Beautycounter is a Santa Monica-based beauty brand with a commitment to getting safer products in the hands of all people. Beautycounter is looking to spread awareness within the African-American and Latino communities with new consultant Kynia Starkey joining the Los Angeles team.
“I’m very excited to share information that is really going to help empower other women in my community, other women that look like me. I love being part of a company that puts safety first,” Starkey says.
Women of color carry a higher toxic chemical load than their white peers, while at the same time, some of the most toxic products are marketed to women of color in the personal care/beauty industry.
In October 2015, Beautycounter hired Madame Athena Chang as the Director of Community to really ramp up their effort to get safe products in African-American and Latino communities. Starkey hopes to use her newfound knowledge and platform to help her fellow African-Americans avoid a number of diseases that are prevalent in their community.
Beautycounter has pioneered “The Never List,” a list of 1,500 ingredients the company chooses not to use in their products because they have been linked to human health concerns — whether it’s cancer, infertility, miscarriage, hormone disruption, endocrine disruption, ADHD, autism, asthma, or allergens.
Says Linda Hope, Executive Director for Beautycounter: “Our mission is to place safer products into the hands of everyone. We are an education-first company, using information and resources to empower those that we love to choose safe alternatives in their personal care use.”
Hope says she has always been a “product junkie,” trying every imaginable product she could from a variety of brands. Before Beautycounter, she was the mom making baby food from scratch and checking the ingredient list on her household cleaning products to avoid preservatives and other toxins.
Starkey was drawn to Beautycounter because of a similar personal mission to be more conscientious of what goes in her body.
“It’s really been a personal mission of mine to just be very conscious about what I’ve been putting in my body and on my body, especially having been healed from what was diagnosed as a chronic lung condition,” Starkey says. “It was really wonderful to find a company who shares that mission and to not have to worry about what’s in the products because they’re already doing that. It really gives me a lot of freedom to be able to enjoy products without health concerns.”
Starkey will be joining Hope’s team, one of the largest teams as it relates to women of color at Beautycounter, and a team that also includes Dominique Sensabaugh. Sensabaugh and Hope are both WAGs, the colloquial term for Wives And Girlfriends of pro athletes. Sensabaugh has known Hope for years: “Linda introduced me to Beautycounter and it just made sense to align myself with a company that’s about holistic health and helping to make sure that women of color are putting the right products on their skin.”
Sensabaugh joined Beautycounter after attending a social seminar. The lessons learned there really stayed on her mind: “What are we putting on our skin? How is that affecting our families? How is it affecting us?” She couldn’t help but join the team.
Hope and Sensabaugh are looking forward to having Starkey on their team: “Kynia is the perfect woman to expose Beautycounter to the Los Angeles market and women of color,” says Sensabaugh, who is new to Los Angeles.
Hope agrees saying: “When I first heard Kynia’s ‘why’ for joining Beautycounter, I was even more inspired and look forward to sharing this mission forward and to lock arms with women just as passionate as Kynia who really want to inform and empower our community just the way we are.”
Starkey will be sharing about the importance of safer beauty products in several upcoming conversations she has scheduled. One of which will be held at Mommy Oasis on Saturday, October 22 at 2 p.m. in West Hills California. For more information email kynia@helpfulandhealing.com.
About Beautycounter
Founded by Gregg Renfrew in 2011, Beautycounter launched in 2013 as a direct-retail brand and is the leader in the safer skincare and cleaner cosmetics category. The company’s mission is “to get safer products into the hands of everyone.” Beautycounter develops and distributes nearly 100 products across skincare, color cosmetics, advanced anti-aging, kids, baby and personal care collections.