First There Wasn't … And Now There Is:
An Exploration of the Black Beauty Archive and Its Founder Camille G. Lawrence
Words by Denise Mc Iver
“I know that historically, Black folks across the Diaspora have always taken deep pride and care in how we show up and represent ourselves. And I want to make it very clear that another reason why I created the Black Beauty Archive is because I needed to affirm that the rituals, beautification, and identity formation practices that we developed were never solely to combat the disinformation of how the world represented us through media. Nah… we always took great care and held deep pride in how we look and how we show up in this world, because there was a level of respect and integrity that our ancestors always held and carried.”
– Camille G. Lawrence, Founder and Creator of the Black Beauty Archive
BACK THEN
Growing up in Ossining, New York, there were very little makeup options available for dark-skinned teenage girls like me. The local drugstore stocked Bonne Belle, Cover Girl, and Maybelline—brands that never truly spoke to the beauty needs of Black women and were totally inappropriate for Black women in general. Without the agency or money to travel into New York City to explore other possibilities, I was left with little that matched or affirmed me.
First there wasn’t… and now there is.
Thank God. And thank Hip Hop. And thank Camille G. Lawrence, founder and creator of a vital repository, the Black Beauty Archive. The archive celebrates and preserves Black beauty culture across generations, affirming its inherent dignity, creativity, and joy.
Getty Research Institute virtual seminar Backstage: An Unfurling of the Johnson Publishing Company | Beauty & Fashion. To watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvHap_5w0QU
In November 2024, I attended the Getty Research Institute’s virtual seminar Backstage: An Unfurling of the Johnson Publishing Company | Beauty & Fashion. This is how I discovered Camille G. Lawrence and the Black Beauty Archive: a living, growing collection dedicated to documenting the history, aesthetics, and rituals of Black beauty culture.
Books preserved at the Black Beauty Archive.
THREE PILLARS OF THE ARCHIVE
The Black Beauty Archive (BBA) is built on three foundational pillars:
Oral – recording and preserving oral histories.
Physical – maintaining physical ephemera, objects, and artifacts.
Ritual – honoring the practices of care and beautification that form a cultural lineage.
In addition to collecting, BBA offers services in legacy preservation, archival curation, digitization, design, research, documentation, and educational programming.
Camile’s background informs this work deeply. She has held archival positions with the Brooklyn Academy of Music and other cultural organizations focused on ephemeral art forms. She also credits her mother who ensured she was exposed to art programs and cultural spaces across New York City from a young age. Today, alongside her archival practice, she is pursuing certificates in both Cosmetic Science and Appraisal Studies—affirming the material, scientific, and economic value of Black beauty traditions. Camille is also currently digitizing the BBA collection and developing a comprehensive database that catalogs the collection. Clearly, she’s devoted.
Lady Barbers Universal College in Detroit, Michigan. October 1971. B&W Photograph physically preserved at Black Beauty Archive.
ORIGINS IN A TIME OF CRISIS
The archive was born in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. As Lawrence recalls,
“The jobs dried up. Events and gigs in the beauty industry were cancelled. At the same time, we had the George Floyd protests, the Breonna Taylor protests. There was so much chaos and uncertainty and advocacy going on. At this time, I was living in New York City … I was just searching for joy.”
That search led her to revisit the Ebony and Jet magazines her family had collected. She noticed the absence of archives dedicated specifically to Black beauty culture. So she began creating one. The goal was to examine how Black people looked through the decades, to encourage beauty artists to think outside the box, to present an intellectual understanding of beauty. Camille did not want the white beauty industry to “make up” their own image of Black people, especially women. In this way, Camille dedicated herself and her nascent archive to create a meaningful depiction and historically accurate rendering of Black Beauty.
Fashion Fair Ads, featured during the Getty Institute Webinar Backstage: An Unfurling of the Johnson Publishing Company | Beauty & Fashion.
The decision to launch BBA on Juneteenth 2020 was intentional. “It was a way of honoring those who came before me; honoring their sacrifices and the migrations they endured. So it was my way of saying ‘Thank you’ to them. I have a deep reverence for those who came before me.”
What began with 14 Johnson Publishing Company magazines has now grown into a collection of more than 4,000 items: magazines, photographs, wigs, dolls, cosmetics, oral histories, and more.
As Camille states on her website: “Our mission is to archive and preserve the RICH legacy of Black Beauty Culture.” The mission is a manifesto and it begs the question: Who defines beauty in our culture today ?
The Black Beauty Archive is both meaningful and powerful, a dreamscape of what is possible.
