After the eye-opening events of 2020, Black people suddenly found themselves being prioritised among a flurry of DEI initiatives across various industries – including fashion and beauty – with brands promising they were ‘listening and learning’ in order to right years of wrongs.
Yet now five years later, the small timid steps towards progress have seen giant steps backwards with DEI initiatives either being dropped or dismantled by the government in the US. Doubling down on its commitment to Black beauty entrepreneurs in the UK, Glossier’s Black Beauty Fund – created in collaboration with consulting studio Black Girl Fest – is back this year for its third iteration. “It’s a really difficult time politically and socially when you think about the way DEI is being bulldozed,” says Black Girl Fest founder and CEO Nicole Crentsil. “I’m super impressed by the fact that a leader like Glossier is being consistent and not pulling back.”
For the five successful recipients, an opportunity to expand their business thanks to a £10k grant, as well as priceless insights from Glossier executives and industry experts. It’s a formula that has already helped previous grant recipients, including AIRFRO, Oré Mi and The Glowcery, in various ways – from expanding their product range and increasing production capacities to hosting vital in-person events.
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A two-way opportunity, Glossier is gaining valuable insights into the UK’s beauty landscape and how it’s being shaped by upcoming entrepreneurs – specifically those developing brands that serve the Black community. “The insight into how businesses are being impacted by the disparity with the way in which women are receiving funding is a huge one,” explains Nicole. “Understanding the consumer perspective and the consumers who are becoming founders and who care about beauty by taking the lead.”
Below, we meet with the founders behind Mèlasun, Sliq and Möss – three of the Black Beauty Fund grantees for 2025 – to find out how they’re navigating the beauty landscape and how they plan to grow their brands.
Mèlasun
How would you describe your brand’s offering?
Mèlasun is a sunscreen brand rooted in skincare science and cultural relevance. We create hydrating, high-performance SPF that looks good, feels good and works beautifully across all skin tones. Our products are designed for everyday use – with no white cast, no ashy finish and no compromise on skin health or pleasure.
How would you describe the landscape right now for independent beauty brands and how are you navigating it?
The landscape is more open than ever to innovation with purpose. Consumers want transparency, science and representation – all at once. For us at Mèlasun, that means building a brand that’s not just inclusive in marketing, but also in performance and formulation. We’re navigating it by staying lean, focused and emotionally connected to our audience. We’re telling stories that reflect real, lived experiences.
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How will receiving Glossier's Black Beauty Fund grant help you to expand your brand?
The grant will help fuel our market launch. Our formulas are ready – what we need now is the energy and support for distribution, sampling and brand awareness. We plan to invest in digital campaigns, educational content and in-person experiences across the UK, France and the US – all designed to connect with our early adopters and bring SPF education to the forefront.
What is the ongoing importance of beauty brands that exist to serve specific communities?
When a brand is created for a community, the impact is transformational. It goes beyond product – it becomes about identity, dignity and representation. For many, beauty has often come with compromise. Mèlasun exists to remove that compromise and show that sun care can feel like self-care.
What advice would you give to other Black beauty entrepreneurs?
Start with a real problem you care about – something rooted in your own experience or community. Then go deep. Understand the science, the market, the supply chain. Beauty isn’t just about a good-looking product; it’s about building trust. That takes time, consistency, resilience and a clear purpose that goes beyond trends.
How would you like to see the beauty landscape change in 2025 and beyond?
I’d love to see more investment in cultural longevity. Beauty should be about education, accessibility, and joy. That means more innovation rooted in science, more inclusive R&D processes, and more founders — from diverse backgrounds and genders — being funded and celebrated.
Sliq
How would you describe your brand’s offering?
Sliq is a new kind of beauty ecosystem – designed for textured hair, powered by science and rooted in community. We create inclusive spaces, both digital and IRL, where textured hair is celebrated, education is accessible and innovative products address chronic conditions and promote wellness. We developed our first product, DEEP IT, to tackle the most pressing issues we heard from our community: breakage and dryness. It’s an actives-packed conditioning treatment designed to replace your entire conditioning lineup: it strengthens strands, deeply hydrates and protects from heat.
How would you describe the landscape right now for independent beauty brands and how are you navigating it?
The beauty landscape is both full of opportunities and as tough as ever. The macro environment has pushed a lot of businesses we admire into tough spots due to pressures that we’ve had no way of preparing for. However, we definitely believe that constraints breed creativity. While this moment has presented challenges, it’s also pushed us to find new ways to meet our customers, ensure we’re really hearing what our community needs and focus on what matters most to them.
