McKinsey Identifies Black Brand Inequality In Beauty Industry

entrepreneurs, and brands are less likely to face (see sidebar “Black beauty at a glance”). Black people’s experience within the beauty industry is markedly more frustrating than that of non-Black people and filled with multiple friction points: Black brands make up only 2.5 percent of revenue in the beauty industry.

Yet Black consumers are responsible for 11.1 percent of total beauty spending. Black consumers are three times more likely to be dissatisfied than non-Black consumers with their options for hair care, skin care, and makeup.

Black consumers show an affinity and preference for Black beauty brands and are 2.2 times as likely to conclude that products from those brands will work for them. However, only 4 to 7 percent of beauty brands carried by specialty beauty stores, drugstores, grocery stores, and department stores are Black brands.

From entry-level to the C-suite and from retailers to beauty houses, only 4 to 5 percent of all employees in the US beauty industry are Black. Black brands in the beauty industry raise a median of $13 million in venture capital, substantially less than the $20 million that non-Black brands raise…