Supporting black-owned businesses is an excellent way to provide support for amazing businesses that can only benefit from increased visibility. Whether it’s a celebrity-owned behemoth like Fenty or a startup built from the ground up by an enterprising solopreneur, support from the community can be priceless. Once the black community throws its support behind a product, the benefits and rewards for the company that makes the product can be amazing.

Before being bought out by Unilever, SheaMoisture was already an uber-successful beauty brand that was almost universally supported by black women. The Liberian owners, Nyema Tubman, Richelieu Dennis and Mary Dennis, sold the product directly to customers at street fairs and through word of mouth. The high-quality products are what sold the product, so the fact that they were black-owned was icing on the cake.

We already know that we have the power to take black-owned beauty and hair care brands to the next level, creating profits for the businesses and joy for the consumers. Here are some that you should be throwing your support behind.

Beauty Bakerie

Beauty Bakerie represents founder Cashmere Nicole’s vision of playfulness, sweetness and nurturing making its way into makeup. Her lippie’s are beautiful and bold, and they don’t smear. Her foundations celebrate every part of the black rainbow.

Her story wasn’t always sweet. She struggled as a single mother, determined to give her daughter the best of everything. When she was a few years into building her brand, she developed breast cancer. She beat it, and she was determined to make it. How determined? She agreed to be interviewed about her brand while recovering from a double mastectomy. Today, her company is uber successful and she makes giving back a part of her journey.

The Lip Bar

By now, we’ve all heard Lip Bar founder Melissa Butler’s unceremonious rejection from Shark Tank where she was essentially laughed out of the room. Her vegan, cruelty free lipstick and makeup line was created for people of color who wanted to think out of the box when it came to lipstick colors.

Brilliant blues and fiery oranges that glow against melanin-rich skin are the name of the game here. Told she would never make it, her products are now carried in Target stores everywhere.

Pat McGrath Labs

We didn’t think we needed to include Pat McGrath Labs in this list because everybody knows that Pat McGrath, respectfully referred to as “Mother”, is a black British beauty icon, right? The one who Anna Wintour calls “the most influential makeup artist in the world” and who Queen Elizabeth herself has made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to the beauty and fashion industry? That Pat McGrath?

Nope, recently ran into some people who were surprised to hear it. The Pat McGrath makeup line is bold, electric, rich, and top quality. Her fans are wonderfully, rabidly loyal, and product lines are sold out as soon as they’re released, so don’t blink or you’ll miss everything.

Mary Louise Cosmetics

Howard stays winning! Mary Louise Cosmetics was launched by former Howard pre-med student Akilah Releford. She left after her junior year to focus all of her energies on launching her cosmetics line. In 2017, when she was just 20 years old, she launched her vegan, cruelty-free line, determined to create products that were both affordable and high quality.

She didn’t do it alone, though. She worked with her surgeon father to create all-in-one products that could treat many of the skin problems faced by people of color, including hyperpigmentation, razor bumps and dark spots. The company’s Miracle Serum and Mississippi Mud Facial Mask are huge bestsellers.

Blk and Grn

If you’re looking for a marketplace that focuses on black health and beauty artisans that create green, toxic-free products, look no further than BLK & GRN. This well-stocked, online marketplace connects you with beauty company owners selling everything from skin creams to baby products to hair products. It’s the perfect spot to pick up products that are good for our bodies, good for the environment and good for our souls.