By Sadasia Nyrie McCutchen

In boardrooms and beauty aisles alike, “diversity” is often treated as a checkbox. But for Haweya Mohamed and Ammin Youssouf, co-founders of The Colors, that approach misses the point. Multiculturalism, they argue, isn’t about inclusion for its own sake—it’s the engine of growth, innovation, and cultural relevance. Nowhere is this clearer than in beauty and fragrance.

Just as hip-hop reshaped music and street art transformed galleries, multicultural perspectives in fragrance are moving from the margins to the center. The issue hasn’t been intent, but market blind spots. “If you understand our culture, if we can identify with brands and founders, your success is undeniable,” Ammin notes, pointing to LVMH’s work with Virgil Abloh.

Haweya is direct: “We don’t spend time on advocacy. We study our consumers and deliver the product they need, with a focus on ecosystem building and strategy.” Their mission isn’t about getting a seat at the table—it’s about building the table itself.

From Tech Bridges to Fragrance Ecosystems

The co-founders’ journey started outside beauty. In 2016, Mohamed and Youssouf launched Afrobytes, a Paris-based platform connecting African tech entrepreneurs with global investors. “If you were a founder in Nairobi,” Ammin recalls, “it was almost impossible to connect with San Francisco. Afrobytes became that bridge.”

They soon saw the same gap in beauty and fragrance. Africa was central to supply chains—from Madagascan vanilla to Comorian ylang-ylang-yet African and diasporic voices were absent from decision-making. “Beauty and fragrance aren’t just formulas,” Haweya says. “They carry stories, rituals, identity. And too many of those stories were being erased.”

Thus, The Colors was born: a platform embedding multicultural perspectives as the foundation of innovation and storytelling.

Building Ecosystems, Not Seeking Inclusion

Rather than wait for permission, The Colors builds ecosystems: accelerators, workshops, and labs where entrepreneurs, corporates, and investors collaborate as equals. “When you don’t see yourself in the room, you can keep asking for a seat—or you can build your own table,” says Haweya.

That ethos drives their upcoming New York gathering. Instead of panels, it’s a working laboratory where ingredient suppliers, investors, and creators co-develop strategies. Sessions range from ingredient deep dives to new product formulation and sports-beauty collaborations ahead of the 2028 Olympics. The event also showcases The Colors Vanguard, an accelerator supporting multicultural perfumers often excluded from traditional schools in France.

At its core, the work reflects a simple truth: beauty and fragrance aren’t just industries—they’re cultural movements.

Soul Notes: A New Cultural Lexicon

Fragrance, like music or art, is culture. Hip-hop sampled records when orchestras were inaccessible; graffiti claimed walls when galleries were closed. Dismissed at first, these movements redefined mainstream culture.

This is what The Colors calls Soul Notes—a fragrance movement likened to Motown in music. Just as Motown gave Black heritage global resonance, Soul Notes weaves cultural identity into perfumery, creating a lexicon young people can relate to and carry forward.

“Traditional schools recycle the same formulas,” Ammin explains. “But when a Nigerian perfumer draws from heritage ingredients or rituals, you get something new. That’s not exclusion—it’s expansion.”

By nurturing emerging creators, The Colors sends a clear message: the next generation won’t just consume culture—they’ll actively participate in shaping it.

Why AI Won’t Replace Authentic Heritage

As industries lean on AI for product design, fragrance highlights a key limitation: algorithms can only remix what’s documented. In perfumery, that archive is overwhelmingly Eurocentric. “If you use AI, it will copy what’s been done,” Ammin says. “Black formulations are AI-proof for now, because we haven’t been able to contribute in the past.”

That gap is an opening for multicultural perfumers to create true breakthroughs—expressions AI cannot replicate.

Why Early Bets Matter

For investors, the opportunity is clear. Multicultural consumers already define global demand—what’s aspirational, what trends, what sells. That means:

• Early bets matter. Just as fashion giants underestimated hip-hop and missed billions, beauty investors risk repeating history if they overlook multicultural founders.
  
• Exits are inevitable. Global conglomerates will buy the brands resonating with multicultural consumers. The question is who’s funding them today.
  

Beyond “Diversity”

For The Colors, this isn’t about advocacy or box-checking—it’s about shifting the center of gravity in an industry overdue for change. “We don’t want to be seen as a problem,” Haweya insists. “We want to be seen as an opportunity.”

The larger lesson for business: multiculturalism isn’t a side initiative—it is the market. The question isn’t whether it will reshape fragrance and beauty. It’s whether traditional players will adapt fast enough to stay relevant as new tables—and new cultural movements—are already being built.