Every culture has its distinct beauty philosophy, practices, and traditions, but some are more well-known than others. Koreans are renowned for their advanced skincare products and routines; the Middle East is celebrated for its rich tradition of fragrance; and India is famed for its thick, lustrous hair. Indigenous beauty, however, isn’t as widely recognized or defined, but a new wave of Indigenous beauty founders is working to change that.
Jenn Harper, founder of Cheekbone Beauty; Leigh Joseph, founder of Sḵwálwen Botanicals; Vanessa Marshall, founder of Jack59; and Patrice Mousseau, founder of Satya Organic have come together to establish the Indigenous Beauty Collective—a cooperative of Indigenous beauty brands dedicated to raising awareness of Indigenous beauty and advocating for greater representation on store shelves.
Unlike other cultures that are centered around geographic regions, Indigenous communities are very diverse and can be found around the world. However, many Indigenous peoples overwhelmingly embrace the same essential virtues when it comes to protecting the environment. Their respect for nature and stewardship crosses imaginary land borders and oceans and can be found in nearly every Indigenous territory worldwide. This, Harper says, is what she hopes Indigenous beauty will become known for.
“If people hear the word Indigenous beauty, I want them automatically to understand that any brands that fall into that space are focused on sustainability,” she tells BeautyMatter. “They are the ones who have the responsibility of being keepers of the land, which is a fundamental aspect of our cultural teachings. Globally, it is something we’ve taken very seriously.”
Cheekbone Beauty is the first Indigenous cosmetics company in Canada. The brand became a certified B Corp company in 2021, which means it has a legal obligation to people and the planet before profits. This includes committing 2% of Cheekbone Beauty’s annual revenues back to causes that make a difference in the world. The brand works with 1% for the Planet, a global community of brands and individuals giving back to environmental nonprofits. Cheekbone Beauty also has its own scholarship fund that helps Indigenous students attend a Canadian or US post-secondary institution in any area of study.
Jack59 and Satya Organic are also registered B Corps. Sḵwálwen Botanicals gives back to the land and Indigenous communities through two key initiatives. The Ceremony Series offers seasonal, small-batch, handmade skincare and wellness experiences, with 10% of proceeds from each release donated to organizations supporting Indigenous causes. The Hiýáḿ Project, a collaboration with Satinflower Nurseries, facilitates the planting of thousands of seeds on Indigenous lands. Since its launch in the spring of 2021, the project has distributed seed packets to multiple Indigenous communities on the mainland and Vancouver Island.
Most recently, Cheekbone Beauty is part of a Barbie collaboration with four other female Canadian-owned brands to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the iconic doll.
“In an era when icons rise and fall with each social media trend, there are a select few whose legacy is not just enduring but also shaping a conversation around inclusivity and representation,” says Harper. “To commemorate this milestone, Cheekbone Beauty is not merely celebrating; it's leading a profound dialogue in the beauty industry with its innovative tribute to the eternal search for inclusivity and sustainability in beauty.”
Harper was inspired to establish the Indigenous Beauty Collective after seeing the Fifteen Percent Pledge successfully help more than 600 Black-owned brands secure shelf space, redirecting $14 billion in revenue to Black-owned businesses in the process. She reached out to other Indigenous beauty founders to advocate for greater representation in retail. Indigenous people make up 5% of the population in Canada, and the Indigenous Beauty Collective aims to get retailers to pledge 5% of their shelf space to Indigenous-owned brands.
Sustainability has been a buzzword in the beauty industry for years, but it’s never been tied back to the Indigenous communities that have been pioneering this movement since time immemorial. Indigenous people have used natural ingredients in rituals and routines long before big businesses commercialized them. If retailers are prioritizing sustainability, they should also prioritize giving Indigenous-owned brands the credit and respect they deserve in this space, both literally on store shelves and figuratively in the broader beauty and sustainable e-commerce and consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry.
Like the Fifteen Percent Pledge, the Indigenous Beauty Collective seeks to help companies have their shelves be more reflective of America's demographics.
“I feel like our community gets no recognition, and it's always a ‘handout’ mentality, and we don't want a handout. We need to be uplifted, and our ideas and our people are extremely intelligent and have the ability to build things, but I think that we don’t get taken seriously,” says Harper.
More than recognition and placement, the Indigenous Beauty Collective hopes to provide resources, access, and mentorship to Indigenous youth interested in working in the beauty industry. All of the members in the Indigenous Beauty Collective are alike in that they didn’t have any experience working in the beauty industry before starting their brands.
Joseph recently completed her PhD in ethnobotany, which is the study of the connections between people, plants, and their environment. As an academic with Indigenous heritage, Joseph started to realize that the literature she was relying on was all from non-Indigenous voices. As Joseph would come to find out, these gaps in representation are also present in the beauty industry.
“I was looking for a very practical way to communicate around plants and celebrate the beauty and gifts that certain botanical ingredients carry, and I wanted to do that through a culturally informed lens,” she tells BeautyMatter. “A common thread in my background, both in the research I do and finding myself in this skincare and beauty space, is wanting to unapologetically share that knowledge within that context and elevate Indigenous representation in a positive way.”
Joseph knows firsthand just how important programs that empower Indigenous founders can be for your business. Sḵwálwen Botanicals was the first Indigenous brand to go through the Ulta Muse Accelerator program in 2023. Since then, Joseph has also participated in The Detox Market and Credo Beauty accelerators. She credits these programs with increasing exposure and awareness for Indigenous-owned brands. Today, Sḵwálwen Botanicals is available in over 90 shops and retailers in Canada and the US. The brand has seen 40 percent growth overall this past year.
