Black History Declassified

Jamaican black castor oil is one of the most faked and most marked-up bottles in the whole beauty aisle. This is a plain buying guide to it: what the real thing actually costs by the ounce, how the little growth serums mark that same oil up several times over, and the part almost nobody checks, that a lot of what is sold as Jamaican black castor oil never came from Jamaica and was never roasted. J...

Five overpriced hair products and the cheaper bottles that open with the same first ingredients — Moroccanoil, Briogeo, Nexxus, SheaMoisture and It's a 10, each with a drugstore pick that matches it. This is a buying guide, not a lecture. I'm not talking you out of the pricey one and I'm not telling you the cheap one is better. Both are real products on a real shelf. The only question...

Eleven Black hair and beauty brands, sorted by the one number the front of the bottle hopes you skip: the price per ounce. Six that charge you the most for every ounce you take home, and five still owned by Black families and founders that hand you the most for your money. This is a buying guide, not a takedown. When I say a brand is charging you the most per ounce, I mean the one thing I can actu...

Six drugstore skincare products, each set next to a famous pricey one that does the same kind of job, judged on the one number the front of the jar hopes you skip: the price per ounce. Some cost about a dollar an ounce next to bottles running dollars, even tens of dollars, an ounce. This is a buying guide, plain and simple. The whole video turns on one word. When I say a cheap jar BEATS an expensi...

Six drugstore hair products, each put next to a famous pricey one that does the same kind of job, and the one number the front of the bottle hopes you skip: the price per ounce. Some cost a fraction of a dollar an ounce next to bottles running dollars an ounce. This is a buying guide, plain and simple. The whole video turns on one word. When I say a cheap jar BEATS an expensive bottle, I mean it b...

Is Camille Rose still Black-owned? We ran the ownership check on the seven brands you keep handing each other — who owns each one right now, not who started it — plus two you are still recommending that changed. This is a buying guide, not a lecture. The label never updates when a company changes hands, so the founder's face can sit on the front for years after she sold and walked away. Here i...

African Pride, Motions, TCB, Just For Me and seven more were bought by one company in a single 2016 deal, so the aisle you comparison-shop is mostly one owner. Plus the two houses that never sold. This is a buying guide, not a takedown. Every ownership claim here is dated and sourced to the companies' own announcements. Nothing here is a claim about what any product does for your hair, and the...

📕 THE FULL BUYING GUIDE — 17 pages, $4.99: https://declassifiedhistory.gumroad.com/l/shelf-audit-19-braiding-hairAll eleven brands, who holds the trademark on each, and what every pack costs. Sensationnel, Outre, X-Pression, Shake-N-Go, Darling, and Bobbi Boss all trace back to companies that never introduced themselves — plus the five brands on this aisle that actually are ours. This is a buying...

📕 THE FULL RECEIPTS — 17 pages, $4.99: https://declassifiedhistory.gumroad.com/l/shelf-audit-18-the-mane-choiceThe deal broken down, the buyer's collapse, and who owns the brand today. In 2019, the nurse who built The Mane Choice from five hundred dollars sold it for a reported sixty-one and a half million dollars. Four years later, the company that bought it was bankrupt, and a private-equit...

📕 THE FULL BUYING GUIDE — 16 pages, $4.99: https://declassifiedhistory.gumroad.com/l/shelf-audit-17-the-makeup-counterAll five brands, who owns each one, and what every product costs. Beauty Bakerie and Mented Cosmetics, two makeup brands most people would swear are unrelated, now answer to the exact same private equity owner, inside the exact same portfolio, plus three brands where the founder n...

📕 THE FULL BUYING GUIDE — 15 pages, $4.99: https://declassifiedhistory.gumroad.com/l/shelf-audit-16-founder-ownedAll six priced per ounce, from 38 cents to $68, with the ownership record on each. Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula has never been Black-owned, not once since the Neis family bought the company in 1971. Here are the five Black-owned skincare brands where the founder never sold the pen...

📕 THE FULL RECEIPTS — 19 pages, $4.99: https://declassifiedhistory.gumroad.com/l/shelf-audit-15-what-the-label-saysEvery finding with the FDA letter, OSHA citation or lab test it came from, named. Five keratin/Brazilian-blowout treatments carry a real FDA letter, OSHA citation, or lab test for formaldehyde behind a "formaldehyde-free" label. Two don't. Here's what the paperwork...

THE FULL BUYING GUIDE — 15 pages, $4.99: https://declassifiedhistory.gumroad.com/l/shelf-audit-14-worth-paying-forEvery price in this video, side by side, per ounce. Five hair brands that have never been sold to a conglomerate, checked live on one day: who owns them, what size they come in, and the per-ounce number that actually decides it. This is a buying guide, not a lecture. Everything here is...

