Who is Jenn Harper and what is Cheekbone Beauty?

Jenn Harper is the founder of Cheekbone Beauty, the first B Corp certified Indigenous beauty brand to reach Sephora shelves, and a woman who built an industry she knew nothing about because a dream in early sobriety told her it was the next thing on her path. The dream showed three Indigenous girls covered in colorful lip gloss, and she woke up and wrote the business plan.

How did Jenn Harper's recovery from alcoholism shape her entrepreneurship?

Harper was a decade-long alcoholic whose recovery in 2015 coincided with the birth of Cheekbone Beauty. She describes transforming the same addictive patterns that nearly destroyed her into the obsessive focus that built an empire. The shame that almost killed her became the conviction behind a brand built specifically to make Indigenous people visible in an industry that had ignored them.

What makes Cheekbone Beauty's Indigenous Beauty category different from standard beauty branding?

Indigenous Beauty as Jenn Harper defines it centers sustainability, cultural values, and authentic representation rather than performance of identity. Cheekbone has donated over $250,000 to Indigenous communities and operates as a B Corp, meaning its commitment to social and environmental impact is legally binding rather than marketing language.

Why did Jenn Harper say shame will kill us?

Harper speaks publicly about her alcoholism and recovery specifically because shame silences people into worse choices. She credits her willingness to name her addiction without apology as part of what allowed her to build Cheekbone. Her story is a direct argument that removing shame from struggle is not weakness but one of the most powerful things a founder can do.

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Jenn Harper: Rock Bottom to Sephora Indigenous Beauty

By Joseph Tito • September 7, 2025

Jenn Harper with Cheekbone Beauty at Sephora

"I'm proudly a recovered alcoholic and I'm no longer going to feel ashamed. Shame will kill us - it almost killed me."Jenn Harper had been selling seafood for over a decade when three little Indigenous girls covered in lip gloss changed everything. The dream came in January 2015, just two months into her sobriety, brown skin, rosy cheeks, giggling and laughing while covered in colorful gloss. When she woke up, she wrote down what would become the business plan for Cheekbone Beauty."It was so real to me that building a cosmetics company was the next thing on my path," Harper reflects. "It's crazy when I think about it now, I'm embarrassed about how much I didn't know about this industry."What she didn't know could fill a warehouse: product development, supply chains, ingredients, retail merchandising, the crushing competitiveness of beauty. What she did know was this: a brand representing Indigenous people deserved to exist in the world.Ten years later, that naive conviction has built something unprecedented, the first B Corp certified Indigenous beauty brand to hit Sephora shelves, a company that's donated over $250,000 to Indigenous communities, and a new category Harper calls "Indigenous Beauty" that puts sustainability and cultural values...