It started
with a seed.

A social mission trip. A Zanzibar spice farm. One unforgettable orange-red pigment.

ZANZIBAR

Where the seed grows

The spice islands of East Africa.

Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago in the Indian Ocean, just off the East African coast. Its history is shaped by Swahili culture and centuries of exchange across Africa, Arabia, India and Europe.

Region: East Africa
Country: Tanzania
Ocean: Indian Ocean

The discovery · 2014

A color too powerful to forget.

During a social mission trip, Bixa Beauty founder Deida Massey, a makeup artist and twenty-year beauty industry veteran, visited a spice farm in Zanzibar.

When she was introduced to the achiote plant and saw the brilliant pigment surrounding its seeds, beauty and purpose connected. That encounter became the starting point for Bixa Beauty.

The plant file

Bixa orellana

Also known as achiote, annatto, or the "lipstick tree."

Bixa orellana is a shrub or small tree native to the tropical Americas and now grown across the tropics, including East Africa. Its spiny pods open to reveal clusters of seeds coated in an intensely colored waxy layer.

Family: Bixaceae
Form: Shrub or small tree
Yield: Waxy seed coating
Pigment: Orange to red

Bixa Beauty model wearing a deep plum Lip Whip amid achiote pods

From plant to pigment

Color, alive.

The seed became the inspiration. The woman wearing it gives the color its voice.

The film

The brand, the color, the woman behind it.

From discovery to purpose

Beauty rooted in something more.

Bixa Beauty is a Black-led, female-founded social enterprise headquartered in Chicago. Its vegan-friendly, plant-based, GMO-free and paraben-free line was created to make high-end color accessible while helping fund social change for girls and women.

When you purchase a Bixa Beauty product, 10% of the portion from the proceeds of purchase will go towards making life outcomes better for the youth of Uzima Center.