Discover the best of South American beauty as CF celebrates the inherent connection between brands and their countries of origin in our Around the World In Beauty series.
Made up of countries including Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador, you can easily recognise South American beauty brands for their sunny disposition, with engaging packaging and design concepts playing host to innovative formulas to boost glow, nourish your hair and make everyone feel included.
This region is home to the Amazon rainforest, so you can also expect a host of natural ingredients from this hub of biodiversity, as well as an increasingly important focus on eco-conscious formulas to ensure the protection of this environmental asset for future generations.
Read on to discover the best South American beauty brands to shake up your beauty routine.
Skincare and Bodycare
With South America’s warm climate and the people’s penchant for being outside, skincare and bodycare is incredibly important in the average beauty routine of residents – just ask Gisele Bündchen and Sofia Vergara, two South American celebrities with beautiful skin. South America is also a celebration of bodies of all shapes, sizes and colours, so you can trust their formulas for keeping your skin soft, supple and smooth from head-to-toe, with no judgement. In particular, there’s a real focus on the Amazon’s array of nourishing oils and plant extracts that can do wonders for your complexion and have the added benefit of being a joy to apply, such as buriti oil from ‘the tree of life’, detoxifying white clay, and of course, avocados, which are as good for your complexion as they are on toast.
Pioneering farm-to-face sustainability and natural skincare, Tata Harper credits the inspiration for starting her luxury beauty brand to the rituals she experienced at her grandmother's house in Colombia. Her small-batch produced formulas prove that eco-friendly, luxury and efficacy can go hand-in-hand, with the classic Regenerating Cleanser still a beauty editor cult favourite.
Inspired by Brazilian-born Francisco Costa's travels in the Amazon with the Yawanawa Tribe, it's hard not to fall head-over-heels for this sustainable, award-winning oil-based brand, powered by the rainforest's healing ingredients. In particular, a trio of Kaya oil, Cacay Oil and Breu Branco resin – known as 'The Jungle Complex' – provides a rare concentration of vitamins and omegas that provide deep moisturisation and a silky-smooth finish on the skin.
With a helpful (and pretty enlightening) ability to search via the Amazonian ingredients you want to discover within any chosen formula, Natura Brasil is a discovery walk through the very best of South American produce. Some of those fascinating and skin-nourishing ingredients, for example, include vitamin-rich acai, hydrating tucumã butter and omega-6-rich passionfruit. This silky body lotion, with handy pump applicator, is a best-seller for a reason.
Granado launched all the way back in 1870, making it the oldest Brazilian pharmaceutical brand. Those original remedies, created by founder José Antonio Coxito Granado, used local plants, flowers, and herbs to soothe all sorts of ailments: a concept that has endured as the company expanded into the fresh and classic fragrances that you can still enjoy today. Can't choose which one to wear? The Best-Sellers Suitcase is the perfect way to explore the range.
Haircare
Innovative solutions for your hair abound from South American haircare brands; specifically those that take inspiration from Amazonian botanicals and that target the diverse hair types you can find across the continent. There’s also a large focus on sustainability within this category, so choosing a South American beauty brand is a step towards making your in-shower routine more planet-friendly too.
As its tag-line "Rainforest Grown Beauty" suggests, Rahua's shampoos, conditioners and styling products are filled with some of the Amazon rainforest's most potent ingredients, including its namesake, nourishing rahua oil, which was once used in ancient ceremonies. However, the brand doesn't just promise impressive haircare results, it's also passionate about sustainable use of rainforest resources and has multiple partnerships overseeing preservation too.
Bum bum cream by Sol de Janeiro was the formula that proved (to even the most adverse to bodycare) that moisturisers could be a joy to apply. Then, the brand expanded into haircare – and the deeply moisturising ingredients saved our beauty editor's sun-stripped strands. You'll fall in love for far longer than a summer fling.
