Jersey City Brand Challenges Norms within the Beauty Industry

By NATALIE TSUR

It’s another day in Jersey City, N.J. for Niambi Cacchioli to contact farmers overseas and turn herbs and plants into facial oils and mists. She packages the ready-made products for customers and takes a picture, uploading an Instagram post to Pholk Beauty’s page: 

“Vegan. Natural. Affordable + cruelty free. Give your skin something with ingredients that have a story. We pull our ingredients from the African diaspora.”

As Cacchioli watches the likes and comments come soaring through, she thinks back to her roots as a fifth-generation gardener and historian, the reason why her beauty brand started. In an effort to stay connected to her “green” upbringing in Kentucky, Cacchioli would spend her time planting and cultivating natural skincare products. 

However, when she turned this into a business, her goal was to not only introduce Black women to gentle, nutrient-rich products, but to challenge and redefine the beauty industry as a whole. 

Racial Microaggressions within the Beauty Industry

Like many Black women, Cacchioli has had rather negative experiences at mainstream beauty shops, where workers were often contemptuous of her, or simply sold products exclusively marketed toward white skin.

“When I would go to natural beauty stores in our area, I would get two reactions: either the salesperson would say ‘you guys are so lucky you’re just naturally protected and you just have magical skin’ or they would be very dismissive of my needs. It felt very complicated,” she said. “And when I would look at the shelves and look at the ingredients on the bottles, a lot of them are cultivated by Black and brown hands. So why does the natural beauty industry overlook our needs?”

The issue extends far beyond skincare, and has peddled a false narrative for Black people, consequently crafted by racist structures. Education in cosmetology school has disappointed the community entirely, as they continue to uphold a curriculum that glosses over proper care for Black hair and skin. 

Licensed barber, cosmetologist and salon owner, Kari Williams has a seat on the California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology, which issues exams and licenses in the state, according to AP. She claimed many states are administering certificates for natural hair, braiding, locing and twisting, but the problem persists. 

“When you have a stylist going through 1,100 hours of training, when it comes to Black hair, they’re learning how to destroy Black hair,” Williams told AP. “They’re not learning how to maintain and style Black hair in its natural state.”

Jersey City Claims Home to Diverse Businesses

In working against these odds, Cacchioli decided to establish Pholk Beauty in Jersey City’s McGinley Square, where she can gain the most attraction from consumers. According to Wallethub diversity rankings, it was named the most diverse city in the country as of 2020. 

Pholk Beauty’s products are formulated to treat a range of skin types — oily, combination, dry or sensitive. Her best-selling item is the Werkacita Beauty Balm, priced at $18 and multi-purposed for face, body, eyes and lips. The most inexpensive item is a $15 gentle exfoliating mask, GlowUp Mask with Apple + Hibiscus, while costly merchandise is typically a set, the $75 Pholk Kit for Oily/Combo Skin for example. The business’s success thrives off of its natural ingredients, which Cacchioli is intentional about when working with developers.

Astrid Gamarra, a resident of Hudson County, finds that Jersey City’s diversity allows for harmony within the community. However, she also notes some faults of the city, particularly class division.

“They’ve pushed the poor people out and moved them toward the areas that are not being talked about when we think of Jersey City,” she said. “The new income from this popularity is not going to those who were there from the very beginning.”

 

Cacchioli sees the city’s diversity as an opportunity to create affordable products, successfully broadening accessibility despite the county’s prioritization of socio-economic status. 

“Jersey City in particular is the most diverse city in the country—this is a huge benefit and you can definitely see it in the brand. I think if I had created this brand anywhere else it would have looked very different. I’m just very grateful to have the Jersey roots,” Cacchioli said.

However, Pholk Beauty is only one of many Black-owned businesses conscious of making such efforts, especially in Jersey City. A recent report by the United States Census Bureau asserts that 124,551 businesses are Black-owned. In New Jersey, there are roughly 253, as recorded by nj.com. The tweet below indicates that the figure reduces to 31 when looking at the city alone. 

Black-Owned Businesess to Support In #JerseyCity pic.twitter.com/Uc7vwlkbWo

— Lynn Hazan (@lynnhazan_) June 4, 2020

Extending Opportunities to Others

Cacchioli has since been able to frame her work and products as a healing agent, and continues to view the African diaspora in that light as opposed to Black trauma. As an academic, she found that education can limit the scope of how communities are perceived and portrayed. Beauty allows her to explore that.

Apart from helping women properly treat their skin, Cacchioli extends opportunities for herself to those she works with. As she journeys through cooperative economics, she finds that there is a need to hire locally and partner with ingredient producers overseas.

“I have award-winning products that work on everybody’s skin. I’m able to run a business, but also, my Moringa oil supplier, he works with 5,000 farmers in West Africa. So it’s a win-win and, you know, that is the power of beauty,” Cacchioli explained. “You can really change people’s lives if you think intentionally about how you’re hiring, how you’re manufacturing and where you’re sourcing from.”