Melissa Butler has yet another milestone achievement to celebrate.
The founder and CEO of brands The Lip Bar and Thread Beauty recently announced she owns the largest Black-owned makeup company in Target.
In a recent post from her Instagram account, Butler shared the news with her followers while standing outside of one of the Target stores her brands are carried in.
“It feels surreal to say that @thelipbar, INC is officially the LARGEST BLACK OWNED MAKEUP COMPANY IN TARGET. @thelipbar and @threadbeauty are taking up 6 shelves of space in select stores! I saw it for the first time on Wednesday and I cried my eyes out. I am so proud of where my team and I have taken the this business and the beauty industry.Y’all may not know how MAJOR this is. We are the first black owned makeup company to take up this much space. I just love making Black History during Black History Month.✨And not only do we have way more space, we have lots of new products. @thelipbar has skincare, duo chrome eye shadow that is prettier than words can describe, new liquid mattes, and @threadbeauty has a juicy concealer that is pure joy, eye paint and 3n1 brow pencils!”
AS ESSENCE previously reported, Butler founded the her vegan beauty brand, The Lip Bar in 2012, and appeared on the business pitch competition series Shark Tank with the aim of obtaining investment dollars for her cutting-edge beauty company—the panel was harsh, and even called it “clown makeup.”
Just seven years later, Butler closed on $6.7M in seed funding and is now in more than 1,000 stores nationwide, according to The Lip Bar’s website. It’s also now available in 750 Target Stores, 500 Walmart Stores, and our Flagship Store in Downtown Detroit.
“We plan on growing our team and improving our ability to better service the needs of our consumers across different divisions, because we understand how experience and expertise can spur growth quickly,” Butler said in a news release from last year announcing the seed round closing. “We also plan to continue to drive our innovation forward to create beauty solutions that allow everyone to experience easy, effortless, essentials that empower confidence. Until recently, I had only raised $2M and with that $2M, drove a massive expansion in Target and Walmart, hired top tier talent and launched a second brand, thread. If I could do that with $2M, I’m excited about what I can do with $6.7M!”