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9 Of The Best Indie Beauty Brands Of 2018

Familiarize yourself with these brands. It'll be worth it.
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The Seaweed Bath Co,/Brothers Artisinal Oil/Côte

It may seem like the beauty world is dominated by a handful of big brands, but there’s a whole world of indie beauty brands out there just waiting to be added to your arsenal.

The appeal of indie beauty brands is that they’re not funded by corporate conglomerates like Procter & Gamble or Unilever. Instead, they’re usually financed by their founders and, according to Indie Beauty Expo, the indies are one of the fastest-growing product categories on the market.

Whether you’re looking for a new favorite nail polish color, a body wash that makes your bath smell like a spa or you just don’t want to give your hard-earned money to the CoverGirls and L’Oreals of the world, we recommend giving independent brands a chance. Thanks to the internet, it’s easier than ever to access their products.

What we love most about independent beauty brands is that they take a more personal approach to beauty, whether it be with superior transparency or missions to move toward sustainable practices. They put more care into their offerings, and we can get behind that.

Below, we’ve highlighted 9 of our favorite indie beauty brands ― check them out for yourself:

1
Jane Iredale

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What we love about Jane Iredale is that the products -- including lipsticks, blushes, eyeliner pencils and foundation -- are free of all the things we like to avoid in makeup, like parabens, talc, phthalates and added fragrance. Our personal favorite product has to be the Just Kissed lip and cheek stain, which adds just the right amount of color and delivers on the "just kissed" promise.
2
The Seaweed Bath Co.
As soon as we smelled The Seaweed Bath Co.'s shampoos and body washes, we were sold. (Peppermint eucalyptus is our favorite scent, but the citrus vanilla is a close second.) The brand also has an entire line of facial skincare products, treating everything from wrinkles to uneven skin tone, and a variety of bath soaks to bring your self-care to the next level.
3
Knours.
Knours. -- standing for "Know your skin. Period." -- offers a line of products meant to treat skin through the different stages of a woman's menstrual cycle. You can buy products individually -- like the super soothing Sweet Enough sheet mask -- or you can download the brand's app, which analyzes your cycle to provide a customized skincare routine.
4
Joséphine
Joséphine offers luxe makeup inspired by the latest runway beauty trends and, best of all, the products are organic, cruelty free in their development and testing and and packaged with sustainability in mind.
5
Everyday
Everyday is an Australian personal care brand with a focus on sunscreen. Not only do their products have punny names -- Resting Beach Face, Oh My Bod! -- they're also free from "nasties" like parabens, synthetic fragrances and phthalates, as well as cruelty-free and vegan.
6
Brothers Artisan Oil
Brothers Artisan Oil is a Boston-based company that focuses on all natural personal care products, including body washes, lotions and hair pomade. Last year, the brand's beard grooming oil was named one of GQ's best grooming products of 2017.
7
Camille Rose Naturals
Camille Rose Naturals offers a range of products for the face and body as well as line of signature hair products, including the beloved-on-AmazonAlmond Jai twisting butter that is targeted to those with curly hair.
8
Raw Spirit
Raw Spirit, founded by fragrance designer and CEO Joyce Lanigan and fashion photographer Russell James, specializes in fragrances. The brand offers a variety of scents to satisfy any mood and they're unisex. Additionally, according to the brand's website, the company works "with Indigenous and marginalized communities ... to sustainably source rare and unique natural ingredients for [their] fragrances."
9
Côte

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Nail polish is one of the most fun and easy ways to play around with your look, which is why we're always looking for new shades to add to our arsenal, especially ones free of major toxins. That's where Côte comes in. All of the brand's polishes are made without such substances as toluene, camphor, formaldehyde resin, TPHP and xylene, and they come in great shades that are conveniently numbered. (No. 26 is one of our must-haves.)

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Beauty Bakerie

Women-Run Beauty Brands

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