With the rise of more and more black women breaking away from traditional 9-5s to become their own bosses, the CEO is getting a revamp as the SHEeo. In the Meet The SHEeo series, we talk to melanated mavens leveling up and glowing up, all while redefining what it means to be a boss.
Candera Thompson launched Bask & Bloom Essentials as a remedy to postpartum hair breakage and shedding. Using high-quality ingredients free from harsh chemicals and toxins, Bask & Bloom offers a full hair care line, including herbal infusions that protect against breakage while providing intense moisture. Within four years, the company has built a loyal customer base thanks to their wide range of product bundles that cater to various hair textures for a more simplified hair regimen.
Meet Candera Thompson of Bask & Bloom Essentials.
Photo courtesy of Candera Thompson
Title:CEO of Bask & Bloom Essentials
Year Founded: 2015
Location: Saint Louis, MO
# of Employees: 3
30-Second Pitch: Bask & Bloom Essentials is a rapidly growing brand in the hair and skin care industry serving all members of a household. We offer a full hair care line that includes herbal infusions to protect against breakage while providing intense moisture and our skin care line promotes a basic, 3-step regimen to maintain a natural glow.
What inspired you to start your brand?
I was transitioning to natural after having my first daughter and experiencing lots of breaking and shedding. While some postpartum shedding is normal, I wanted to find a remedy once I got past that phase to strengthen my hair and give it a fuller look. A few ladies in a Natural Hair Facebook group I was in suggested black tea rinses and I started researching herbal teas that were beneficial for the hair. After trying and seeing some of the issues subside, I wanted to research further to add these ingredients into a line of hair care products.
What was your a-ha moment that brought your idea into reality?
My a-ha moment came while on a vendor's website where I purchased my herbs from. They updated with how-to videos and a few of them showed how to infuse herbs into an oil or liquid extract. A light bulb went off, this is how I would include them into my products. After research and testing for a few months, I was more confident it bringing a line to market.
Who is your ideal customer?
[My ideal customers are] 24-45-year-old ingredient-conscious women seeking to solve issues with dry, brittle hair and sensitive skin. They are college educated with an annual income ranging from $60-$80k. They prefer access to a unique, full line of products and love being educated on different natural remedies for beauty through demos and tutorials.
What makes your business different?
Seeing that we use unique herbs in our products, we spend a lot of time educating our audience on the multiple benefits of each ingredient. We create challenges that are unique to a group of customers to participate in that demonstrates overall healthier hair and skin and the end of that time period. We offer a range of bundles based on hair texture and solutions to make it easier for consumers to have a better regimen. This has allowed us to create a loyal base of customers who have shared our company to everyone they know, making them a believer in our brand also.
What obstacles did you have to overcome while launching and growing your brand? How were you able to overcome them?
Funding, resources to effectively launch a beauty brand and great recommendations for manufacturers, time management with working a full-time job and being a mother. I saved a lot of my paycheck to put into my business so I had to become very frugal in the beginning to create excitement around my products and launch. I incorporated the mindset that "done is better than perfect" and if I can at least get started, the business will eventually fund itself. I decided against working with a manufacturer in the beginning to mass produce and instead had everything tested by a lab to ensure all ingredient levels were ideal for launch. As far as time management, I just had to say no to a lot as there is no such thing as balance. I built my brand to the point where I could leave my full-time job, even though I got laid off before I could resign.
"I incorporated the mindset that 'done is better than perfect' and if I can at least get started, the business will eventually fund itself."
What was the defining moment in your entrepreneurial journey?
When I got laid off from my full-time job, I was three months pregnant with my second child, planning to not return after I had her. At three months pregnant, many would've have been afraid to not have a steady paycheck but I took it as a sign. I got what I asked for and was preparing for even if it was premature.
Where have you seen the biggest return on investment? (i.e. marketing, ads, vending, social media)
Social media and email marketing and Facebook/IG ads.
Where do you see your company in 5-10 years? (The ultimate goal?)
On the shelves of big retail stores, international pop up shops to meet and greet customers, a few boutiques where customers can test products and get one-on-one recommendations and shop, launching a nonprofit program for teenage girls interested in entrepreneurship, making it to eight figures in revenue and investing into other black-owned beauty brands.
Biggest lesson you’ve learned in business?
Do it afraid and unsure, everyone else is and are making fear look good.
For more of Candera and Bask & Bloom, follow her on social: Instagram.
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Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak