Black Girl Sunscreen Founder Shontay Lundy On Raising $1M, Launching At Ulta Beauty And The Drama Surrounding Sunscreen

Black Girl Sunscreen founder Shontay Lundy’s main mission is to educate people of color about the importance of sun safety. She took a major step toward embarking on it five years ago with the release of her brand’s hero moisturizing sunscreen lotion, which received a glowing review from a Reddit user that caused it to go viral in 2019. BGS’s lineup has since expanded to include a kid’s version of the moisturizing sunscreen lotion and a matte formula as well as an array of merch such as a coffee mug, joggers and crewneck shirt. Released at the beginning of the year, the matte sunscreen formula called Make It Matte has already sold out twice.

BGS has made a push into big retail. It landed on Target’s website and select stores in 2019 before launching at Ulta Beauty earlier this year. Speaking of the brand’s most recent retail partnership, Lundy says, “That shows that we’re flexible in the sense of we’re able to play in the mass space, and we’re able to play in the beauty space.” To help support retail expansion and marketing efforts, BGS received a $1 million investment from a private funding source last year. Beauty Independent talked to Lundy about her career before BGS, the brand’s fundraising process, product assortment growth and conservations with strangers about sun care.

Did you envision yourself becoming an entrepreneur before you became one?

No, I didn’t actually. My major in college was elementary education, so that’s being a teacher in grade school. I switched my major when I was a sophomore to business economics, and I still had no idea what I wanted to do. I graduated with a degree in business, and figured I’d just find a job. I entered the “real world” and was looking for a company to join, and found something in the rental car space and worked my way up the corporate ladder. I did very well there. It was a very competitive atmosphere, and that’s where I learned so much about business.

I was in middle management, so there were a lot of things that we had to do on our own like hiring talent, managing profit-and-loss statements and balance sheets, market the business, manage inventory and really just be the best of the best. That experience really helped me with the journey of Black Girl Sunscreen. Growing up, though, entrepreneurship wasn’t even really a thing. It wasn’t a word. It was like you’re a salesman or a businessperson. I don’t think it was as coveted as it is today.

Do you remember when you decided you wanted to work for yourself?

It was about creating the product first. It was never like, “Oh, I’m about to have this business.” It’s always been on the education around sun safety. There was no plan. It was kind of willy nilly but also not really. It was just about, “OK, I have an issue, I’m going to solve the issue. The issue happens to be in consumer product goods where it does generate revenue, profitability, you can scale it.” So, there was nothing premeditated. 

You raised $1 million in funding last year. Why did you feel like it was the right time to raise?

It wasn’t necessarily planned. I was doing things, and my back was against the wall. We needed inventory. We were scaling pretty rapidly. We had gotten into retail. Our purchase orders were getting bigger, and my money wasn’t long enough. I started Black Girl Sunscreen with my own money, and I was constantly reinvesting in the business. Everything that I had from my pockets wasn’t deep enough to elevate and take the business to the next level.

What was the fundraising process like?

The process of raising is lengthy, and I encourage anyone that’s entering the conversations of raising capital and funding to just have patience. It’s not an overnight thing. It’s a process because you are vetting and conversing with individuals that you may or may not want to be your partner. Our funding process came before the pandemic actually hit, in February/March. We were in talks with high-net individuals and angels from December, and that’s just how long it took to finalize the deal.

I think the process would be different if we actually started to have conversations during the peak of the pandemic. There may not have been as many investors raising their hands. We actually had somebody dip out because the stock market changed, so that means it changed the trajectory of their money. I just think it was all about timing.

What do you want to accomplish with the funding?

Back in 2020, when we were having those initial conversations, our pitch was to grow the brand. That entailed working capital, replenishing our inventory, etc. We hired some executives positions for the company. We have a headquarters in Los Angeles now. There are so many different things that we were able to do with the funding.

I would say, to the average person, $1 million is a lot of money, but, then, when you actually get into the space of running a business and understanding what it takes, what personnel expenses costs—personnel is the largest expense pretty much for all businesses—how much inventory costs. If you have a product development department, what does that entail? $1 million is just a drop in the bucket depending on the size of your business. But, at the same time, are we definitely doing things that we weren’t able to do prior to funding? Absolutely.

BGS launched into Target in 2019. What have you learned about what it takes to make it at a big chain?

Being transparent with what’s really happening with your operation. Also, understanding what a true partnership looks like and what it may feel like to operate at a high level in terms of purchase orders. From the outside, it may look easy, but it’s actually really hard to manage your supply chain, to manage even expectations. Then, how do you get the consumer to purchase your product? So, it’s more than just saying, “Hey, I’m in Target,” but strategizing campaigns to draw the guest there. What’s that balance between your own dot-com site and working with Target.com? Target has been a brand builder for many brands, how do you leverage that?

