3 Black-Owned Beauty Retailers We're Shopping as Alternatives to Amazon

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(Image credit: @thevicstyles)

In honor of Juneteenth, we’re taking cues from the #NewBlackFriday initiative, which encourages shopping Black-owned businesses for your product and service needs to tactically address systemic economic inequality. 

We're dedicated to this cause across both our fashion and beauty verticals, and while we encourage you to buy Black now and forever, we're prompting you to take a pause from shopping other huge retailers today, in particular. Instead, we invite you to explore, discover, and support the amazing shops and stores founded by some of the coolest Black innovators in the industry. Here, you can check out eight Black-owned boutiques and vintage shops for all of your fashion needs, and below, we're highlighting three of our favorite Black-owned beauty retailers offering everything from makeup to haircare to wellness necessities. 

Oh, and if you're curious for even more retail opportunities to support, we suggest perusing our features on Black-owned fashion brandsbeauty brands, and a list of additional Black-owned products we can't wait to upgrade our regimen with. Keep scrolling!

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(Image credit: @thevicstyles)

Blk + Grn

Meet Blk + Grn, a luxe, all-natural marketplace founded by Dr. Kristian Henderson and brimming with everything you need to deck out your home and beauty regimen. Not only is everything the retailer carries created by Black artisans, but all offerings are also nontoxic, plant-based, and cruelty-free. Each artisan is carefully chosen by Black women's health experts (so you know you're shopping truly natural options that are good for both your home and health), and the marketplace has even created a helpful guide outlining 20 toxic ingredients you'll never find on its shelves. (FYI: There's free shipping on orders over $99 right now!)

Marjani Beauty

As the ultimate "Brown Girl Beauty Authority," Marjani Beauty is a Black-owned beauty retailer with a focus on skincare, bodycare, and makeup. Founded by Kimberly Smith, Marjani Beauty aims to support Black-owned brands while also delivering a fun and memorable shopping experience to its customers. "Bringing international beauty and cosmetic products to the local consumer, and using this platform to empower Brown girls, across nationalities, age, hair textures, and shades to embrace and claim their beauty" is what Smith says it's all about. You'll get free shipping on orders over $50, and 10% of all June sale proceeds will be donated to the Black Visions Collective.

Inside Outer Beauty Market

As its name suggests, Inside Outer Beauty Market is all about nurturing beauty both internally and externally. Its wellness-focused brand and product spread is a true feast. Founded by Dixie Lincoln-Nichols, the retailer believes all women deserve to live their healthiest lives, and their mission is to make it both fun and unbiased.

"Each of our products is tested for a minimum of 30 days and ultimately hand-selected for their clean, high-quality ingredients," the retailer notes on its website. "Every product that makes its way onto our shelves is measured against a list of potentially harmful, nonnegotiable toxicants so you never have to think twice about what you put on, or in, your body. We're passionate about creating awareness, educating our customers about harmful ingredients, providing safer alternatives, and promoting BIPOC brands." Currently, free shipping is being offered for orders over $50.

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Beauty Director

Erin has been writing a mix of beauty and wellness content for Who What Wear for over four years. Prior to that, she spent two and half years writing for Byrdie. She now calls Santa Monica home but grew up in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and studied writing, rhetoric, and communication at University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. She studied abroad in Galway, Ireland, and spent a summer in L.A. interning with the Byrdie and Who What Wear family. After graduating from UW, she spent one year in San Francisco, where she worked as a writer for Pottery Barn Kids and PBteen before moving down to L.A. to begin her career as a beauty editor. She considers her day-to-day beauty aesthetic very low-maintenance and relies on staples like clear brow serum (from Kimiko!), Lawless's Lip Plumping Mask in Cherry Vanilla, and an eyelash curler. For special occasions or days when she's taking more meetings or has an event, she'll wear anything and everything from Charlotte Tilbury (the foundations are game-changing), some shimmer on her lids (Stila and Róen do it best), and a few coats of the best mascara-type product on earth, Surratt's Noir Lash Tint.