Embrace YOU with The Lip Bar!
Imagine flipping through your favorite magazine and seeing thousands of makeup advertisement. Sadly, there can be a trend in those pages. Sit back and watch television, only to see the same trend there too. If you are a black or brown girl, that trend is one of familiar woe when it comes to images in media; a lack of representation. Sure, your family aids with the shaping of your own beauty standards in the beginning of your life, but so does media. How is one to feel beautiful if she cannot see herself in the world? Although those feelings were intense years ago, the sting of not seeing a person like you, in beauty, is slowly diminishing. Some of that is due in part by everyday women of color fighting the good fight for little brown and black girls all over the world so that they can know that they are beautiful. One of those women is Melissa Butler. Her creation is The Lip Bar.
Melissa Before The Bar
Prior to launching The Lip Bar, Butler, a graduate of Florida A & M University, was working in New York on Wall Street. There, she was a local stock broker and financial analyst. Like many students, she was happy to have a job, especially on the world-renowned area in New York. As with anyone young making good money, she got accustom to the paper chase. However, as we all know everything that glitters, is not gold and Melissa Butler saw that first hand. As time progressed, Butler started to become unhappy and just overall disillusioned with working that typical 9-5 life of a person on Wall Street.
In order to unwind and leave the corporate work day behind, Butler and friends would go out for happy hour. It was in that space she and her friends could feel free from the mundane ways of the workplace. Happiness is something that looks good on everyone, just like color. Sadly, people are not encouraged to be individuals or creative beings in the corporate world. Mix in the lack of diversity in the beauty industry, it’s no wonder Butler became frustrated. Although she is not a fan of the cake face, she knew there was a problem that required her to become the solution.
The Lip Bar
Eventually, Butler left Wall Street and started her new career in the beauty industry. The road to makeup was not far off at that point. Seeing that others were making beauty items, Butler decided to try making artisan soaps. When the supplier of her ingredients mistakenly thought she needed pigments for lipstick, the proverbial light bulb went off. At that moment, The Lip Bar started to be in existence. She ordered the pigments and started gathering information in order to create lipstick.
The Lip Bar’s inspiration came from the lack of colors to express individuality and memories from happy hour. Each color was created to help combat “plain” and color limitations for certain complexions. In addition to helping with someone’s self-esteem, she also wanted to make sure their health was taken care of too. The ingredients used for the lip products are vegan and do not contain harmful chemicals. Another frustration for Butler is the lack of healthier cosmetics on the market.
As time progressed, The Lip Bar’s fan base grew larger each day. As any entrepreneur, Butler continued to work harder in order to grow her brand and spread its message of inclusive beauty. In order to grow bigger, she knew she would need a bigger audience. Soon, The Lip Bar made its way to the ABC reality television show titled Shark Tank. Even with a great setup and pitch, the investors were not thrilled with the idea and even went as far as to making disparaging remakes about the appearance of Butler and her partner. Although they left without an investment from the panel, they did leave with the approval and investment of the people that wanted what The Lip Bar offered. The appearance was able to generate more sales to help the company grow even further. With those sales, The Lip Bar continued on its mission on beauty for all and started a bus tour. This tour gave others the ability to reach more people in search of something to help with their creative expression.
Now in Target
The Lip Bar is doing so well with Butler as it’s conductor, they are mainstream status. The company’s lip products are available in a local Target near you. The official launch date is February 18. The mission of The Lip Bar is make beauty more inclusive through pictures, pricing and products. All of the lip sticks and lip products are made of natural and organic ingredients. The Lip Bar has bold colors in their lip sticks, lip glosses and liquid mattes. They also have non-traditional images to help shift the view on beauty. On top of that, having The Lip Bar in Target is accessible. In recent years, Target has been the place to go to bring affordable looks to the masses without breaking the bank. Everyone should have the option to look good and feel good without having to break the bank just to experience a bit of luxury. If you are looking for bold colors to express yourself, that will not break your bank and is vegan friendly, check out your local Target for The Lip Bar.
