New Style Idea

It may be hard to imagine now, but even the most popular and influential beauty brands started off, in some capacity, small. From Etsy shops to handmade, small-batch recipes mixed in apartment kitchens to big ideas born at happy hour, you'd be hard-pressed to talk to a brand founder that doesn't have a good story to tell. Luckily, thanks to social media and the power of the ever-growing beauty industry, it's not uncommon for indie brands to become cult favorites.

In beauty land, it's difficult to define exactly what puts a brand in the "indie" category, but in general, it runs the gamut from small to new to incredibly innovative. Some indie brands are already sitting on shelves at big beauty retailers while others are just beginning to find their footing. The term is more "umbrella" than "one size fits all."

With that in mind - and while small business owners continue to deal with the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak - we wanted to highlight a variety of indie beauty brands with an idea that has major momentum; we tapped 11 brand founders to share their favorite small beauty brands. Keep reading to hear from and discover everything from recently launched to Black-owned to clean and vegan brands. Warning: you'll probably just want to try something from each one.