November 1, 2026 | A Letter from Our Founder, Jenn Harper
Holy crap, Cheekbone Beauty turns 10 years old this month! I honestly cannot believe I'm writing those words. Today marks the beginning of November, a new fiscal year for Cheekbone Beauty, and the start of a month that I want to dedicate to celebrating everything we've built, everything we've learned, and everything we still dream of becoming. On November 26, 2026, Cheekbone Beauty officially celebrates ten years in business, and when I think about the journey from where we started to where we are today, I feel an overwhelming amount of gratitude, pride, and, quite frankly, disbelief that a dream I had more than a decade ago has become something so much bigger than I could have imagined.
Over the next few weeks, I want to invite you to come along with us as we go back in time and share the story of Cheekbone Beauty. We're going to revisit how it all started, the early products, the incredible opportunities, the mistakes, the people, the highs, the lows, and everything that happened in that messy middle that nobody really talks about when they're telling entrepreneurial success stories. Because if there's one thing I've learned after ten years of building a business, it's that the journey is rarely what you think it's going to be. There have been moments of incredible joy and moments when I genuinely didn't know how we were going to keep going. But through all of it, our purpose has remained the same, and that purpose is what continues to drive me today.
What I also want to do throughout November is share the vision for the next ten years of Cheekbone Beauty, because while this anniversary is an opportunity to reflect on the past, I'm far more excited about what we're building for the future. I've always believed that Cheekbone Beauty could become something much bigger than a cosmetics company. My vision is to build a legacy brand that will exist for hundreds of years, a company that future generations will continue to grow, evolve, and be proud of. That might sound like an enormous ambition for a small Indigenous-owned beauty company based in St. Catharines, Ontario, but I think that after ten years, I've earned the right to dream a little bigger.
Why Indigenous Beauty Deserves to Be Its Own Category
One of the things I've been talking about for years, and something I continue to speak about every opportunity I get, is my belief that Indigenous Beauty deserves to be recognized as its own category within the global beauty industry. I know I've said this from stages, in interviews, in meetings with retailers, and probably to anyone willing to listen, but I genuinely believe we're building something that the beauty industry hasn't fully understood yet. Most recently, someone even suggested that perhaps I should stop talking about Cheekbone Beauty as an Indigenous brand, and while I understand where that advice might be coming from, I fundamentally disagree with the idea that we should move away from the very philosophy that makes our business different.
Being Indigenous isn't simply a part of our marketing or a story we tell to differentiate ourselves from other beauty brands. It's the foundation of how we think about business, how we develop products, how we approach our supply chain, and how we make decisions about the future. Of course, our products need to perform beautifully. They need to compete with the best products in the world, and customers should choose them because they genuinely love using them. But I don't believe we need to separate product excellence from the Indigenous values that guide how those products are created. In fact, I believe bringing those things together is exactly what makes Indigenous Beauty such an exciting opportunity for the future of this industry.
For me, Indigenous Beauty is about looking at the entire life cycle of a product and asking questions that go far beyond what shade we're creating or what the packaging will look like. We're thinking about where ingredients come from, the people and businesses involved in our supply chain, the environmental impact of our decisions, and what happens to our products and packaging after they're used. We're thinking about the communities we work with and the relationships we build with our manufacturing partners. We're thinking about the land and what our decisions today could mean for the people who will be here long after we're gone.
This way of thinking is rooted in the philosophy of considering the next seven generations, something that has influenced how we've approached building Cheekbone Beauty. It's a reminder that our responsibility doesn't end with the next financial quarter or the next product launch. We have to consider the long-term consequences of the choices we make, even when doing so is more complicated, more expensive, or requires us to rethink how something has traditionally been done in the beauty industry.
Indigenous Peoples around the world have long played a critical role in protecting biodiversity and maintaining relationships with the land. Indigenous territories overlap with some of the world's most ecologically important places, and traditional knowledge continues to contribute to conservation and sustainable resource management. I think there is an enormous opportunity for industries like beauty to learn from these relationships and understand that caring for the environment isn't simply a trend or a marketing claim. It's a responsibility that should influence how businesses operate.
