Gloryscent: The Inclusive Brand Revolutionizing Clean Beauty for Women of Color
As one of the most diverse nations in the world, the United States is home to a melting pot of races, cultures, and ethnicities. Yet, the beauty industry, historically, has been known for representing only a small fraction of this diversity. Traditional beauty standards often prioritize Eurocentric features, leaving women with darker skin tones and textured hair feeling ignored and underrepresented. However, one woman, Rafaela Gonzalez, aims to change that with her skin-care line, Gloryscent.
Gonzalez was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, where skin-care rituals and natural ingredients were a vital part of everyday life. However, after moving to the United States, she quickly realized that the beauty industry lacked representation for women of color. Gonzalez, who had always felt self-conscious about her textured hair and darker skin, decided to create her own brand to serve underrepresented women of color in the beauty industry.
Gloryscent is a “pro-melanin skin-care brand” that offers safe and clean beauty products. During the process of creating the brand, Gonzalez learned that the majority of products catered towards women of color contained toxic ingredients. As such, her brand’s mission evolved to stand for “inclusivity in clean beauty,” providing women of color with access to health and wellness products that are safe and effective.
The brand takes inspiration from Gonzalez’s Caribbean roots, highlighting ingredients from her ancestral home to honor her “beautiful island.” Her Behold Brightening Balm is just one example, made with neem oil derived from trees that Gonzalez grew up seeing on the island. Other salient ingredients the brand features include arnica flower extract, willow bark, and organic ginseng, which soothe sun-damaged skin, promote exfoliation, and help soften fine lines.
What sets Gloryscent apart from other skin-care brands is the focus on offering a complete skin routine instead of just one or two products. With her collection, Gonzalez hopes to make it easier for women to transition to clean beauty by providing them with the entire collection. However, creating the healthy, nutrient-packed products that define the Gloryscent collection was not without its challenges.
Gonzalez faced the hurdle of figuring out the formulation for her skin-care items without formal training in the subject. “Initially, I was completely unaware of the process of formulation, and there were no physical schools I could locate, and frankly not something I [was] able to do because I was already in college,” she says. Despite these challenges, Gonzalez found an online school where she could work toward her diploma at her own pace. This is where Gonzalez says she learned how to begin the process of sourcing her own ingredients. The initial hurdle of formulation proved challenging, but she maintains it was necessary to bring women the effective care Gloryscent now provides.
With Gloryscent, Gonzalez is working towards bringing awareness to healthier options of self-care and empowering women to love themselves. Being a POC-owned brand, her mission of effective care is to provide women of color with healthier, tailored alternatives to the harsh and often damaging active ingredients in mainstream products while also uplifting these women as they are. One of her biggest achievements was having Gloryscent in JCPenney stores, which was done through the Thirteen Lune e-commerce site, which helps boost the visibility of POC-owned brands.
This year, Gonzalez is particularly proud to be hosting a speaking series regarding inclusivity in clean beauty. The series, titled “Let’s Talk Inclusion in Clean Beauty,” features interviews with various founders and organizations, highlighting the importance of raising awareness about the toxic ingredients in self-care products marketed to Latinx women and other women of color. These discussions aim to educate and not fearmonger as knowledge is power.
In an industry that often exploits women of color and sidelines their beauty needs, Gonzalez’s Gloryscent is a refreshing change. The brand’s mission of clean beauty is rooted in inclusivity, empowerment, and self-love. With her brand, Gonzalez is breaking traditional beauty standards and giving underrepresented women of color the representation they deserve.
