Full face of women led beauty brands

Women have made history and continue to make history. As a woman, I feel especially compelled to support other women. One way that I choose to support other women is by supporting their businesses. And I’ve gone through all of my favorite beauty products to find the best full face of women led beauty brands.

Skincare is pretty universally agreed upon to be the most important part of a beauty routine. And my favorite skincare comes from two powerful women led companies.

Derma-e was founded by Linda Miles and the CEO is the impressive Brenda Wu. I have been using and enjoying their Anti Aging line for years now. Their Anti Wrinkle Scrub and Anti Wrinkle Cleanser are part of my daily face/neck/hand skin care.

Pacifica’s founder and president is Brook Harvey-Taylor. She founded the company with her husband with the goal of creating clean, cruelty free, vegan products. So they’ve been on my radar for quite a few years now.

I have two favorites – the Dreamy Youth Super Peptide Cream and the Vegan Ceramide Barrier Cream. I alternate morning and night between the two.

Having youthful skin is my main goal but the fun part of all of this is the makeup. At least it is for me.

I pretty much always stick to a routine. Concealer, brows, eyes, mascara, blush/bronzer, highlight, then lips.

My favorite concealers are Pacifica’s Liquid Cover Full Coverage Lasting Concealer and Juvia’s Place’s I Am Magic Concealer.

The Pacifica concealer is more dewy. It does settle into my under eye crease but nowhere else. I use the shade 20NF and it’s year round flattering for me. It’s comfortable on the skin and I don’t notice that I’m wearing it. It dries down without being dry, if that makes sense.

Chichi Eburu’s brand, Juvia’s Place, has a more matte concealer. The I Am Magic Concealer is not drying by any means though. It has a skin like finish and doesn’t settle into my fine lines. But it doesn’t camouflage them either. I use the color 23 but I’m considering picking up the next shade darker because this one is shockingly too light for me once I get some sun. It’s a massive container with a generous amount of product.

Right now I’m using Uoma Blow Out, Winky Lux Uni-Brow, and Pacifica Highest Def for my brows. I’ll just be talking about the Uoma and Winky Lux products because I am not a fan of the Pacifica. It’s too dry.

Uoma (founded by Sharon Chuter, a black Nigerian boran woman) Blow Out gel is great for shaping existing hairs, holding them in place, and filling in sparse patches. I use 03 light brown and it suits me well. My brow hairs are quite light. This makes it easy to give them a natural but darker look.

Winky Lux (founded by a fiend duo, Natalie Mackey and Nate Newman ) Uni-Brow is a double ended brown pencil and spoolie. This only comes in one universal color. I find the color works fine on me but I know it won’t for everyone. The formula is easy to work with. It’s great for filling in and creating a shape. The pencil is far too big for hair-like strokes but I don’t fill in my brows that way anyways.

Eyeshadow palettes are somewhat a source of shame for me. I own far too many for a person equally as invested in reducing my carbon footprint. It’s just a shameful how old some of these are. But I still use and love every single one of the, and the quality it great.

Estate Cosmetic’s Bailey Sarian Venice Fling palette is such a beauty. I love the packaging. Inside is a large mirror and 9 powder eyeshadows. Every shadow performs beautifully but I do have three favorites that I use often – Bonfire (a light coral), Tan Lines (a light brown), and Ocean Ave(a glittery copper/rose gold). Those three are every day suitable for me but this palette has drama. Estate cosmetics is Canada based, BIPOC and woman owned brand.

Juvia’s Place makes excellent, highly pigmented shadows. I own The Tribe, The Nubian 2, and Nubian 3 Coral.

Of the three, Nubian 3 Coral is my favorite. Corals, mid tone mauvey rose and a light warm grey are day to day shades. But with shadows like abrilliant metallic maroon and an icy silver, there’s endless evening looks to be had.

The Tribe and The Nubian 2 are filled with deep, richly pigmented mattes and metallics. There’s no shortage of unique colors and intense shades.

Holograve Cosmetics Portobello Grave Dust pressed pigment is a special mention. It’s not a palette but rather a single pan. I’m trying to replace shadows as they run out with single pan shadows so that I’m not wasting colors I don’t really use in a whole palette. This color replaces Wet n Wild’s Comfort Zone duo chrome shadow in my collection. It’s not a perfect dupe but it is a really good shadow. I actually came across Holograve Cosmetics through a shroomie Facebook group. The products all have a witchy, dark theme to them.