What excites me most is the opportunity to bring modern Western science and ancient Indigenous wisdom together. I don't see these as competing ideas, but as different ways of understanding the world that can inform how we innovate and create. When we built the Cheekbone Beauty lab, this philosophy was part of what we wanted to establish. We wanted to create a space where thoughtful formulation, scientific research, product performance, and Indigenous teachings could influence how we develop products. We're still learning how to do this better every day, but the intention has always been to build something different from the traditional beauty business model.
The Teachings That Have Helped Build Our Business
Another important part of the Cheekbone Beauty journey has been the Seven Grandfather Teachings of Love, Respect, Courage, Honesty, Wisdom, Humility, and Truth. These teachings have helped shape how I think about leadership, relationships, and the responsibilities that come with building a company. They remind me that business isn't simply about selling products or increasing revenue. It's about the way we treat people, the decisions we make when things become difficult, and whether we're willing to hold ourselves accountable when we don't get something right.
I can tell you that after ten years, we certainly haven't gotten everything right. We've made mistakes, we've worked with people who weren't necessarily the right fit for the business, we've taken on projects that stretched us too thin, and we've made decisions that, looking back, I would absolutely do differently. I think one of the biggest misconceptions about entrepreneurship is that successful founders somehow know what they're doing all the time. I can assure you that hasn't been my experience. Building Cheekbone Beauty has required an enormous amount of learning, unlearning, and being willing to admit when something simply isn't working.
One of the lessons I've come to appreciate more than ever is that less is often more, and not just when it comes to makeup. Sometimes less is more in business, too. You don't necessarily need the biggest team, the most products, the most elaborate events, or the longest list of projects to build something successful. Sometimes what you really need is to simplify, surround yourself with the right people, and focus on doing the important things exceptionally well.
I've learned that developing an incredible product, getting the formulation right, ensuring that it performs beautifully, and launching it properly are far more important than hosting an impressive event around that product. An event might create excitement for a moment, but a product that genuinely works and becomes part of someone's daily routine is what builds long-term trust. That's something I want us to continue focusing on as we enter our next decade. I want Cheekbone Beauty to be known for thoughtful innovation, exceptional product performance, and the kind of quality that keeps customers coming back because they love what we're creating.
Proving That You Can Do Good and Do Business at the Same Time
One of the accomplishments I'm most proud of has very little to do with makeup itself, and that's the impact we've been able to create through our scholarship fund. Since 2021, we've supported 52 scholarships for Indigenous students, and when I think about what that represents, it means more to me than almost any business milestone we've achieved. Those scholarships represent opportunities for young Indigenous people to pursue education, follow their ambitions, and imagine futures filled with possibility. It's one of the reasons I wanted to build this business in the first place.
The reality is that every year in business looks different. Some years we grow faster than expected, some years are more challenging, and some years require us to make difficult financial decisions to ensure the company remains sustainable. Our ability to grow our community impact won't necessarily increase at the same rate every single year, but that doesn't change our commitment to making a difference. What I believe we've demonstrated over the last decade is that doing good and doing business can exist together, and that building a profitable, financially healthy company is actually what allows us to continue creating opportunities for others.
I think sometimes people assume that a purpose-driven business shouldn't be focused on profitability, but I've come to understand that the opposite is true. If we want Cheekbone Beauty to exist for generations and continue supporting Indigenous communities, we need to build a strong, sustainable business that can support that mission. We need to understand our financials, manage our inventory, make smart decisions, and ensure that the company is healthy enough to keep growing. Purpose and profitability aren't opposing ideas. When they're approached thoughtfully, they can support one another, and that's something I hope more businesses begin to recognize.
Community Is What Built Cheekbone Beauty
When I look back at the last ten years, one of the things that stands out most is the incredible community that has grown around Cheekbone Beauty. We've had customers who believed in us when our products and packaging looked very different from what they do today, people who shared our story with friends and family, retailers who gave us opportunities, and team members and partners who helped us navigate some incredibly challenging moments. We've also had Indigenous artists, creators, educators, and community members who have contributed to the larger conversation about representation and why it matters.
