Sharon Chuter, the Nigerian-born founder of Uoma Beauty and architect of movements that shook the beauty industry awake, has died at just 38. She was found in her Los Angeles home on August 14, and while the official cause of death is still under investigation, the void she leaves behind feels immediate and immeasurable.
Chuter didn’t enter beauty to play nice—she came to burn down the old rulebook. When she launched Uoma in 2019, she didn’t just give us lipsticks and foundation; she gave us an ideology. Fifty-one shades of foundation wasn’t a marketing ploy, it was a manifesto. Each shade carried history, culture and the bold reminder that our skin tones weren’t an afterthought.
And when 2020 cracked the world open, she gave us Pull Up for Change. Instead of hashtags and hollow statements, Chuter demanded receipts literally. Brands were challenged to disclose how many Black employees sat in leadership. Her #PullUpOrShutUp campaign turned the mirror back on billion-dollar conglomerates and exposed who was truly invested in equity versus optics.
She followed with Make It BLACK, a campaign to rewrite the very language used against us. Limited-edition products in all-black packaging raised funds for Black founders, while pushing dictionaries to change the word “black” itself. This was Chuter at her best: turning beauty counters into cultural battlegrounds.
Even as health battles forced her to step away from Uoma, and lawsuits revealed the brutal politics of ownership, she never stopped fighting for the brand’s soul.
Sharon Chuter wasn’t just a beauty founder. She was a disruptor, a truth-teller, a woman who refused to let the industry rest in its comfort. The work remains unfinished, but the blueprint she left is undeniable.