Alikay Naturals, Oyin Handmade, Luster’s and Bronner Brothers own the building their product is made in. Most of the shelf does not. Here is who owns the plant, not just the label, with the address every time.

This is a buying guide, and a different kind than usual. Most weeks it is who owns the brand. This week it is who owns the factory. Almost every bottle on the beauty supply shelf was mixed and filled by a contract plant whose name is nowhere on the front. A handful of Black-owned brands never did it that way.

One rule the whole way through: owning the plant is a fact, on the record and checkable. It does not make a product better, purer or fresher, and nothing in this video says it does. The building is the story. The price is still the verdict.