7 Female-Owned Beauty Brands to Know

Don’t let the sexy name fool you: This cream is designed to balance the skin’s microbiome and address flare-ups of bacteria, yeast, or fungus (the hero ingredient is antioxidant-rich oregano). The Miami-based founder, a marine scientist by trade, set to work crafting it after a career spent in bathing suits left her with irritated hair follicles. Use it on flare-ups or anywhere that needs moisturizing.

The namesake ingredients in this serum create a one-two punch that brightens and moisturizes skin. There’s girl-power threaded throughout this Colorado-based natural skin care company, right down to its name: Pratt is the Omaha street where the founder’s grandmother—a playwright who graduated from a tony university in the 1940s—raised her family. “She was wicked smart and brutally honest,” says founder Jane Lerner of the grandmother who inspired the company’s straightforward, “no-gimmicks” approach.

Hand sanitizers are antiseptic, yeah, but they don’t need to look, smell, or feel that way. Developed by two female founders with backgrounds in chemistry and corporate beauty, this rinse-free cleanser is moisturizing and fragrant with all-natural scents inspired by resort destinations—Capri smells sweetly of orange, vanilla, and cherry.

When it comes to women’s haircare, it only makes sense that products benefit from having some girl power behind the scenes. Who better understand what shoppers are after? A young Australian mother created this break-the-internet tool, a celebrity favorite that creates big, bouncy waves in less time than single-barreled option.

Under-eye gel patches might not be a new addition to your regime, but this larger, comma-shaped pair offers up something different—the pointed tip sits near the inner eye and dramatically flares out, providing more coverage to the areas that need it most. During its development, the brand’s founder, the aesthetic director at a top plastic surgery outfit, talked to hundreds of patients, resulting in the type of market research money can’t buy.

This lightly tinted balm taps into the power of ingredients like coconut, sunflower, and argan oils for a powerful hit of moisture. Keeping it all natural was key to the founder, a native New Yorker who dabbled in DIY beauty for years before deciding to make her creations official.

Dear Brightly’s female founders created the company to address skincare issues that affected them personally, resulting in a tightly edited range of problem-solving formulas. Exhibit A? This mineral sunscreen uses zinc for ray blockage but avoids the ingredient’s signature ghostly cast thanks to a tinted formulation.