Yahoo Sports EXCLUSIVE: Brown Girl Jane is the First Black Woman-owned Fine Fragrance Brand to Enter Sephora
This story was updated on March 20 at 10:15 a.m. EST.
Brown Girl Jane has made a landmark expansion.
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The functional fragrance brand and 2023 Sephora Accelerate graduate has launched online at Sephora, where it has exclusively introduced its new Carnivale Eau de Parfum as well as three of its existing fragrances — Dawn, Casablanca and Lamu, each retailing for $102 — and the brand’s discovery set, $30.
Brown Girl Jane is the first Black woman-owned fine fragrance brand to launch at Sephora. The retailer also carries Fenty Beauty’s Fenty Eau de Parfum and Jackie Aina’s candle brand, Forvr Mood, while Chris Collins’ eponymous range is the sole Black male-founded fragrance brand at the retailer.
“Coupling Sephora’s knowledge with our innovation and disruption is, I think, a recipe for success at retail,” Malaika said. “We’ve been intentional about partnering with brands who share our values and want to be additive to one another; it was never just about retail for the sake of retail.”
Launched in 2020 as a CBD and sexual wellness brand, Brown Girl Jane teamed with Firmenich in 2021 to launch its first Wanderlust trio of neuroscents, which includes Bahia, Casablanca and Lamu. While three of its ingestible CBD offerings are still available direct-to-consumer, the brand has doubled down on its fragrance focus, introducing its second perfume trio last spring and rolling out select fragrances to Thirteen Lune, Macy’s and Nordstrom.
Carnivale marks the brand’s first solo perfume launch, featuring notes of Caribbean mango, amber, golden pimento and whipped musks, and aiming to evoke the celebratory and empowering spirit of Trinidad Carnival, which takes place each year just before Ash Wednesday and commemorates the emancipation of slavery in the Caribbean from British rule.
“It’s the best party in the Caribbean, in a bottle,” Malaika said.
Added Beauchamp, who also serves as chief brand officer: “After I spray a fragrance I ask people ‘What do you feel?’ — with Carnivale, the words are exuberant, joyful, excited, festive and celebrated for yourself.”
At last month’s 15 Percent Pledge Gala in Los Angeles, it was revealed that Brown Girl Jane had won the inaugural Sephora Beauty Grant, which offers a $100,000 cash prize and yearlong mentorship program for Black beauty business owners. Though the founders did not specify sales expectations for the Sephora launch, industry sources think Brown Girl Jane could do between $5 million and $7 million in sales this year.
“We have always been about creating a community and a brand that we wish we had when we were out in the world — one that both spoke to a wider audience, and told stories of people who are oftentimes left out of the conversation,” Nia said. “We started the brand on sisterhood and that continues to be our North Star.”
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