Only around 60 Latina founders have ever raised over $1 million in venture funding. Babba C Rivera is one of them, with her brand Ceremonia. The founder, who is Swedish with Chilean descent, was inspired by her father, who was a hairdresser, to create a brand championing ingredients from Latin America. This hair scrub, with papaya extract, is the deep clean you need for shinier tresses.
Have you heard of the Brazilian blow dry? If you're searching for a solution to damaged and frizz-prone hair, it's what you need. The in-salon treatment uses liquid keratin to deeply nourish each individual strand, and this at-home version from Brazilian brand Cadiveu Plastica Dos Fios utilises equally impressive antioxidant-rich hydrating acai oil, alongside amino acids and phytonutrients, in its version of a keratin treatment.
Makeup
While South Americans are known for their laidback approach to makeup, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t brands around to help you boost your complexion. Highlights include the brush brand that changed how we apply our makeup (without you probably even realising it), and a lipstick company that celebrates women of colour, as well as being your ticket to finding the perfect statement shade. Watch out world, South American makeup is finally breaking through.
Founded by influencer and entrepreneur Camila Coelho, who has enviably glowing skin herself, Elaluz is like a summer holiday in a bottle. Inspired by her native Brazil (with fresh natural scents included), the cult status amber cacay oil-based Beauty Oil is currently undergoing an upgrade (so watch this space for even more hydrating benefits). Until then, you can still get your hands on the equally great cream and powder bronzers to help you fake your way to a summer glow.
Brazilians, Dr. Simone Xavier and Rene Xavier Filho, are quite the power-couple; a molecular bacteriologist and a civil engineer respectively, they founded Sigma Beauty and changed the makeup brush game. With specifically-shaped designs to make makeup application easier, the brand really has every brush for every need, meaning your makeup can look flawlessly applied every day.
Cosmetics historian Gabriela Hernandez immigrated to the US from Argentina when she was 12 years old and, with her love of vintage lipstick and Old Hollywood, eventually created Bésame Cosmetics – an ode to her grandmother. Each lip colour and classic case, which has been designed with a specific year in mind, successfully packages the real joy of finding a shade that makes you look and feel good. Victory Red, which recalls the bold rouge women wore on V-Day is a particular highlight.
FAQs about South American beauty
What is South American beauty known for?
South American beauty is known for its use of natural ingredients, especially those sourced from the rich environment of the Amazon rainforest. That includes oils, clays, and fruit extracts that nourish skin and hair – and often make the products smell great (and just like holidays) too.
Which ingredients are commonly used in South American skincare?
Popular ingredients to look out for include buriti oil, cacay oil, açaÃ, rosehip, and white clay, which are valued for their role in hydration, protecting the skin (through antioxidants), and skin-repair benefits. In fact, South American skincare often has a focus on skin quality, nourishing your skin to better health.
Why is sustainability important in South American beauty brands?
While the Amazon rainforest is a rich source of botanical ingredients for beauty brands, the industry also knows how important it is to protect it. That’s why many brands from the region focus on eco-conscious production to protect the Amazon’s biodiversity and support local communities, giving back to the land that provides such important beauty ingredients.
Are South American beauty products suitable for all skin types?
Yes, many formulas are specifically designed for diverse skin tones and types, reflecting the region’s cultural diversity and climate. However, if you have specific skin sensitivities or allergies, you should always check the specific brand you are interested in and ask questions of the company directly to make sure.
What are the best South American beauty brands to try?
Any of the brands on our list are a great place to start (and these are just the ones that are stocked globally, so a trip to South America is likely to help you find more unique products too). If you are looking for a place to start, try Natura Brasil, Costa Brazil, or Rahua; all known for combining natural ingredients with high-performance formulas.
Becki Murray is Citizen Femme’s Beauty and Wellness Director and one of the only UK journalists to hold a Distinction-grade diploma in cosmetic science. Becki also heads up CF’s spa guide, so you could say she’s an expert in the science of relaxation too…
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