‘Scent is the New Wellness’ Meet the Founders Putting Black Women at the Center of Luxury Fragrance

Spelman sisters Malaika Jones, Tai Beauchamp, and Nia Jones are making it their business to put Black women at the center of wellness and self-care with their luxury fragrance company, Brown Girl Jane. 

Launched in 2020, Brown Girl Jane is a high-end fragrance brand designed for women of color by women of Spelmcolor. Pulling from their collective experiences, the co-founders envisioned a brand that would redefine and reintroduce wellness through the authentic experiences of Black womanhood. 

“There is a certain level of exclusivity and luxury associated with wellness because of the heightened consciousness and conversations that we begin to openly and enthusiastically have around burnout and mental health. Even some of the sub-celebratory elements that black women have are that we are the most educated demographic in the country. The fact that we’re starting businesses at a higher rate than any other demographic, you know, so those things mean that we are doing more, but perhaps not having as much access to the things that would support and nurture our overall wellness and well being to do more…Brown Girl Jane, you know as three Spelman sisters, all with very different lifestyles and life experiences, marriage, children you know, leadership in finance, leadership in insurance and philanthropy, leadership in media, and knowing our girlfriends who all have similar stories, but still unique stories, [we had to think] like how do we support their needs, for them to feel healthier, more motivated, more joyous, more inspired, [and] more equipped,” Beauchamp told Black Enterprise.

From Spelman College to business partners, these women developed a friendship that would create the blueprint for their successful business. However, the journey back to each other began beyond the Spelman gates.

“So we met at Spelman, Tai and I are a year apart, but we’re both tall. And so we would do the tall girl way. And we had lots of friends in common, so we didn’t know each other well while we were at Spelman, but we certainly, you know, saw each other, and then we both were in New York at the same time in very different industries. And so it was more of a friendly pass when we would see one another. And of course, my biological sister Nia also went to Spelman, but it was a few years back, and her best friend is close friends with Tai. So we had all of these connections… it was really 10 years later we formed another level of sisterhood through Brown Girl Jane. Again, you know, I was coming up with the concept of the business and spoke to Tai about her unique experiences, which were very different in lots of ways than my own, but the needs and the solutions were so similar, right? And while I was on Wall Street, I think you [Tai] were hosting a travel show all over the world and working in production and all sorts of things. We still when it came down to it, we were looking for the same solutions at the end of the day in wellness, and we wanted to collectively address what this brand and community could look like when we took a holistic approach to be very targeted and solution-oriented,” Malaika told Black Enterprise.

Ultimately built with love at a time when the world was reinventing a new normal, these founders were embracing the new normal and finding ways to prioritize what personal care would look like going forward.  

“When we first launched the collection, we were exploring supplements and what that could do internally. When we moved into fragrance, [we wanted to] also shift the way that fragrance has been traditionally used right and to innovate in this space. Not only because there’s scent technology that we [have] leveraged that has proven with more than 25 years of studies done [that] demonstrate that the way that our frequencies are designed that they improve your mood immediately. But in addition to that, wanting to remind Black women and all women but especially Black women, that this experience is for you…so for us, we wanted to just really innovate and shift the way that we think about wellness, shift the solutions that you know, that we can experience in a way of wellness and obviously build a community around it and remind our women that it is for her… The focus is recognizing that we are at a very intentional and pivotal standpoint where there is awareness. There’s conversation and excitement from specifically Black women around defining what it looks like for us on our own terms. And that’s why Brown Girl Jane is here,” Tai told Black Enterprise.

The brand is preparing to launch its second fragrance collection this year. It continues to champion its efforts to support small  Black women-owned businesses through its initiative with SheaMoisture called #Browngirlswap.