“Growing up in Jamaica, I spent my formative years uninterested in beauty traditions. My first experience with acne was at age 22 and I didn’t learn how to do my own makeup— still learning— until very recently. But regardless of how much I tried to ignore it, beauty always found its way to me, and I eventually caved in. Now, after seven years of testing products from high to low, working as a research consultant with luxury beauty brands and achieving a certification in Cosmetic Sciences at UCLA, I’ve seen first hand what works and what is missing; which led me here. Throughout history, beauty products designed for melanated skin have been excluded from shelf space, if not entirely ignored or poorly made. So I’ve decided to create a destination that encourages the discovery of consciously formulated Black-owned beauty brands, all made with melanin at the forefront, and vital education around A-Beauty ingredients for a richer Black beauty experience. This isn’t the end all but it’s the right step towards what feels like the missing link to our constant search for products made by us, for us.”

— Delanique Millwood, Founder and CEO