Camille (right) sits beside her mother (left)
Lawrence’s vision was shaped by her earliest “beauty mentors”:
Her mother, a corporate professional whose fashion sense shifted seamlessly from weekday style to weekend flair.
Camille's Grandmother, Lorraine
Her grandmother, Her grandmother, Lorraine (“Nana”), a trained classical pianist and educator. Conservative yet elegant, known for her Marcel-waved hair set at Miss Rita’s beauty salon. She wore her lipstick, which also served as her cheek tint. She wore a lot of broaches and had a huge collection of silk scarves.
Camille's aunt Claudia
Her aunt Claudia, her father’s sister, “Larger-Than-Life,” she was a full-bodied Black woman. bold and unapologetic. She had long nails. She wore leopard prints and different wigs. She was everything in excess. Full Brooklyn-style.
“I felt I had a great range of beauty ‘tutors,’” says Camille. “Each of them had their own outlook of what beauty meant to them, and they walked boldly and unapologetically in their personhood. They were uncompromising.” When asked how she would describe her own style, Camille simply says, “It’s a kind of ‘gumbo’.”The decision to launch BBA on Juneteenth 2020 was intentional. “It was a way of honoring those who came before me; honoring their sacrifices and the migrations they endured. So it was my way of saying ‘Thank you’ to them. I have a deep reverence for those who came before me.”
What began with 14 Johnson Publishing Company magazines has now grown into a collection of more than 4,000 items: magazines, photographs, wigs, dolls, cosmetics, oral histories, and more.
As Camille states on her website: “Our mission is to archive and preserve the RICH legacy of Black Beauty Culture.” The mission is a manifesto and it begs the question: Who defines beauty in our culture today ?
The Black Beauty Archive is both meaningful and powerful, a dreamscape of what is possible.
Books physically preserved at Black Beauty Archive.
The archive also documents the broader evolution of the Black beauty industry—from Fashion Fair and Flori Roberts to Iman Cosmetics, and the global rise of M.A.C. Cosmetics. Camille herself worked as a M.A.C. artist, praising the company’s willingness to engage hip-hop culture and social justice through campaigns like Viva Glam, which raised millions during the AIDS crisis.
For Camille, Black-created beauty products are not only about representation, but also about joy and agency. “We have a deep wellspring of joy. Beauty is just one of the outputs; and so is fashion!”
FASHION FAIR TO M.A.C. COSMETICS
Things relating to beauty and beauty products changed with the launch of Fashion Fair, the brainchild of Eunice Johnson AKA the wife of John Johnson, who was the publisher of Ebony and JET magazines. Then came Flori Roberts, Iman, and other cosmetics developed to specifically address the beautification needs of Black women. Eventually, these brands moved forward quickly, becoming the “go-to’s” for Black women all over the globe.
But it was M.A.C. cosmetics which realized that they could meld beauty products with hip hop music. MAC saw a clear opportunity. When the AIDS crisis erupted, MAC used Mary J. Blige and Lil’ Kim as spokespersons to market “Viva Glam,” a rich red lipstick which raised more than $4 million dollars to bring awareness to the AIDS crisis.
“I worked as an artist for MAC. MAC is my first place to shop for beauty,” says Camille. “There is a deep love I have for MAC. They really invested in me as an artist.” Pausing for a moment, she adds: “MAC just gets us!” As we like to say in hip hop, it was “on”.
Camille fully believes that beauty products created BY and FOR Black folks is a way to command and utilize their own agency. Foundational to that is a deeply-felt sense of joy, and this is one of the reasons she created the Black Beauty Archive in the first place. “We have a deep wellspring of joy. Beauty is just one of the outputs; and so is fashion!”
Salt N' Peppa Milani Collection (2020), physically preserved at Black Beauty Archive.
The Black Beauty Archive now serves as both repository and platform—preserving history while educating and affirming future generations. It honors ancestors, validates practitioners, and insists on the centrality of Black self-definition.
As Camille puts it: “Our mission is to archive and preserve the rich legacy of Black beauty culture.”
This mission is manifesto as much as archive: a refusal to let others define what Black beauty is, or was.
Good on you, Camille Lawrence. We cannot wait to see what’s next.
Denise L. Mc Iver has served as the Research Librarian at the California African American Museum in Expo Park for over eight years. Her work includes facilitating CAAM's book club (branded as CAAM Reads!) as well as assisting the general public, academics, and internal staff with research. Her interests include strategic planning and leadership; writing and consulting. She is a graduate of the Arts Management Program at Claremont Graduate University and is an Institute of Museum and Library Services Scholar. She currently resides in Los Angeles.
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