Ulta Beauty Doubles Its Black-Owned Brands

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On February 2, Ulta Beauty announced its plans to double the number of Black-owned brands they sell by the end of 2021. This move is in alignment with Black History Month, gearing to further support small Black-owned businesses and black artists.

Celebrate #BlackHistoryMonth with us 🧡 It’s more than a moment, but we’re excited to be shining a spotlight on the Black community all month long (like this piece by artist, @SoLaciLike). We’ll be sharing Black-owned brands, Black artists’ work & more. pic.twitter.com/UOJTj7svnu

— Ulta Beauty (@ultabeauty) February 1, 2021

Diversifying the shelves of the nation’s largest beauty retailer does not come at a cheap price. The beauty store will be dropping a hefty $25 million to make it happen! Ulta will be spending roughly $20 million on media investments across multi-cultural platforms “to create more personal connections with LatinX, Black, and other communities, more than doubling the spend of the last three years.” The remainder will mainly be allocated to marketing the company’s assortment of Black-owned businesses “to fuel brand awareness and sustain growth.”

Ulta Beauty will additionally be investing in inclusivity and unconscious bias training for all employees. These in-store training are aimed to help sustain welcoming guest experiences for everyone that enters the store.

To ensure these investments weren’t made in vain, Ulta Beauty moved to hire a new Diversity and Inclusion Advisor. The company found its perfect match in Tracee Ellis Ross. Ross is the founder of Pattern Beauty, a hair-care line for curly hair. Being the owner of a small POC-owned business herself, Ross will oversee that these initiatives are a success.

Ross’s role as Diversity and Inclusion Advisor will be to advise and inform Ulta Beauty on matters relating to BIPOC brand development, diversity within the company, and diversity among suppliers.

Ulta Beauty does an excellent job of bringing together all things beauty all in one place. These initiatives rolling out through the rest of this year will only further the store’s mission of inclusivity and its goal of creating valuable customer experiences for all.

As these company changes continue to develop over these next months, customers should expect to see a large spike in Black-owned brands the beauty chain is marketing. For now, you can support Ulta Beauty and their underrepresented partners by checking out the Black-owned brands page of their website!