It was 2012, and Beatrice Dixon was functioning out of tolerance. She’d been dealing with long-term bacterial vaginosis that returned practically monthly, and physicians continued to prescribe medication that was more of a brief resolve than a very long-time period remedy.
Dixon felt she was not currently being read, so she started to do some research on her personal — which was overpowering in its individual proper.
“I was in this perpetual state of getting medicine, heading again to the medical doctor and acquiring one more prescription,” Dixon claims, “which then led to the doctor’s place of work of Google. Which is not the one that you want to be in. You do not want to be on Google making an attempt to determine out what is actually likely on with you.”
Dixon commenced alternating among medicine and holistic remedies she investigated on the internet, but she saw no sizeable final results. Then, her grandmother spoke to her in a desire.
She describes how her grandmother (whom she hardly ever bought to fulfill) was sitting throughout from her at a round table. The place was all white, with just the two of them at the centre.
“I recall her telling me, ‘I’m not below for us to have a dialogue. I am not heading to be listed here lengthy,'” Dixon recollects. “‘You need to memorize what’s on this paper, because this is likely to remedy your dilemma.'”
Dixon woke up with a type of urgency she’d never ever seasoned and commenced promptly jotting down the components that arrived to her in her snooze. Dixon started amassing the aforementioned ingredients at Total Foodstuff, in which she worked at the time, and just after a number of days, she established her own method.
Following the fifth working day of applying the formula, Dixon was fully treated of her BV.
“It experienced literally long gone absent,” she claims. “It was insane. That was the instant when I understood that this is what I was going to be executing for the foreseeable foreseeable future.”
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“It received to the level the place persons had been indicating, ‘Look, I are unable to choose this for totally free any more.'”
Soon after Dixon perfected her formula, she knew she had to share her discovery. Because Dixon experienced only elevated funding from spouse and children and mates and had developed the item in her own kitchen, she could not find the money for a medical demo — so she ran her own.
Dixon failed to talk to for income in trade for her selfmade product or service, which eventually turned The Honey Pot’s bestselling The Honey Pot Co’s Standard Wash. As an alternative, she asked that folks review the method and give her feedback on how very well it worked or didn’t.
Her close friends and loved ones have been hooked.
“It acquired to the stage where by persons had been declaring, ‘Look, I are unable to choose this for cost-free any longer, just take some revenue,'” Dixon states.
That is when Dixon knew she was onto something, so when news hit that the Bronner Brothers Attractiveness Present was coming to Atlanta, she took it as her prospect to expand her reach.
“It felt like the very best location for us to launch mainly because there was almost nothing but human beings with vaginas strolling all-around,” Dixon laughs. “So we went to the hair demonstrate. We made 600 bottles. We sold 600 bottles. It was insane.”
Impression Credit rating: Courtesy of The Honey Pot
“There was no program B either, so this s**t had to perform.”
This was in early 2014, only about a calendar year and a 50 % soon after Dixon produced her first Honey Pot item. The company began to grow, and even with rising demand, The Honey Pot company ongoing to work out of Dixon’s kitchen area for a different two yrs when Dixon kept her entire-time work at Whole Meals to make finishes satisfy.
Through 80-hour weeks and tireless do the job, Dixon never ever wavered from her mission, sure that gals necessary her solution in their life. “It was seriously tough,” she recollects, “but I normally knew that no make any difference what, we had been going to be alright. There was no system B both, so this s**t type of experienced to function.
In the early days of Honey Pot, the team traveled to trade expos and normal hair reveals wherever they’d give out goods to persons who were intrigued in their plant-derived method to female care. Just one of these early recipients was a hairdresser, who was so impressed with the product or service that she explained to her shopper about it. That customer was a customer from Goal — the relaxation is historical past.
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The retail giant obtained wind of the business by 2016 and offered Dixon and her little group with a proposition to promote their items in their stores. It was the enlargement Dixon experienced often dreamed of — pretty much. By the time Target made the decision to offer the products and solutions in stores nationwide, the business had created about 24,000 bottles and built practically $250,000.
From there, The Honey Pot ongoing to grow not just as a enterprise, but as a system to empower other females of shade to “reclaim their wellness.”
Dixon and The Honey Pot released its Reclaiming Wellness marketing campaign in 2020, wherein the business — in partnership with Concentrate on — travels to historically Black universities and hosts seminars and talks on wellness and encourages ladies to “reclaim” their power when it comes to their bodies.
Graphic Credit history: Courtesy of The Honey Pot
“As you develop as a small business, it is really important for you to realize wherever you are, but also comprehend exactly where you want to go when you have more means.”
One particular of Dixon’s most important initiatives is to handle societal stereotypes when it comes to being a female of color in the U.S. — particularly, she states, combating against the problematic perception that “Black women are much better.”
“That’s the mantra that makes an atmosphere for Black women to be dying [during] childbirth extra than anyone else,” she states. “We are aiding women realize that [they] really don’t have to go on to die.”
Even though the Reclaiming Wellness marketing campaign is only in its 3rd calendar year, the initiative has been Dixon’s goal given that starting the manufacturer in 2014. Right before 2020, Dixon didn’t have the money to launch Reclaiming Wellness, so as the enterprise grew, she jumped at the possibility to finally carry out what her overarching mission was from the start out.
“As you develop as a enterprise, it can be critical for you to fully grasp exactly where you are, but also comprehend wherever you want to go when you have far more sources,” she states.
Now, in its third annual marketing campaign, The Honey Pot is partnering with Focus on and traveling to Clark Atlanta, Howard, Prairie View A&M and North Carolina A&T to host panel conversations with experts in both medication and education and learning to enable girls acquire possession of their nicely-getting.
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Dixon hopes that The Honey Pot will continue to not only provide as a source for women of all ages to have an understanding of their bodies and obtain the procedure they have to have but also develop into a auto to go data down to long run generations.
“It is a really tribal factor, to be ready to pass facts down, and that is basically designed into the material of Honey Pot — us being able to teach and empower gals on what they will need,” Dixon states. “From the commencing, we have been concentrated on it getting a generational thing. But what which is developed into now is that it wants to be a generational thing as it relates to schooling, to self-love, to self-respect.”
