november 23 - 29 | This week with Buy From A Black Woman...
The whole month of November we are celebrating Black Women Business Owners everyday!
We do that already but this month we are going over & beyond. Each day you can enter for your chance to win a product or service from a Black Woman Business Owner via our Instagram & Facebook Page or catch a live podcast on our YouTube Channel.
On our blog we're also highlighting the business owners that are part of the Black Woman Directory. Check back here daily to learn more about the Black Woman Business Owners featured throughout the week of November 16 - 22nd.
Monday, November 16
A Place for Audre
A Place for Audre combines Accountability Coaching and Home Styling, two of the founder's passions. Working on the belief that the work done together internally should be reflected externally in your space, clients discover through coaching sessions how to get out of their own way, and establish tools that support internal growth. After that, the focus is turned to aesthetics and styling of one's space, figuring out what best honors an individual's needs.
Meet Kayla
Kayla, the creator behind A Place for Audre, has a background in Black feminism, anti-oppression work and years as a Social Worker working with marginalized communities. Originally from the suburbs of Chicago, she is now currently based in Berkeley, CA.
When Kayla works with clients, she likes to reflect what an individual is putting out in their home and in their life, and gives them an opportunity to assess what they want to keep and what they want to shift. She advocates for growth, create a safe holding space for that growth, and keeps everyone she works with focused on their goals.
Kayla's hope is that after working with her, you will feel more autonomy and breathing space in your everyday life and your home.
Shop Directly: www.placeforaudre.com
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All My Boys Shop
All My Boys Shop offers casual, cool, and most importantly, comfortable apparel for little boys.
Meet Halima
Halima started All My Boys Shop two years ago out of necessity, when she found there to be a lack of fun clothing available for boys. As a mama to three young boys, she wanted to give them something they'd enjoy wearing and also wanted to create an outlet for herself outside of being a military wife and mom. It made sense to her to combine her sewing experience, fashion marketing, and management degree with her passion for creating things.
Halima is a lover of all things art, including her first love of fashion design. She is very passionate about spreading love, peace and positivity through her clothing and throughout her life.
Shop Directly: www.allmyboysshop.com
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Tuesday, November 17
harper + charlotte
harper + charlotte specializes in handmade books: case-bound, Coptic stitch and leather (both animal and vegan) soft-cover books. From folding to gluing, to stitching, all books are entirely handcrafted and structurally sound.
Meet Carla
Carla's journey to bookbinder and business owner took a lot of twists and turns. With a master's in higher education administration from The University of Southern Mississippi and over 10 years of experience in the higher education field, she eventually settled in Atlanta. Soon after, Carla met a calligraphy and bookbinding instructor that ignited her current passion for bookbinding.
After giving away some of her handmade pieces at a holiday gathering, Carla started receiving questions about pricing and inquiries for orders. At the end of 2019, she did her research and started laying the groundwork for what is now harper + charlotte Handmade Books.
Shop Directly: www.harperandcharlotte.com
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Flowers & Moondust
Flowers & Moondust is an African wholistic wellness company that offers high quality African superfoods + beauty products. As a business, they are dedicated to recentering the power of African ancestral healing magic, empowering local African communities and encouraging wholistic wellness journeys.
Meet Antoinette
Antoinette is the founder of Flowers & Moondust. When she started her freshman year at Colby College, she had every intention of becoming a traditional medical doctor, earning degrees in Biology and African-American Studies while on the pre-med track. However, somewhere along the journey, she took a risk and followed my heart. In 2017, it led her back to her ancestral homeland of Ghana, West Africa where she now operates Flowers & Moondust.⠀
Shop Directly: www.flowersandmoondust.com
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Wednesday, November 25
Playbox Lashes
Playbox Lashes is a purpose-driven beauty brand that was inspired by the idea of uniting people through nostalgia, creativity and self expression through playful use of makeup.
Meet Tasha Lee
As the owner, creative director and founder of Playbox Lashes, Tasha Lee has always had a passion to help people.
Moving around a lot as a kid helped Tasha Lee to understand differences and understand people in a broader aspect. To know what it feels like to “not be included” or “feel accepted” really pushed her to want to create something different.
In 2017, Tasha Lee lost everything and was uprooted from her hometown in Providence, Rhode Island and moved to Maryland. The following year she had a vision for her business and knew it was time to create something bigger than herself and use that platform to ultimately reach people.
Shop Directly: www.playboxlashes.com
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Queen Malika
Queen Malika is a small online store offering eyelashes, and soon a makeup line. The company operates with the goal to offer their customers the best products and services possible.
The name for the business was inspired by the Malika, the founder's daughter, who was born with long, beautiful eyelashes. The name Malika also means "Queen" in several languages.
Meet Judith
Judith is an entrepreneur focusing on cosmetics, beauty accessories, and fashion. Born in Belgium, having grown up in a French-speaking country in west Africa, and now living in New York, Judith uses her multicultural experiences and background in business from the Fashion Institute of Technology to promote Black and African beauty.
Shop Directly: www.queenmalika.com
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Friday, November 27
Taupe Coat
Taupe Coat creates clean, non-toxic beauty products. Its mission is to use nail polish to make a positive impact in its community. Taupe Coat operates a quarterly giving program, the Taupe Charity program, which donates funds, product, or volunteer hours to organizations that serve some of the most underrepresented members of society. All Taupe Coat products are mixed by hand in small batches. We are polish with a Purpose!
