“My skin has always been sensitive,” actress Novi Brown tells ESSENCE. But, it wasn’t until Brown’s esthetician noticed discoloration on her neck that everything changed. “Have you been spraying perfume?” she inquired. “Yes,” Brown responded. While she’s long had reactive skin, she was told her fragrance was likely disrupting her lymphatic system. So, in that moment, Brown went down a rabbit hole. From there, her wellness brand BÜHNE NOIR was born.
“At that time in my personal life, I was on a health journey, trying various different things to solve whatever imbalances I was experiencing,” Brown says. “I had been suffering from inflammation, thyroid imbalances, and Vitamin D and C deficiencies—all these issues caused fatigue, weight gain, skin and hair changes, puffy face and many other symptoms that working out couldn’t solve.” Instead, she started working from the inside out. From removing foods from her diet and improving her digestion to working with a nutritionist, Brown’s pivot into wellness-centric beauty was born out of personal necessity.
“I wanted to educate myself and my community about the downsides of self-care and how it has been taken over by convenience instead of care,” she says. With most beauty products marketed towards Black women, from braiding hair to relaxers, being full of cancer-causing chemicals, Brown says BÜHNE NOIR is for the person who sees wellness as a foundation of their beauty rituals. “If I wouldn’t use it, I don’t want other people to use it,” she says. “It’s that simple.”
From allergies and eczema-prone skin, to women who are reactive to fragrance, “I know if I’m sensitive, there has to be millions of others who have sensitivities as well,” she says. “I value my health and I know people are silently battling many health issues—I did not want to be the one to make them worse.”As a result, BÜHNE NOIR is free from toxins, cruelty, carcinogens, mutagens, and plastics, with organic, handcrafted products as the foundation of her brand.
A name her fiancé Malcolm Cook helped ideate on, “Bühne” means “stage” in German (the language of the country in which she was born) and “Noir” means “black” in French. “It’s very fitting to where I am from, who I am, and where my artistic voice stems from,” she says. As an actress, “we work in spaces called a ‘black box,’ an empty room that serves as a blank canvas—creating a world with your imagination.” Naturally then, the first collection for BÜHNE NOIR—a Body Elixir and Couture Fragrance—was coined “Act I”.
Using shea butter as the foundation of her body care ritual, she then massages in the Body Elixir, a finishing oil rich in jojoba and vitamin E. “I have actually been using it on my face as a moisturizer after I do my toning pad to test it alone and under my makeup,” she says, since jojoba oil mimics human sebum and won’t clog your pores. “Both the oils in the Body Elixir help combat inflammation, deeply hydrates and strengthens skin barriers, which can be used on the body and the hair.” Then, to complement the body oil, she goes in with her Couture Fragrance, which has notes of vanilla, sandalwood, and a mélange of florals all formulated without alcohol and fillers. “The scent is fresh, soft, yet sexy,” she describes. “Even the men enjoy wearing it, so I believe the community has made it unisex.”
While the fragrance is the final step in her body ritual, it was ironically still the very first product she developed for BÜHNE NOIR. “I started with a fragrance first because it is scientifically known to give people good feelings,” she says. “Scent is linked to limbic system, our emotional and memory control centers.” From there, she added in the body hydration product. What was first set to be a body lotion, she pivoted to the Body Elixir because oil is a go-to in her personal routine. “I love to glow!” she shares,=. But, that’s just the first act.
“Each ACT will have a new scent profile and different types of products will be added under each profile,” she says. Although the brand just launched, Brown is already imagining the future of BÜHNE NOIR. From finding her community and growing scent profiles to immersive sensory galleries and teaching about ancient beauty rituals, she wants the brand to be “a household name and a go-to brand for when you want to elevate your life,” she says, like a symbol of a young woman stepping into her womanhood. But, her ultimate goal is even more simple. “The world is open to BÜHNE NOIR.”
