It's no secret that the beauty industry is reliant on the wallets of women, but for a very long time the vast majority of product lines were founded by men—men who dictated standards of beauty, trends, and spending habits. But female beauty entrepreneurs have slowly gained ground—carving out space in an arena that’s supposed to be centered on them.
"The beauty industry has been defined, and continues to be transformed, by women-founded brands," says Dermstore Chief Marketing Officer Patrice Varni. "So often, female entrepreneurs see or experience an unmet need in beauty and skincare and turn their empathy around that need into category-changing products that deliver better results."
The first step to shopping consciously is making sure you’re buying from a retailer who actually cares about the products they stock. Dermstore has made it a mission to represent women in the products they stock, and almost 50 percent of their current offerings are female-founded. "In a world in which women are still paid less and underrepresented in so many facets of life—from government roles, to board rooms, to venture capital portfolio rosters—we want to contribute in any way we can to support and amplify the reach of women-led brands," says Varni.
To get your haul started, we’ve rounded up a few of our favorite products from female-founded brands we love—all available at Dermstore. Check them out below!
Nancy Twine began her career at Goldman Sachs, but she’d always had a fascination with hair care, developing at-home recipes with her grandmother when she was as young as five. Despite a career in the fast-paced world of finance, she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a gap in the clean hair space that she could fill. So she paired her home-grown recipes with the talents of some natural chemists and Briogeo was born. Not only are Briogeo's products clean and made with sustainability in mind, but they also cater to a wide range of hair types—something that is often noticeably not top of mind with other clean hair brands.
Compatible with all hair types, this deeply hydrating mask is made with argan, avocado, rosehip, and sweet almond oils as well as biotin and keratin. It helps strengthen and nourish your strands and is reported to reduce hair breakage in as little as three treatments.
Kate Somerville’s struggle with eczema inspired her to break into the world of beauty. She received a degree in aesthetics and began her career working alongside top dermatologists and cosmetic surgeons. She opened her first Skin Health Experts Clinic in 2004 and later founded the Kate Somerville product line. Her big break came on QVC where her exfoliator, aptly named ExfoliKate, exploded with sales. Since then, her line has expanded exponentially, and she treats some of the most famous faces in Hollywood.
This exfoliating treatment combines fruit enzymes with AHAs and BHAs to gently resurface your skin, reducing texture and sloughing away the top layer of dead cells. It might sound abrasive, but it also nourishes and soothes skin with aloe vera, honey, and vitamin E.
Made with acne-prone skin in mind, EradiKate contains sulfur to help both eliminate current breakouts and prevent new ones from forming. Honey soothes skin and oat extract helps balance sebum levels—the naturally occurring layer of oil on your skin that can cause clogged pores and acne if it gets out of control.
This new beauty brand was developed by best friends Nancy Pellegrino and Courtney Baber. Nancy is a registered nurse who owns and operates one of the top aesthetic practices in Newport Beach, CA, while Courtney is a beauty vet who has built brands for Sephora, Urban Decay, and Estee Lauder, to name a few. Together, they’ve developed products that combine high-tech ingredients in luxury packaging.
The proprietary blend of acids in this at-home peel helps to gently resurface your skin. The best part? It bubbles up—like light tickle of champagne—to assist in the delivery of the active ingredients. We’ll take a side of fun with any beauty product we buy.
This intensely rich night cream contains supercharged ingredients to leave your skin looking and feeling glowy and healthy. Shiitake mushroom firms and smooths, while peptides and ceramides help to restore and strengthen your skin barrier to prevent premature aging.
Paula Begoun struggled with acne and eczema for decades, but she turned her skincare despair into the root of her beauty empire’s success. In 1975, she was fired from her cosmetics counter job for telling clients the truth about what products could and couldn't do for their skin, and thus began her search for better solutions. Her company has since formulated more than 75 products, many of which hold an iconic place in skincare history.
This product is considered a holy grail by seasoned beauty editors and was revolutionary when it hit the market in 2000 as one of the very first leave-on exfoliants. This salicylic acid-based chemical exfoliator helps catalyze the exfoliation process to shed dead skin and refine your skin's texture. It also helps clear out your pores of dirt and oil and helps to minimize their appearance.
Niacinamide is really having a moment as a skincare ingredient, and for good reason—it’s one of the best ways to help dull skin look brighter and to address uneven skin tone and texture, redness, and fine lines. Call it a multitasker! You only need two to three drops of this product for your entire face, and it’s even gentle enough for the eye area.
Sasha Plavsic founded Ilia Beauty in 2011, just a few years after turning 30, when she discovered that most of the "clean" products she had been using over the years weren't actually clean. She began making lip balms and lipsticks that were natural and organic, and when they started to fly off shelves she knew she was onto something. She ventured into other makeup and skincare categories, and today some of her products are the most popular in the clean beauty space.
It can be really difficult to find clean mascaras that actually work (read: last, don’t smudge, and really make your lashes pop), but this one’s a cult-favorite for a reason. It subtly adds length and volume to your lashes for a natural lifted look, and it also contains beeswax and shea butter to nourish and condition while you wear it.
Tula, which is the Sanskrit word for "balance," was founded in 2014 by practicing gastroenterologist Dr. Roshini Raj, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics co-founder Ken Landis, and tech entrepreneur Dan Reich. Dr. Raj created Tula, using the power of probiotics. Ever wonder if what you put in your body is just as important as what you put on it? Dr. Raj thinks so and developed Tula as a way to focus on the relationship between gut health and skin.
For all the double-cleansing beauty lovers out there, this oil is a great first step. It helps melt your makeup off while also simultaneously nourishing your skin. The hero ingredient is a kefir hydro-complex, which contains four strains of probiotics to moisturize and calm your skin.
We love a multitasker, especially one that actually eliminates steps in your routine. This product not only acts as your moisturizer, nourishing your skin with probiotics and turmeric extract, but it also primes your skin for makeup with chia seeds and licorice extract.
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Kristin is a freelance beauty, travel, fashion, and lifestyle editor and writer based in Los Angeles, and she is a proud graduate of Berklee College of Music. You can read her work in a variety of other publications, including Elle, Elite Daily, Architectural Digest, Glamour, Billboard, and many more. Kristin previously worked as a lifestyle staff writer for Elite Daily, in the charts department at Billboard, and on the social media team at INSIDER. She loves jetsetting around the globe, her German Shepherd, Frankie, and a perfect pinky-brown nude lipstick. Keep in touch on Instagram @kristincorpuz_ and learn more at www.kristincorpuz.com
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