35 Woman-Owned Businesses Changing the Game in Clean Beauty
If it weren’t for female founders, Kinder Beauty would not exist. This not only applies to all of the cruelty-free brands that we include in the box, but also our Kinder Beauty team’s co-founders, Evanna Lynch and Daniella Monet. We already know women make the world go round, but they also make Kinder Beauty show up at your door every month!
In honor of Women’s History Month, we put together a list of some of Kinder Beauty’s most beloved woman-owned businesses. We hope you enjoy reading their stories and learning more about how their brands blossomed and became the brand you experience today.
Dirty Lamb - Ahlam Abbas
Founder Ahlam Abbas, known as Lam, founded Dirty Lamb in 2016 to create a gender-neutral skincare line that highlighted ingredients from her American-Palestinian upbringing. You can currently find Dirty Lamb’s Ultra Night Serum in our Kinder Faves Collection.
Juara Skincare - Metta Murdaya, Yoshiko Roth, Jill Sung, and Tami Chuang
This brand has not one, but FOUR female co-founders, all with diverse cultural backgrounds—including Japanese, German, Taiwanese, Chinese, and Indonesian heritage. Juara is a luxurious skincare line inspired by Jamu, an Indonesian herbal health tradition, as well as ancient beauty rituals.
Delia Organics - Alicia Brunton
Alicia Brunton founded Delia Organics after growing up loving skincare and eventually becoming an aesthetician. Every product in her line is always made with ethically sourced ingredients, is handmade, and is free of all of the nasty ingredients.
FarmHouse Fresh - Shannon McLinden
If you thought FarmHouse Fresh was just a cheeky name to imply that all ingredients are farm-to-table, you were wrong. The FarmHouse Fresh® Ranch Headquarters is not only home to their corporate offices, but it’s also their non-profit farm animal sanctuary. Founder Shannon McLinden, an avid animal-lover and rescuer, partnered with her sister-in-law Delia McLinden who used to work for one of the largest no-kill shelters in the country. Natural skincare and an animal rescue? They might just be the perfect brand.
Rustic Maka - Kasia Rothe and Monica Stakvel
Sisters Kasia Rothe and Monica Stakvel grew up in Poland using the natural ingredients in their own backyard to heal any skin ailments. Now, they have created a line of deodorants and body care with scents for every personality with these same natural ingredients.
Akar Skin - Kate Chen
On a healing trip to Tibet, founder Kate Chen found both grounding wisdom and organic superfoods, and used them to create a harmonious line of plant-based, nutrient-dense skincare. Every ingredient is sustainably sourced and harvested, assuring you a clean product from start to finish.
CLOVE + HALLOW - Sarah Biggers
A makeup artist-turned beauty entrepreneur, Sarah Briggers sought out to create a high-functioning clean makeup brand after realizing she had so few options on the market. Now, CLOVE + HALLOW is respected by both consumers and makeup artists for their stunning makeup range, especially their Conceal + Correct and Lip Creme, our personal favorites.
Dear Self - Tia Blanco and Aja Blanco
The Blanco sisters set out to create a vegan, cruelty-free, clean, and non-comedogenic line of skincare. Every item is eco-friendly and encourages positive affirmations with its kind branding. Kinder Beauty’s favorite item is one of their hero products, the “I Am Gleaming” moisturizer.
Little Moon Essentials - Laura Lamun
This bath and body care line is a Kinder Beauty favorite, not only for its cheeky scent names—such as Tired Old Ass and Beach All You Want— but also for its high-performing products utilizing the most luxurious essential oils.
Han Skincare Cosmetics - Susan Wong
Back in 2011, Susan Wong went out shopping in hopes of finding more organic and natural makeup items for herself. She soon found that accessible organic skincare existed, but no accessible organic cosmetics brands existed. Today, Wong has a thriving line of eyeshadow, bronzer, mascara, highlighters, and more, with most items accessibly priced under $20.
