With The Launch Of 4U By Tia, Tia Mowry Is Opening Up Conversations About Natural Hair And Celebrity Brands

If you’re not thrilled about another celebrity beauty brand hitting the market, Tia Mowry, a partner with biotechnology company and incubator Amyris on new textured haircare brand 4U by Tia, is open to hashing out why you feel that way.

“What is it that is triggering for you about it? What is it that makes you feel uncomfortable? Let’s talk about it so that we can figure out the why,” says the actress who rose to fame playing the twin sister of her real-life twin sister Tamera on the television show “Sister, Sister.” “I’m all for it…When you are a CEO of your brand, it’s not about running away from the conversation, it’s about talking about it.”

Mowry isn’t a stranger to the ins and outs of celebrity involvement in a consumer packaged goods brand. In 2020, she teamed up with supplement company BioSchwartz and United Talent Agency in 2020 to launch supplement brand Anser. Mowry reports the brand closed last year after her partner in it exited the company.

“Our brand was too much of a baby to basically take it elsewhere,” she says. “Of course, there were tears, and I was devastated. I was approached to partner up with someone else, but I have to feel it. There really has to be some sort of understanding and an incredible partnership that really gets my vision and understands what I’m putting out there and what I’m passionate about. You live, you learn, and you grow.”

She’s bringing her learnings to 4U by Tia, the biggest one being the importance connecting with a brand’s community. In order to that, during 4U by Tia’s development process, she convened a summit of strangers in its target customer group who ultimately became close friends.

“There were tears, there were celebrations, there were deep conversations,” says Mowry. “To really be able to have this one-on-one experience was so empowering and impactful for the brand itself…It’s not just about being in meetings with eight or nine people, it’s about really getting on the ground floor and talking to the community, understanding the community, listening to their wants, their needs, allowing them to be heard and be spoken to.”

Intended for 2A to 4C curl types, 4U by Tia is launching direct-to-consumer, in 60% of Walmart’s more than 4,700 stores and on the megachain’s website. Its collection includes eight products priced at $11 or under: two shampoos and conditioners, a leave-in curl cream, curl defining gel, curl refresher mist and multi-use hair oil. The formulas have Hemi15, a silicone alternative produced by Amyris, paired with acai, watermelon extract, apple cider vinegar, flaxseed, hibiscus and aloe vera. 4U by Tia is projected to generate between $8 million and $12 million in sales in its initial year of business.

Walmart has a six-month exclusive on 4U by Tia. In addition to Walmart in the United States, Amyris aims to expand the brand worldwide. Referring to Walmart, Mowry says, “I just love how they have put themselves in the role of empowering the conscious consumer, empowering women, empowering Black women and not only that, empowering curly textures and allowing us to be a part of the conversation.”

4U by Tia joins a growing brand portfolio at Amyris containing Biossance, Terasana, EcoFabulous, Costa Brazil, Pipette, JVN affiliated with Jonathan Van Ness, Stripes affiliated with Naomi Watts and Rose Inc. affiliated with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. In the third quarter 2022, the last quarter for which the company has released earnings information, Amyris reached $46.6 million in revenue from its consumer brands, up 98% from the same quarter a year earlier. The brands were in 14,000 stores compared to 2,100 a year ago.

“This is a luxury brand at an accessible price.”

Mimi Lu, VP of product development for Amyris, says Amyris’s ownership of the formulation development process enables it to keep 4U by Tia’s prices low. She elaborates, “We have a full in-house R&D product development team, which allows us to rapidly prototype and iterate on formulas while also leveraging our Amyris proprietary ingredients along with the strong relationships we have with other ingredient suppliers.”

Accessibility is particularly important to Mowry. “I wanted to create a brand that had clean, safe ingredients without sacrificing the quality and that was at a tangible price point that everyone could be able to take part of,” she says. “This is a luxury brand at an accessible price.”

Family, wellness, community and representation are important to 4U by Tia, too, according to Mowry. She recounts that her curls were front and center in “Sister, Sister,” but, after the 1990s-era series, she believed she had to straighten her hair to fit in and book jobs. She began to embrace her curls again as the natural hair movement ascended in the 2010s. With 4U By Tia, Mowry’s objective is to spread self-acceptance.

“[The name 4U] means this product is specifically made for you, you’re no longer being excluded. You are valued, you are important,” she says. “At the end of the day, what I love about this brand is it’s not about being vain, it’s about inspiring, it’s about encouraging, and it’s about expressing and being your true, authentic self. Where there’s authenticity, magic happens.”

Mowry highlights 4U by Tia’s moisturizing conditioner and leave-in curl cream as the brand’s hero products.  Of the latter, she says, “That is one product that I just can’t live without. It’s something that really is the star of this line mainly because it really enhances your curls, giving you that definition that you need. It gives you just the right of moisture that you need without weighing your curls down. Your curls are just free. I love when curls have a mind of their own, when they’re just able to be like, ‘Hey, how are you?’”

4U by Tia’s campaign imagery will feature a range of curl types and people, from women with gray hair to members of the trans community. Mowry will provide curly hair and product education via social media. While 4U by Tia is for everyone, she emphasizes it’s speaking to women of color first and foremost. “They’re deserving to be a part of the conversation when we have not been for so long and for so many years,” she says. “It’s our time to shine, and we are just as beautiful and just as deserving to be celebrated and talked about, especially when it comes to beauty.”