“I think there is a real opportunity to start to shed more light on what Indigenous beauty is and why it matters,” says Joseph. “The ongoing lack of awareness and education is a barrier in itself because so much Indigenous history has been marginalized and swept under the rug. Many people are more comfortable with that [status quo]. Finding partners who can help amplify our voices and recognize the importance of Indigenous representation is still a challenge, especially when it comes to getting into larger retailers.”
Getting into retail comes with its own challenges, something the Indigenous Beauty Collective knows well. One of the founders shared that she had to strongly advocate for one of her major retail partners to create an Indigenous beauty category on its e-commerce site, as they didn’t initially grasp the importance of recognizing this category on its own. Landing placement on store shelves is simply the first step towards promoting a broader awareness of Indigenous beauty.
“I say now, ‘Oh, it's easy getting in,’ which many people will argue, because it's not easy getting into Sephora. That is very hard, but staying is going to be even harder, and we know that,” says Harper.
Like other BIPOC-founded brands, access to capital is one of the biggest challenges Indigenous-owned beauty brands face. For these founders, finding partnerships that truly align with their vision—partners who understand their goals and respect their mission enough to collaborate and help grow the business—is challenging. When Mousseau was ready to scale her business, she initially sought out and received VC investment. However, it didn't end up being something she wanted to continue with, and she eventually bought her VC partners out and now owns 100% of her company. Mousseau doesn’t believe that VC funding is a fit for most Indigenous-owned brands, which partly explains why so few brands even make it into retail doors.
“This idea of scale at any cost is a toxic perspective,” says Mousseau. “It's very extractive, and it ends up ruining a lot of great companies that I think would be quite happy if they were making $10 or $20 million a year versus the $100 million or $200 million that a VC wants.”
Mousseau believes she’s been able to scale Satya Organic without losing cost efficiency because of a genuine demand for her product. The brand had an opportunity to expand to China this year, which Mousseau turned down because it couldn’t support such a transition. Today, Mousseau is focused on building up Satya Organic in Canada, slowly and with strength. The brand is available in over 1,100 Shoppers Drug Mart locations across Canada.
In partnership with Simon Fraser University, Mousseau is also developing a revolutionary small-scale beauty manufacturing device that can produce various products in compostable packaging at no minimum. Mousseau hopes to put these devices in the hands of Indigenous people who want to start their own businesses but don’t have the access to borrow vast sums of money to do a scaling run.
“We built something that's going to allow people to not only produce compostable samples but also full-size units in their own communities,” she says. “There will be more innovation because you don't have to order 10,000 units at a time. You can experiment. You can produce on demand. It’s going to be a big change for a lot of people—and it's not just for the Indigenous community. Obviously, this is something that something that everyone's going to benefit from.”
Each machine is like compressing an entire factory floor into a desktop-sized device. Mousseau already has a working prototype producing Satya Organic products and samples. She hopes to finish three more prototypes later this year before making them available to the general public.
“I built it so that we could use it, but I just wanted it to exist in the world,” she says. “I never planned a commercialization strategy around it. It's going to change a lot of things.”
Without the pressure of VC funding, Mousseau can take risks and experiment to find solutions that help her create the kind of business that is aligned with her personal values and goals, which all stem from her Indigenous background. Satya Organic’s workforce comprises stay-at-home moms or caregivers to elderly parents who work on a contract basis, which Mousseau believes is more efficient and beneficial for both the brand and its employees. As a person with Indigenous heritage, sharing resources comes second nature to Mousseau. Her operations manager also works with Joseph at Sḵwálwen Botanicals and other Indigenous- and women-owned brands.
"Getting rid of this scarcity mindset is something Indigenous people do really well,” says Mousseau. “We understand that there's more than enough for everybody.”
Indigenous-owned brands are strongly committed to their principles, which is why these businesses have such an impact on the planet and its people. As founder of Jack59, Marshall created her salon-quality shampoo bars to help eliminate plastic waste and encourage consumers to make sustainable swaps that benefit the environment and enhance their lifestyle.
“I was finding that the green products that I was purchasing didn't work very well, and it was really deterring me from purchasing them,” Marshall tells BeautyMatter. “There are so many easy fixes that people can incorporate. If we get people to start thinking about product packaging differently, it can really plant that seed to help people carry more sustainable initiatives into their lives.”
As Jack59 started taking off, Marshall faced some difficult business decisions. “You start feeling like people just kind of want to take pieces of you as you're growing, and you don't really know who to give those pieces to,” she says.
Becoming a B Corp company in 2022 provided Jack59 with a compass for navigating what can be choppy waters. Joining forces with the other brand founders in the Indigenous Beauty Collective has equipped Marshall with the support she needs to thrive as a business owner. Jack59 is available in over 400 retail stores across Canada and will soon be entering 40 London Drugs stores through ANB Canada.
“We truly are stronger together,” she says. “We can learn and grow together and have a sense of community. This network has some real power behind it; it has buying power and the power to change people's perceptions of Indigenous beauty.”
With these four founders at the helm, the Indigenous Beauty Collective will continue to advocate for representation and spread awareness about what makes Indigenous brands—and Indigenous people—exceptional. Indigenous people comprise less than 5% of the world's population and protect 80% of global biodiversity. That’s a legacy worthy of great respect and celebration in any industry, especially in the beauty industry, where the focus on sustainability is becoming increasingly central.
“If we're going to call ourselves an Indigenous brand, we need to be living up to the standards of our people, the people that were here long before us, and our cultural teachings,” says Harper. “This land was a gift to all of us, and we should all feel responsible for caring for it.”
