On today’s show, Erin is joined by Nina Crawford, an organic beauty advocate and a business and mindfulness mentor. Nina has an eclectic background, having been raised in Ivory Coast in West Africa, spending her teenage years in France, and later coming to the US in her twenties.
Growing up in West Africa, she was raised to honor her natural beauty and use only ingredients that come from the earth, an approach that started shifting when she arrived in France, where beauty is more often equated to elegance. When she came to America, she was in for a massive culture shock and suddenly started feeling the pressure to conform to certain impossible beauty standards.
After sharing her fears around raising a Black son in America, Nina talks about representation in beauty for Black and Brown women, implicit bias, and fair trade, giving listeners a glimpse into the lives of the African women who harvest some of our favorite products, such as Shea Butter and Argan Oil. Erin and Nina also speculate about why some brands have not yet expanded their products to accommodate darker skin tones, and share helpful tips for beauty brands who are thinking of launching new colors.
In line with our discussion with Nina, our email today (48:11) deals with a question about the meaning of the term “sourcing” in the beauty industry. Be sure to join us for another fabulous episode!
Call Outs from the Episode:
Tweetables:
“In Ivory Coast, the messaging in my childhood was close to the earth in terms of beauty. The ingredients that we were using were natural and it was about magnifying the beauty that we already had.” — Nina Crawford [0:06:02]
“It is time to close a door and this is an opportunity we have to make sure that the killing of young Black men doesn’t happen anymore; that the discrimination against Black and Brown people doesn’t happen anymore.” — Nina Crawford [0:18:08]
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