Melissa Butler is being asked to pull The Lip Bar out of Target, and she has put a number on what that would cost her.
“We cannot simply exit Target, as we will not be able to take the financial hit,” the founder and chief executive wrote. “We can only exit Target if we can afford to exit Target. Another viable retailer could do that! We’ve tried.”
Butler started The Lip Bar in 2012, was turned down on “Shark Tank,” and landed in Target in 2018. The boycott of the chain began in January 2025 after Target rolled back its diversity commitments. Butler criticized that rollback herself and says she has raised it with the company’s leadership. By October 2025, her Target sales were down roughly 30 to 40 percent, in a year the brand projected would grow 40 percent overall.
“Yes, The Lip Bar is in Target. Are we asking you to shop there?! NO!” she wrote. “Even with lost sales in that channel, they are still our largest retail partner.”
She is not the only founder in that position. Tabitha Brown said in October 2025 that her Donna’s Recipe hair care line had taken a major financial hit during the boycott, and warned that the cost would land on the independent brands on those shelves. April Showers stopped promoting Afro Unicorn at Target in 2025 after customers raised concerns, took a six-figure loss, and her products were off Target shelves by the end of that year. She says she supports the Black-owned brands that stayed. Kim Baker, a makeup artist, is glad Glamazon Beauty is in Target’s Beauty Studio and holds the concerns about Target’s decisions at the same time.
Rev. Jamal Bryant announced in March 2026 that his boycott was over.
Butler has moved marketing money to her own website, to Amazon and to Walmart, and says she has spent years trying to get into Ulta. What she keeps returning to is not about one retailer.
“The Lip Bar has always centered Black women,” she wrote. “We’ve done HBCU Collections, given away $40k to Black-owned businesses, done countless community events, teacher events, etc. That isn’t changing. That also never goes viral lol.”
Then the part that is an argument rather than a defense.
“But as a Black-owned business, please know that it is not Anti-Black to sell products to non-Black people,” she wrote. “Black consumers spend their money across the aisle every day, but Black Brands are expected to only sell to Black people? Why do our brands have a ceiling?”
