Ipsy has become one of the first beauty companies to follow up on commitments to Black businesses that it made in June, following the police killing of George Floyd.
Then, Ipsy said it would dedicate at least $5 million to the development and amplification of Black-owned beauty brands. Now, the company has laid out its plan, which includes bringing in more than a dozen Black-owned beauty brands for the company’s signature Glam Bags and creating a $1 million fund for Black-owned brands to invest in product sourcing.
Aside from the $1 million fund, at least $4 million will go toward subsidizing the cost of Glam Bag participation for the brands, and spending to “double the marketing value” for those brands, according to a spokeswoman for the company.
Ipsy chief executive officer and cofounder Marcelo Camberos said in a statement that the company is forecasting a $7 million total spend, slightly above the original $5 million commitment, before the end of 2021, with plans to increase that investment in future years.
New brands include: Basic Beauty, BeautyStat, Briogeo, Buttah Skin, Eden Bodyworks, Fenty Beauty, Innate, Jersey Shore, Mented, Mischo, Mistik, Pat McGrath Labs, Saint Luxe, Super Sativa, Twisted Sista and Uoma. Three brands will go out in January Glam Bags, and other brands will be included in Glam Bags throughout the year, Camberos said.
“We look for brands with compelling stories, high-performing products or innovative ingredients that we know will resonate with our members,” Camberos said.
Ipsy’s January follow-up comes roughly six months after flocks of beauty companies made commitments to the Black community. Six months later, only a few have issued updates.
After participating in Uoma founder Sharon Chuter’s Pull Up for Change campaign, which asked companies to divulge the percentage of Black employees in their workforces, Milk Makeup issued a six-month update, noting that Black employees now make up 13 percent of the company, up from 9 percent in June. And Biossance issued a three-month update, saying it had increased Black representation in its workforce by almost 40 percent.
For more from WWD.com, see:
Beauty’s Brand-As-Activist Phenomenon
Fashion’s Progress on Diversity? Lightly Productive at Best, Modern-day Segregation at Worst, Say Industry Activists
Racism at Retail: Beauty Segment Needs to Revamp, and Fast
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