This week, Jenn Harper—Founder and CEO of Cheekbone Beauty Cosmetics, an Indigenous-owned beauty brand known for creating clean, vegan and sustainable color cosmetics—shares how a “dream of little girls covered in lip gloss” brought her so much joy. Her dream also led to the creation of Cheekbone Beauty, the evolution of becoming a BCorp, and her commitment to donating the equivalent of 1% of gross sales through to 1% for the Planet. Jenn also flashes to the past and honors her grandmother by shedding light on the history of colonization, the negative effects of residential schools on Indigenous communities, and the importance of understanding the history to create healing. 

 

Jenn reminisced on her best advice from potential investors: “Do not take this deal. You are too early (to give up equity)!” This became the feedback that enabled her to say NO and move toward securing investment from the right team, completely aligned with her values, mission and the innate value of the brand, at the right time.

 

CheekBone Beauty honors and practices the 7th Generation Principle derived by the Iroquois People to not only leave enough for the next generation, but to leave enough for our children in the next seven generations.

 

Bio: An award-winning social entrepreneur, Jenn Harper is the founder and CEO of Cheekbone Beauty Cosmetics INC.  Cheekbone Beauty is a digitally native direct to consumer brand that is helping Indigenous youth see themselves in a beauty brand while using the concept of Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) in the brands ethos and in developing products.  Creating a new segment in the beauty industry - Sustainable Socially Conscious Beauty.  

 

Jenn Harper has been making a name for herself in the beauty industry for a number of years but has been gaining popularity quickly after being on the hit CBC show, Dragons Den https://www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/m_pitches/cheekbone-beauty in 2019. Cheekbone Beauty’s mission is to help every Indigenous youth see and feel their enormous value in the world while creating sustainable cosmetics.

In addition to Cheekbone’s mission, she strives to educate as many people as possible about the Residential School System and the effects it has had on my family and friends through decades of generational trauma. She speaks regularly to university, college and high school students about social entrepreneurship, empathy, and the history of her First Nations family. She has also been invited to speak to various entrepreneur groups including women in business associations, Apple Canada, and First Nations organizations.

Follow @cheekbonebeauty @jennlharper or visit https://www.cheekbonebeauty.com/

 

“Indigenous people are the OG’s of sustainability…this is innately our culture: you are truly in relationship with every living things” - Jenn Harper

 

Tune in to learn more from Jenn Harper and Kendra! 

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