🖤💚💛❤️ BLACK OWNED BUSINESS SPOTLIGHTS❤️💛💚🖤

In honor of Black History Month , this week we will be spotlighting Black businesses that have an impact on Black culture. Although Telfar has been in the spotlight in recent years, the brand is not an overnight success. Telfar Clemens, the 35-year-old Liberian-American founder of Telfar, started his brand in 2005 with genderless clothing. He wanted to create a product that left the decision making to the wearer. The brand has always been about inclusivity and the designs reflect the brand's mission: "not for you, for everyone." Since 2006, his runway shows have always included musicians, all genders, and all races. Created in 2005, the brand was known in the industry and among the designer's close-knit friend groups, but it was the launch of the shopping bag — in sizes small, medium, and large — in 2014, and the help of his dear friend and artistic director, Babak Radboy, that finally put Telfar on the map. In 2017, Clemens was awarded the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award and received a prize of $400,000. It was the perfect amount of money to fund the production of the three sizes of shopping bags, modeled after the dimensions of Bloomingdale's shopping bags. Shortly after the bags were made, celebrities like, Solange, Selena Gomez, Bella Hadid, A$AP Ferg, and many more started sporting their bags and raising the brand to cult-favorite status. Beatrice Dixon is the founder of The Honey Pot Company , a plant-based feminine hygiene line created to provide women with healthy alternatives to feminine care. The Honey Pot Company began with a dream. In 2014, Dixon was struggling with an ongoing case of bacterial vaginosis. She visited her doctor and tried everything they recommended, but nothing worked. Early one morning she was visited by her grandmother in a dream. She gave Dixon a list of ingredients and told her what to do. When Dixon woke up, she immediately went to Whole Foods, where she was working at the time, and got the ingredients. Within a few days, the infection was gone. It was at this stage Dixon started working on Honey Pot and giving away the product to friends and seeing their results. "There has never been a moment — not one time — to this day that I have ever questioned if this was a business if this was viable," Dixon says. "So when I was giving it away, I was giving it away because I needed to make sure that it worked. Because I had the intention of making it work." Dixon says her "hack" for getting into retail comes down to creating prototypes that big retailers will appreciate as a token of commitment. "When you're beginning a relationship, it's just like beginning any relationship. You got to go into that thing, intentional, and showing them from the beginning, how you run your ship. And so it's really important to show them how committed[you are because prototypes are not cheap, and that communicates to the buyer that you came ready and that you're willing to show them where you're going," she says. Today The Honey Pot Company sells feminine care products nationwide at Target, Walmart, Whole Foods, Walgreens and retailers across the U.S. Black Girl Sunscreen’s story begins with the need for a sunscreen brand that caters exclusively to women of color. From carrying expensive umbrellas to the beach to avoiding the sunshine all together, women of color have come up with their own methods of protecting their skin. For years, sunscreen has been tailored to light skin individuals, leaving behind a visible white-residue on our darker skin sisters. Blotchy makeup and white residue were enough to keep people from truly enjoying a beautiful sunny day. The founder thought it was about time to change that. In 2016, Shontay Lundy created Black Girl Sunscreen, a 30 SPF lotion infused with natural ingredients and formulated for women of color. Made with melanated skin in mind, BGS dries completely clear and protects melanin without the white-cast. From hitting the shelves of Target and Ulta to global expansion, Black Girl Sunscreen has grown exponentially. The goal of BGS is to start the conversation globally around sun safety to educate and protect melanin beauties worldwide.