THE FULL BUYING GUIDE — 16 pages, $4.99: https://declassifiedhistory.gumroad.com/l/shelf-audit-13-where-your-dollar-stopsAll ten jars — who owns them, and where your dollar actually stops. Become A Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb49IBN25rnzvsi5MyRgfYQ/joinTHE FIVE THE LISTS GET WRONG (owner on the record):• O-KAY Pure Naturals — a Miami Gardens family business, Xtreme Beauty Internation...

THE FULL BUYING GUIDE — 22 pages, $4.99: https://declassifiedhistory.gumroad.com/l/shelf-audit-12-never-soldThe three houses, priced per ounce, with the receipts. Become A Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb49IBN25rnzvsi5MyRgfYQ/join We have spent the last several videos following the money in this aisle — who sold, who came back, and who never was ours to begin with. Through all of it, th...

📕 THE FULL BUYING GUIDE — 13 pages, $4.99: https://declassifiedhistory.gumroad.com/l/shelf-audit-11-still-ours-fragranceAll five houses, priced, with where to buy so nobody marks it up. Become A Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb49IBN25rnzvsi5MyRgfYQ/join Black women drive the fragrance counter but barely own it. Here are five Black-owned perfume houses that are still founder-owned — who...

📕 THE FULL BUYING GUIDE — 18 pages, $4.99: https://declassifiedhistory.gumroad.com/l/shelf-audit-10-the-round-tripWho actually came home — and who only looks like it. Become A Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb49IBN25rnzvsi5MyRgfYQ/join Four Black-owned beauty brands came home. Taraji P. Henson bought TPH back, Lisa Price returned to Carol's Daughter as owner and president, and two C...

📕 THE FULL BUYING GUIDE — 13 pages, $4.99: https://declassifiedhistory.gumroad.com/l/shelf-audit-09-seven-receiptsAll seven receipts — including the Revlon rumour, settled. Become A Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb49IBN25rnzvsi5MyRgfYQ/join ou asked who really owns these brands, so we pulled the records on all seven. Who owns each one today, what it costs per ounce, and whether to buy...

THE FULL BUYING GUIDE — 14 pages, $4.99: https://declassifiedhistory.gumroad.com/l/shelf-audit-08-owners-you-cant-pictureSix brands, six owners you could not pick out of a lineup. Become A Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb49IBN25rnzvsi5MyRgfYQ/join Six MORE "Black-owned" beauty brands that aren't Black-owned anymore — and this time the new owners are private-equity funds an...

📕 THE FULL BUYING GUIDE — 19 pages, $4.99: https://declassifiedhistory.gumroad.com/l/shelf-audit-07-three-companies-cookoutEvery brand on that table, who owns it, and the six that are still ours. Become A Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb49IBN25rnzvsi5MyRgfYQ/join Three companies own most of your 4th of July cookout — Clorox owns the charcoal, McCormick owns Stubb's, Kraft Heinz own...

📕 THE FULL BUYING GUIDE — 19 pages, $4.99: https://declassifiedhistory.gumroad.com/l/shelf-audit-06-nine-point-four-billionThe 1966 paperwork, and the directory of 68 Black-owned brands from every other guide. Become A Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb49IBN25rnzvsi5MyRgfYQ/join Black women spend nine point four billion dollars a year on beauty, and own about two and a half percent of th...

📕 THE FULL BUYING GUIDE — 15 pages, $4.99: https://declassifiedhistory.gumroad.com/l/shelf-audit-05-the-sleepersAll six sleepers, priced per ounce, with the founder on every one. Become A Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb49IBN25rnzvsi5MyRgfYQ/join The small Black-owned hair brands nobody talks about are usually cheaper per ounce than the famous names — and unlike half the famous shelf,...

📕 THE FULL BUYING GUIDE — 18 pages, $4.99: https://declassifiedhistory.gumroad.com/l/shelf-audit-04-buy-directAll five brands, what each one costs, and the exact address to type. Become A Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb49IBN25rnzvsi5MyRgfYQ/join Skip Target — buy these 5 Black-owned beauty brands direct from the source. The Lip Bar, Pattern, Bread, Pholk & ROSE Ingleton MD. Same p...

📕 THE FULL BUYING GUIDE — 18 pages, $4.99: https://declassifiedhistory.gumroad.com/l/shelf-audit-03-the-grooming-aisleAll twelve tools priced, with the blade part number for every one worth keeping. Become A Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb49IBN25rnzvsi5MyRgfYQ/join Two clippers sit on the same shelf. One is forty dollars, one is a hundredtwenty — and the cheap one is built to die. Her...

📕 THE FULL BUYING GUIDE — 13 pages, $4.99: https://declassifiedhistory.gumroad.com/l/shelf-audit-02-the-four-rungsThe four-rung ladder every brand in this aisle sits on. Become A Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb49IBN25rnzvsi5MyRgfYQ/join Which "Black-owned" hair brands are still actually Black-owned? I pulled the cap tables and ranked the six that are still truly independent...