I’m not much of an eyeline wearer but I do keep a couple of pencils on hand for smudging and darkening my lash line. Right now I’m going back and forth between Black Opal’s Precision Eye Definer and Pacifica’s Vegan Waterproof Eyeliner. Of the two, I find the Black Opal to be softer and creamier but the Pacifica easier to control.

I have tried and tested too many mascaras. I have long, curled lashes naturally. But they’re practically invisible because of how light the hairs are. So far my favorites are Ilia, Essence, Black Opal and Pixi.

Ilia’s After Midnight Mascara is so good for separating and coating every lash from root to tip. The formula is creamy, dark and easy to work with. It doesn’t dry down too fast and it doesn’t crunch or flake throughout the day. My sensitive eyes approve of the ingredients too.

Essence’s Lash Princess False Lash mascara is thick and wet. It applies a lot of product to the lashes instantly thickening and coating them. It has a cult following for a reason. And it’s affordable.

Don’t sleep on Black Opal’s Super Volumizing Mascara. It’s so-so good. With a formula in between Ilia and Essence with a curved brush that really lifts.

Pixi by Petra’s Lash Booster Mascara is not a favorite of mine for top lashes. I love it for bottom lashes though. It’s lightweight, doesn’t smudge, and doesn’t flake. I have it in a blackest blue for just the slightest hint of something fun.

Once my eyes are done I move onto my face.

I love a “C” shape dusting of bronzer from forehead to cheek. Then a pounce of blush across the cheeks and nose. And I top it off with highlighter across the tops of my cheeks and a tap on the tip of my nose. For this, Beauty Bakerie’s Neopolitan Bar is an all in one, get it done.

I’m probably most picky about my lips. I cannot use a bullet lipstick. I will not use anything creamy, that doesn’t dry down. Hair sticking to it and then smearing the pigment across my face has happened to me more than once. That said, I do have a few favorites.

Hands down the best liquid lipstick formula goes to Beauty Bakerie. Beauty Bakerie’s (founded by Cashmere Nichole) Matte Lip Whip is the most comfortable and longest lasting lip product I’ve ever tried. Like, 24 hours later and it’s still on. It stays put until you intentionally remove it. I’m obsessed with the color Versailles but I will absolutely be replacing every lipstick I run out of with these.

I guess there’s no reason to go on. But I will, haha.

Anastasia Beverly Hills’ liquid lipstick is a full coverage, matte, lipstick. I appreciate that it doesn’t have fragrance. It’s very comfortable to wear and doesn’t crumble or crack as it wears. The shade that I own is Poet and it is a really pretty vampy dusty mauve. Anastasia Beverly Hills is owned by Anastasia Soare.

I have to mention it. Kylie Cosmetics. When they were towards the end of clearing out stock for the rebrand, I caved. I grabbed a lip kit and I really like it. I don’t know if the new formula is as good or better. And I don’t know if the color I have is even part of the new line up. I like what I have but I don’t have reason to purchase more so I’ll never know.

Huda Beauty (owned by Huda Kattan) Demi Matte Cream Liquid Lipstick is another one I enjoy but appears to also be in process to be discontinued. I have the shade Feminist (no longer on the website) and it’s a midtone warm pinky nude. While it is a demi-matte and not a full matte, I find it’s still matte enough not to transfer from accidental smudges.

Finally, a gloss. The only woman led brand of lipgloss that I use and enjoy is Pacifica’s Enlightened Gloss. It’s shiny and comfortable. It’s not sticky and the glitters show up without feeling like they’ve shown up. If you know, you know. Unfortunately, it looks like another discontinued product as the website is sold out of every color.

To wrap this up, I wanted to point out some quality woman led brush brands I use. Luxie brushes (specifically the 640) are very soft and vegan, Beau Gâchis(the smudge brush) is ultra soft but unfortunately many of their brushes are animal hair, MOTD(the flawless finish blend) is a phenomenally soft vegan brush, and Real Techniques(a whole lot of them) are high quality vegan brushes accessible in many beauty stores.

Oh, and did you know Beauty Blender was founded by a woman? Rea Ann Silva. She was a professional makeup artist beforehand so it definitely makes sense she’d create a revolutionary product that works.

At this point in beauty’s timeline, it’s easy to achieve a full face of women led beauty brands. Top notch products that work, are a great value, that I enjoy – that’s a purchase I can feel good about.