products just might be your solution to persistent blackheads, whiteheads, cystic breakouts, and body acne. Their products are formulated with people of color in mind, so you don’t have to worry about the ingredients having an overly irritating or bleaching effect.

✨ Must-try product: Break-Out Spot Treatment for Acne

From the golden packaging to the transparent lists breaking down every ingredient, benefit, and recommended use under each product, Lovinah is truly a luxurious, full-service brand. Star product ingredients include Kenyan Black Tea, Dragon’s Blood (a type of tree sap extract), and Blue Agave.

✨ Must-try product: Royalty Retinol Body Serum

As you may have guessed from their name, clean beauty brand Plant Apothecary relies on the power of plant peptides and botanical extracts to create gentle, effective products that form the base of any good skincare routine. Think night creams, mild cleansers, and moisturizing soaps.

✨ Must-try product: Be Well Shower Gel

4.5.6 Skin is committed to creating products especially for melanin-rich skin. In 2019, they developed their Skin Tone Research Lab to address the unique needs of darker skin (specifically Skin Phototypes IV, V, and VI), whether it be safely treating hyperpigmentation, regulating sebum production, or strengthening the skin barrier.

✨ Must-try product: Come Clean Cleansing Oil

Inspired by a West African beauty ritual, the Luv Scrub is a body exfoliator that’ll produce a surprising amount of lather while using way less soap than you’re used to squeezing out per shower. Best of all, your Luv Scrub can last up to 18 months (!!) compared to the average loofah, which typically needs to be replaced after 2 months.

✨ Must-try product: Mesh Body Exfoliator

Founder Nyakio Grieco launched Relevant Your Skin Seen over the summer as a celebration of inclusivity and positivity in the beauty space. The line’s first launch? One & Done—a multitasking face cream that hydrates, plumps, and protects all skin types and tones.

✨ Must-try product: One & Done Everyday Cream with SPF 40

2023 has been the year of musician-owned beauty brands, including Alicia Keys’ Keys Soulcare. Her line of self-care products (including skincare, body care, and more) are formulated with your skin’s health *and* your mental health in mind.

✨ Must-try product: Sacred Body Oil

Founded by three sisters from Ghana, Karité’s line of lip, hand, and and body products is all about shea butter. The ingredient is loved for its ability to deeply moisture and nourish thanks to a high concentration of vitamin A, E, F, and fatty acids.

✨ Must-try product: Creme Corps Hydrating Body Cream

Founded in 2018 by actor, model, and recording artist Dorion Renaud, Buttah Skin uses the power of raw and organic shea butter to help target common issues (think hyperpigmentation and dryness), with a focus on melanin-rich skin.

✨ Must-try product: Whipped Body Butter

Since its launch, Black-owned skincare brand Klur has been centered around clean, ethical, sustainable, and inclusive beauty (I mean, what’s not to love about that??). Founder, product formulator, and aesthetician Lesley Thornton created the collection of multitasking, minimalist products with the intention of helping people achieve optimal skin health.

✨ Must-try product: Supreme Seed Delicate Purification Mask

This Black-owned skincare brand from Dr. Anne Beal focuses on three things: simplicity, efficacy, and safety. Everything in the line—from the face toner to night oil—uses gentle, yet clinically-tested ingredients to help you achieve healthy, glowing skin.

✨ Must-try product: Skin Refining Night Oil

Long gone are the days of sunscreen neglecting melanated skin. Shontay Lundy, founder of Black Girl Sunscreen, created a much-needed product in the beauty industry: A completely sheer sunscreen, non-whitening sunscreen that protects melanin-rich without making it look ashy. Beauty influencers, celebs, and dermatologists alike rave about this company.

✨ Must-try product: Moisturizing Sunscreen Lotion SPF 30

I grew up obsessed with the Williams sisters, so when Venus launched an SPF collection under her EleVen line, I couldn’t wait to try it out. And let me tell you, the formulas don’t disappoint. The green, clean mineral sunscreens (there is a serum version and a cream version) are made with non-nano zinc oxide that’s super sheer, so they look non-whitening on all skin tones.

✨Must-try product: Unrivaled Sun Serum SPF 40

After an inspiring trip to Tokyo, beauty influencer and writer Kristen Noel Crawley become obsessed with creating an all-natural lip mask…and, thus, KNC Beauty was born. In addition to the iconic lip mask patch, the brand also has launched retinol-infused eye patches (so good), lip balms, and most recently, a trio of sheet masks.

✨ Must-try product: All-Natural Infused Lip Mask

I was lucky enough to get one of Shani Darden’s iconic facials at her LA studio a few years ago and have been legit hooked on her products ever since. The smart, no B.S. formulas (including two retinol serums, a gentle cleanser, an essence, an eye cream, an oil-free moisturizer, and a tech-y facial sculpting wand) work on all skin types and provide visible results.

✨ Must-try product: Retinol Reform

There is truly no chicer/cooler/trendier shaving brand than Oui The People. Started by Karen Young with the intent to create a beauty brand that helps you feel good about the skin you’re already in, Oui The People’s razors and skin products reject the idea of “flawlessness” and embrace individuality.

✨ Must-try product: The Single Safety Razor

Christina Tegbe created 54 Thrones to celebrate Africa’s rich and cultural beauty. Tegbe uses pure and organic plant botanicals that are African-grown to formulate clean and sustainable products inspired by the beauty rituals of Africa’s 54 countries.

✨ Must-try product: African Beauty Butter

Supermodel and vitiligo activist Winnie Harlow founded Cay Skin after suffering a severe sunburn on a photoshoot because she couldn’t find a sheer, clear sunscreen to protect her skin. The line of face and body SPF products and moisturizing essentials are designed with all skin types and tones in mind.

✨ Must-try product: Isle Glow Face Moisturizer SPF 45