Earlier this week, 13 Lune, a direct-to-consumer magnificence platform that was launched final yr in LA with $1 million in seed funding from Diddy, Gwyneth Paltrow and Beautycounter founder Gregg Renfrew, introduced $3 million in extra seed funding. We’d not usually pause on this sort of growth, particularly in a market the place dozens of startups are saying funding each day, however this deal stood out for a number of causes past its celeb backing.
First, its co-founder is Nyakio Grieco, a veteran of the cosmetics trade who earlier launched a skin-care model that she bought to Sundial Manufacturers, which is now a part of Unilever. Her new e-commerce platform sells merchandise from 100 totally different manufacturers, 90% of which have been based by Black, Indigenous, and folks of shade. And the outfit main the financing is Fearless Fund, a enterprise agency that was based by ladies of shade and is making its mark by focusing completely on backing ladies of shade.
Additionally very attention-grabbing: a tie-up with JCPenney that instantly provides 13 Lune the form of attain that the majority nascent startups can solely dream about. JCPenney lengthy partnered with Sephora, however Sephora’s contract with JCPenney is expiring in 2023, and it selected to not renew, leaving the retailer — which final yr survived going bankrupt — with area to fill. Going into these spots proper now are in-store “JCPenney Magnificence” outlets, and 13 Lune is a featured a part of that providing, with 10 areas already up and operating and plans for 600 extra areas by the top of 2023.
Put collectively, the items add as much as what 13 Lune is characterizing, persuasively, as amongst one of many first actually inclusive magnificence platforms. Grieco advised us a bit extra this week, although she declined to reply questions in regards to the monetary mechanics of the JCPenney deal, citing a confidentiality settlement with the outfit.
Excerpts from this dialog have been edited for size.
TC: How did you get began within the magnificence enterprise?
NG: I’m a first-generation American of Kenyan descent, and virtually 20 years in the past, I left my job working in Hollywood to create a magnificence model based mostly on my Kenyan household magnificence secrets and techniques. My grandmother was a Kenyan espresso farmer, and my grandfather was a drugs man, and I felt that the continent of Africa on the time was very underrepresented in premium magnificence. So I left my job to begin making my grandmother’s espresso scrub and to be taught to create merchandise based mostly in sustainable oils, the sort that my grandfather had the power to exit in nature and extract to deal with the pores and skin.
I began as a really unbiased model out of my residence in my 20s and served each position: founder, transport and receiving, customer support, accounting. I realized in a short time as a younger Black girl and first-time entrepreneur how tough it was to lift cash, however I used to be in a position to get a little bit little bit of friends-and-family capital collectively to take the merchandise to market.
You initially launched at Fred Segal; your pores and skin lotions have been later carried in Ulta and are actually accessible at Goal. Why dive again into a brand new model final yr?
Whereas we have been coping with the worldwide pandemic, in addition to essentially the most heightened second of the Black Lives Matter motion of our lifetime, I discovered myself exhibiting up on all the lists of, you recognize, high Black-owned, Black-founded manufacturers to buy and to comply with. And whereas we noticed a major enhance in gross sales at Goal, it was actually constructed on the precipice of such a heartbreaking time. And I simply thought to myself, how unusual is it that this second is making folks take note of my model? I used to be in deep gratitude, however they have been asking me questions like, ‘Can I take advantage of your merchandise on my pores and skin as a result of I don’t seem like you?’ [At the same time], I used to be seeing superb initiatives just like the 15% Pledge and Pull Up for Change come about, and in my head, after I was buying these lists, I believed to myself, ‘I may fill a complete retailer with these unbelievable lovely manufacturers, a lot of which had such little distribution and visibility and most of which have been direct to shopper . . . So my co-founder and I constructed 13 Lune based mostly on a 90/10 rule, which is that 90% of all of the merchandise that we stock are created by BIPOC founders who create merchandise for folks of all colours — we’re Black and brown for all. After which 10% of our manufacturers are devoted to fostering allyship, as a result of it’s not our struggle to struggle alone. We now have to affix collectively. We’ve lived too a few years in divisive occasions.
You’re coping with a variety of merchandise {that a} third-party logistics supplier sends out to prospects since you wish to personal that have. How do you vet what you’re promoting?
A product has to have a robust founder story, as a result of folks purchase into folks earlier than they purchase into product. We even have what we name our magnificence vanguard, which is influencers, make-up artists, celebrities and pals who assist us, as a result of we have now such an unlimited quantity of merchandise coming our means. And we have now sure requirements, together with that we wish all merchandise to be clear, unhazardous, with good-for-you components. [And we want them] to actually serve a necessity, specializing in our melanin-rich, textured-hair buyer first — those that have been essentially the most underserved — but in addition to actually characterize the globe.
What are among the merchandise which can be geared extra towards folks with melanin-rich pores and skin? Additionally, as a Greek-American with honest pores and skin, what are among the merchandise that I maybe haven’t been uncovered to however may flip to 13 Lune to order?
Melanin wealthy [could apply] all the best way from any individual who’s simply barely darker than perhaps you all the best way to a tone a lot darker than myself, and we frequently have a sensitivity to sure acids and chemical exfoliators and issues like that may burn our pores and skin or simply shade our pores and skin. We’re extra vulnerable to hyperpigmentation. We’re extra vulnerable to eczema and rosacea and people forms of pores and skin circumstances. So the merchandise that we carry to shelf are issues like a chemical peel that’s made with perhaps azelaic acid and never perhaps different acids that will be too harsh for our pores and skin.
It’s the identical with textured hair. Shampoo is shampoo and conditioner is conditioner, however on the finish of the day, particularly as we’re shifting to a spot the place we live with such multiracial and generational qualities and properties to our hair and our hair texture, [brands are on the rise like] Bomba Curls, which was created by an Afro-Latina founder named Lulu Cordero. She grew up with Dominican tradition and again in these days, it was about having the straight — they name it “pelo malo” — hair to look extra like white ladies from the Western world. And it brought on a variety of harm to her, a lot in order that she suffered hair loss going into her school years.
She additionally occurs to be good and he or she was a chemistry main and he or she began enjoying with components whereas she was in her school chemistry lab that will assist to stimulate her hair progress; she began researching issues that come from the earth and her tradition like espresso and castor oil, and he or she developed her personal hair oil [that was later lab-certified as counter safe]. That doesn’t imply that my pals which can be blond-haired and blue-eyed can’t use Bomba Curls. The distinction is that [the product] was created by a Black girl who understands our hair texture and understands the harm that we have now performed to our hair for thus lengthy, and he or she’s in a position to ship on her promise [to repair that damage].
You’re additionally planning to roll out a personal label model. Why?
Once we have a look at 13 Lune and the info that we’re getting and can have entry to [regarding] what this buyer nonetheless wants and the way we are able to higher serve he, she, them, they by means of the lens of inclusivity, I’m enthusiastic about with the ability to create once more. I really like being a magnificence retailer, however I’m a magnificence founder first. That’s my ardour, and I’ve missed being in a lab and with the ability to create. It’s actually my pleased place.