SEPHORA Accelerate Program Graduates Unite at Indie Beauty Expo

Meet the Brands Chosen by Sephora to Redesign the Future of Beauty

At this year’s Indie Beauty Expo in New York City, 5 amazing women who share a powerful bond are taking the show by storm as a group. Each founder in this dream team of brands was bestowed the honor of being deemed the next generation beauty industry leader.

SEPHORA Accelerate is part of SEPHORA’s initiative to position promising female-founded start-ups re-design the future of beauty. Recognizing that even in the beauty industry, where most customers are women, female founders are still underrepresented. This highly competitive program that has more than 1000 applicants per year, identifies the future stars of the beauty industry and injects them with knowledge, feedback and support to achieve their full potential.

These five gorgeous brands can be found at booth #F101 at Indie Beauty Expo August 22nd and 23rd 2018, where beauty enthusiasts will have an opportunity to meet all five brand founders and experience their products.

Here are the five brands:

Sahajan founder Lisa Mattam’s family hails from Kerala, India, and she grew up with Ayurvedic traditions. A former pharmaceutical executive, Lisa wanted Sahajan to feature the best of both worlds, and worked with both with Ayurvedic doctors in India and modern day scientists to create Sahajan - an evidence-based Ayurvedic natural skincare and haircare line. Committed to both proven clinicals and Ayurvedic traditions, Lisa created Sahajan products to feed the skin and hair exactly what it needs, to combat the effects of modern day environmental stressors, to be stronger, radiant, and more resilient.  Her blends were created working with Ayurvedic doctors in India and modern day scientists. The star players in all Sahajan products are nurturing ingredients from the 5,000 year old Ancient Indian science of Ayurveda including Amla, Gotu Kola, Triphala, Coconut and Sesame Oils.

The Sephora Accelerate program was invaluable. In addition to the incredible validation of being identified by Sephora as a brand that will re-design the future of beauty, we received incredible insight, connected with industry leaders, and created an incredible community of female entrepreneurs. - Lisa Mattam, founder, Sahajan

Haitian-American brand founder Yve-Car Momperousse launched Kreyol Essence after nurturing her hair back to health after experiencing what she calls a “haircatastrophe” Her hair fell out after visiting a salon to straighten her mane. “I looked for the one thing my mom used on my hair, when I was younger, that was guaranteed to re-grow and bring my hair back to life —Haitian Black Castor Oil,” says Momperousse. Haitian Black Castor Oil is at the heart of Kreyol Essence product lines - which also feature other indigenous Haitian ingredients such as Moringa, Vetiver and Haitian Coffee.  In addition to its line of pure and natural products, Kreyòl Essence goes beyond beauty to create work for farmers and women in Haiti. Wishing to create something beyond a traditional beauty business, Momperousse defines Kreyòl Essence as an agri-business that is “natural with a purpose.”  Conscious Media Company designated YveCar as one of the Top Conscious Business Leaders of 2018.

“Receiving validation from Sephora merchants about the Kreyol Essence brand, product mix, and target market gave me the confidence to implement a growth strategy that resulted in us scaling our operations and becoming profitable. We are the first Caribbean beauty company to do so from Haiti.” - Yve-Car Momperousse, founder, Kreyol Essence.

ABLE Cosmetics is a solution-oriented beauty brand aiming to solve everyday beauty application issues through user-friendly tools, instructions, high quality formulas and a hands-on learning experience. Founder and makeup artist Dana Rae Ashburn’s primary goal is to empower and enABLE others to believe in and apply their individual skills to their everyday beauty routine.

“My favorite moments during the Sephora Accelerate Program were when we’d all gather in the kitchen at the end of a long day with wine, snacks and products to chat about ideas and get our hands dirty” - Dana Rae

APTO believes there is a sense in seasons. Your skin can change so much throughout the year, so our products change too. We offer clean, plant-based skin care products with ingredients carefully selected during certain times of the year. In addition to our core range of fermented skincare basics, we launch seasonal drops of specific formulations, ingredients and routines, with focused benefits. Although we source ingredients from all over the world, our line is exclusively developed and manufactured in our in-house factory in the US.

We partner with select retailers to drive industry change by co-creating exclusive product variations with low MOQs.

“The Sephora Accelerate Program helped me rethink and improve several aspects of my company, reinvigorate my confidence in the venture, and give me some of the most valuable friendships I’ve ever had.” -Marta Cros, Founder, APTO Skincare

PROVEN is a new beauty startup that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to create personalized skin care products for consumers. Customers fill out an online quiz (questions cover age, ethnicity, lifestyle, and geographic location) and receive a unique skin profile and tailor made products based on findings from PROVEN's skincare database. The database, nicknamed 'The Beauty Genome Project' was built using bots to analyze >8 million customer reviews, >100,000 skincare products, and >20,000 ingredients. PROVEN founders Ming Zhao and Amy Yuan create modern skin care for the modern woman.

Individual Brand Press Contacts:

Sahajan and Kreyol Essence: Aimee Majoros - aimee@aimeepr.com

ABLE Cosmetics: Kiirsten Lederer -  kl@ablecosmetics.com

APTO Skincare: Kelly Kirch - kelly@aptoskinare.com

Proven Skincare: Ming Zhao - ming@tryproven.com