The Beautywell Project

ABOUT THE BEAUTYWELL PROJECT

The Beautywell Project is an organization that was founded to address the issues of colorism, skin-lightening practices and chemical exposures in the communities of color. The organization’s mission is to develop healthy individuals, families and community through education, research, empowerment, policy and systems changes. 

COMPREHENSIVE IMPACT OF THE BEAUTYWELL PROJECT

• Empowering Youth Women: Implements leadership programs like the Young Women's Wellness and Leadership Initiative (YWWLI) to foster self-esteem, advocate for health and well-being, and empower individuals to reject harmful behaviors like colorism and build their overall well-being and leadership skills.
• Community Healing and Education: Conducts and facilitates community outreach and education through forums and bilingual podcasts, social media, creating safe spaces to discuss the cultural impact of colorism, promote self-acceptance, and encourage community healing. Also understanding of chemical exposures from beauty products and other environmental exposures. 
• Community-Based Research: Conducts community-based participatory research including focus groups and key informant interviews to deeply understand the use of toxic skin-lightening products, user behaviors, product trends, and the psychological impact of colorism.
• Global Policy and Systems Change: Provided expert consultation and leadership to major international bodies, including the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO), to inform global strategies for eliminating mercury in cosmetics.
• International Capacity Building: Conducts specialized training for country partners in high-impact regions, including Gabon this year where we were able to train more than 14 African countries, to strengthen national capacity for legislation, enforcement, and awareness against toxic skin-lightening products.
• Toxic Chemical Awareness & Reduction: Conducts independent lab testing of skin-lightening products and publishes the results, directly educating communities about dangerous and illegal levels of toxic chemicals like mercury and hydroquinone and other toxic chemicals.
• Toxic Product Data & Community Empowerment: Developed and maintains the Beautywell Database & Knowledge Hub, a public resource containing lab-tested results for toxic skin-lightening products, empowering communities with important information not found on labels to make informed health decisions.
• National and State Legislative Advocacy: Leads federal advocacy efforts to sustain important funding for chemical exposure issues, while successfully helped pass the Minnesota legislation to fund Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for business education, product testing, and enforcement leading to stronger state regulation of toxic skin-lightening products.
• Beauty Salon Partnership & Green Business: Partners with beauty salons to test products for toxins and help them transition to a safer, green environment and business model, protecting both consumers and workers from chemical exposure.
• Health System Training: Provides training to hundreds of healthcare clinics and thousands of providers to enhance the capacity of health systems to address and respond to the issue of skin-lightening practices and chemical exposures.
• Holding Corporate Retailers Accountable: Successfully launched advocacy campaigns targeting major online retailers to pressure them to stop the sale of toxic and illegal skin-lightening products.
• Redefining Beauty Standards: Actively works to redefine what beauty is within communities of color, promoting self-acceptance, cultural identity, and a toxic-free environment to improve overall health outcomes for women, children, and families.