August is Black Business Month, but for Danika Berry and Tomi Talabi, the work is year-round. These women aren’t just selling beauty—they’re scaling legacy, restoring emotional wellness and rewriting what leadership looks like when it comes from the heart and not just the hustle. In a world that often wants Black brilliance without the blueprint, they’re building new tables, passing out power tools, and inviting the whole community to sit down and stay awhile.
Berry is the founder of both Glam Body—a mood-based body care brand—and Black Beauty Founders, a no-gatekeeping platform helping entrepreneurs scale their way to seven-figure success. Talabi runs The Black Beauty Club, a commerce-forward collective fusing culture, capital and connection for beauty lovers across the globe. Together, they represent two sides of the same coin: care and commerce, healing and hype, tradition and tech.
From Healing to Hustle
Berry’s journey began in her kitchen, mixing up foaming scrubs to soothe the eczema plaguing her and her children. A PR veteran who once shaped narratives for Don Cheadle and Sephora, she knew how to build brands. But it was personal pain—PMDD, grief, spiritual fatigue—that shaped her mission. “Glam Body became more than a business. It was a divine assignment,” she said. “It’s sensory beauty that supports women’s nervous systems.”
What started as four coffee scrubs has since grown into a signature line of mood-based exfoliants designed to cleanse, hydrate and restore. But Berry didn’t stop there. After seeing too many Black founders try to scale with no support, she launched Black Beauty Founders to create what she never had: a resource-rich, judgment-free zone for Black women building beauty brands. “I don’t believe in gatekeeping,” she said. “It’s one of the cruelest things you can do to someone chasing a dream.”
Community Is the Culture
Talabi’s origin story is rooted in Clubhouse. While many were using the platform to pontificate in circles, she heard something different: a global chorus of Black women navigating beauty, hair and identity in real-time. “That moment crystallized it for me,” she said. “No one was serving this community the way it deserved.”
With a resume that includes Bobbi Brown, Estée Lauder and deep experience in communications, Talabi understood both storytelling and scale. The Black Beauty Club was born as a space where founders, enthusiasts, and executives could connect—without filters or algorithms. “We bridge culture, community, and capital,” she shared. “It’s not about going viral. It’s about long-term brand health, economic power, and rooted, relevant storytelling.”
“We Did That” Moments
For Berry, that moment came when she relaunched Glam Body after a three-year hiatus—and sold out of That Pink Scrub in hours. For Talabi, it was watching 500 people flood into her inaugural Black Beauty Talks event, a mix of bankers, baddies and beauty founders all hungry for belonging. These were not quiet wins. They were loud declarations that the work—emotional, operational, and otherwise—is working.
And they’re just getting started.
Talabi is taking the Club on tour, planting roots in cities often overlooked by industry gatekeepers. Berry is expanding Glam Body’s catalog and doubling down on live shopping, aiming to make her foaming exfoliants a mainstay in every Black woman’s bathroom. And through Black Beauty Founders, she’s pushing to help 200+ Black-owned brands cross the million-dollar mark.
Purpose Over Product
In an industry allergic to attention spans and always chasing the next viral thing, both founders are playing the long game. Berry’s brand doesn’t do trends; it does rituals. “There’s a difference between going viral and being valuable,” she said.
Talabi’s salons aren’t panels, they’re conversations—designed for participation, not performance. “We don’t just talk to our community. We co-create with them,” Talabi said.
Where many brands center product drops, these women center emotional wellness, economic access and lived experience. The result? Platforms that hold space—not just shelf space—for every kind of Black beauty.
The Revolution Will Be Moisturized
Danika Berry and Tomi Talabi are proving that the future of Black beauty isn’t just about shade ranges or product launches. It’s about infrastructure. It’s about emotional intelligence. It’s about listening, serving and scaling in ways that honor the past without being bound by it.
Their message is clear: Black beauty has never been a trend. It’s a tradition. And this time, we’re not asking for a seat—we’re building the table, sealing the wood and lighting the damn candles too.
Because when Black women lead with heart, strategy and softness, we don’t just glow—we grow. And that’s the real flex.