Cardi B's affordable haircare

Cardi B is the latest celebrity to be rolling out her own beauty products, joining the ranks of Tracee Ellis Ross, Rihanna, Taraji P. Henson and Beyoncé and launching a haircare line called Grow-Good. But rather than have it hit the shelves at major stores like Sephora and Ulta, which would have been no issue for her, you can find Cardi’s products on the shelves of smaller, boutique neighbourhood beauty supply stores throughout New York City, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and Atlanta.

It's a six-product line and despite not being in big stores, it’s still sitting beside major brands like Shea Moisture and ORS. The products are rooted in her own Dominican hair rituals that she learned while growing up in the Bronx. She’s included formulations like Fiberlace Technology, which helps add strength to hair cuticles and reduces breakage.

One thing about Cardi B, she has her reasons. And according to an article in Essence, which featured her at the last Essence Festival and also spent a day with her recently to learn more about her distribution strategy and beauty store selection, Cardi says it’s because she spent so many of her days in small boutique beauty stores prior to becoming a celebrity.

“It was important for me to choose Black-owned beauty supply stores, because I learned how rare that was,” she recently told the publication during a visit to a Harlem beauty supply store.  “It was also important for me to select shops that, some of whom, I had personal relationships with,” Cardi adds. “I grew up coming to the beauty supply stores.”

This is a wildly different approach to what we typically see when it comes to celebrities getting into the entrepreneurial space and starting their own businesses (usually with the help of a huge team). It’s atypical to what we see when the nature of that business is beauty and especially when the nature of that business is Black beauty.

We’ve all seen brands like Pattern, Fenty, TPH and Cécred hit shelves in major stores, with hefty price tags attached to some of the products. But, given the complexity of Black hair and the long-standing desert of Black celebrities launching these kinds of businesses up until recently, Black consumers are seemingly more willing to pay a bit more for premium products that properly nourish, hydrate and maintain the integrity of our hair. But Cardi B has skipped the expensive price tags, ensuring that not one product in her line costs more than $20. And it’s notable because celebrities who venture into entrepreneurship are already looked at as being greedy. In addition to being a multi-millionaire, or in some cases, a multi-billionaire, you also now have to be a competitor of the average entrepreneur in whatever respective space you’ve launched your business in? It’s led to a lot of eye rolls. As Maria wrote yesterday in her piece about Jennifer Lawrence:

“People are skeptical around the hype of celebrity brands, they are over the marketing, they are over the perceived greed of people who have so much and seemingly want more.”

But Cardi B is making it clear that this is about more than money for her. It’s about wanting to meet her customers where they’re at – not just physically, but financially, too. A totally different vibe from JLaw’s recent announcement for her new line, mes° beauty.

Unlike Cardi B, JLaw’s product pricing is certainly up there. A quick scan through the website will likely bring your eyeballs slightly out of the socket, with repair masks priced at over $50 USD, and a mist priced at $34 USD. The USD mention is especially important if you, like me, are in Canada, because the exchange rate these days is horrifying.

Cardi B touched on wanting to sell her products in stores she had personal relationships with. And during a recent Instagram Live with her signature candor, she expressed some of the difficult realities of becoming successful, particularly with her humble beginnings, it’s starting to make sense why trust is such an important pillar of her new business venture. 

Yesterday, she did another Instagram Live after a gym workout and opened up about the lessons she is still learning about life and relationships and how one of her biggest challenges right now is about dealing with jealousy and resentment from people in her very own social circle.

"Being successful, it is so scary," she said. “Not even because you just don't know who's genuine anymore. You just don't know who got that secret animosity for you. And it's so crazy because you could be cheering for somebody, you could be loving on somebody, and they don't want that.”

Cardi B and JLaw obviously come from totally different walks of life. But Cardi B’s willingness to truly understand the demographics of her fan base is also business acumen since those are the people most likely to buy her products, and it could be the key to her unlocking a new level of success, despite the further resentment that may bring from her inner circle.