Medical professionals Dr. Abhijit Desai and Dr. Gauri Desai recently announced the launch of Brownkind, a new skincare company dedicated to offering Brown and Black women diverse products.
The newest business, dermatologically created to protect melanin-rich skin, draws from 25 years of experience in the husband-and-wife team’s aesthetic dermatology clinic.
With their debut product line, consisting of a Glow Moisturizer, Cleanser, Vitamin C Serum, Dark Spot Corrector, and Night Cream, Dr. Abhijit and Dr. Gauri have combined Indian Gooseberry, rainbow algae and cacao to create phytonutrient products to preserve skin tone. According to clinical studies, 85% of participants said that the combination of these three ingredients made their skin more even.
Through their latest initiative, Dr. Abhijit and Dr. Gauri are aiming to erase euro-centric misinformation when it comes to the aging of melanin-rich skin.
The dermatologists point to a singular instance in their daily lives in which their own daughter approached them and asked for advice about wrinkles and Botox.
“That was when it struck us that we need to educate people at large that early signs of aging in skin of color are not fine lines and wrinkles but uneven tone, dullness and dark spots.
Since that moment– this has been a labor of passion,” Dr. Abhijit and Dr. Gauri told The Hub News. “We spent 2 years developing products with scientifically proven natural ingredients, ran tests with patients in our clinic and used 3rd party clinical testing to prove the tone improvement benefits.”
Through Brownkind, the founders are working towards helping customers unlearn the inaccurate teachings that dermatologists and skincare companies have previously spread. A majority of these inaccuracies and the lack of diversity in most skincare companies stem from a lack of accurate representation in education.
Per a 2020 report published on Stat News, only 4% to 18% of textbooks have images of dark skin representation, limiting the learning experience for dermatologists who often learn how to diagnose through images. Hyperpigmentation, a skin condition that affects BIPOC patients at a rate that is 500% more likely to affect them, is also often overlooked despite the condition being common.
The lack of skin representation translates to the lack of diversity in makeup products. As Black consumers make up 11.1% of the consumer spending for beauty brands, they are often three times more likely to be dissatisfied with the options they face in makeup. According to a McKinsey report, contributors to this higher rate of dissatisfaction include a lack of quality beauty products and increased difficulty finding products, such as melanin-rich products, that work for them.
With their latest initiative, Dr. Abhijit and Dr. Gauri aim to do their part in providing representation in beauty for the nearly 4 billion people with melanin-rich skin worldwide.
“The euro-centricity of the skin care industry requires us as a brand to create an experience for people of color to unlearn some of the misguidances they have received from multinational
Brands,” said Dr. Abhijit and Dr. Gauri. “We are excited to start this dialogue and create a movement with the consumer.”
