As Target continues to face widespread boycotts following a move away from its DEI initiatives, The Lip Bar, the largest Black-owned beauty brand carried by the big box chain, is thriving.
During a recent interview with The Beauty Independent, Melissa Butler, founder of The Lip Bar, shared how her brand has not only managed to survive the turbulence but is projected to grow significantly this year. Sales are expected to be up by 40%, while earnings before taxes are anticipated to double.
“Our sales are absolutely down any given week at Target,” she admitted to the outlet. “We’re down approximately 30% to 40%, which is very painful for a small business. I think that we will see some businesses suffer fates that we don’t want to see from this.”
However, she added, long before Target rolled back its diversity and inclusion programs, The Lip Bar had already laid the groundwork for a strategy built to weather uncertainty.
“Even before the Target DEI news came out, our strategy was to broaden our scope at a product level,” she continued. “A lot of people know us for lip, but don’t know that we sell tinted moisturizer, concealer or skincare. Our strategy was to increase visibility of our additional products and additional retailers and to diversify our audience.”
She added, “Luckily, that supported the shifts that our customers were inevitably going to make.”
In January, Target announced it was scaling back its DEI programs, sparking boycotts that have since contributed to a decline in sales. For Butler, whose brand first landed on Target shelves in 2018—years before the company publicly launched and later retreated from its DEI efforts—the moment has been particularly complex. As the largest Black-owned makeup brand at Target, The Lip Bar has found itself caught in the middle.
Still, Butler says her brand’s growth stems from meeting the moment with a broadened product lineup and a diverse marketing approach. Today, The Lip Bar’s products are sold through multiple major retailers, including Target, Walmart, CVS, and Amazon.
While chatting with The Beauty Independent, Butler also shared her candid reaction to Target’s DEI controversy. She said she immediately reached out to both her internal team and Target executives to understand the company’s direction.
“We were hoping they would make a redeeming statement saying, ‘We’ve always shown up in a diverse and inclusive way, and that’s not going to change.’ Unfortunately, that statement never came,” she said. “That was disappointing, but my relationship with Target hasn’t changed. I have not seen them pull back on any of the commitments they have made for our company.”
In a post on Instagram sharing the interview, Butler thanked her supporters for standing by The Lip Bar through every twist in the retail climate.
“Thank you to all The Lip Bar Beauties who supported, shared and loved any The Lip Bar products,” she wrote in the caption. “Your support means everything. This one is for you!”
