This Brand Launched with a Single, Dark Spot-Eradicating Product

When shopping for beauty products, you can choose based on your main concerns, whether that's discoloration, dehydration, acne, the list goes on. Some concerns get more industry attention than others, though, and lately, more and more brands have set out to highlight how the needs of BIPOC have gone largely ignored in the beauty space. More than that, they're setting out to create innovative formulas to help fill the gaps. One such brand, Eadem, channeled its efforts into developing Milk Marvel Dark Spot Serum (Buy it, $68, eadem.co), a formula specifically made to target dark spots on melanin-rich skin. (

While working together at Google, co-founders Marie Kouadio Amouzame and Alice Lin Glover realized they shared similar struggles in finding the right skin-care products. Between conversations about family and what it was like to grow up as immigrant children in North America, they would share skin-care secrets with each other. "Alice would always share tips that she learned from French pharmacy beauty and we traveled to Korea together to learn about the latest beauty trends in Asia," says Kouadio Amouzame. "Through this journey, we noticed that we were both lacking clean, effective, and gentle skin care that actually worked on our melanin-rich skin without altering or lightening it."

To that end, they were inspired to create a brand that celebrates and centers around women of color, and Eadem resulted, she says. "Every aspect of Eadem considers us as women of color in all our nuance and multiplicity," says Kouadio Amouzame. "Beauty is more than making formulas that scientifically work for us. Skin care is only one side of the equation. How we feel about ourselves and our heritages; that which makes us beautiful, matters. And it's been ignored in the beauty industry for too long."

Their first mission: researching safe ingredients to combat one of the leading skin-care issues for people of color, hyperpigmentation. "I've always had severe cystic acne and eczema, and relied on ingredients like hydroquinone to manage my hyperpigmentation," says Lin Glover. "The more I dug into the research behind what's in our beauty products (particularly those marketed to women of color), the more I was convinced that there was a white space in the market for safe, targeted skin-care products for women of color." (

Fast forward to May 2021, Eadem launched with the Milk Marvel Dark Spot Serum. Hyperpigmentation, though harmless, can be caused by a number of things, including skin injuries, overexposure to the sun, hormonal changes, and inflammation. Eadem Milk Marvel Dark Spot Serum is calibrated to treat dark spots without lightening melanated skin's natural tone, explains Kouadio Amouzame. "We combined amber algae, licorice root, niacinamide and encapsulated vitamin C to target dark spots without altering or lightening the skin; crambe abyssinica and glycerin as soothing hydrators; and papaya and pineapple enzymes to give the skin a natural glow," she says.

Buy It: Eadem Milk Marvel Dark Spot Serum, $68, eadem.co

Eadem's Milk Marvel Serum can fit into any skin-care routine seamlessly," according to Lin Glover. "Every ingredient that goes into the formula is based on its efficacy on skin of color at the right dosage, so the result is a gentle, non-irritating serum that delivers results," she says. (

If that sounds like exactly what your skin-care routine has been missing, you can pick up the Milk Marvel Serum from Eadem's website or Sephora.