Sustainable, Indigenous, and Bold: The Cheekbone Beauty Story

My last sustainability post explored the complex challenges the beauty industry is facing—from questionable ingredients and excessive packaging to plastic waste and microplastics—a sustainability nightmare. But for every challenge, there are innovative solutions, and some wonderful, sustainable beauty brands. Today, I'm excited to introduce you to one of them.

Cheekbone Beauty is a Canadian beauty brand based in St. Catharines, Ontario. It's a beauty company that started with a dream. Back in 2015, founder Jenn Harper dreamed of little Indigenous girls covered in lip gloss, and she knew that she had to make this dream a reality. Born was the first Canadian Indigenous-owned and founded cosmetics company.

The Journey of Cheekbone Beauty

Starting a company is not a straightforward journey, and for Jenn, it’s a journey she’s still on. From the beginning, her driving force was the lack of Indigenous representation in the beauty industry. However, once the initial products were launched, customers began asking questions: What’s in the packaging? What ingredients are being used? Where do they come from? Those questions sparked a deep dive. Jenn started investigating every part of the supply chain—how raw materials were sourced, how products were made, and what sustainability really looked like in practice. That process began with their first sustainable lipstick and has shaped the company ever since.

"That's where we start from, to recognize that there's so much we don't know. And whatever we're learning on this journey is definitely part of the process, and it is 100% a journey. You're not going to have an endpoint or end solution. Nothing in this space is black and white. It's extremely nuanced."

Cheekbone Beauty became a B-Corp early on, a decision Jenn describes as a way to ground their sustainability efforts in clear, measurable standards. It gave the company a structure to build on, while acknowledging that the work is far from finished.

The Journey to her Indigenous Roots

But the journey wasn’t just about sourcing better ingredients or choosing sustainable packaging—it was also a personal journey to her Indigenous roots. Jenn realized she was making a bold claim by building a brand rooted in her culture, but what did that really mean? How could she honour that identity authentically?

"When I think about it, I think about my ancestors, about this concept of land stewardship. There's no word for sustainability in my language, and in most indigenous languages, but the truth is that all over the world, they have been the ones who have been protecting environmental components for generations. And why is that? So I did this deep research into my culture, my community, and learned that there are many, many teachings that come from our culture that relate to this issue. So if I was going to start to make this claim that Cheekbone Beauty is an Indigenous brand, I had to make things differently."

What does that look like in practice? Jenn made Cheekbone Beauty a social enterprise. Each year, they release a new limited-edition product, and 100% of the sales are allocated towards the Cheekbone Beauty Scholarship Fund, providing scholarships for Indigenous students pursuing Post-Secondary education. Currently, the limited-edition "For Future Generations" products can be found online, which will support 20 Indigenous Youth Scholarships.

Enterprise with a Social Mission

Let's explore this concept of social enterprises. According to the BC Centre for Social Enterprise, "Social enterprises are revenue-generating businesses with a twist. Whether operated by a non-profit organization or by a for-profit company, a social enterprise has two goals: to achieve social, cultural, community, economic and/or environmental outcomes and to earn revenue."

For Jenn, starting a social enterprise that gives back to the community was just the right thing to do: "Based on my original dream, I asked myself whether you could do something in a business and use it for good? I was just learning about so many injustices that happened within our communities. So, honestly, it was just my personal question: how can we solve this? And I really believe that we can help ourselves with education, which then helps us help our communities and help whatever that is, whether it's just your family or your larger community, your country, your world. That was the simplest way to start. The way we started and built the scholarship fund, that's where that all stemmed from. I really think a business shouldn't exist just to make a profit. I feel like it should exist to do something else. And when we talk about the competitive nature of the beauty space, I figured there was no need for another makeup brand. So if there was one that was different, what would it look like? And that was the original idea: to do something good and sell the product at the same time."

Integrating Indigenous Practices with Sustainable Approaches

What sets Cheekbone Beauty apart from other sustainable beauty brands is its integration of Indigenous knowledge. Today, they follow two Indigenous approaches:

• Two-Eyed Seeing: "This is an Indigenous concept that combines the strengths, wisdom, and knowings of both Western Culture and Indigenous Wisdom to make the greatest positive impact on people and our planet."

• 7th Generation Principle: "This practice is derived from the Iroquois People to not only leave enough for the next generation, but to leave enough for our children in the next seven generations."

Thought Experiment

I asked Jenn to participate in a little thought experiment with me and reimagine the beauty industry. My question: If the beauty industry were rebuilt by Indigenous women, how would it look?

You might know the first part of the answer—it would look very different! An Indigenous-led beauty industry would focus on the community and the success of each community member. It wouldn't put stakeholders ahead of the planet and people.

"Oh, wow, that is such a good question! It would look completely different. I think our focus is always on the community. The success of our employees depends on what the success of our community looks like. So we would look at this on the grand scale, and we wouldn't exclude all of the other people in the beauty space, but really try to lead by example and show them that there's a different way of doing things. And of course, we would put the planet and people before stakeholders in order to grow and attract customers and have really incredible products."

So, Where Should Consumers Start?

First, avoid throwing away all your current makeup; use it responsibly. If you decide to buy Cheekbone Beauty products, Jenn highlighted the Unify Multi Pencil, which will transform your beauty routine. Watch her Instagram video to learn how to choose the perfect shade. And of course, the lipsticks, her third baby after her two children. You can never go wrong with the lipstick.

Continue to buy local. Brands like Cheekbone Beauty had to rethink their big expansion plans into the US over the past months, but they benefited from the "buy local" movement that took over Canada earlier this year. What's important now is that we continue to support local businesses and make it part of our shopping behaviour. The more we support local brands, the more investors will pay attention to them and invest in Canadian businesses. So, like many things in life, it's a cycle, and we can play a crucial role in it.

I'm off to Sephora now to buy my Unify Multi Pencil and another lipstick to add some colour to my summer makeup and bring sustainable products into my beauty collection. Who's going to join me?

*This post is not sponsored by Cheekbone Beauty and was developed out of the sole interest of the author.