Topicals

Long before her own label, Olamide Olowe was a UCLA student-athlete and pre-med who got an early crash course in the beauty business co-founding SheaGirl, a younger sister line to SheaMoisture launched at Essence Festival in 2016. When Unilever absorbed that company's parent, Sundial Brands, she walked away with a question that pre-med had not answered: why was the skincare aisle so silent about the chronic conditions millions of people actually live with? She had managed her own her whole life, and the market's answer had always been shame and a frowning before-and-after photo.

Her fix was as much cultural as chemical. The packaging arrived loud and joyful, the language treated eczema and stubborn discoloration as ordinary facts of life rather than defects, and the very first releases were built to do the work of several products at once. Faded folded ingredients usually spread across a five-step regimen into a single dark-spot gel, while Like Butter aimed to calm and cushion eczema-prone skin in one mask. Olowe was candid that the prices sat above the drugstore on purpose, the bet being that one well-built multitasker beats a cabinet of single-note bottles.

That refusal to whisper became the brand's signature. Mental-health advocacy ran alongside the products from the start, with proceeds from capsule drops funneled to organizations like Sad Girls Club, and a social presence that made talking about flare-ups feel communal instead of clinical. The work struck a nerve fast, turning early launches into near-instant sell-outs.

The sober caveat the brand itself does not dodge: chronic eczema and persistent hyperpigmentation often demand medical care no shelf product replaces, and a young label's long-term, independent track record is still being built. As a confidence-builder and an entry point into actually caring for difficult skin, though, it earns the loyalty it gets.

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