To reflect its diverse palette of customers, Ulta Beauty plans to double the Black-owned brands in its stores. The beauty company made the announcement on Feb. 2. Ulta will also invest in media campaigns that will be more diverse in featuring more Black women. These are all goals the company says they plan to accomplish by the end of this year.
Currently, Ulta has a few diversity-focused brands at their stores. Mented Cosmetics is a black-owned brand with an expansive shade range.
More melanin, please!
Ulta has also hired Tracee Ellis Ross to become their company’s diversity and inclusion advisor. Ross is an actor and hair care founder of Pattern Beauty which is currently already at Ulta.
“I look forward to formalizing an already existing dialogue and partnership around diversity and inclusion with Mary Dillon and the Ulta Beauty team,” Ross said in a statement.
“This work requires commitment and accountability from Ulta Beauty to ensure measurable goals are achieved. I am hopeful and optimistic our work together will create foundational change.” In my opinion, she is a great, and logical choice for Ulta.
The news is music to Black women’s’ ears, who have been yearning to see more diversity in the beauty industry. Another company is Sephora. After a disturbing report on racial bias, the company pledged to revamp its diversity policies which also include doubling up on its Black-owned brands.
The company also announced their employees will receive training on unconscious bias.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CK1__WunHHh/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Reflecting the change
Last summer, there was a #PullUpOrShutUp challenge on Instagram, which aimed to point out the lack of Black representation in the beauty industry. The challenge was created by UOMA Beauty’s founder and CEO Sharon Chuter. According to stats at the time, Black representation at Ulta Beauty was 18% at the executive board-level, 13 percent on the leadership team, and six percent at associate-level.
As someone who loves to play with makeup, I look for representation. I look for factors that provide me with versatility and an extensive shade range in my concealers, foundation, lipstick, blush, etc. If a brand is diversity-focused, it will best capture the hues and undertones of my skin. And more diverse representation at companies like Ulta Beauty can better reflect that change.
I like to draw parallels to Fenty Beauty founder Rihanna. The women featured in her campaigns were unique and varied in appearance. However, I am curious about how Ulta will present to us [Black women] when they say they will feature more of us. Black women are longing to see women of all shades, sizes, hair textures, and everything in between. Ulta is heading in the right direction, and I hope they make it to the right destination.
