Sienna Naturals, the clean hair care brand catered to the textured hair community, is on a roll. The brand has now officially launched at Sephora locations nationwide. To founders Issa Rae and Hannah Diop, this is a dream-like milestone just after an exclusive product drop with Sephora.com and earning a monumental Sephora Beauty Grant at the 15 Percent Pledge Gala,.
For where the brand is heading, partnering with Sephora just made sense. “In many ways, Sienna Naturals is a first mover in the category,” Diop shares. With high formulation standards and exclusively clean ingredients, the brand is carving a space for itself in the industry as a premium, non-toxic brand for Black women.
This direction was nonnegotiable, inspired by Diop’s holistic and healthy childhood, and the disproportionate rates at which Black women suffer from breast cancer mortality. In an industry where over 75% of products directed towards Black women contain known carcinogens, Diop and Rae knew an alternative was needed.
With a Sephora partnership, Sienna Naturals is able to propel itself to the markets and audiences it was designed for. “What I respect about [Sephora] is the way they’re able to amplify new brands,” Rae explains. “They just have an understanding of marketing, reach, tailoring specific products, what to lead with, down to the shelving. They have brilliant insight to help new brands succeed.”
The brand’s trajectory into the premium space, with the support of this platform, allows Sienna Naturals the room to push further with technology and design. Diop shares that a central goal is “to create incredible products that deliver on their performance promises.” Rae credits Diop’s “spidey senses” for the brand’s innovation and efficacy, and the two are both pleased and hopeful for the product quality so far, and where they aim to go.
This innovation led to their most recent product drop which first unveiled on Sephora.com last month: the D.N.A. Scalp Serum. “We went with a water based serum to maximize the absorption, and make it a product that wouldn’t build up on the scalp over time,” says Diop. “You can use it on a daily basis, whether you’re washing your hair every other day or once a week.”
The most gratifying part about the process of creating new products is catering to their muses—Black women— and seeing how the products have transformed their love, and relationship with, their textured hair. “You don’t write a review unless you really hate or really love something,” Rae points out. “So for people to take the effort, really stand behind the products, and give all kinds of stories and hair horrors that Sienna helped them heal from, has been gratifying to witness.”
In the years ahead, Sienna Naturals looks to add pointed styling products to their portfolio of quality hair care. Today, products—such as their hair serum and oil, wash day staples, and leave-in conditioner and cream—are all available to discover in-store, at Sephoras across the country.