Sephora sponsors The Cut’s beauty section to highlight Black makeup artists, hair stylists, and founders

For the next month, The Cut is focusing its beauty section on Black makeup artists, founders, stories, and more. Dubbed “Black Beauty Matters,” the takeover will highlight Black folks’ contributions to the makeup and skincare industry—and Sephora is the exclusive sponsor.

• “Many of the trends we all participate in today, including acrylic nails, glitter, contouring and many more have roots in Black culture. This is not widely known or celebrated,” Sephora SVP of marketing and brand Abigail Jacobs told The Drum.
• Last year, Sephora was the first major brand to take the 15 Percent Pledge, a proposal-turned-nonprofit started by Aurora James that asks retailers to commit 15% of shelf space to Black-owned businesses.

The deets: The Cut is taking the lead on editorial content, with Editor in Chief Lindsay Peoples Wagner hosting a four-episode, Sephora-sponsored podcast series called “In Her Shoes.” Branded content will promote a 60-second ad created by R/GA called Black Beauty is Beauty, as well as shoppable articles featuring Black-owned brands from Sephora.

Why it matters

Sephora’s sponsorship stems from its desire to reverse some alarming search trends the retailer noticed this year.

• Jacobs told Marketing Brew that the team saw a “huge increase” in searches for Black-owned beauty brands during 2020’s Black Lives Matter movement.
• But recently, the brand noticed those searches decreasing in volume while studying search traffic on Google Analytics.

Jacobs told us it isn't just searches that have fallen. “We know that right after the social reckoning, we saw that there were a number of brands that began to feature more Black models or Black faces in their advertising. And that has waned as well.” Jacobs added that the “Black Beauty Matters” content in The Cut is intended to drive interest through knowledge.—PB