Supporting Blackout Day 2020

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Blackout Day 2020 graphic showcasing the hashtag and the date of July 7, 2020

Today is Blackout Day 2020, which is being discussed and promoted on social media with the hashtag #BlackoutDay2020.  This article from Complex breaks down Blackout Day and how we can support Blackout Day 2020.

Supporting Blackout Day 2020

To show the buying power of Black people, as well as other minorities and their allies, they will not spend any money in the economy, and if they must spend, it will only be Black-owned businesses.

I wanted to offer links to the Black-owned businesses I've bought from and are looking to purchase from in the future.  I encourage you to share what you have purchased from Black-owned businesses in the comments.  I regularly get inspiration from your comments, and your suggestion may be the next purchase by me or another reader!

Face Masks from Black-Owned Businesses

In my cloth face mask review, I shared face masks from Mixed Up Clothing.  Mixed Up Clothing is owned and managed by an African American and Mexican American woman.  She married a Korean American and after starting a family, was inspired to create a children's fashion line her kids would be proud to wear.

Yesterday, I shared the latest face mask to my collection from Kaela Kay, a Toronto-based fashion designer whose collection focuses on her Ghanaian roots with Ankara textiles.  I first found out about Kaela Kay when researching breathable summer dresses for this blog post.  Shipping is swift with great communication about when it is out for delivery and when it arrives to your home.

I am awaiting my purchase of two masks from Candace Cort. Candace Cort is a Black fashion designer who emigrated to the United States from Guyana at the age of 12.  Loving fashion most of her life, she became a fashion stylist and then opened her own boutique in her Brooklyn apartment. She created her first fashion line in 2009.  Her online shop has dresses, two-piece looks and more available up to size 4XL.

woman wearing a white t-shirt that has the words self love on the front written in red font that looks like handwriting

Black-Owned Fashion Brands

A few months ago, I bought a t-shirt from And I Get Dressed, a company created by fashion influencer Kellie Brown.  Kellie's line of merchandise is body positive, fat positive, and stylish to boot. 

After a reader recommended Covet, a Black-owned boutique in San Francisco that has a great online shop of beautiful jewelry, I purchased the earrings I'm wearing in the photo below.  They are beautiful, lightweight, look just like the photo, and will be worn quite a lot this summer! 

My friend purchased the walnut messenger bag from UnoEth, a father-daughter owned business.  UnoEth offers goods handmade from 100% Ethiopian leather, and crafted by artisans and small businesses in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She loves the quality of the leather, and can tell it will wear well over time. For those who like bags without a lot of frills that will remain stylish for many seasons to come, I encourage you to check out this bag brand.

woman wearing a pair of green lucite earrings from Black woman-owned jewelry company Covet San Francisco
Wearing green Lucite Feather Earrings from Covet San Francisco, a Black woman-owned boutique and online jewelry store.

Black-Owned Beauty Brands

As I mentioned in my post about my current beauty and makeup routine, I am not buying anything until I run out of what I own. But one brand I do have and love is Fenty Beauty.  A cosmetics line by Rihanna, the products are of incredible quality and formulation, and the color range is fantastic.  While I have a few pieces from Fenty Beauty, my two must-haves that I have ordered more than once is the Fenty Invisimatte and Fenty Gloss Bomb

Invisimatte is a compact translucent blotting powder.  It's so finely milled, it really does mattify without adding onto the skin.  I especially like it in the summer because it can go over a shiny sweaty face to make it matte without feeling gross.  The compact is luxe, and even having it bang around in my purse and luggage the powder has never cracked or crumbled, even when it's so low I've hit pan. 

Fenty Gloss Bomb lip glosses
Gloss Bomb, my favorite lip gloss from Fenty Beauty

Fenty Gloss Bomb I first bought when I did my My Beauty Routine series and more than one of the contributors said they loved the gloss.  I have both Fenty Glow and FU$$Y and love them alone or over my favorite lipstick.  Not too sticky but sticks around through a cup of coffee, not too fragrant yet doesn't have a gross plastic “unscented” smell, beautiful packaging that also is functional (easy to open and close, doesn't leak, easy to get product out even if you're near the end, nice sponge applicator). 

15 Percent Pledge

If you haven't heard about the 15 Percent Pledge, it's a campaign to have big businesses dedicate at least 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses.  Black people make up nearly 15% of the US population so it isn't ridiculous to ask for such representation at major retailers. 

