It’s crazy that anyone would have a dream and turn it into a business, but that’s what I’ve done. All I remember are these three native little girls — brown skin, rosy cheeks and covered in colorful lip gloss — laughing and giggling, because they had made such a mess of themselves. When I woke up, I wrote out ‘start a beauty business.’

For the first time, I was learning about the residential boarding school system many Native Americans — including my grandmother — lived through in the early 19th century. She was taken at the age of six years old from our community and forced to live in that school until she was 16. If she spoke our language, Anishinaabemowin, she would be physically beaten. There was a lot of other kinds of abuse, and as shared in a recent New York Times article, hundreds of native children’s bodies later found in unmarked grades.

In 2015, I was also overcoming alcohol addiction — so I’m two months sober and understanding that my family comes from generations of trauma and this dream felt like an “aha” moment. I wanted to turn this terrible narrative about indigenous people into something that felt positive and powerful.

What are your best-selling products?

The Unify Multi-Pencil is, hands down, our best-selling product. I don’t use foundation, concealer or contour anymore — these pencils were designed to replace all of that. My favorite response from customers is they forgot they had makeup on. The worst feeling in the world for me is a layer of thick, liquid foundation. Now, granted, we’ll never be full coverage with this product, but part of our mission is this idea of enhancing natural beauty.

Our mascara, derived from 99% natural ingredients, is another popular product. I was never able to wear eye makeup until I created this mascara. If I put it on for an event, I’d be wanting to scratch my eyeballs out. I cannot believe the enormous amount of messages I get from customers saying they hadn’t worn color cosmetics for years until they found our brand.

How did you draw upon your roots when creating the concept for Cheekbone?

In my Anishinaabe culture and a lot of indigenous cultures, we have what we call teachings, and they’re passed down from generation to generation. One is The Seven Grandfather Teachings, which we used in the early days of building the business. Another is The Seventh Generation Principle, which is the idea that what we do today has an impact not just on the next generation, but the next seven generations.

Why is sustainability so important to you?

Our unique differentiating factor is we really own our Indigenous roots and look at sustainability through an Indigenous lens. That means marrying ancient Indigenous wisdom with modern Western science. In order to create our products, we use a concept called life cycle analysis (which evaluates a product’s environmental impact throughout its entire life, from harvesting of raw ingredients to disposal).

If we’re wearing this makeup in an ocean or washing it off our faces at the end of the day, if those ingredients aren’t biodegradable, they’re going back into our ecosystems. We tend to think of plastic as bad for the environment, but unfortunately, as human beings, we’ve made a ton of plastic. So one of the materials we use is recycled plastic, because you can give plastic a second and third life. And quite honestly, from a sustainability perspective, it requires a lot less energy to use recycled plastic versus making new glass, aluminum or wood.

We look at things through this wider scope — our most recent sustainability report is published on our website, because we want to prove that we’re thinking deeply about the things we do.

Part of your mission is making a difference in the lives of Indigenous youth. How do you do that?

For the first few years, we were supporting different Indigenous youth organizations. In 2012, we got to launch the Cheekbone Beauty Scholarship Fund, which we now call the “For Future Generations Scholarship Fund.” In 2021, we gave out one. In 2022, we gave out five, then 10 in 2023. Our goal is 20 for 2024. We launch a product every year where all the proceeds go to the scholarship fund — this year is a burnt orange lip and cheek product, plus an overnight lip treatment.

What does “Cheekbone” mean to you?

I’ve always loved cheekbones on all humans, and Ojibwe people, like me, are known for our high, prominent cheekbones. Then, I did some marketing research and found that people with higher cheekbones are often perceived as more trustworthy. I thought, with a new brand, trust is really important — so, the name stuck.