‘Making Black More Beautiful’: Black Women and the Cosmetics Industry in the Post‐Civil Rights Era

This article explores how the ‘Black is Beautiful’ movement transformed attitudes towards beauty standards within black communities and cosmetics industry tried to capitalise on these shifts in their marketing strategies. It charts redefined generated a proliferation of companies products exclusively for women, success attracted widespread attention from across industry. However, this demonstrates that while removed certain racialised barriers mainstream American culture, commodification language imagery “Black Beautiful” advertising often reinforced gendered expectations as well heightening tensions regard colourism business ownership.