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How will receiving Glossier’s Black Beauty Fund grant help you to expand your brand?
We’re just getting started, and our focus is on welcoming more people into the Sliq world we’ve been quietly building over the past few years. This grant will help us grow that reach especially in new communities. Look out for some events and fun activations in the next few months!
What is the ongoing importance of beauty brands that exist to serve specific communities?
Products that are created with the most underserved people in mind often perform better for everyone. So many people who have used DEEP IT have very loose curls or don’t even have textured hair and this treatment has become a new staple in their routine. We’re here to fill a gap, but also show people that keeping textured hair in mind pushes the whole industry forward in terms of performance, efficacy and innovation.
What advice would you give to other Black beauty entrepreneurs?
Value your contributions highly and think deeply about the kind of brand you want to build. There are many playbooks to draw from beyond the most popular ones and sticking to solving a real need within your target community will never fail you!
How would you like to see the beauty landscape change in 2025 and beyond?
Steady investment in the founders that are innovating in spaces that haven’t been revisited for years, and a sustained commitment to the inclusion principles we’ve pushed hard for as consumers – especially now that it may be easier to do away with them.
Möss
How would you describe your brand’s offering?
Möss is an inclusive, people-centred hair care brand that focuses on scalp health. We help individuals with scalp care conditions regardless of their hair type and texture. Our objective is to normalise scalp care as daily self-care and be the ‘face’ of modern scalp health – by offering a targeted and diverse range of treatments to address various hair issues that have been considered as niche sectors for decades.
How would you describe the landscape right now for independent beauty brands and how are you navigating it?
The beauty landscape for independent brands today is both incredibly demanding and full of potential. We’re in a tough economic environment where resources are tighter – as a Black founder, the reality is that access to funding and networks can be even more limited. It forces us to be exceptionally resilient, creative, and resourceful to build and sustain our vision.
At the same time, the standards in beauty have changed dramatically. Clean formulations, transparency aren’t nice-to-haves anymore – they’re the baseline. Consumers today are highly informed and looking for much more: real efficacy, science-backed ingredients and brands they can genuinely connect with. Marketing fluff doesn’t cut it. People want to see authenticity, expertise, and a true commitment to solving their needs. That’s exactly where we position Möss.
So yes, it’s a challenging landscape. But it’s also driving a new generation of brands to raise the bar; to be more inclusive, more science-driven and more people-centred. For us, navigating this means doubling down on our values, fostering real bonds with our community, and proving through results and education why modern scalp care is for everyone. In this climate, the brands that will stand out aren’t just the loudest, they’re the ones that are genuinely transformative.
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How will receiving Glossier’s Black Beauty Fund grant help you to expand your brand?
The grant will be instrumental in helping us expand Möss in two key ways. First, we’re developing a new range of targeted scalp treatments to address hair loss – a complex area often filled with exaggerated promises and very little science. This funding would support both formulation and production, ensuring we can bring truly effective, transparent solutions to market.
As a Paris-based brand, we’re also excited to use this opportunity to launch this new range in the UK, introducing our people-centred approach to scalp health to an even broader audience.
What is the ongoing importance of beauty brands that exist to serve specific communities?
The concept of ‘one size fits all’ in beauty simply doesn’t exist. When brands operate under that idea, they inevitably take one group as the default and overlook or even exclude others. Though Möss tackles scalp concerns for all hair types, we’re deeply aware that different communities have unique needs that the industry has long ignored. As a Black founder, I have a personal understanding of how many scalp and hair issues disproportionately impact people of colour. That gives our work a deeper responsibility and purpose: to make sure no one’s needs are sidelined for the sake of a standard that never truly fit everyone.
What advice would you give to other Black beauty entrepreneurs?
It’s okay if not everyone loves what you do; focus on who you truly connect with. Who are your consumers once they discover you? What value are you bringing into their lives? Build relentlessly around that. Make sure your brand solves a real need, not just a trend. The beauty space is crowded, and consumers are savvy. They want brands that care, that educate and that resonate beyond just aesthetics. Lean into what makes your vision unique and understand that depth matters more than mass appeal.
How would you like to see the beauty landscape change in 2025 and beyond?
I’d love to see more funding, resources and visibility go toward brands that carry a genuine message and do business with real impact. It shouldn’t just be about celebrities launching brands, it should be about businesses actively trying to make a difference – for people, for the planet and for how we see beauty. I hope the future of beauty looks more diverse, more people-centred and driven by meaningful innovation rather than just marketing noise.
Find out more about Glossier x Black Girl Fest’s Black Beauty Fund here.
