Olamide Olowe is changing how she leads Topicals at a moment when the skincare company she helped build is preparing to become a much bigger global business.
Topicals has appointed former Fenty Beauty executive Sukiana Chancy as its new CEO, while Olowe will remain actively involved in the company she founded. According to Business of Fashion, Topicals reached a level of scale where Olowe believed additional operating experience would be valuable as the company pursues growth beyond its existing markets.
The Topicals CEO transition is notable because Olowe is not describing it as an exit from the business. Instead, her announcement makes clear that she intends to spend more of her time on the areas where she believes she can have the greatest impact, particularly marketing, creative direction, strategy, and long-term vision.
In her Instagram announcement, Olowe summarized both the company’s growth and what she plans to do next:
“The last 6 years of my life have been wild to say the least. When I was 21, I had an idea for a brand that would take all my interests (skincare, street wear, film, and culture) and create something that felt different. Being the CEO of Topicals has been the most fun, challenging, nerve-wrecking thing I have ever done and I can honestly say I’ve had a ball. I’m so excited to welcome sukisukinow1 to lead our next chapter as our new CEO as we expand globally into the Middle East, Africa and the rest of Europe. Y’all will be seeing way more of me. I’ll be spending my days in my zone of genius working with juliaxushao on more creative campaigns, sochimbadugha on more strategy and vision setting, and leading our marketing teams. I am so grateful for this life.”
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Those numbers position the leadership changes differently from the typical story of a founder stepping aside during a period of trouble. Olowe says Topicals has delivered 12 times revenue growth in five years, sold 10 million eye masks, reached double-digit profitability, raised more than $22 million, and contributed more than $250,000 toward mental health efforts. AfroTech separately reported the eye mask sales, revenue growth, profitability, and funding figures shared by Olowe.
That makes Chancy’s appointment a move centered on scale.
Chancy comes to Topicals after serving as general manager of Fenty Beauty’s skin, hair, and fragrance divisions. Her earlier résumé includes roles at Cay Skin, DevaCurl, and The Estée Lauder Companies. Olowe told the publication why that background mattered as she considered what Topicals would need next.
“I wanted to partner with someone who has worked their way up through marketing, built a global brand, and managed a profit-and-loss sheet much larger than ours,” Olowe said.
Chancy’s experience could become especially important as Topicals moves into markets where growing a recognizable brand requires more than generating demand online. International expansion brings questions around distribution, retail partnerships, local consumer behavior, operations, staffing, and maintaining a consistent brand identity across regions.
Business of Fashion reported that Topicals is targeting expansion in the Middle East, Africa, and additional parts of Europe. Black Enterprise reported that the brand is already sold through Sephora in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, along with Beauty Hut in Nigeria.
For Topicals, the opportunity is to prove that the cultural relevance that helped differentiate the company can travel.
The brand launched in 2020 around skincare concerns including hyperpigmentation, acne, and other chronic skin issues. Sephora describes Topicals as combining science-backed skincare with mental health advocacy and messaging designed to reduce shame around skin conditions.
That positioning helped Topicals stand out in an increasingly crowded skincare category. Forbes reported in 2022 that the company had become Sephora’s fastest-growing skincare brand and that its appeal among Gen Z shoppers was being driven in part by social media marketing, distinctive packaging, and mental health advocacy.
Olowe’s ability to build that cultural connection may explain why removing herself from the company’s marketing engine was never part of the plan.
Instead, the leadership structure gives Topicals two different kinds of expertise at a critical point in its development. Chancy can concentrate on the executive demands of scaling a global beauty company, while Olowe can devote more attention to the creative campaigns, marketing decisions, and strategic vision that helped establish Topicals in the first place.
Chancy described her responsibility in similar terms when discussing the move with Business of Fashion.
“My role is creating more infrastructure to help amplify [the message] and bring it to as many eyeballs and faces as possible,” Chancy said.
Olowe’s decision also adds another chapter to a fundraising story that made her one of the most closely watched young founders in beauty. Forbes reported that Topicals raised $2.6 million following its launch and later secured a $10 million financing round in 2022, making Olowe the youngest Black woman at the time to raise more than $2 million in venture funding. More recent reporting places Topicals’ total funding above $22 million.
The next test is no longer whether Olowe can create a brand people care about. Topicals has already built products, retail relationships, funding, community, and cultural recognition.
The question now is whether that foundation can support a company with much larger global ambitions.
For Olowe, giving up the CEO title does not appear to shrink her influence. It changes where that influence is applied. For Topicals, bringing in Chancy creates an opportunity to professionalize the next stage of growth while keeping its founder focused on the qualities that made the company distinctive in the first place.
If the strategy works, the Olamide Olowe story will become about more than building Topicals. It will also be about knowing when the company she created needed a new operating structure to grow beyond her original CEO role.
