EP154. Why is the beauty industry so arrogant?

In the last episode, podcast guest Ekwy Chukwuji-Nnene, founder of indie, vegan haircare brand Equi Botanics, said that one cosmetics conglomerate had told her, in effect, that the beauty needs of people of colour didn’t count. Ekwy explained that when she approached the firm with her tried-and-tested natural haircare formulations for coily and textured hair, the executives replied: “Black women will buy whatever we sell them”. Ekwy shed light on what goes on behind the scenes of one giant in the cosmetics industry, but which is likely to be the prevaling attitude found across the sector. So incensed was podcast host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine Dallmeier about the arrogant attitudes – and racism – in the mainstream commercial beauty industry that she just had to get on her soapbox in this green beauty opinion. Can indie beauty founders like Ekwy and consumers counter this arrogance and call the mainstream beauty out for its domineering attitudes once and for all?