What Happened to the Lip Bar After Shark Tank
Melissa Butler hasn't forgotten about the difficult days of her journey to start The Lip Bar, which changed the way the earth thinks virtually makeup. There is at present a billboard in Detroit promoting the business she founded 10 years ago: "Shark Tank told me to quit. ten years and 2 meg units sold. Thanks, Mr. Wonderful."
That moment on the testify when "Mr. Wonderful," whose real name is Kevin O'Leary, and other investors harshly rejected Butler's products didn't finish her because she knew the investors were not the customers she was targeting. She knew her client base of operations and continued to printing forward.
"In business, especially for 10 years, things plainly get wrong every single solar day," Butler told the Free Press on Midweek. "That was just something that went wrong that day. But I understand the view of resilience that lots of people have come to admire about the states considering we could have stopped going when a grouping of multimillionaires and billionaires are telling yous that your idea won't work. It takes a lot of courage to await within and say, 'I'm however going to get later on this.' "
And did she e'er go later it.
The Lip Bar is celebrating its tenth year of functioning with aparty Sunday at its Parker's Alley location in Detroit and with a backside-the-scenes documentary series that tin be seen on YouTube. A limited edition beauty bundle also will marking the milestone.
The vegan beauty brand that was infamously featured on ABC's "Shark Tank" has reached dizzying heights over the final 10 years, entering stores similar Target, Meijer and Walmart, and opening its own flagship location downtown. The products have been worn past celebrities similar Taraji P. Henson and first lady Michelle Obama.
Just Butler says the success of the company started more recently. It took the company about six to seven years to grow, and now information technology has a following of over 310K users on Instagram.
"We've really doubled down in the past couple of years on making makeup easier because I felt like the beauty industry had become so convoluted with products and influencers," said Butler, 35, of Detroit. "And people just were ownership things that they had no thought if information technology worked for them or how information technology could work for them."
The business created a shade matching system that aims to apply a tinted moisturizer color to connect customers with the rest of the products — such as concealer, pulverisation and lipstick — that go with that specific shade. The Lip Bar will also keep to push its "Fast Face" model, which includes products to become a finished makeup look in 3 to five minutes.
The documentary series that shows the behind-the-scenes moments of her entrepreneurship journey likewise gives a look into Butler's life from babyhood to now. The 3 episodes air on YouTube this month, and it started with a trailer that aired Feb. 8.
Butler says the idea of existence an entrepreneur has been romanticized, and she wanted to show in the series that her journeying was hard from the start.
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"I really desire it to tell people the real story behind how The Lip Bar was congenital, who I am, where I come from, to permit them know that I didn't necessarily exercise annihilation magical," Butler said. "I didn't come from money. I didn't grow upward in a nice neighborhood. I grew up on the e side of Detroit, virtually the city drome, which has been completely devastated over the past 20 years. My mom and dad were incarcerated when I was younger.
"And then my life was not necessarily easy, just because I believed in myself, I was able to beat the odds."
Butler attended Cass Tech High School in Detroit and graduated from Florida A&M Academy with a major in business. She took her skill set to Wall Street and eventually decided that The Lip Bar would be her journey.
Her path volition continue with the celebration featuring music, food and drinks from ane p.thousand. to v p.g. Sunday. It'll be at The Lip Bar'south flagship shop located in Parker'due south Alley at 1435 Farmer St. in Detroit. Butler will exist present at the shop to come across some of the customers.
The visitor also is expanding its bestselling red liquid matte lipstick called Bawse Lady, which, for a express time, tin be purchased in a Bawse Package for $39. The package, which can be purchased at TheLipBar.com or in person Sunday, features a Bawse Balm, lip liner and Bawse Gloss.
10 years of reflection
In 2012, the early on days of her business organization, Butler used her kitchen to start creating a variety of lipstick shades. Since and then, she has expanded her manufacturing base, which takes place all over the country. She also employs 26 women.
"I think that equally an entrepreneur, y'all have to dear the journey," Butler said. "Yous have to love the piece of work that you lot're doing day in and twenty-four hour period out. And you actually accept to think almost what's right in forepart of you as opposed to this larger consequence. And then five years ago, I wasn't thinking, 'what happens in ten years?' I was really just thinking nigh what I could do right at present to touch my customers or to make a difference in the beauty manufacture, to make makeup easier, to create products that are affordable, that are nontoxic, that are piece of cake to apply."
For the next year, Butler hopes her business organization volition continue to help customers encounter themselves in a positive calorie-free with and without makeup. The company's ceremony is officially Monday.
"Our biggest benefit is that we understand our customers so well and and then we're able to support them and then well because we are our customers," said Butler. "We're going to innovate more amazing products and we're going to keep telling the stories of our customers."
Contact staff author Chanel Stitt on Twitter: @ByChanelStitt. Get a subscriber or souvenir a subscription.
Source: https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/michigan/2022/02/19/the-lip-bar-makeup-detroit-melissa-butler/6825542001/
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