Liplove - Latrice Love
Latrice Love set out to create a multipurpose product that was not only toxin-free, but would also work for all skin types and colors. Her hero product, the Liplove, can be worn on the lids, cheeks, and lips.
The Kind Poppy - Autumn Grant
Autumn Grant started making bath bombs in 2017 to raise money to pay for her father’s medical bills. Today, she owns her own bath and body care company and has a storefront in Franklin, Tennessee. We love that everything she sells, or makes, is vegan, cruelty-free, and sustainable—but the best part is that her brand is named after her dad, a.k.a "Poppy."
Willing Beauty - Chrissy Weems
After battling skin cancer found under her eye at the age of 29, Weems decided to switch to cleaner skincare products devoid of harsh chemicals and hormone disruptors. After not being able to find any in her local stores, she worked with top dermatologists, chemists, and skincare experts to create an antioxidant HY+5 COMPLEX™, which is now the highlight of her anti-aging skincare line for adults.
Glaminizers - Stephanie Tear
Stephanie Tear started her entrepreneurial journey as a freelance makeup artist when she was only in her teens. Once she realized that she needed more funds to pay for her makeup obsession, she decided to make her own products—and make them cleaner and more accessible. Now, she runs Glaminizers surrounded by a team of women, and recently launched her own self-care subscription box featuring her own products.
Inkling Scents - Tiffany Kirkham
Tiffany Kirkham first developed an interest in perfumery when she instigated a search to find a natural cure for her niece’s eczema. She soon found out that commercial fragrances are diluted with synthetics and alcohol to water down and increase the supply and its lifespan, even though these chemicals can be irritants and cause a myriad of reactions. She launched her first fragrances on Etsy in 2013, and now, Inkling is a Kinder Beauty favorite brand.
Ellovi - Kelly Winterhalter
Kelly Winterhalter started formulating her own skincare products in her kitchen in 2012. After hundreds of revisions, she started selling her products at a local farmers' market and now has a must-have clean beauty brand beloved by our subscribers—especially the Butter in Tangerine, featured in our January TGI2021 collection.
KVOSS NYC - Kristin Voss
With a family history of skin cancer and her own encounter with her dermatologist, which led to a few spots removed, Kristin Voss started KVOSS to create clean products because she couldn’t find any to purchase. Now, she has a popular line of skincare and makeup products that’s growing every year!
Au Naturale Cosmetics - Ashley Prange
Au Naturale Cosmetics is known for what they call their Clean Color Revolution, providing products to consumers that are clean and vegan without having to sacrifice their love of bold, outstanding color. Ashley Prange launched Au Naturale in 2011 after leaving her job in D.C. as a nuclear analyst; she often returns to D.C. to advocate for the Personal Care Act, a movement that demands stricter regulation in the cosmetic industry.
Pacifica - Brook Harvey-Taylor
What once started as a perfume brand in the late 90s has blossomed into one of the most popular brands in clean beauty. Now, founder Brook Harvey-Taylor has expanded the line to include a grand selection of makeup, skincare, haircare, and even supplements.
Veriphy - Alison Crumblehulme and Jessica Kizovski
Chemists-turned-skincare brand founders, Alison Crumblehulme and Jessica Kizovski developed a skincare line that works in tandem with makeup, instead of against it. Sales from their brand contribute to STEM scholarships in order to help women stay in their chosen field with both financial and community support.
Habit Cosmetics - Aja Frierson
A former fashion colorist-turned-clean beauty guru, Aja Frierson started with a line of stunning nail colors and, after a few years, built out her line to include multi-use colors and highlighters that work for all ages and skin tones.
SPARITUAL - Shel Pink
SPARITUAL is committed to creating non-toxic products for both the spa professional and the everyday person in need of self-care. Shel Pink is a proponent of slow beauty, encouraging people to practice wellness in rituals and as a way of life.
