BARE. is my love letter to my beauty community.
As a beauty creator who is often overwhelmed with her fair share of new makeup products, I never dreamed that one day I would actually create my own. Despite the saturation in the beauty industry, my 8+ years in this space has shown me that there are a lot of gaps, especially in products that can compliment dark skin.
As a Black Nigerian American woman navigating the beauty space, there have been so many times where I felt my experience and contributions were invalidated or taken for granted. There are times that I wanted to celebrate what felt like progress, only to be met with yet another hurdle.
Things have definitely taken a turn for the better when it comes to “inclusivity”, however, success, however you may define it, is not linear or finite. It soon became clear that I wanted to contribute more to this industry that I loved so dearly, but often at my own expense.
I wanted to create a safe space for other black beauty lovers and help re-define and expand the definition what inclusivity really means.
In my opinion, true inclusivity requires more than a passive attempt at equality. It must involve holistic efforts toward equity to to fill in the gaps and right the wrongs that past mistakes have left in their wake.
This is what I hope to do with BARE. It has truly been a joy to create the kind of beauty brand I needed when I first walked down a makeup aisle - a brand that not only acknowledges but centers my lived experience.
BARE. is my love letter to my beauty community and just one of the many ways I want to give back to the folks who helped me get here. I truly wish that each and every person that experiences BARE. has a positive one.
- Ofunne Amaka
------
Ofunne Amaka is a beauty creator and consultant turned brand owner. Through the launch of the Cocoa Swatches app - a tool meant to help empower dark skinned beauty lovers, she has been able to champion inclusivity in the beauty industry while creating culturally relevant content on social media. She continues her efforts through other avenues such as speaking to students at Yale and Columbia University , guest speaking on shows like NPR's 1A, and writing articles about beauty and inclusivity for various publications. She was named one of Vogue Business’s Top 100 Innovators and has been featured in publications like Allure, Elle, Teen Vogue, and many more.