I genuinely believe that community is the reason Cheekbone Beauty is still here today. We haven't built this company because of one viral moment, one retailer, or one successful product launch. We've built it through relationships, trust, and people who believe in what we're trying to accomplish. When someone purchases a Cheekbone Beauty product, recommends us to a friend, leaves a review, or shares our story, they're helping us continue building something that goes beyond the individual transaction.
That sense of community has also helped us through some of our most difficult periods. There have been times when the business hasn't grown the way I forecasted, when inventory challenges have kept products out of customers' hands, or when I've had to make decisions that were incredibly difficult as a founder. I don't want to pretend those experiences haven't happened, because they're part of our story, too. What I do want to celebrate is the fact that we've continued showing up, learning, and working to become a better company. Ten years in, I'm still learning how to be a better leader, how to build a stronger business, and how to make decisions that serve both our customers and our long-term vision.
The Next Ten Years of Cheekbone Beauty
As we move into the next evolution of Cheekbone Beauty, I'm thinking more and more about what it means to build a legacy brand. We've already started expanding our thinking beyond colour cosmetics and into skincare, and I see so much opportunity to continue developing products that reflect our philosophy of thoughtful formulation, sustainability, and performance. I want us to keep exploring how science and Indigenous knowledge can inform innovation, how we can improve our packaging and supply chain, and how we can make products that people genuinely love while continuing to consider our responsibility to the planet.
I also want us to keep challenging the beauty industry to think differently about Indigenous representation. I don't want Cheekbone Beauty to be remembered simply because we were the first Indigenous-owned beauty brand to launch at Sephora Canada. I'm incredibly proud of that milestone, but I want our impact to go much further. I want Indigenous Beauty to become a recognized and respected category around the world, associated with exceptional products, innovation, sustainability, and a philosophy that considers people, the land, and future generations.
And while I have enormous dreams for where this business can go, I also know that the next decade will require focus, discipline, and a willingness to keep evolving. We're not going to get everything right, and I'm sure there will be plenty more lessons along the way. But I believe more strongly than ever that the foundation we've built over these first ten years gives us an opportunity to create something truly meaningful for the future.
Come Celebrate 10 Years With Us
So this November, I want to personally invite you to be part of our anniversary celebration. Throughout the month, we're going to share the history of Cheekbone Beauty, revisit some of our favourite moments, talk about the challenges and lessons that shaped us, and introduce you to more of the vision we have for the next ten years. I want this to be an opportunity for our community to understand not only where we've come from, but why we're so passionate about where we're going.
And on Thursday, November 26, 2026, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., we're hosting our 10-year anniversary open house at Cheekbone Beauty headquarters in St. Catharines, Ontario. RSVP HERE.
This is my personal invitation to you to come celebrate with us. Whether you've been supporting Cheekbone Beauty since the beginning, discovered us through Sephora, purchased your first product recently, or have simply been following our journey because you believe in what we're building, we would absolutely love to see you.
I want this celebration to be about the people who made these ten years possible. I want to share stories, reconnect with familiar faces, meet some of the people who've supported us from afar, and celebrate the fact that a little idea that started ten years ago has grown into a business with a purpose much bigger than makeup.
As I sit here reflecting on everything that's happened since 2016, I keep coming back to the same thought. Cheekbone Beauty was never meant to be just another cosmetics company. It was meant to challenge what was possible, create space for Indigenous representation, and demonstrate that we can build businesses differently while still creating incredible products that people love.
Thank you for being part of our first ten years. I hope you'll follow along throughout November, share your own Cheekbone Beauty memories with us, and join us as we celebrate this milestone together. More than anything, I hope you'll continue to be part of the journey as we build the next chapter, because I truly believe the most exciting years of Cheekbone Beauty are still ahead of us.
We're not just building Cheekbone Beauty for the next ten years. We're building it with the next seven generations in mind.
With love and gratitude,
Jenn Harper
Founder & CEO, Cheekbone Beauty