Decoding the Beauty Industry's Challenge with Diversity

On the morning of 10th October, CEW were pleased to welcome Ariel Roberts Okubanjo who is the founder of Loop Beauty, a new luxury retail platform designed for the cosmetics industry to work hand-in-hand with influencers. Despite her success in creating her own brand, as a woman of colour, Ariel found it extremely difficult to find colour cosmetics that fit her skin tone which inspired her discussion about decoding the beauty industry’s challenge with diversity.
Ariel began her discussion by introducing the example of Fenty Beauty as a key leader when approaching women of colour in cosmetics, she continued that “darker shades are proven to be the most important factor to successfully sell to women of colour”. Even with the help of industry leaders such as Fenty Beauty, Ariel probed the question why it has taken until 2017 to get some more inclusion of shades for women of colour? Women of colour represent £5 billion on spend every year and these consumers on average spend five times more than non-women of colour.
Speaking from experience, Ariel said that unfortunately so frequently she has seen women of colour used in a cosmetics campaign, finding the shade on the counter to buy is always a challenge and often the lighter spectrum of shades are more heavily stocked. These challenges drove Ariel to strive for change within the cosmetics industry and years of working within some of the most luxurious cosmetics brands armed Ariel with experience to launch her own platform: Loop Beauty. 
Loop Beauty, launching in December “will take a disjointed customer experience and create a connected one”. Aiming to be an aspirational platform, Ariel has created personal relationships with influencers to work within Loop Beauty, as she believes authenticity is a key driver of sales. With the use of micro-influencers who have a niche audience that can resonate with the brand, Ariel is providing jobs for the influencers and authenticity for her audience. 
CEW greatly thank Ariel Roberts Okubanjo for advising the best way to challenge diversification within the cosmetics industry. 
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