Community Beauty’s Instagram reads like a scrapbook for the evolved millennial. In matcha green fonts and sandy neutral backgrounds, messages about women’s equality, voting registration, and upcycling fill the feed. Founders Mariel Marin and Kristina Naderi curate resources on topics ranging from nontoxic shampoo and women-owned beauty brands to food insecurity and clean water access for the homeless. Their blog offers an in-depth, diary-like glimpse into endeavors like composting in a studio apartment. True to the name, most of the organizations and initiatives Community Beauty highlights are LA-based, and all are viewed through the lens of access and nontoxicity.
“We had been talking about this idea on and off for months,” Marin tells me over video conference. “How do we get nontoxic products to charities and organizations?”
The idea for Community Beauty began with Marin and Naderi’s quest. As the two retail and beauty veterans found themselves with ample downtime, a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and toying with the prospect of career changes, they came up with the notion to get nontoxic hygiene and beauty items to vulnerable women in LA. As the concept started to take shape, the endeavor quickly turned into a bigger conversation around access, equitability, and a more holistic view of what we call hygiene.
“People think it’s just makeup and that it’s maybe not necessary, but it’s also shampoo, face wash, the origin of the food you’re putting in your body,” says Naderi. “People should have access to quality products, not just things that have ingredients that exacerbate conditions like eczema. It’s not just people with privilege that have skin conditions.”
The two started Community Beauty with the intention to create a charity organization, a conduit for beauty and wellness brands to give back, bringing the sustainable and nontoxic movement to vulnerable communities through organizations like The Shower of Hope. At the center of this exchange is Community Beauty’s goal of curating drop boxes – kits of nontoxic products like deodorant, tampons, and face wash – supported by product and monetary donations.
In addition to facilitating donations, it became increasingly important to Marin and Naderi to generate conversation. “We’re starting to think of ourselves as more of a platform,” explains Marin. “We want to share these products with underserved communities, but we also want a space for people to talk about these things, like feminine issues. I was never allowed to talk about those things growing up and it’s like, why not? These things are happening to us every single day?”
Naderi jumps in, “Earlier this summer, Kamala Harris proposed the uterine fibroids bill, and I can’t tell you how many people don’t know what that is.”
Uterine fibroids, benign tumors that can cause reproductive problems and painful complications, affect millions of women and are the leading cause of hysterectomy in the US, according to Eva Chalas, MD, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The condition disproportionately affects Black women, with more than 80% being diagnosed in their lifetime. Senator Harris’s bill would allocate $30 million annually to expand research of uterine fibroids, bringing to the mainstream an element of women’s health, an inspiration for the mission of Community Beauty. “It’s something to be optimistic about,” says Naderi.
Although the inherent politics of beauty isn’t a revelatory concept – from prohibitive pricing and the (un)regulation of ingredients, to animal testing and ranges of shades commonly available – Naderi and Marin want to elevate the conversation. The presentation of the bill and the inception of Community Beauty arrive at a time when many of us are questioning the ability of our institutions to ensure our wellbeing.
Community Beauty is about thinking, “what can we do as neighbors to help others, because we’re realizing sometimes we can’t rely on larger infrastructure, we’re going to have to look after one another ourselves,” Naderi says. Maybe that’s the real message behind hollow encouragements invoking the 2008 startup boom – sometimes we have to build our own infrastructures.
Naderi goes on to explain the ideal iteration of Community Beauty. “In a dream, we’ll have a physical space for meet and greets, and we’d love to host interviews and discussions with prominent people in the community – activists, organizers, brands.”
At the end of the day,” she continues, “(Community Beauty) will definitely encompass an educational platform and something that we can engage others with.”
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