Photos: Courtesy of Shana Jade Trajanoski; courtesy of SkimsSave StorySave this storySave StorySave this story

When Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye announced that she was closing her brand, Ami Colé, due to unsustainable operating costs earlier this year, the girls—myself included—were rightfully gutted. The makeup brand, which she founded in 2021, centered on melanin-rich skin through inclusive shade ranges (like, actually inclusive), glossy marketing, and social-first community initiatives. The brand ethos and the product assortment highlighted the beauty of Black and brown skin. Ami Colé has been sorely missed by the beauty community in the months since its shutdown.

But as the saying goes, when one door closes, another opens—and N’Diaye-Mbaye’s new open door is draped in neutral tones and goes by the name of Skims. On November 3, Kim Kardashian’s clothing brand announced in a press release that N’Diaye-Mbaye has been appointed by the company as the executive vice president of beauty and fragrance, effective immediately.

According to the press release, she’ll lead product development, innovation, and brand strategy for its upcoming spin-off brand, Skims Beauty. “There are so many beauty lines out there now, and consumers are more discerning than ever. They want quality, they want delight, they want something that makes their lives easier,” N’Diaye-Mbaye tells Allure. "I can’t wait to collaborate with the Skims team on items we hope will become essentials in their regimen." This pivot, while it might be unexpected to some, is completely on par with N’Diaye-Mbaye’s resume—before launching Ami Colé, she held marketing roles at Glossier, L’Oréal Paris, and Rebecca Minkoff.

Aside from Kardashian’s October 15 confirmation that Skims Beauty is in development, the details and date of its launch are still shrouded in mystery. What we do know so far is that Skims Beauty will include “fragrance and makeup and all the things,” as Kardashian told Alex Cooper on the Call Her Daddy podcast in October.

Though it’ll be Skims' first foray into beauty, it’s far from Kardashian’s first rodeo. Seasoned beauty enthusiasts will remember the launch of KKW Beauty in 2017 (and those famous contour kits). In 2021, Kardashian sold 20 percent of KKW Beauty to beauty conglomerate Coty Inc., and the brand announced a halt in operations later that year. In 2022, Kardashian launched a skin care brand, SKKN by Kim. She told Allure at the time that she aimed to model it after Skims and make it a “product-based brand” rather than a “celebrity brand.” Earlier this year, Kardashian consolidated all her brands, bringing SKKN by Kim under the Skims umbrella.

We can see how Skims and N’Diaye-Mbaye would be a fit. Ami Colé really strived to bring an inclusive shade range to the market. And say what you will about the marketing stunts of Skims—bush-clad bikinis and Halloween-esque face wraps come to mind—but the brand has stayed true to shapewear that considers body types up to size 4X and skin tones from fair to deep.

This move to bring N’Diaye-Mbaye to Skims positions the brand to become a real force in the beauty space—I mean, this is the same woman who led Ami Colé to five Allure Best of Beauty Awards and had everyone scrambling to get their hands on a tube of lip oil after just a couple of years in operation. While the beauty community and I are still mourning the loss of Ami Colé, which deserved to live on far longer than it did, I’m hopeful for what N’Diaye-Mbaye can and will accomplish in her new role. Since the closure of Ami Colé, she’s maintained that she will always champion Black women in the beauty space—now she’ll just be doing that at Skims with the type of wisdom that can only come from building a brand from the ground up.

“In case there's another venture… I know what I'm really good at, and I know where my blind spots are," N’Diaye-Mbaye said on the Aspire podcast with Emma Grede in September. "Product, community, storytelling, being able to emotionally connect with someone [while] not even knowing them… I do think I have that gift. So let's see what the universe does with that.”