Welcome to MakeUp HerStory. In honor of Women’s History Month, we’ll be highlighting Black women in beauty who are taking the industry by storm and making history in their own right. Each week throughout March, talent—everyone from rising beauty brand founders, to behind-the-scenes PR mavens—will discuss their career journeys, biggest inspirations, and more.
What does it take for a beauty product to go viral? It’s not only about the incredible ingredients and efficacy, luxe packaging, or an inspiring brand founder. Additionally, of course, the recipe must include bomb marketing, storytelling, and activations around the product itself—thanks to PR and marketing masterminds.
And when it comes to influencer and celebrity favorites alike, such as the Topicals eye masks and EADEM’s lip balm, Toni Renee is the marketing maven behind these major plays. In an exclusive conversation with ESSENCE, below, Renee discusses how she started, why she values Black start-ups, and expanding beyond the beauty space.
Getting discovered by Solange’s Saint Heron team
After enrolling at the University of Cincinnati just to get out of her mother’s house, picking up a job bussing tables didn’t seem too bad. “I went to college with no real direction of what I wanted to do,” Renee tells ESSENCE. Soon after, she was discovered by one of Solange’s close friends at the time, Diane “Shabazz” Varni, who saw potential in her vision.
From there, Renee went on to work at Saint Heron, a platform built around Solange’s A Seat At The Table album, where she wrote about Black culture, music, and, after some time, had a say in their social media strategy. Since then, her work has spanned brand and content strategy, influencer marketing, and every job in between.
Prioritizing Black beauty start-ups
Having worked with Coach, RCA records, and Paper magazine, an opportunity to take her multifaceted talent to L’Oréal was presented. But, “I wanted to shift away from the corporate structure and see if I could do the same level of marketing at a startup,” she says. After sitting down with the Topicals founder Olamide Olowe, “I turned down the position at L’Oréal and went over to Topicals.”
Feeling very “scrappy and eager” to amplify a Black beauty brand, Renee developed an extremely intentional strategy, forming a community around the products and brand through press trips to destinations like Ghana (which was well received by the press), and working with influencers the Topicals customers are engaged with.
The virality of Topicals
One of her biggest marketing ploys to date? Topicals eye masks. “We were being intentional about who we wanted to bring into the brand and how we wanted the brand to look externally,” Renee says. “I really love bringing community together.” With over 19,000 posts using the hashtag #topicals on TikTok, creators are wearing the under eye masks as a must-have beauty accessory in a number of the videos. In other words, the products are still a hot commodity to this day.
Working with EADEM and Camille Rose
Much like her strategy at Topicals, she had a similar approach at the Black-owned hair care brand Camille Rose and minority-founded French skincare brand EADEM. “I think the biggest obstacle is understanding that as an audience gets younger, they have a shorter attention span,” she says. “Your marketing and advertising has to be a little bit more aggressive and to the point.”
Expanding beyond beauty’s box
Now, Renee has expanded past beauty, calling new fields into her portfolio on a regular basis, like tech and entertainment. From assisting in influencer marketing at the dating app Bumble to working on several projects with HBO Max, her talent cannot be boxed into just one brand. “[I’m] able to get out of the corporate rat race and still create amazing marketing strategies,” she says. “Freelance consulting is a scary space to be in, but these brands trust me, my vision, and what I see.”