W3LL PEOPLE - Shirley Pinkson and Dr. Renee Snyder
Shirley Pinkson and Dr. Renee Snyder (with their third co-founder James Walker) created a brand using their combined experiences as a makeup artist, a cosmetic dermatologist, and a wellness entrepreneur. W3ll People was acquired by E.l.f. In 2020, making them one of the few clean beauty brands to be acquired by a large beauty parent company.
Uoma Beauty - Sharon Chuter
Sharon Chuter started out as a distributor in Nigeria, helping Revlon get their products into the country. After years of working in corporate, she left to design her own brand for all of the people who felt excluded because of their skin color, size, or gender. She also strives to instill change with her antiracist and inclusive messaging and packaging.
Cleban & Daughters - Liana and Roxane Pekelharing
Growing up around their grandfather’s apothecary (called Cleban) during their childhood summers in Holland, sisters Liana and Roxane grew to love herbalism and pursued their own brand in the States after Cleban closed. Now, their brand Cleban & Daughters focuses on skincare and tinctures primarily for your morning and evening routines.
Province Apothecary - Julie Clark
Julie Clark was drawn to holistic skincare after struggling with allergies and eczema for years. Now, she’s a certified holistic esthetician and aromatherapist based in Toronto. She formulates small batch skincare products for Province Apothecary using only the best local Canadian ingredients.
Joséphine Cosmetics - Sholayide Otugalu
Sholayide Otugalu created a line of natural cosmetics produced with what she calls Haute Naturals™, a collection of only natural ingredients, oils, and extracts. Her brand encourages the consumer to be glamorous, creative, and care-free, and to not be measured by society’s beauty standards.
Three Ships - Laura Burget + Connie Lo
Entrepreneurs Laura Burget and Connie Lo were frustrated at the prices of natural skincare and decided to launch a clean and effective skincare brand of their own. Before they launch any item, they verify it is scientifically proven to work, so you can rest assured that it’s accessible, but also effective.
Honua Skincare - Kapua Browning
Surfer-turned-esthetician, Kapua Browning decided to launch her very own brand in 2015 made with only the best locally sourced ingredients from Hawaii. Kapua uses her knowledge of traditional Hawaiian healing and medicinal herbs and marries them with modern technology to create stellar, award-winning natural skincare.
Snow Fox Skincare - Phoebe Song
Phoebe Song has a chronic skin condition, called Inflammatory Rosacea, that causes her skin to blemish, swell, flake, scar, and more. In order to find skincare that worked for her hypersensitive skin, she built a base formula for skin like hers that soon led to the start of Snow Fox Skincare—a clean beauty brand that combines traditional Eastern concepts and proprietary tech to create active formulas that are still gentle enough for sensitive skin.
Aether Beauty - Tiila Abbitt
Tiila Abbitt spent years working for Sephora in charge of product development and as the lead R+D for sustainable materials. She saw a gap in the market that natural beauty brands lacked trendiness and color and sought out to create that in the most sustainable and recyclable packaging possible.
Skin Owl - Annie Tevelin
Annie Tevelin wished to create a brand that was results-oriented, healed skin blemishes, and cared for the soul. Her LA-based line, loved by people of all ages, has also spun out into other community projects and a podcast, titled Off The Record.
French Girl Organics - Kristeen Griffin-Grimes
Inspired by years of operating a group tour company in the south of France, Kristeen Griffin-Grimes launched French Girl Organics. This luxurious brand utilizes raw vegan ingredients that are eco-friendly, organic, and wildcrafted when possible.
Forest Nymphs Bath + Body - Silvana Marroche
Silvana Marroche brings her expertise as a Licensed Certified Holistic Massage Therapist, Certified Reiki Master, and Certified Aromatherapist to her brand to create the most heavenly handmade bath and body products. Her products are always vegan and free of harmful ingredients, and available in many Whole Foods locations in Southern California.
103 Collection - Melinda Chenault-Herron
Melinda Chenault-Herron, and her business partner and husband Delfondo Herron, set out to create a vegan skincare line to help those with sensitive skin ailments. Every item in their collection is rich in essential vitamins and antioxidants to revitalize and strengthen your skin.
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