Source: Courtesy of KLUR / KLUR
KLUR is a Black-owned, clean skincare brand that’s helping keep sustainable products and practices an ongoing conversation in the beauty world. The brand’s founder, Lesley Thornton, has used her background as an esthetician and skincare expert to develop the product line, which focuses mostly on soothing and calming ingredients.
Thornton shared that she wanted to start the brand because she noticed there were several voids in the clean beauty space that weren’t being filled, especially when it came to presenting people of color as users of such products. Along her journey, as she realized that she gravitated towards natural, clean, organic, and biodynamic skincare ingredients, she also noticed that with the natural skincare brands she did see popping up back in 2014 and 2015, diverse representation was hard to come by.
“When I first got on Instagram and I started seeing these natural brands,” Thornton said. “I didn’t see representation. I saw great formulas, I saw great products, but I didn’t see representation for Black and Brown people. What I did notice was it would be easier for an avocado or coconut to be re-posted, and posted, and posted, before you would actually see a picture of a [Black or Brown] person. That was one conversation that I had with my partner back in 2014 or 2015. ‘Why is it that you’ll post a picture of a coconut before you post a picture of a Brown or dark-skinned person?’ I didn’t understand.”
In addition to the clean beauty world failing to represent people of color, Thornton expressed that she didn’t see any Black-owned sustainable brands at the time of KLUR’s inception. Creating her own brand was a way for her to tick all the boxes of things that were missing in skincare.
Being the expert that she is, Thornton gave MadameNoire details on how best to take care of our skin in a sustainable way that prioritizes, “gentle practices, gentle consistency with your skincare, and low maintenance minimal routines.” We also got an inside scoop on some of the brand’s top-selling products, including their Gentle Matter cleanser, a multiuse additive called Skin Soil, their Supreme Seed face mask, a facial serum called Symmetry Fluid, and their fragrant body oil, Elements of Comfort.
Gentle Matter Daily Moisture Cleanser
Source: Courtesy of KLUR / KLUR
Everyone needs a staple facial cleanser in their routine. Thornton emphasized having a gentle pick for every day that avoids shifting your skin’s pH, and therefore is less likely to cause irritation to the skin. As she explained, KLUR’s Gentle Matter cleanser is one that’s full of enzymes so it offers an amount of exfoliation that your skin can handle every day without the cost of tampering with its pH level the way an acid would.
“The reason why I like putting enzymes in our cleanser is because we’re getting a little bit of the exfoliation without ever shifting our skin’s pH,” Thornton said.
“We’re using papaya enzymes which is nice because it’s a fruit-based, gentle enzyme,” she added when speaking on KLUR’s formula for Gentle Matter. “It’s not an active at all so it can be used every single day. Enzymes work to facilitate exfoliation like an acid, but what’s nice about them is that they break down the keratin – the bond between the skin – the oils, and the sebum without fluctuating the skin’s pH. An acid toner or acid exfoliator, that would change the pH in the skin.”
