Two cousins from Atlanta, Georgia, Alicia Scott, and Myisha Fantroy, pitched Range Beauty, once featured on Beyoncé’s website, on Friday on ABC’s Shark Tank, reports Meaww.
Scott, 32, grew up in Brooklyn and graduated from Virginia Tech with a fashion merchandising and design degree. She developed an all-natural, toxin-free makeup line when she worked as an account executive for a fashion designer. She noticed Black models at fashion shows would bring their own makeup kits because the makeup artists would have limited options, reports Sportskeeda.
“Whenever I was backstage or on a campaign shoot, I started to notice when Black models were cast, they would come prepared with their own makeup kits,” she says, according to Bustle.
She further inquired why they brought their own beauty products, and they told her the makeup artists did not carry cosmetics that fit their melanin-rich skin tones.
From there, Scott immersed herself in learning how to create chemical-free cosmetics and taught herself using YouTube, reports Sportskeeda.
She designed her product line to include foundation, primer, powder, and body oils, all priced at the masstige level, which are inexpensive products priced between drug-store brands and luxurious items, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Scott wanted her makeup line to cater to Black women who experience acne and eczema that applying makeup can exacerbate. She also required healthy ingredients for her products.
Range Beauty encompasses a range of skin tones and types and is an inclusive beauty line that nourishes acne-prone or sensitive skin.
“Range became the answer for a lot of people wanting beauty without breakouts, or who never saw their skin tone represented,” says Scott. “With my eczema and acne, I had to make sure to expand past the ‘flawless face’ marketing term because that term didn’t include me.”
Range Beauty uses ingredients that soothe and smooth the skin like cornflower, French clay, vitamin E, calendula, chamomile, and argan oil, instead of ingredients found in other beauty products that are toxic to a woman’s skin, reports Bustle.
Scott’s brand also includes anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, and anti-bacterial agents for darker skin women, reports Sportskeeda.
To date, Scott’s cosmetic line generated $367,000 in sales in 2020. However, her sales fell in 2021 when the Covid-19 pandemic caused a supply-chain crisis.
Scott and Fantroy appeared on Shark Tank with her cousin and business partner Fantroy and offered $150,000 for 6% equity in their company.
Lori Greiner and guest Shark Emma Grede, first Black female guest Shark, founder and CEO of Good American, founding partner of the Skims brand, and co-founder of Safely, saw the immense potential for the Range Beauty brand. Together they offered $150,000 for a 20% cut in the company.
Scott attempted to negotiate for more capital with a lesser equity percent, but the sharks rejected her counter-offer. Eventually, the two Atlanta women caved and agreed to the deal with Greiner and Grede and left the tank elated that they had two successful sharks working with them to heighten the reach of Range Beauty.
Range Beauty is available on their website, online at Target, and soon sold on Amazon.