Mented Cosmetics Just Released Nude Lip Glosses For Women Of Color

Black-owned makeup brand Mented Cosmetics has been making a name for itself this year by releasing gorgeous beauty products tailored for women of color, and now its highly anticipated line of nude lip glosses is joining its roster of much-loved products.

Mented (which is short for "pigmented") started with a line of nude lipsticks in April 2017, and followed those in June 2017 with a collection of nail polishes in a range of of skin tones. The brand's latest collection is its Gloss For Grown-Ups line, which released on Sept. 1 and contains four shades: Mauve Over, Send Nudes, Berry Me, and Baby Brown.

Of course, while Mented's makeup is totally bomb — just ask one of Bustle's beauty writers, who tried out all of the brand's lipsticks and fell in love — it's the women behind the products who are the real magic. Mented was founded by Harvard Business School grads KJ Miller and Amanda Johnson, who started the brand when they realized how few makeup options women of color really have.

“We knew we were on to something when makeup artists were requesting our samples,” Johnson told Essence in July 2017. “We had a great team, an idea we were passionate about and a product that people were demanding. It was then we knew we were ready for launch.”

Mented's products have a lot of positive qualities going for them — they're vegan, paraben-free, non-toxic, and cruelty-free — but the most important thing about the brand is that it makes products that are truly formulated, made, and marketed for women of color. In the beauty sphere, too often saying glosses, lipsticks, and nail polishes are "nude" or "skin tone" is code for saying they're peachy-pink.

And Mented is not only providing much-needed makeup products to a huge and underserved customer base, they're making waves as a black-owned company and bringing other folks of color into their work.

Miller told Essence, "It is such a blessing to wake up every morning excited about your work, and it's immensely satisfying to be able to positively affect other people of color along the way. It means the world to me to not only be running a Black-owned enterprise, but to have the opportunity to hire women of color as our employees and interns, cast women of color in our photo and video shoots, work with manufacturers and warehouses run by people of color, give our time and resources to minority-focused charities...the list goes on."

If you're eager to snag Mented's fall-inspired Gloss for Grown-Ups collection, each gloss is $15 individually, but you can get the whole collection — four glosses — for $50. The brand is also offering a fall collection of lipsticks, with a set of three available for $45.

And to keep up with Mented's latest and greatest, follow the brand's Instagram, where it announces upcoming releases and shares snaps from its dedicated fanbase.

One thing's for sure: With this gloss collection, Mented is sure to see that fanbase expanding pretty dang quickly.