The truth is, every time a Black man paints his nails, it rattles the cage of a society that still believes “real men” don’t do decoration. But those rules? They weren’t ours. They were handed down, imposed, and policed. Our ancestors were already painting, staining, and flexing long before colonization told us what masculinity “should” look like.

Longevity is trending because money, measurement, and media finally linked up. Investors poured billions into aging science, Bezos-backed Altos Labs launched with a reported $3B war chest; Retro Biosciences (backed by Sam Altman) is now raising $1B to add ~10 healthy years. That same mentality jumped into our nightstands: smart rings went mainstream, Oura has sold 2.5M+ rings, and Samsung Galaxy Ring made “how ready are you today?” a daily score you actually check.

You’ll see it from the pitch room to the afters, waterlines tightlined, a soft blur hugging the lower lashes, lashes pulled into tidy spikes, and a near-black cherry lip that looks rich without swallowing the face.

We took The Black Beauty Club on the road! Three cities, Chicago, D.C., Atlanta, packed rooms, 30+ creators, and nearly a hundred guests at every stop. IRL is the engine; online is the loudspeaker. The room makes the love, the feed carries the echo.

The plaintiff’s lawyer tried to use Cardi’s nails as proof of assault, her wigs as symbols of duplicity. This is the same logic that has long sought to transform adornment into liability.

The underlying logic is as old as patriarchy: if a woman adorns herself, she is frivolous; if she maintains herself, she is vain; if she asserts herself, she is aggressive. For Black women, each layer is sharpened. Nails become claws. Wigs become masks. Tone becomes “sass.”

It’s misogynoir in real time, where beauty itself is turned into evidence and weaponized against credibility.

On August 24th, Juvia’s Place pulled off what no one saw coming: the party of the year in New York City. The Reign of Blushed & Bronzed Radiance wasn’t sponsored. It wasn’t co-signed by a global celebrity. It wasn’t a victory lap after a billion-dollar valuation. It was a brand, its community, and a city lit up in peach, gold, and joy.

What is beauty in Chicago? This was the opening question of the night addressed to the crowd. My immediate thought was “bold & natural”. As a non-native to Chicago, having lived here for 5 years now, I’ve had more than enough time to observe. And that’s what I’ve observed about beauty in Chicago - there’s a boldness to the beauty trends and fashion of the city while still holding onto authenticity and naturalness - especially in Black people. The feedback from the crowd echoed this same answer with slight variations that emphasized trendsetting. Shoutout to y'all fr. <3

In the NBA, players are guaranteed about 50% of Basketball Related Income, which includes sponsorships. A league deal means bigger salaries for everyone.

In most women’s leagues, there’s no such guarantee. A brand can sign a multi-million-dollar partnership, and none of that money is required to go to player salaries. At most, an athlete might get a small appearance fee for a photoshoot or activation.

American Eagle’s Y2K-throwback gamble looked cute for about 48 hours. On July 24 the company splashed “SYDNEY SWEENEY HAS GREAT JEANS” across Times Square, the Vegas Sphere, and half of TikTok; traders promptly treated the slogan like a meme stock, sending AEO up as much as 23 percent after hours and closing the week above $12 for the first time all summer.

She is a CEO, yes. But she is also her marketing team, spokesperson, and part‑time TikTok performer, because somewhere along the way, we decided that to believe in her product, we had to watch her perform.

Now flip over to the feed of a buzzy male‑founded wellness or beverage company.

No dancing. No GRWM. No late‑night “pack orders with me” live stream.

The Nine-Billion-Dollar Blind Spot

Black consumers already account for 11 percent of all U.S. beauty spend, about $9.4 billion a year, and they scroll mobile feeds 32 hours a week. They’re also the earliest adopters of AR try-ons and GPT-powered routine builders. Yet shade-match engines still ghost on melanin, and hair-analysis apps prescribe flat-irons to coils. The lost upside is staggering when you realise the global beauty-tech market already sits at $66 billion today and is barreling toward $173 billion by 2030.

The beauty boom of 2020-24 isn’t over, but it has changed character. Prestige sales just scraped along at zero growth in Q1 2025, while the mass channel inched ahead by +3 percent, its first lead in half a decade. Fragrance is still the sector’s life-of-the-party, propping up revenues even as price-sensitive shoppers trade down in basics.

We all squeezed the last drop out of that Lip Treatment Oil. We all chased that skin tint glow. Ami Colé wasn’t “for Black people only”; a Black founder built it to solve shade reality, and the results looked good on everybody. Yet the brand will close in September 2025 because the money, margins, and post‑DEI market didn’t match the love. One brand’s wind‑down cannot be used as shorthand to underfund an entire category.

If you think the next big beauty shift is coming from a glossy coastal boardroom, think again. It’s actually bubbling up in Chicago, where curl-crowned commuters and skincare obsessives are rewriting every rule of the game—and The Black Beauty Club just crunched the numbers to explain how.

The City’s Most Influential Age Group? The Quarter-Life Crew

A full 61 percent of our survey respondents sit in the 25-to-34 sweet spot. They’re old enough to wield real spending power, young enough to keep TikTok on speed-dial, and unapologetically loud about what works (and what flops). When this crowd falls in love with a new brow wax or scalp serum, their group chats go nuclear—and national sales spikes follow.

For years, “dark skin doesn’t burn” echoed through barbershops and family cookouts, so why bother with sunscreen? But the dusty days of one-note lotion are over. From oil-serum “Sun Drops” to iridescent glitter sticks, brands have unleashed a full-on sun-care revolution.

Tracey Thompson doesn’t care about flash — she cares about fundamentals.
As a partner at VMG Ventures, she’s helping shape the next generation of consumer brands — and she’s not here for vague vision or vanity metrics.

In this sharp, grounded conversation, Tracey shares the actual traits that make a founder fundable, why profitability is back in style, and how to build traction when capital is tight.

If you’ve ever wondered what investors are really thinking, this is the article you need to read.

Muna Ikedionwu isn’t here to hype startups — she’s here to help founders protect their power. As an advisor and investor, she’s demystifying the systems that decide who gets funded, who gets diluted, and who walks away with nothing.

In this candid Q+A, Muna breaks down the real red flags, why soft skills matter more than slides, and how creators of color are reshaping what wealth and ownership actually look like.

💡 Spoiler: Deal flow is in the DMs, and equity is never free.

Olamide Olowe changed the beauty game with Topicals. Now, with Co$t of Doing Business, she’s flipping the investor script — betting on culture, resourcing community-first founders, and rewriting the rules of growth. In our latest interview, she opens up about what she’s watching, what she’s learned, and why the future belongs to the bold.