The cause of death for Uoma Beauty founder Sharon Chuter has finally been released.
According to a new report by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office, Chuter died on Thursday, August 14, after suffering blunt traumatic injuries, People magazine reported. She was 38.
The beauty founder was found dead on a patio at her home in Los Angeles, and her death has been officially ruled an accident. Per the report, Chuter’s other significant condition at the time was listed as “medication non-compliant schizoaffective disorder.”
This update arrives about two months after news of her death sent shockwaves through the beauty world. Chuter, who had been the founder and former creative director of Uoma Beauty, launched the brand in 2019 in Ulta with an impressively inclusive range of products, including foundations in 51 shades. She remained with the company until 2023, when she stepped down from her role as CEO and creative director to prioritize her health following a medical scare.
“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?”
Before launching Uoma, Chuter—who was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria— relocated to the United Kingdom, where she began her corporate career, and eventually moved to the United States to further her work in the beauty industry. Over the years, she held roles at major corporations like PepsiCo and rose through the ranks at legacy beauty names including L’Oréal and LVMH. Her ascent was hardly surprising, given that as a teenager she successfully convinced Revlon to begin distributing its products in Nigeria—a groundbreaking move at the time, achieved when she was just 19.
In 2020, Chuter expanded her advocacy through Pull Up for Change and its #PullUpOrShutUp campaign, which encouraged corporations to match public support for racial justice with internal transparency. The initiative gave brands 72 hours to disclose the number of Black employees in their corporate and leadership ranks, igniting a wider conversation about accountability and equity in the beauty industry and beyond.
At the time of her death, she was engaged in a legal battle. In February 2025, Chuter filed a lawsuit against MacArthur Beauty, BrainTrust Fund, and Settle Funding, alleging that during her medical leave in 2023, the company’s investors used her absence to sideline her and sell Uoma’s assets to MacArthur without her consent. She claimed in Allure magazine that the sale was unauthorized and undervalued, arguing that she had been unfairly pushed out of the company she built. The case remained unresolved when she died.
