21 LGBTQIA-Owned Beauty Brands to Support This Pride Month & Beyond
Since its initial launch of two makeup removers, the brand has expanded to eye and base products, fluffy falsies, brow products, and the best-selling Ultimate Blurring Setting Powder. This finely-milled product was created with a long-lasting, blurring formula that won’t leave you with any ashy flashback.
Star Product: The One/Size by Patrick Starrr Turn Up The Base Versatile Powder Foundation has a texture that is smooth as butter. The buildable formula features a soft-matte finish that doesn’t leave a pore or fine line in sight. Plus, there are five color families in this shade range of 32: Fair, Light, Medium, Dark, and Deep.
Sang Young-Shin first made his appearance competing on the eighth season of Ru Paul’s Drag Race as KimChi, making it all the way to the top three. Three years later in 2019, the drag queen delighted fans and launched her own makeup brand, KimChi Chic Beauty.
Many love the drama, excitement, and creativity that exists in the drag world. KimChi brought that and more with vivid eye shadows, finely-milled setting powders (is it really drag makeup without baking?), and even a full-coverage concealer with 19 shades to chose from.
The brand initially launched with the limited-edition Ketnipz x KimChi_Chic Rainbow Sharts palette that was mostly comprised of neutrals rather than bright colors. It was a little shocking to some longtime fans of the star, but KimChi says she wanted the palette to serve as an essential before adding more colorful shadows. “I did kind of see it as almost building a wardrobe,” she previously told Allure. “You’re going to have your few key pieces, and then you’re going to start adding in the fun, like the sparkly stuff and the accessories.”
Star Product: Available in three iridescent shades: Gold, Silk, and Opal the KimChi Chic Beauty Glam Tears All Over Liquid Highlighter instantly brightens all skin tones and gives it a lit-from-within glow.
Winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars season three Trixie Mattel debuted her playful cosmetics line at RuPaul’s DragCon in May 2019. Trixie Cosmetics is full of fun with colorful iridescent glitters, pigmented blush palettes, and cute accessories like the heart-shaped Hand Mirror. Mattel specifically worked with toy manufacturers and developers to create the vibrant packaging, so that all the products can remind you of a toy straight from the ’90s.
Star Product: Leave it to drag superstar Trixie Mattel, to create next-level cosmetics for everyone. The Trixie Cosmetics Summer of Love Blush Palette comes with three pans of color: Side Chick, a bold magenta, Girl on Girl, a baby pink, and Shhhhh!, a soft highlighter to top off your look.
In 2016, Matthew Herman and their partner made their mark in the industry with Boy Smells. The candles’ unique scents made them immensely popular, like the best-selling Kush with notes of cannabis, suede, white musk, and amber that combine together beautifully. The brand recently expanded its offerings with five fragrances (a project two years in the making). Each scent was developed to push beyond gender-specific smells, so they are described as “genderful.”
This month, the brand launched five new candles for its Pride Radiance Collection. The campaign for the collection also featured five popular LGBTQ+ members — Ru Paul’s Drag Race Season 13 winner Symone, fellow Drag Race contestant GottMik, model Leyna Bloom, actor Tommy Dorfman, and actor Brandon Flynn — who each rep a candle that embodies their identity. With each candle purchase, the brand will donate 10 percent of the sales to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization that provides suicide prevention advocacy for LGBTQ+ youth.