Ulta Beauty Joins the 15% Pledge To Showcase More Black Owned Beauty Brands
News broke that Ulta is joining Macy’s and Sephora in the 15% Pledge! This is wonderful new for black owned beauty brands! The pledge was created by Aurora James and mandates that participants provide at least 15% their shelf space in stores (and online) to Black owned brands.
15% doesn’t seem like a lot but it’s a huge move forward for black businesses especially ones in the beauty industry who have been very overlooked. Quite a few luxury retailers such as Sephora and Bluemercury made the pledge a while ago so it’s nice to see Ulta joining in.
“We�re proud to join the 15 Percent Pledge to drive equity across retail and look forward to partnering to amplify underrepresented voices in beauty, increase access to and opportunity for Black-owned brands and, of course, grow our ever-evolving assortment to holistically impact change.”�-Monica Arnaudo, chief merchandising officer for Ulta Beauty.
Ulta plans to diversify by carrying an assortment of black owned brands in the next several months and even promised at some point will double the number of brands on their shelves that are now currently offered. Ulta has a huge assortment of black owned hair care brands but I’d love to see them bring in more color cosmetic ranges! They already carry a few such as Juvia’s Place, Beauty Bakerie, and Uoma Beauty.
Ulta has a lot of going at the moment from their deal with Target to the fact their sales grew an over 60% last quarter! They continue to stride forward with a lot of important changes that benefit their consumers.
This is just baby steps right now. As I said in my post on Instagram we still have a lot of work to do but so far, I’m very happy with the way brands have been progressing and keeping promises they made back in April during the Black Lives Matter movement. I’m excited Ulta join others in promoting and bringing attention to more black owned brands. It’s the first step in many we need to get black beauty brands the recognition they deserve!