ROOTED IN BEAUTY

Alexa Rice blends beauty, purpose, and environmental stewardship in her new venture.

Alexa Rice knows the power of fashion and beauty, having grown up in a family where style was as much a part of the family business plan as the products themselves. She is the granddaughter of John H. and Eunice Johnson, founders of the namesake publishing empire that produced Ebony and Jet magazines, which brought art, design, and culture to Black communities around the country.

In 1958, Rice’s grandmother developed Ebony Fashion Fair, taking European couture clothing straight from the Paris runways to catwalks she created for urban and rural communities across America. It ran for decades, included over 100 annual stops, and raised more than $50 million for charities through ticket sales. In 1973, Mrs. Johnson also founded Fashion Fair Cosmetics, a makeup line to complement darker skin tones. Rice’s grandparents felt strongly that aesthetics of all kinds could contribute to the well-being of their target audience, and with this fall’s launch of Beech Beauty, a line of high-shine lip glosses in seven bold colors, Rice is following in their footsteps.

Rice grew up in downtown Chicago, in the same Gold Coast building as her grandparents. Her mother is the CEO of Johnson Publishing Company and is now producing documentaries about the company. Rice’s father is president of Muller & Monroe Asset Management, a firm he started in 1999. Both parents have been influential in their daughter’s career trajectory. While attending the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, afternoon homework sessions often took place at the Johnson firm headquarters, an iconic landmark on the city’s South Michigan Avenue skyline. On Sundays, Rice frequently went to church with her father. She distinctly remembers proclaiming that as an adult she would attend church only on Christmas and Easter. A statement she looks back on now with a laugh.

After graduating from Wellesley College and majoring in art history, Rice went to Shanghai for internships in the fashion and luxury market. Then, to New York City to work in advertising. In 2017, she enrolled at Harvard Divinity School. “Surprisingly, it felt like a logical choice when I found myself moving deeper into my own faith and realized it was an all-encompassing study,” she says. At one point, she even considered the ordained ministry.

Some of her mindset shift came from weekends in New Jersey, away from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan, where she would meet her dad for fly fishing and clay target shooting—favorite hobbies the duo share. The intersection between ecology and theology soon became the focus of Rice’s final thesis, and she spent a semester working at the Harvard Forest—4,000 acres of land and research facilities located outside Boston.

Here she found the respite and reflection that led to her return to Chicago and inspired the idea of starting a company that blended her passion for fashion and forestry. “There is a lot of talk about clean girl beauty, and I know this concept has pure intentions, but I feel sometimes that message is less about self-expression because not everyone looks the same,” says Rice. She tested, mixed, made cold calls, and experimented until achieving what she calls “a vibrant, feel-good formula with high color payoff.” The lip glosses are each named after a botanical, made with jojoba and shea oils, and packaged with the brand’s signature logo of an earth-tone rainbow with a heart at the center and crowned by a scallop of treetops.

It’s no secret that when you look good, you feel good; a sentiment that shapes Rice’s personal and Beech Beauty’s corporate philanthropy. Rice sits on the board of Openlands, an organization that protects natural and open spaces throughout Illinois. “Trees make a difference to our health, vitality, longevity, and to the appearance and appeal of our neighborhoods.” As she explains, planting and investing in trees in parks and public areas enhances engagement with the outdoors. The lack of resources put toward inner-city recreational areas is a particular concern of hers, so she intends for a portion of Beech Beauty sales to be donated to this cause.

For now, Rice is focused on Beech Beauty’s direct-to-consumer business model. Her social media campaigns on Instagram and TikTok, where she applies makeup on herself as the model, allow consumers to get a sense of who she is and where she comes from. “I’m a Midwestern girl, and I’ve loved putting on makeup since the 6th grade!” exclaims Rice, “Dressing up is joyful and playful for me.” Like her grandmother, the entrepreneur, Rice also recognizes the opportunities in this strategy and feels confident that starting with this small group of bright shades will shine a light on the possibilities ahead.

More information is available at beechbeauty.com, @heybeechbeauty, and @alexachristinarice.