What’s the brand’s distribution strategy?

Currently, Black Girl Sunscreen is in 1,200 doors in Target, so that is an increase from the last time I spoke with Beauty Independent. I think we were in 250 stores. Within a year, we’ve jumped up about 1,000 stores, which is great because Black Girl Sunscreen does have a very targeted demographic. We speak to people of color, so when I hear that they want to increase the door count, that means that Black Girl Sunscreen is popping up in neighborhoods that don’t necessarily have a diverse community.

We most recently launched in Ulta. That shows that we’re flexible in the sense of we’re able to play in the mass space, and we’re able to play in the beauty space. We’re also in a retail chain called Citi Trends. It’s fast fashion, and they have 600 stores across the United States. So, again, it just speaks to who Black Girl Sunscreen can talk to, and that’s really every woman of color with skin.

BGS expanded into Nigeria in 2019. What plans do you have for international growth now?

Our goal here at Black Girl Sunscreen is to become a global brand and, to make that happen, we have to expand internationally. So, we have some distributors in Europe, specifically the U.K. Canada is a huge, huge market for us. Slowly, but surely we’re making our footprint across the borders and ponds and oceans.

How do you think about expanding the brand’s product assortment?

What’s most important is that we stick to our core competency, and that’s SPF. We think of sunscreen as two types, right? There’s synthetic, and there’s mineral. I think it’s imperative that BGS has our synthetic formula, and that’s our OG Black Girl Sunscreen SPF 30. Then, we have, in terms of product expansion, a mineral formula that speaks to the consumers that aren’t really into synthetic ingredients and really just want a zinc formula. I think that’s absolutely necessary. That’s a direction for us to go into. In terms of application, do we want roll-on, do we want sprays, do we want a brush that pushed out the sunscreen? For us, it’s just more of sticking to our core competencies.

Make It Matte was important to add to our lineup so we could cater to a wider variety of consumers. We understand that one does not fit all, so we chose to come up with a formula that would be suitable for other skin types and preferences to remain inclusive. We are always listening to the feedback from our customers and will continue developing products our customers want to see from us.

There’s been a lot of discussion regarding sunscreens lately, including involving ingredients, regulations and manufacturing. How do you see the sunscreen segment evolving?

I think it’s tough. From a consumer perspective, they’re still not believing what sunscreen can do. They’re not wearing it on a daily basis. They’re just wearing it to the beach or on vacation. So, when a consumer hears, “Hey, this is not what it is showing to be,” it casts doubt on the consumer, and I think that that’s sad. and it’s unfortunate because, from a brand perspective, we trust someone to test something, and that’s what’s being communicated to a brand, owner, company, whatever. That’s what you’re going to go off of.

I don’t think there’s ever an intention to trick anyone or to mislead anyone, and it’s just unfortunate that that’s what’s happening, especially this time of the year where it’s legit peak season. The world is starting to open up and so many people have the travel bug. They’re spending so much time outdoors, and they are leery, like, “OK, I don’t know who to trust.’ With the contamination of benzene and, “OH, is this truly the number of SPF that’s in a formula?,” I just think it’s really unfortunate that’s it’s happening right now.

What are some short-term and long-term goals for BGS?

They’re one and the same. Our long-term goal is to continue on our mission and vision to start the conversation around sun safety amongst people of color. It can be something so simple as, if I’m out and about, and I see a family that is practicing sun safety, I might ask them, “Hey, did you know there’s a product for darker complexions?” just to see where their education is.

This actually happened to me over Memorial Day weekend. There was a white family with two boys, one of them was Black and one of them was white. I didn’t know if the Black boy was a friend of the white boy or if he was adopted. I saw the family putting sunscreen on the dad, mom and little white boy, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, they’re practicing sun safety, this is amazing.” But I didn’t see them putting on any sunscreen on the little Black boy.

I felt so compelled to go up to the family and my friend’s like, “just let them vacation.” And I’m like, “No, this is why I’m here. I was put on this planet to talk about this stuff,” so it would be remiss of me not to. I went up to the mom, and I was like, “Excuse me, I see your family practicing sun safety. I’m just curious, do you put anything on his skin?,” referring to the little Black boy. And she was like, “Yeah, we actually do. We use a product called Black Girl Sunscreen.” And the dad’s like, “No, no, no, honey, it’s called BGS Kids, and he pulled out the product.” And I thought that was amazing.

What that means to me is Black Girl Sunscreen is doing what it’s supposed to be doing. It’s resonating with families. It’s promoting togetherness, wellness and sun safety. I mentioned earlier that it’s one and the same—to make sure the education is being spread, and that’s what’s happening.