The jury’s still out on the longevity of crypto. After a boom last year, the crypto market has busted this year, losing over $2 trillion in value since its 2021 height.
Despite the crash, beauty brands continue to enter the metaverse, a digital environment in which virtual goods can be bought and sold, and introduce NFTs (non-fungible tokens), which are cryptographic tokens secured by blockchain. Case in point: Yany Beauty has become the first Black-owned cosmetics brand to dabble in Web3 with its Crypto Beauties NFT Collection.
Founder Yaminah Childress has created 1,000 digitized tokens for the brand. Released in increments of 100, they’re available on OpenSea marketplace for purchase. Customers buying a Yany Beauty NFT will receive a physical beauty product, an invitation to the brand’s members-only Discord channel and invites to upcoming virtual beauty events. About 175 have been bought so far.
NFTs merge Childress’s two passions: beauty and technology. She developed personal tokens before developing NFTs for Yany Beauty. The brand’s NFTs are reflective of its mission. “At Yany Beauty, we value inclusivity and people expressing their beauty in their own colorful and unique way,” she says. “We wanted to create a collection that represented that same idea: colorful, inclusive and unique.”
Childress explains the NFTs connect Yany Beauty to a wider audience. “I hear a lot as a beauty brand founder people who say, ‘Oh, I don’t wear makeup, but I really like the brand,'” she says. “So, I’m like, OK, well we can allow people to connect with and support the brand in a different way.”
Childress estimates it took $800 and seven months to launch Yany Beauty’s NFTs. The cost covers randomization software and OpenSea’s fees. In general, she says brands can expect to pay a little more or less “depending on if they are creating their collection by themselves or paying an artist and buying software or not.” She notes randomization software isn’t required, but helpful for a large NFT collection.
Legal assistance can be advantageous, too. An attorney, Childress pored over legal details with a fine-tooth comb. “If it’s not trademarked or protected in some way, you can have people taking the brand and changing it,” she says. “I have a good understanding of how crypto and NFT works, but, when you’re coming on as a brand, really make sure you’re navigating the space as an actual brand owner.”
Childress started Yany Beauty as Yany Cosmetics 10 years ago as a side hustle while in law school. A decade ago, she says clean, inclusive cosmetics brands were few and far between. Childress DIY’d blush, eyeshadow and lip balms and sold them to her classmates and family members.
The brand fell to the wayside after Childress graduated from law school, but she picked it back up in 2019. She took it from hobby to serious business with the aid of her daughter Shania, who’s credited as a co-founder and acts as COO. Yany Beauty currently sells over 100 makeup and skincare products across makeup and skincare. Bestsellers are $26 liquid foundation, $38 contour and highlight palette, and $50 serums.
Yany Beauty was a “two-parter, but we found our footing,” says Childress. “When we reimagined it, we thought about opening our own retail store. We’re also working with professionals manufacturers this time and picking products and formulations that look good on all skin types.”
In October 2020, Yany Beauty opened a store in Fayetteville, Ga. At the store, customers can book makeup, eyelash and brow services along with purchasing the brand’s products. The store features other Black-owned beauty brands as well. Childress says, “Yany Beauty is really a social enterprise, and we always want to give back to our community, and so we created that space because we know how hard it is to get into retail. Even owning your own retail store isn’t something everybody can do.”
Yany Beauty is gearing up to release a mobile app enabling people to book local beauty services and buy products. A retail partnership may be upcoming along with additional branded stores. “We don’t want to just be online. We want people to be able to walk into their nearest stores and get the product,” says Childress. “The long-term goal is to really expand in that way both domestically, internationally.” And, perhaps in the future, virtually. Once the Crypto Beauties collection sells out, Childress hopes to transition Yany Beauty into the metaverse and launch a digital store where avatars can shop and experience the brand.
Although its NFTs are unique, Yany Beauty’s NFT and metaverse experimentation isn’t unique in the beauty industry. In a recent post, KinShen Chan, a senior beauty and personal care analyst at market research firm Mintel, says, “Momentum is building around the NFT space which creates opportunities for experimentation within the beauty industry…The market is still nascent, meaning it’s important for brands to be willing to experiment and test out new strategies with each release of digital assets.”
Childress’s advice for fellow brand founders hoping to break into the space is simple: Do the research, be authentic and keep an open mind. “It’s still growing, it’s constantly changing so try to not have any hardcore expectations of what it should look like,” she says. “There’s no one way to do it. As long as they’re willing to move and progress with it through its changes, then they’ll do great.
