We are very sad to report that Sharon Chuter has died. According to PEOPLE the Los Angeles Medical Examiner said Chuter, the founder and former creative director of beauty brand Uoma Beauty, was found dead on a patio on Aug. 14. Her death is listed as deferred, which means it is still under investigation.
No other details have been shared, but according to reporter Kirbie Johnson, who runs newsletter Ahead of the Kirb, a source with knowledge of the situation shared that a former executive of Uoma Beauty relayed the news of Chuter’s death to other former employees.
Born in Nigeria and with experience spanning Revlon, L’Oréal, and LVMH, Sharon Chuter launched something bigger in 2019 UOMA Beauty, the first “Afropolitan” brand that refused to exclude.
She believed beauty wasn’t about categories or tokenism it was about authentic self-expression.
The Business of Fashion
She poured that vision into her formula. UOMA’s launch featured 51 foundation shades, a bold statement in a world still hesitant to serve richer skin tones.
Her message was simple: “Beauty should not be labeled multicultural… the world is multicultural. There should be beauty.”
“It was important for me to give my own take on inclusivity and diversity, which is simply allowing people to be their ultimate selves, and something I don’t think the industry is understanding,” she told WWD in 2019. “I appreciate uniqueness and stories. Who is behind the shade? What is their origin story and what do they want? And how do we create a world that allows for these different views?”
Pull Up for Change & Make It BLACK: Beauty as Activism
Chuter didn’t stop at shades she leveled up the entire industry. After George Floyd’s murder in 2020, she launched Pull Up for Change and the viral #PullUpOrShutUp challenge, urging beauty companies to publicly share the number of Black staff in leadership.
Tracking representation became transparency and several brands had to show their receipts.
In 2021, she created Make It BLACK a campaign to reclaim and elevate the word black.
She relaunched classic products in black packaging, donating 100% of profits to support Black-owned businesses via her Pull Up Impact Fund.
In 2022, Chuter opened up about the campaign on The Drew Barrymore Show. ”
I did that really to drive more awareness and shine more light to the lack of economic opportunities for the Black community, especially within the beauty space,” she said.
“I’ve always been the person who speaks up,” she continued. “Whenever I see something that needs to change, I don’t have it in me means to just sit it out.”
Her Health
Despite all the trailblazing work she had done at the helm of Uoma Beauty, Chuter stepped down as the CEO in 2023. (Days after, Chuter confirmed that she remained a shareholder in the company.)
In an announcement post shared to Instagram that May, Chuter revealed that she came face-to-face with a health scare that landed her in the hospital that January, and it inspired her to carve out a healthier work-life balance.
“I lost 10kgs in one week, doctors thought it may be stomach cancer but luckily it wasn’t and I’m back ok albeit forced into medical leave which was the true story of my sabbatical,” she wrote.
She continued: “I only started going out again in October last year, socializing and trying to find myself again after years of literally office and home – Sometimes going up to three days with no sleep. Building a global business with no cofounder is no easy task.”
The Lawsuit
Just months before Chuter’s death, she filed a lawsuit against MacArthur Beauty (which was appointed Uoma Beauty’s new owner following the brand’s closing in 2023), BrainTrust (a venture fund that made Uoma Beauty one of its first investments, according to Forbes) and Settle Funding, reports Allure.
Among the allegations, the February 2025 lawsuit claimed that “BrainTrust took control of Uoma’s operations and ultimately pushed Ms. Chuter out of her operational roles,” and that BrainTrust ceased Uoma Beauty’s operations during Chuter’s medical leave, which, according to her, was meant to end in July 2023.
Chuter’s last public Instagram post was shared on May 21. Alongside a photo of her speaking onstage at a beauty event, she wrote “Doing what I do!”
May she rest in peace.
