International Women’s Day may have already passed, but uplifting female creators should be a year-round activity, especially given the injustices occurring daily on an international scale, as writer Viola Levy poignantly discussed in a recent article for The Stack World.
According to an ArtTactic report, female artists constituted only 5% of all sales on trading platform Nifty Gateway, despite the NFT space producing $10.67 billion in trading volume in Q3 2021. In honor of those disrupting the space, BeautyMatter rounded up the most recent NFTs by female entrepreneurs to hit the market.
Visible Women NFT, a community aimed at promoting gender equality and female empowerment by, among other projects, aiming to onboard 100,000 women into the Metaverse and Web3 space, created portraits of Wander Beauty co-founders Divya Gugnani and Lindsay Ellingson, which will be offered with any purchase from the beauty brand throughout the month of April.
“By introducing our loyal consumers to the world of NFTs and cryptocurrency, we hope to empower women on their journey to financial equality and independence. We're excited to partner with Visible Women NFT to help improve financial literacy among women by providing educational tools and a supportive community, both in real life and in the metaverse,” Gugnani comments. “As a woman who has successfully built, scaled, and sold many businesses, it is my duty to help other women reach the same successes in their careers and to help create more seats at the table.”
Visible Women NFT founder Stacey Yael adds: “Visible Women creates custom NFT portraits as a way to bring empowerment and visibility to our community members, which aligns beautifully with the purpose-driven mission of Wander Beauty. The relationship of inner and outer beauty parallels the relationship that women need to be empowered in real life and virtually through NFTs.”
Although the NFT sold for $1,000 ( 0.2171 in Ethereum coin) in November 2021, beauty journalist Darian Symoné Harvin’s viral Twitter post turned non-fungible token—a thread of Black women posing in front of the Mona Lisa, which received over 10,000 replies—maintains its cultural significance to this day. “I missed the thrill of travel and wanted to share and see more of that feeling. Although the photo itself contains the most famous painting in the world, my tweet is about us. We showed up as ourselves—with our varied experiences in the world—at a common destination,” Harvin recounts.
Today, she sees NFTs as an important tool in harnessing the power of ownership and value. It has since grown into an ode to the viral moments of our social media era, but more importantly, opened up a wider discussion. “I want to empower myself with the financial resources to innovate in media, journalism, and beauty. In addition, in the spirit of the tweet, I’d like to continue to mobilize others to travel,” she states. In honor of said spirit, Harvin is donating a portion of the proceeds for setting up a fund to cover the passport and passport renewal fees for Black women and Black femmes.
Founded by Alice Chang, winner of the 2021 Tech Trailblazers Awards in the Female CxO Trailblazers category, Perfect Corp. is a leading AI and AR fashion and beauty tech solutions provider, working with the likes of Benefit, Estée Lauder, and e.l.f.
This month, the enterprise launched a virtual try-on NFT collection, which allows viewers to digitally interact with assets through augmented-reality technology. The NFTs can also be used on brands’ websites or apps. “Perfect Corp.’s new NFT business solutions will allow brands to enter the NFT space while enhancing their customer experience with AR virtual try-on technology,” Chang states. “As the retail world embraces the Metaverse, AR technology will be essential to create personalized and immersive experiences.” Alongside this business solution, Perfect Corp. has also introduced their own collection of futuristic-looking, AR-enhanced NFTs of makeup looks and accessories, available on OpenSea.
Renowned nail technician turned entrepreneur Charlotte Knight founded her brand with an emphasis on trend-setting creations. “I’m proud to be a woman leading an independent brand and to advocate for female empowerment, whether it’s through innovation in business or encouraging beauty lovers around the world to express their creativity and make up their own rules,” she states.
True to her desire for newness, the Christine Quinn x Ciaté London collection launched with not just the physical products, but four limited-edition NFT artworks of the products, created in partnership with NFT marketplace Bitski. Ciaté London also partnered with sustainability enterprise Aerial in order to counteract the carbon footprint of the release. While the collection sold out, its clever strategy of marrying environmental mindedness with release hype continues on.
“I entered the NFT space because I wanted to explore how to create value for our customers beyond price,” explains Valdé Beauty founder Margarita Arriagada. Considering the brand’s range of luxury refillable lipsticks in exquisite collectible packaging, the emphasis on value creation through exciting creative means rings true.
With the limited-edition Divine NFT Collection, these collectibles not only took on physical form in the shape of ethically sourced amethyst, rose quartz, and white quartz crystal lipstick vessels, but also digital shape thanks to corresponding NFT art pieces for each product, each featuring a different goddess portrait (Tyche, Goddess of Chance; Athena, Goddess of Courage; Iris, Goddess of Wisdom) created by Latinx artist Serena Ellis.
It’s the inaugural launch for the Valdé NFT Collective, which “combines the power of community, the authenticity of ownership on the blockchain, and the beauty, strength, and resilience of women” through exclusive collaborations with female artists. 100% of net proceeds from the Divine NFT collection benefit the Valdé Latinx Beauty grant for Latinx creatives and entrepreneurs, while each purchase of the crystal lipsticks also ensures lifetime membership in the collective.
Aside from engaging new product activations, the potential of NFTs runs much deeper: a decentralized form of empowerment, creative ownership, and ongoing digital innovation. As Arriagada remarks: “The future of NFT's in beauty will be explosive. It's the new social currency.”
