If you’re someone that just loves makeup and wants to play around with different looks and products, you probably know the frustration that comes with finding out one of your favorite brands is super problematic. Whether it’s an incredibly racist owner, a rumored anti-Semitic owner, or a brand’s participation in animal testing, it can leave you feeling betrayed by a brand you loved so dearly and in a desperate search for a new brand to fill the void. If you’re hunting for new cosmetic companies you can feel good about giving your money to, you’ve come to the right place.
At this point, most people have heard of Lush, so it may seem like it doesn’t even need a place on this list. However, I’m giving it a place on this list anyway because it deserves it. Lush is a cruelty-free brand (and has been actively fighting animal testing for thirty years), all of its products are 100% vegetarian (with many also being vegan), and all of their ingredients are bought ethically. If that’s not enough to convince you that this company is amazing, their Valentines Day 2017 ad campaign featured LGBT+ couples in beautiful and intimate moments.
Recommended Products: Any of their bath bombs (my favorite is Twilight), Mask of Magnaminty, and their lip scrubs
I have so much love for this brand for so many different reasons. They’re a family-owned business that traces its roots back to Sierra Leone with their grandmother, Sofi Tucker in 1912. It’s also cruelty-free, organic and natural, and uses ethically traded products. The company has also introduced a line of Community Commerce, promising to donate 10% of sales to their Shea Moisture Community Commerce products to women-lead businesses, communities that provide ingredients for their products, or the Sofi Tucker Foundation. You also may have seen their awesome ad campaign in which they sought to normalize and empower women of color (and their hair).
Recommended Products: Anything from their Peace Rose Oil Complex collection or their African Black Soap collection
Beauty Bakerie is owned by Cashmere Nicole, who is pretty inspirational in her own right. It is cruelty-free, black owned, and quickly becoming a new favorite among beauty blogs and major fashion magazines alike. It’s best known for its liquid matte lipsticks, but it offers products for your eyes, lips, and face with lots of vegan options to choose from (bonus points that all of their products look good enough to eat). And it just released a new collaboration with Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas. If it’s good enough for Gabby, it’s good enough for me.
Recommended Products: Their lip whips (with colors ranging from the perfect nude to the boldest blue)
For makeup lovers, it can be a task to find brands you love and products you love. Products you absolutely adore may be produced by companies that have a dark history, and companies that you want to love just don’t produce anything that works for you. Hopefully, some of these brands can do both.
