FAMU grad Melissa Butler, Founder and CEO of The Lip Bar, Inc., earlier this month announced that her 11-year old cosmetics brand has expanded into 3,300 CVS locations doubling it current number of brick-and mortar doors to 5,300.
The Lip Bar will have endcaps in 3,300 CVS locations from September to the end of December. Then the brand and retailer will assess the best-performing locations, potentially expanding to more stores and moving the brand into aisle shelves. The brand could also extend into IRL CVS shop-in-shops. The endcaps exclusively house the brand’s best-sellers, including its liquid matte lipsticks and lip glosses.
Between Target and Walmart, The Lip Bar is in 2,000 doors. Earlier in the year, The Lip Bar deepened its Target distribution from placement on three shelves to 24, an approximately 700% increase.
The Lip Bar has sold through Target.com since 2018 and Walmart since 2021. Separately, in February, The Lip Bar expanded into skin care with four products: a makeup-removing balm, a cleanser, a serum and a moisturizer.
In Sept. 2022, The Lip Bar’s parent company, The Lip Bar Inc., announced that it had raised an oversubscribed $6.7 million fundraising round to further grow its house of brands, including The Lip Bar. In Feb. 2022, Butler launched a new, inclusive, Gen-Z-focused brand called Thread Beauty. It sells multi-use beauty sticks for the complexion and lips for $8 through nationwide Target stores.
“We’ve been working on this for so long,” Butler expressed. “When you see a lot of the brands with the big space, it’s conglomerates. It’s not like little Black girls from Detroit taking up this much space.”
As Rattler Nation reported earlier this year, The Lip Bar became Target’s largest Black-owned cosmetics line . The company’s journey started online with a single SKU.
In 2012 Butler appeared on the popular TV show the Shark Tank with the aim of securing financial backing to grow her vegan beauty brand --- the panel was harshly critical even calling her make up “clown makeup”.
Ten years later, Butler took out billboards in Atlanta, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. that read: “‘Shark Tank’ told me to quit. 10 years and 2 million units sold. Thanks “Mr. Wonderful.”
Kevin O’Leary, also known as “Mr. Wonderful,” went on to applaud The Lip Bar’s success.
“I’m proud of them for taking the heat” O’Leary told The Breakfast Club. “I’m proud that they’re entrepreneurs and are successful. It’s a wonderful thing to see that happen. They were facing an almost impossible task because going into the cosmetics industry is so difficult to get market share. But they pulled it off, so you gotta applaud them — there’s no question about it. But that is a tough space because the margins are so high that the competition is just brutal.”
“We’ve been working on this for so long,” Butler expressed. “When you see a lot of the brands with the big space, it’s conglomerates. It’s not like little Black girls from Detroit taking up this much space.”
As Rattler Nation reported earlier this year, The Lip Bar became Target’s largest Black-owned cosmetics line . The company’s journey started online with a single SKU.
In 2012 Butler appeared on the popular TV show the Shark Tank with the aim of securing financial backing to grow her vegan beauty brand --- the panel was harshly critical even calling her make up “clown makeup”.
Ten years later, Butler took out billboards in Atlanta, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. that read: “‘Shark Tank’ told me to quit. 10 years and 2 million units sold. Thanks “Mr. Wonderful.”
Kevin O’Leary, also known as “Mr. Wonderful,” went on to applaud The Lip Bar’s success.
Congratulations Rattler🧡💚
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