For decades, beauty products tended to exclude women of color. Until recently, mega corporations such as Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, and L’Oréal manufactured, marketed, and promoted products that upheld the superiority of white skin over others. It is no secret that having flawless white skin, flowing blond hair, and a thin feminine body composes the hegemonic, Eurocentric beauty standards by which the industry has measured women until late.
While the beauty industry has undergone major changes since the 1940s, there is still much to be done. Thankfully, the beauty industry undergoing its own makeover and Black entrepreneurs like Jelisa Blackwell are taking the beauty industry by storm.
The owner of beauty brand Beyouty by Jelisa, Jelisa Blackwell, is an accomplished makeup artist, cosmetic expert and beauty educator. Her journey into the world of cosmetics began in 2012 when she was a college student working as a freelance makeup artist to earn extra money. She soon found the market lacking in products for women of color as well as her own passion for helping others express themselves creatively and confidently.
She contends that her family environment had a seminal influence in making her the resilient entrepreneur she is today.
“My family is composed of fierce, strong, intelligent, independent black women. I am thankful to have grown up surrounded by their resilience, strength, style, and beauty,” says Jelisa Blackwell.
Blackwell shares that she struggled in her youth due to her darker complexion.
“I was told that I was too dark, and ugly for so many years that I began believing it,” she adds.
She shares that her mother took her for girls-day out on her 16th birthday. After a long day of fun experiences, Blackwell says that her trauma filled her with dread as they approached the makeup counter.
“I had never worn makeup before and I could feel myself getting anxious as we approached a makeup counter. I thought that I was too dark and that there would not be a shade that would match my skin tone. I feared that the makeup consultant would remind me of the same things I had heard all my life.”
It was at that moment that Blackwell’s mother reassured her and helped her find shades for her skin tone.
“I remember being mesmerized by the various shades and colors, from lip glosses, lipsticks, to eyeshadows. I felt like I was in heaven,” says Blackwell.
“It was art. The same art I had loved all my life, just a different medium.”
She shares that she had fallen in love with art in elementary school and that experience sparked a desire in her to express what she had not been able to until then.
“There weren’t a lot of options for someone with my skin’s undertone back then but after adding just a little bit of makeup, I felt more beautiful than I had ever felt before,” she adds.
She believes that it wasn’t solely the makeup but a breaking of the notion and dismantling the negative belief that she was too dark and unfit for makeup that made her feel that way.
Blackwell shares that it was at that point that the seed for Beyouty by Jelisa was planted that has germinated into a brand that aims to cater to all, regardless of skin tone, race, gender, or ethnicity.
