Right here’s an incontrovertible fact: Black is gorgeous. It at all times has been, and it at all times might be. Nobody understands this greater than Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye.
As a bit of woman rising up in Harlem, New York, the Senegalese-American entrepreneur spent a number of time in her mom’s hair salon watching the carousel of Black girls that might come by means of the doorways of the store, and noticed how magnificence may very well be a communal expertise.
As an grownup, magnificence would proceed to occupy a good portion of her life. “I worked in places like Temptu, L’Oreal, Glossier,” N’Diaye-Mbaye instructed xoNecole. However there was nonetheless a nagging feeling within her of eager to seize the wonder she was uncovered to in her mom’s store as a baby. “You know what? Lemme try this crazy thing,” she stated.
Enter: Ami Colé.
Ami Colé is the make-up model N’Diaye-Mbaye based as an homage to each the Black girls she was surrounded by in Harlem and her associates. “I wanted to create something simple that most of my girls were wearing and things that I saw growing up in Harlem,” she stated.
Whereas the business has seen strides in inclusivity over the previous few years, there’s been a dearth of merchandise and beauty strains devoted particularly to folks with darker complexions, with Black girls being left with little to no choices for skin-matching protection. With a growth in manufacturers in recent times which have put Black magnificence on the entrance and heart of its mission like Vary Magnificence, The Lip Bar, and naturally Rihanna’s Fenty Magnificence, out of the blue a brand new dilemma emerged for folks like N’Diaye-Mbaye who wished to launch their very own make-up manufacturers.
“It was very difficult not only to get access in terms of people answering your emails,” N’Diaye-Mbaye stated of her early struggles in making an attempt to get funding from financiers for Ami Colé. “People would say: ‘Well Rihanna has a brand, why would you need another brand?’”
It wasn’t till the racial reckoning of 2020, when N’Diaye-Mbaye stated that buyers turned “a little bit more sensitive and sensitized to where they sit on the spectrum of equity,” that she was lastly in a position to absolutely fund her firm. N’Diaye-Mbaye formally launched Ami Colé in Might 2021. Earlier than launching, N’Diaye-Mbaye stated that she surveyed Black girls to see what clients wished from a magnificence model.
“By the time we launched, we knew exactly what type of makeup look, makeup style this customer was going for,” she stated. “We knew what shades she was using already and the new products she was missing or how to make her makeup routine just more simple.” Along with their make-up merchandise like the favored lip oil and foundationless base merchandise, Ami Colé provides objects like incense and N’Diaye-Mbaye stated they’re even hoping to broaden to fragrances within the close to future. “We’re always challenging ourselves to think about Ami Colé as a lifestyle,” she stated.
“We’re always challenging ourselves to think about Ami Colé as a lifestyle.”
Of their first yr of gross sales alone, Ami Colé introduced in $2 million in income, proving that there’s house for greater than only one Black magnificence model to thrive. Once I requested N’Diaye-Mbaye if she ever felt like giving up by means of the arduous means of making an attempt to get her dream off the bottom, she stated: “My dad and mom are from Senegal and got here right here with no playbook, no web, no safety. They have been in a position to come right here and sort of forge to this new chapter and period of our household and a era.
“So, whenever I do feel discouraged – which happens a lot, I’m only human – I think back to what people before me had to do to make sure that I can even have the option or the blessing to even create my own plan. So I never quit.”
Replace:
Because the story first ran in 2022, Ami Colé launched in Sephora throughout North America, and BeautyMatter tasks the model will shut 2025 with an anticipated income vary of as much as $10 million. The model additionally made issues official with L’Oréal’s BOLD fund in 2024, and even crowdsourced a “Brick Red” lip oil therapy earlier this yr.
However like many impartial manufacturers navigating an more and more aggressive and unpredictable magnificence panorama, Ami Colé not too long ago introduced that the model might be closing this yr. In a heartfelt essay for The Lower, N’Diaye-Mbaye mirrored on the challenges of scaling whereas competing with bigger company manufacturers, noting that “prime shelf space comes at a price” and describing how viral demand made stock and operational choices troublesome to handle.
Regardless of efforts to discover a purchaser, she finally made the troublesome resolution to shut, whereas remaining pleased with the neighborhood and tradition the model constructed alongside the best way. In The Lower, N’Diaye-Mbaye wrote, “I’m proud of what we built — for the women we built it all for — even as I navigate the grief of letting go. To those who felt seen in our mission: Thank you. Thank you for letting me be part of your daily routines.”
She closed the essay out by writing, “From Senegal to Harlem and beyond, we created something real. And while this chapter is ending, my work isn’t done. I still believe in beauty — at every level — and I’m looking forward to discovering what comes next.”
Learn the essay in full on The Lower right here.
Featured picture courtesy
Initially printed on November 8, 2022
