Longtime retailer JCPenney is stepping up its beauty curation. The retailer, which formerly partnered with Sephora for shop-in-shops inside certain JCPenney locations, is now launching JCPenney Beauty, a new, inclusive brick-and-mortar and online beauty experience created to amplify diverse and inclusive beauty brands. JCPenney Beauty looks to offer a mix of mass, masstige, and prestige products in the new one-stop-beauty-shop, debuting in select retail locations and on jcp.com in October. The assortment will include makeup, skin care, and fragrance in addition to hair products and styling tools. JCPenney Beauty will also seamlessly integrate JCPenney’s Salon business—one of the largest in the country. To ensure a diverse mix of innovative and inclusive brands, the store is partnering with Thirteen Lune as an initial JCPenney Beauty flagship brand. Co-founded by Nyakio Greico, Thirteen Lune is an e-commerce destination that was designed to inspire the discovery of beauty brands started by Black and brown founders. Through this partnership, the JCPenney Beauty product assortment will feature more than 30 diverse beauty brands created by Black and brown founders and allies. The partnership also marks Thirteen Lune’s entry into brick-and-mortar. Here, CEW Beauty News chatted with Nyakio and Michelle Wlazlo, JCPenney EVP/Chief Merchant Officer, about the collaboration.

Beauty News: Tell me a bit about the partnership with JCPenney and how it came to be. 
Nyakio Greico: My business partner Patrick Herning and I were introduced to the JCPenney team and heard about their new strategies of championing diversity in beauty, which was in alignment with Thirteen Lune’s mission. The partnership between JCPenney and Thirteen Lune was founded on a joint commitment to amplify diverse and inclusive beauty brands, and create an innovative retail platform that showcases and introduces diverse brands to a wider audience.

BN: How will the partnership work?
Michelle Wlazlo: JCPenney Salon has taken great care to curate a collection of retail products and services for our customers that serve a variety of hair textures and hair care needs. We are very excited about the Thirteen Lune assortment and are eager to explore how the brands may help enhance our existing salon offerings.

BN: What is Thirteen Lune’s point of difference?
NG: Thirteen Lune seeks to be a vehicle for change and a platform for authentic allyship where the voices of Black and brown beauty founders are heard and celebrated. Being a champion for diversity and hyper-inclusivity, Thirteen Lune’s target audience are all customers looking to have their beauty needs met, while providing a platform for discovery of BIPOC founded brands.

Partnering with JCPenney, one of America’s oldest retailers, allows Thirteen Lune to reach even more of our target audience by expanding our omni-channel presence, and connecting with them on a national scale.