Should Sephora Enforce an Inclusivity Criteria for New Brands? Let’s Talk About It.

Beauty brands continue to launch and scale with limited shade ranges but who is letting them? Beauty influencers like Golloria and Toni Bravo are on the frontlines fearlessly demanding brands to get back to the lab and do better, however, the responsibility to hold brands accountable should not fall on their shoulders. Truthfully, we shouldn’t still be in a place where brands are constantly needing to be held accountable. 

Kory Marchisotto, President of e.l.f cosmetics, pointed to a Nielsen statistic worth mentioning – “there are fewer than 20 beauty brands that have ever crossed two million dollars in revenue.” The barrier to entry for beauty brands is the lowest it’s ever been, but the competition to cut through the noise couldn’t be more cutthroat. Consumers have watched countless brands cycle through the retail revolving door – launch to market full of hopes and promises only to quietly disappear off the shelves. 

Shade range isn’t a niche concern, it’s a baseline expectation but where are the referees holding beauty players up to bat, accountable? 

For a hopeless romantic like me, a world where Sephora creates and publicly adheres to an Inclusivity Criteria for incoming brands could help regulate the challenges that quite frankly, aren’t difficult to avoid in the first place. 

Just as brands chase the PETA Approved, Cruelty-Free, Clean, and Vegan badges of honor, Sephora could cement their beauty authority in the industry by enforcing a new criteria for all brands stepping foot into those Sephora HQ board rooms, pitching for a shot at a sliver of shelf space in beauty’s biggest playground. 

What does it take to earn brand real estate in an $18 billion global retail powerhouse and how do we ensure Sephora’s strategy includes the full spectrum of its consumers? Let’s dive deeper in my next freakinbeautyblog piece.