'Shark Tank' judges laughed at this vegan lipstick brand — now it’s selling in Target, raking in millions
'Lip Bar,' a vegan lipstick company founded by entrepreneurs Melissa Butler and Roscoe Spears, was featured on 'Shark Tank' in 2015. The duo sought $125,000 for a 20% stake in their handmade lipstick brand. The beauty entrepreneurs explained that their organic lipsticks came in various shades and were made with shea butter, avocado, and castor oil. "We never use parabens; we're vegan and cruelty-free now, which of you sharks are going to pucker up and invest in the lip bar?" they continued with their winning pitch. They also claimed to have sold over $8,000 worth of handmade vegan lipstick shortly after launch.
However, their pitch fell on deaf ears as the sharks began backing out one by one. Kevin O'Leary began on a brutal note. "I can see a massive market share in the clown market," he chuckled and continued, “The chances that this is a business are practically zero. You only have so many minutes on Earth; don’t waste them trying to sell lipstick.” Millionaire Daymond John excused himself next with the words, “You are never going to create anything new in this world. It’s lipstick.” Lori Greiner passed on the deal, saying, "You guys are bright women, and you're obviously very industrious, but being a woman, one of the hard things for me with cosmetics and shopping online is it's so hard for the store online to convey to me what that color is really going to turn out."
Robert Herjavec and Mark Cuban also declined to invest. Butler later said she was devastated by the panel’s harsh criticism. “They were really cruel to us,” she told CNBC later. In the interview, Butler shared that she began making lipsticks in her kitchen in 2012. "I literally launched with, like, purple and blue and green and yellow lipstick lipsticks that you've never seen before because I was really trying to prove a point," she explained. She then revealed that she cold-pitched her brand to retail giant Target. "I didn't have the contact, I didn't know how to pitch to them, but I knew that my product would work there, and I knew that they needed my consumer," the former Wall Street employee said.
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Despite the taunts on 'Shark Tank,' Butler later landed a major deal with Target. Her products soon hit shelves nationwide. As of 2025, The Lip Bar is available at CVS, Walmart, and Amazon. According to Beauty Matter, the company raised $6.7 million in 2022 from Pendulum. "Our lip sales were crazy during the pandemic—we sold more lip than anything because we have that liquid matter formula. That's one of the most significant parts of the business. Our liquid mattes last all day and don't dry your lips out," Butler said. With business booming and the brand collaborating with A-listers like Coco Jones, 'Lip Bar' just proved the 'sharks' wrong.
