Sephora this month is kicking off an extensive instore and online campaigned highlighting Black-owned beauty brands. The new campaign celebrates Sephora’s Black-owned brands and founders, and showcases the excellence and quality these products offer for all shoppers. 
 
“It is vital to celebrate the contributions Black culture and innovators have had on beauty,” Deborah Yeh, CMO of Sephora, said during the retailer’s recent “Conversation on Black Beauty,” an online event held on August 25.
 
Pointing to beauty trends such as acrylics, bright hair color and contouring, Yeh noted, “Many of the beauty trends have roots in Black culture—and many technical innovations, too…This is not widely known or recognized. We should give credit where credit is due.”
 
Sephora Beauty Director Myiesha Sewell hosted the panel discussion, which included Sephora executives as well as Aurora James, founder of fashion line Brother Bellies and creator of 15% Pledge, and Desiree Verdejo, CEO of Hyper Skin (part of Sephora’s 2021 Accelerator cohort).
 
The announcement of the new campaign follows the launch in early August of Sephora’s short statement film called “Black Beauty is Beauty” that highlighted Black-owned brands and founders like Pattern by Tracee Ellis Ross, Briogeo, Adwoa Beauty, Bread, Beauty Supply, Fenty Beauty, Forvr Mood, Pat McGrath Labs, LYS Beauty, Danessa Myricks Beauty and Fashion Fair.


 
Since taking the 15 Percent Pledge last June, Sephora has been hard at work “making this pledge a reality,” said Priya Venkatesh, SVP-merchandising, skin care and hair, Sephora. 
 
According to Venkatesh, Sephora formed a special task merchant force to help make progress. By the end of 2021, Sephora will have doubled its brand count. Its hair care category is on track to hit that 15% pledge this year, said Venkatesh.
 
Sephora has played a role in beauty stories from K beauty to clean beauty, and executives have the same goal to elevate Black beauty.
 
In fact, Sephora will use its large stage to promote Black-owned founders—from its store front to fixtures to digital to email.
 
Sephora will also debut its first Sephora Black-Owned Brands Favorite Kit, with proceeds earmarked for 15 Percent Pledge. The kit will include products from Adwoa Beauty, Bread Beauty Supply, Briogeo, Fenty Beauty, Fenty Skin, Pat McGrath Labs and Shani Darden Skin Care. The kit will officially launch on September 14.
 
Sephora has big plans for inside its brick and mortar stores. The company will host a series of in store activations featuring Black-owned brand founders as well as cultural tastemakers and authentic community change agents at the forefront of BIPOC beauty trends. 
 
More so, Sephora says it has enhanced its Color iQ foundation matching capabilities. A new AI tool will leverage a cutting-edge algorithm and proprietary dataset with one goal: find consumers their best foundation from the retailer’s vast array of foundation SKUs.
 
“This tool will empower beauty advisors to enable our clients to get their desired match—to simplify the process of navigating 8,000 foundations,” said Celessa Baker, VP-marketing, makeup and hair, Sephora.
 
The new technology begins rolling out into stores across the US at the end of the month.
 
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Additionally, Sephora and R/GA embarked on a month-long project to “rewrite the internet’s memory” on how Black beauty shows up in search. 
 
Currently when someone searches “K Beauty,” “French Beauty,” or “J Beauty” online, they get what one expects: images and products from these cultures. But when you search “Black Beauty,” consumes get content about horses and Hollywood. With this new search campaign, the companies aim to change the search experience on Black Beauty, ultimately creating improved education and access to content, according to Sephora.
 
Sephora has opened applications for its 2022 Accelerate program, which is focusing on BIPOC-founded and owned brands. Applications will be open until Monday, Sept. 20.
 
According to Baker, Sephora’s job as a retailer is to “uplift and celebrate these brands and give them a voice and platform.”
 
This Sephora campaign highlights the welcomed shift away from retail practices of the past at many stores in which many of these beauty products were stocked in their own section away from so-called mainstream products—if they were in the store at all.