Over the last decade, the Nigerian makeup and beauty industry has witnessed immense growth and development. From launching full-fledged makeup companies to international partnerships and global expansions; stakeholders in the beauty industry have taken no prisoners. It is almost unbelievable to imagine that the makeup industry wasn’t always as visible and successful as it is now.
Barely a decade and a half ago, Nigerian women were still buying powders and foundation created for women several shades lighter than them, simply because there weren’t enough trusted alternatives. Wearing makeup products that were created specifically to accommodate cooler climates and didn’t exactly wear down well with the humidity of the Nigerian climate was a dilemma. One that the entrance of indigenous, Nigerian makeup brands has solved today. Providing timeless beauty solutions crafted for the average Nigerian woman has been such a game changer for both consumers and producers. Most especially because it has placed them on the map, as worthy competitors to the international brands that were holding the markets down for years.
On their path to revolutionizing beauty in Nigeria, here are the top brands of redefining makeup and beauty right now.
BMPro
When ace makeup artist and photographer Banke Meshida Lawal started the BMpro brand, she wanted to create affordable quality makeup products that could serve makeup artists like her to create the best looks for their clients, as well as other makeup enthusiasts. The brand has since crafted its niche, famous for its well-formulated bold, lip products in bright, daring colors, often featured in Meshida’s signature looks.
The brand has also struck a distribution deal with Amazon UK, to ensure all their customers globally have unrestricted access to all BMpro products of choice.
Nuban Beauty
When opportunity meets preparedness, it becomes luck. This was the case when Stella Ndekile, a trained Medical Laboratory Scientist, decided to merge her discipline with her passion for makeup, birthing Nuban beauty. Years later, Nuban Beauty is putting in the work behind that luck. Collaborating with celebrity makeup artist, Jane Ogu, the brand recognized a gap in the quality of makeup products that can rival international brands.
Now, they’re focused on making a bold mark on the Nigerian beauty industry, promoting diversity and quality with every product release. Their In My Skin foundation is one of their star products. The weightless, full-coverage foundation gives a skin-like natural finish and is a cult-favorite for many makeup enthusiasts.
Yanga Beauty
Named after the pidgin slang for elegance, Yanga Beauty as a brand was founded to inspire the average Nigerian or African woman to find beauty from within. To help them recognize their uniqueness and find their pride amidst their essence. Their major products include makeup brushes and tools, foundations, and concealers.
As a brand that prioritizes curating the overall beauty experience of women, Yanga Beauty goes beyond creating makeup products, to ensuring women feel comfortable and beautiful even when they are not wearing makeup. This inspired them to also provide professional brow grooming services, including threading, lamination, and tinting.
House of Tara
It would be incomplete to highlight the growth of indigenous makeup brands without mentioning House of Tara as one of the key pioneers in the industry. Established in 1998 by Tara Fela Durotoye, the brand had one major goal—to become a key pioneer in beauty and makeup in Nigeria and West Africa. Breaking into a market when social media didn’t exist and a lot of Nigerians were still super skeptical about the quality of Made in Nigeria beauty products, House of Tara played a pivotal role in creating perfect shade matches for Nigerian women and built that trust from zero. They were also a key structure to the development of the bridal makeup industry, with the introduction of their makeup school in 2004. Over twenty-five years later, House of Tara has remained relevant, strengthening its retail and wholesale chains across Nigeria and West Africa, helping African women rediscover their beauty.
Beauty by AD
Founded by popular influencer Adeola Diadem in 2016, the Beauty by AD brand was established to prioritize inclusivity in the international makeup industry by creating sustainable, cruelty-free and vegan makeup products that can cater to everyone from every race, gender, and age. By utilizing the founder’s knowledge and expertise on social media, the brand has been able to convert their audience into active customers. So far, the brand has been able to achieve this in Nigeria and is currently making expansion efforts into other markets. Beauty by AD is popular for making smooth, easy-to-blend powders and precisely crafted skin products that settle into darker skin tones well without creasing.
Vee Beauty
One of the major problems many brands and businesses in Nigeria are faced with is figuring out how to produce the best achievable quality of products and merchandise, whilst offering them at an affordable price. This is one hitch that the Vee Beauty brand has found a way around over the years. Their star product, the Second Skin foundation, is a very affordable product, whose quality rivals global premium makeup brands, tapping into the average middle-class market with its cost-effectiveness. They also stock a wide range of lip stains, lipsticks, matte powders, and eyeshadow palettes, giving their customers a plethora of budget-friendly options to achieve a full face of makeup.
Zikel Cosmetics
Understanding buyer behavior and harnessing that information to position your brand and products is one pathway to introducing the brand into a market and setting it up for success. This is exactly how Zikel Cosmetics became a household name in the Nigerian beauty industry. By understanding that the average customer is rational and hence, will choose affordability and favor cheaper products, their penetrative pricing strategy helped them access an already competitive market by setting their prices as low as 2000 naira.
However, that’s not the only edge that Zikel has over its other competitors. Their products are of high quality and very easy to use, making it a go-to for many makeup beginners. They also stock a variety of makeup and beauty products, and accessories including contact lenses, utility handbags, photography light boxes etc.
Zaron Cosmetics
The most fascinating element of the Zaron cosmetics business model is its all-inclusive approach towards beauty. By incorporating a highly formulated, well-tested skincare range, they are on a path to enhancing the overall experience of beauty for women of color. So far, the brand has successfully expanded its operations to Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and Sierra Leone, among other African countries.
With the launch of their new men’s line, they are bridging the gap in the Nigerian male skincare market by crafting and creating products and formulas that specifically cater to African men.
It’s quite inspiring to see how far these brands have come. It is also quite commendable how much work they’ve put into their products, debunking the age-long fallacy that made-in-Nigeria goods are substandard.
Although the growth of this industry has been remarkable, it can only get better and bigger, especially with more visibility and investment towards the Nigerian and by extension African beauty sector.