Look GOOD do better

With one eye on sustainability and the other on social consciousness, Jennifer Harper is transforming a beautiful dream into a growing beauty business

- INGRIE WILLIAMS

JENNIFER HARPER IS THE KIND OF WOMAN who can turn dreams into reality. “In 2015, I had this dream about these little Indigenous girls with rosy cheeks and they were covered in lip gloss,” she says. “I woke up from that and literally thought, OK, I’m going to figure out how to make a lip gloss and start a foundation after my grandmother, who was a residential school survivor.”

That 2 a.m. aha moment led Harper, who shares Ojibwe roots, to become the founder and CEO of Cheekbone Beauty. Based in St. Catharines, ON, the digitally-native, direct-to-consumer brand launched in 2016 with a curated collection that included a contour palette, brow gel and, of course, lip gloss. “I’ve had an enormous love of cosmetic products my whole life, with early childhood memories of getting into my mother’s makeup,” says Harper. “I loved hanging out in the drugstore beauty section, and the beauty counters at all the big department stores were always my favorite spot to check out.”

In place of formal experience in cosmetics, she built on transferable skills and knowledge acquired from 15 years of working in the food industry. “I learned that beauty and food are very similar in that there are manufacturers who make the same products for different brands and that everything we see on our shelves is essentially just branded differently and has a different story,” she says. “That’s when I realized that I can make a beauty brand.”

BECOMING BOSS LADY

But merely selling lip gloss was never Harper’s bottom line. “As an Indigenous woman, I want to empower Indigenous youth,” she says. “It’s at the core of everything we’re trying to do – something that’s going to sustain Indigenous people, communities and families for generations to come.”