Even before the days of Perfumetok, we here at Refinery29 have always had a love affair with all things scent; while it’s our job to try it all, it’s also the stuff that lights up our Slack channels and sparks joy with every spritz. This is something that the founders of BROWN GIRL Jane already know, and have made part of their brand DNA from day one. Four years after launching, the brand — co-founded by sisters Malaika and Nia Jones is ready for the next step in the brand journey — and with a little help from their friends at another beloved beauty brand: Tarte, which was famously born from founder Maureen Kelly’s one-bedroom apartment in New York City.
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But for every smash success story – like Kelly’s own — there are countless companies that struggle to make it — and Kelly felt inspired to do something about it, leading her to create Tarte’s Shape Your Future Awards. Last year, the first-ever Shape Your Future Awards were held, bestowing grants of $10,000 and $25,000 to a select group of recipients, in addition to business mentorship across finance, legal, PR, and marketing. (A total of $300,000 was awarded in the form of six grants of $25,000 and 15 grants of $10,000; $150,000 was contributed by Tarte, and $150,000 came from Kelly herself.)
“[Tarte’s] Shape Your Future 2023 Grant Program was tremendously impactful as it helped us break down barriers and redefine inclusivity within the world of fragrance and beauty,” BROWN GIRL Jane co-founder and CEO Malaika Jones told Refinery29. “With less than 1% of venture capital being allocated to Black women-owned businesses, we were so honored that Tarte recognized our desire to shake up the industry and bring clean and inclusive products that bridge the gap between science and scent while celebrating the diversity of women everywhere.” To further this mission, Tarte is also getting into the incubator space with Tarte Labs, which provides entrepreneurs, creators, and artists with crucial tools to support their businesses. “Being selected for this program helped us to further grow and scale our business in a truly meaningful way by not only providing key funding for product research and development, but also invaluable mentorship and networking opportunities with dynamic Tarte executives and other Black women founders,” Jones told us.
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Why is this a big deal? Because as it turns out, one-off influxes of cash — while gifted with the best intentions — rarely provide meaningful, sustainable support to brands that need it the most. (This is something that Black entrepreneur and founder of OUI The People Karen Young has been increasingly vocal about online.) For the BROWN GIRL Jane founder trio, it’s all been up from here: This year, they became the first Black woman-owned fragrance brand to enter Sephora. With the help of Tarte’s Shape Your Future award and mentorship, the brand expanded its wholesale retail business in the U.S. and launched new fragrances to the brand’s library.
And to top it all off, this win was a full-circle moment for all parties involved; “We have loved Tarte products for many years and as fellow entrepreneurs, we were inspired by the story of how Maureen grew her company from just an idea operating out of her apartment to a worldwide multi-million dollar company,” Jones added. We can’t predict the future, but if we could peer into the beauty industry’s crystal ball, it definitely would suggest that we’re about to see (and smell) a lot more BROWN GIRL Jane this year and beyond.