Sephora is one of the first companies to commit to the 15 Percent Pledge.  Fenty Beauty is sold at Sephora, but I linked directly to Fenty Beauty in the above paragraph so Fenty Beauty receives 100% of the profits.  However, I know many are more comfortable shopping from Sephora so I wanted you to be aware of Sephora's part in this pledge!

wire sculpture Self Acceptance by San Francisco artist Kristine Mays
This sculpture is called “Self Acceptance” and is by Kristine Mays, a Black woman wire artist in San Francisco

Home Decor from Black-Owned Businesses

Two Thanksgivings ago, the bag company Scout invited me and my sister to a Friendsgiving event.  There were the cutest and best smelling candles on the table from The 125 Collection, a candle company based in Harlem. The 125 Collection name celebrates the legendary “125th Street” located in the heart of Harlem.

Founded, owned, and self-funded by friends Valerie Wray and Joy Fennell, The 125 Collection has candles with motivational, sweet, and spicy messages that make great gifts (so recipients have told me) and look great sitting on your desk or nightstand!  

Many have asked about the wire sculpture in our living room that often made a cameo in a lot of my at-home outfit photos.  The piece is by San Francisco-based wire artist Kristine Mays. I “met” Kristine over a decade ago through our lifestyle blogs and have loved following her journey. 

Karl bought me one of Kristine Mays' pieces as a Valentine's Day gift a couple of years ago. Kristine Mays has won several awards and one of her pieces was in Peggy Cooper Cafritz's collection.  Kristine Mays' work is for sale in galleries across this country and through Artsy.  She also offers smaller pieces in her Etsy shop.

We are saving up for a few pieces we want to finish off the looks in our home so a purchase hasn't been made yet, but I want to share what we're looking at:

Woman holding bottles of cleaning products from PUR HOME
products from PUR Home; Image via BLK + GRN

Black-Owned Groceries and Cleaning Supplies

Angela Richardson began her journey into eco-friendly living seven years ago when she made her first ever natural bar of soap. She has been obsessed ever since and created PUR Home.

As the CEO as well as formulator and product developer, Richardson's PUR Home line offers non-toxic eco-friendly laundry detergent and household cleaners. 

If you are looking for other Black-owned cleaning products:

Resources for Finding Black-Owned Businesses

  • Blocal, Black Local Business Search, is a site that will help you find local Black-owned businesses.  Just enter what you're looking for and your location!
  • Black Wall Street is an app that will help you find Black-owned businesses to patronize
  • Shoppe Black is a wonderful resource for Black-owned retailers and businesses, often offering interviews with entrepreneurs along with suggestions on where to shop based on category.
A woman with curly hair wearing a plaid blazer holds a green fur coat over her shoulder on a city street.

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10 Comments

  1. One of my favorite purchases has been a woven bag from aaks (a black-owned business sourcing bags out of Ghana). My feed has been inundated by baskets from Africa , but aaks is black-owned and quite stylish

  2. I have been wanting to try Rihanna’s Glass Bomb lip glosses so thanks for the nudge and the link–Fenty Glow is headed my way! Will explore these other great links as well–thanks for letting us know about all of these resources!

  3. Adrienne Wiley from Covet in San Francisco is a pleasure to work with — and I may have decided to establish my own personal Earrings of the Month club with Covet. I recently bought two Mayfair necklaces, and I’m more than happy with them. I chose the Mayfair style because the necklaces are lovely and delicate, but what really sold me is that the chain part is amazingly similar to a necklace I inherited from my grandmother, who inherited it from her great-aunt. Each Mayfair has a small gold disk with an initial engraved on it. Our granddaughters are five and two, so much too young for real bling yet, but I plan to wear the necklaces every day, and when they’re old enough, to give each one hers. The girls love rummaging through my jewelry box, and they never tire hearing the history of each piece. I think part of my job as a grandmother is to link the generations and to share family stories, to let the girls know where we came from and how we got here, to tell them the big important stories and the quiet character-defining ones. I like to think that years from now, each of the girls will open a jewelry box and say to a little girl, “My grandmother wore this necklace every day, and when I was 12, she gave it to me, along with a bracelet her grandparents gave her on her twelfth birthday. . .”

  4. Thank you for this! If I could add a recommendation, I’ve purchased 2 pairs of earrings from KeeshaMakes and they are amazing. I bought a pair of the multicolored dangly earrings and they are so light-weight and comfortable and JOYFUL to wear. She posts restocks on Instagram and she’s just lovely to follow. I can’t recommend her enough.

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