Meet Bethany
By day, Bethany is an attorney in Los Angeles. By night, she’s running Taupe Coat, an independent nail polish brand that blends beauty with wellness by creating low toxin, vegan, and cruelty free nail polish. After being diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease in her early twenties, Bethany became more mindful of what she put on, and in, her body. Taupe Coat was eventually born out of her desire to support and encourage other women on their journey to live a life of wellness and self-fulfillment.
Shop Directly: www.taupecoat.com
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VigorWicks Candle Co
Vigorwicks Candle Co. commits to creating an experience for you through aromas, strategically blended and guaranteed to ignite your senses. Candles are made with the customer in mind, by hand-crafting vegan soy wax, layered with fragrances and essential oils – while paying special attention to various moods.
Meet Lee
Raised in the Bronx and currently residing in North Carolina, Lee is the owner and creative director of VigorWicks Candle Co. Her mission is to produce quality and draw you in with catchy candle scent phrases that are fun/sexy/thought-driven, and ultimately ‘the sauce’ for inducing nostalgia and setting moods.
Shop Directly: www.vigorwicks.com
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Lauren Simone Publishing House
Lauren Simone Publishing House, founded in 2016, is a publishing company in Hartford, Connecticut birthed by two sisters, Olivia Lauren John and Alyssa Simone John. The sisters- who deeply love the arts- act, model, draw, paint, play musical instruments, and most recently started to publish books. Together, with the help of their mom, Dr. Melissa-Sue John, they created the Olivia Lauren book series. They wanted to expose young readers to the things that they had experienced, as well as create a platform for other authors and artists to share their talent and diversity.
Meet Melissa-Sue John
While Olivia Lauren John and Alyssa Simone John are at school, track, modeling, acting or performing in orchestra, Dr. Melissa-Sue John, their mom, runs the day-to-day operations of the Lauren Simone Publishing House.
Dr. Melissa-Sue John was born in Jamaica and grew up with a Black Prime Minister, Black teachers, Black Ministers, Black doctors, so on. There was nothing in her environment that told her she wasn’t good enough or that she couldn’t excel at anything she pursued. When she moved to the US at 18 years old, she realized that Black Americans did not have that luxury and how important it was to have heroes like Martin Luther King, and more recently, President Barack Obama.
The reason Dr. Melissa-Sue John and her daughters write is so that children can see themselves in the books they read. Her hope is that Lauren Simone Publishing House books will help children of all races, ethnicities, nationalities, genders, and abilities to feel beautiful, smart, legitimate, and valid in their identity and experiences.
Shop Directly: www.laurensimonepubs.com
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Luxurious Wellniss
Luxurious Wellniss transcends the label of being another brand– it is a mission-driven enterprise that seeks to refresh and rejuvenate the routines and products of both men and women of color whose needs have not been prioritized in the wellness realm. Moreover, an integral part of Luxurious Wellniss’ mission lies in empowering brands that are owned and operated by women. Over half of their products are sourced from female-owned businesses and our goal is to see that number swell.
Meet Felicia
Felicia laid the foundation for the creation of her beauty & wellness website through her undergraduate studies in chemistry and business. With over a decade of experience as a licensed esthetician and two decades in the fashion and entertainment spheres, Felicia has her finger on the pulse of what wellness truly means. She is not simply concerned with cultivating the hottest, hippest products, but more importantly, she understands the science behind what we put on our bodies.
Furthermore, as a woman of color, Felicia is profoundly dedicated to illuminating brands that speak to the desires of those who are often underrepresented in the seemingly monolithic wellness world. We are acutely aware of what we put in our bodies, but she want to ensure that what we’re using on our bodies is just as fortifying and nourishing.
Shop Directly: www.luxuriouswellniss.com
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Sunday, November 29
Square L7
Square L7 is a designer ready-to-wear brand based in the Bronx, NY. Giving basics a bit of edge and fusing Coolness and Elegance, creating the brand's identity of "Coolegance", they strive to create Designer Basics that can be added to your wardrobe and styled with pieces you already have or styled with each other.
Meet Lu
Lu is the owner and Creative behind the line Square L7. As a Bronx native, Lu grew up submerged in diversity and different cultures. Within her family itself you could find a mixture of ethnicities, cultures and traditions. The variation gives Lu her unique point of view creatively and in life in general.
Lu was born a Maker and making clothing is just one of the mediums that drives her creativity. She studied Fashion Design at the High School Of Fashion Industries and then FIT in New York, NY and then went on to finish her training at FIT/Polimoda in Florence Italy where she remained for 7 years. In coming back to New York in hopes to jump start her career as a Designer, she was met with many obstacles and had to reinvent herself several times outside of designing in order to be able to work. Becoming a pattern and dress maker only helped to make her work as a designer even better!
For Square L7, Lu designs and patterns the pieces herself which ensures that the vision is followed through from start to finish. As a Mother and Wife, the goal here is to create and grow something that her kids can have a hand in building and maybe someday continue if they so choose to.
Shop Directly: www.squarel7.com
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