LYS Beauty Is Heading to Sephora UK

Good news, British beauty fans. If you’ve spotted LYS Beauty all over TikTok but never had the chance to swatch it in person, that’s about to change. After building a loyal UK following through TikTok Shop, the US beauty brand is finally making its debut on British beauty shelves with an exclusive launch at Sephora UK.

Founded by former makeup artist and beauty industry veteran Tisha Thompson, LYS Beauty launched in 2021 as Sephora’s first Black-owned clean colour cosmetics brand. Starting with just six products, the brand quickly carved out a space for itself with inclusive shade ranges and highly pigmented complexion formulas.

LYS Beauty arrives at Sephora with 10 of its bestselling products, including the No Limits Cream Bronzer Stick, which has sold more than one million units globally. Joining the lineup are the Triple Fix Skin Tint Foundation Stick and Bright Start Concealer, both of which have picked up multiple industry awards since launch.

The Triple Fix Skin Tint Foundation Stick exemplifies how the brand has challenged the perception that clean beauty was only capable of creating natural-looking makeup. It delivers everything from a sheer skin tint finish to fuller coverage without the heaviness often associated with traditional foundation sticks.

“We’re bridging a gap between clean and high-glam makeup,” Thompson told BeautyNewsDaily. “Clean is often perceived as this no-makeup makeup aesthetic. We debunk that. I truly believe I should be able to get a fully beat, high-fashion makeup look, but with clean products.”

For Thompson, though, high-performance formulas were only one part of the LYS Beauty story. The inspiration for the brand came from a question she’d found herself asking after years working in beauty. Reflecting on her early experiences, she says many women seemed more interested in looking like someone else than embracing themselves.

“I found that when working with clients or customers at beauty counters, women would always come in with a picture of who they wanted to look like, rather than really being who they are or embracing themselves,” she said. “It was always about changing something, and not always in a positive way.”

Those experiences made her rethink the relationship many people had with beauty. Rather than using makeup as a form of self-expression, she felt it had increasingly become about correcting perceived flaws.

“I think there was this relationship with makeup where it was always to fix something that you think is wrong with yourself. I wanted to create a brand that is bigger than beauty — one that’s about building confidence and being your unique self.”

That thinking shaped every aspect of LYS Beauty, which stands for Love Your Self. Each shade is named after affirming words including Confidence, Kindness, Resilience, Worthy, and Ambition, while the brand’s signature triangular packaging was inspired by the delta symbol, representing change and serving as “a reminder that you have the power to change how you talk and treat yourself every single day.”

For Thompson, wearing makeup has never been the end goal. Instead, she wants people to be so confident in themselves that they don’t feel they have to wear it. For those who do choose to wear makeup, she believes everyone deserves to be represented, included, and comfortable with the products they’re using. “When you decide to wear makeup, we want you to wear a product that you feel confident and comfortable in, that has included you in the conversation.”

That commitment to inclusivity is central to the brand and evident throughout its product range. While the beauty industry has made progress on inclusive complexion products, Thompson believes the conversation shouldn’t stop there. She wants the same approach applied across the makeup aisle, from bronzers and blushes to lip liners, arguing that everyone deserves the freedom to choose the products they want. “If one group can get bronzer, everyone should be able to decide if they want bronzer,” she says, adding that “beauty truly brings us joy” and should be something everyone can experience.

LYS Beauty will be available via sephora.co.uk from 21 July, before it arrives in stores across London, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, and Glasgow the following day.