Art by India Espy-Jones.
Welcome to Behind The Beauty. Here, we highlight Black women in beauty who are taking the industry by storm and making history in their own right. Everyone from rising beauty brand founders, to behind-the-scenes PR mavens discuss their career journeys, biggest inspirations, and more.
Bea Dixon whispers an energy that is at once powerful and peaceful into everything she does. With The Honey Pot Co., which she launched in 2014, she makes it a point to create plant-derived, toxin-free feminine care products. Fan favorites include everything from Intimate Washes to Herbal Liners.
Beyond this, the brand is also intentional in other ways. For one, their first editor press trip last year, that I had the pleasure of going on, included a multitude of soul-fueling activities. We got to attend an Atlanta Dream WNBA game, create our own signature room scents, and even do a group vision-boarding activity.
More recently, over the weekend, these good and nourishing vibes continued at The Honey Pot Salon (which the brand has done in LA as well) event at Apartment Ra’el in Brooklyn. Hosted by beauty editor and founder of MorePleasure, Kayla Greaves, the day of programming, which was inspired by the history of Black women’s creative salons, started with guided breath work.
Following this was a group conversation with Reiki Healer and Founder of A Safe Space Mentor Teya Knapp, Cultural Critic and author Sasha Bonét, and Women’s Health Physician Dr. Tabitha A. Lowry. The afternoon closed with a writing workshop led by Craft & Release, and a moment for everyone to write future love letters to themselves. Laughter was heard and cathartic tears of joy were shared throughout the day.
And her good work doesn’t stop there. She’s also on the heels of putting out her first book, The Soul Instinct, which is filled with personal and inspirational stories. “I knew it was time to write a book because I had so much to say,” she tells ESSENCE.
As she reflects on her journey thus far, gratitude is at the forefront of her mind. “I’m just very grateful to have been able to be successful at doing what we set out to do, which was to serve humans with vaginas,” Dixon shares. “I’m grateful that we’ve been able to do it our way.”
Below, to close out Women’s History Month, Dixon discusses her career journey, what it means to her to be a history maker, and much more.
The Story Behind The Honey Pot Co.:
I got started with the Honey Pot, honestly, out of my own personal need. I had bacterial vaginosis for almost a year, and it was hard. It was pretty rough. I tried everything that you can imagine. I lived on antibiotics, which meant I also had yeast infections, which was crazy. I was living on Google and Reddit, literally looking up any remedy and talking to people.
Then, one morning, my grandmother came to me in a dream and basically told me that she knew what would solve my problem. And she just handed me a piece of paper that had a list of ingredients and she told me that I needed to remember. And so I repeated it a hundred times almost, at least that’s what it felt like. And finally, she just told me to wake up. And I worked at Whole Foods at the time, so I went to work that day and pulled together all the ingredients and made myself a formula, which is now known as our normal wash or our original wash. And I started using it and within five days, everything that I was dealing with went away. It was like magic. And the moment that I realized that that had happened, that was literally the moment that I was like, this is what I do now. And that was back in 2012. And so it’s been a really beautiful journey.
From Her Kitchen To The Shelves:
In the beginning, we were just hustling and grinding, going to every vendor event. Once we got it off the ground, we just spent our time perfecting the formula. Then we got the opportunity to go to the Bronner Brothers Hair Show in Atlanta. There, we sold out.
Once you succeed at one hair show, they’re selling you on the next one. So we used those moments to be able to connect to our customers—whether it was a hair show, a farmer’s market, a trunk show, etc. Whatever we could do to get in front of lots of people, we did it.
Then we were able to get into Whole Foods. Two-three years later, we were able to get into Target. That was when we found a manufacturer and they were making our washes and our wipes. And then we were able to get into the menstrual pad business. That was a historical moment because no vaginal wellness brand, that made washes and wipes, had ever really crossed over.
Early Life:
I was born in Virginia. I was raised a little bit in DC and Maryland. And then we moved to Phoenix when I was 10, and I grew up in Phoenix until I was 2021, and then I moved to Atlanta in 2005. I don’t necessarily think that it’s where I’m from that shaped my upbringing. I think it’s my mother that shaped my upbringing and made me what I am today. My mom, first of all, she was pretty strict, but she also made me work for things and it really created a work ethic in me. My first memory of that is when I wanted to get my driver’s permit. And my mom told me that if I wanted to do that, then I needed to get a job because I needed to go to driving school. She helped me get a job at McDonald’s. Because of moments like that, I can do anything I put my mind to.
How She’s Grown Since Launching:
I think I’ve grown a lot. I’ve been through a lot of iterations of myself. I think when we were first getting started, I was still very much in hustle mode just in my own personal life because I am very known to work hard and had a lot of different jobs in my life. But I think that in the beginning, I was very busy, very stressed. I was unhappy. I wasn’t living as the best version of myself. You
It’s not that I didn’t have knowledge of myself or anything, but that was just a really hard period. Plus when you are in a situation where you are working through your life and trying to figure yourself out and also broke…I think it definitely made me a better person. It made me a better founder. But it also helped me understand what my version of bottom was because I’ve definitely been homeless. I’ve done all kinds of things in my life to be able to get by.
Now, I feel like I’m living as my healthiest self. I’m my happiest self. I’m able to actually have peace in my mind. I’ve worked hard to be able to live the life that I want to live, do the things I want to do. But I think everything that we go through makes us ready for wherever we’re going to face. So I’m very grateful for both. I’m grateful to understand what it looks like for shit to be hard, and I’m grateful to understand.
And I’m not saying that things can’t be hard now because it absolutely can. But, I’m good in my body, in my mind, in my heart. And it’s not about money and objects and houses and cars. It’s not about that. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m just talking about literally just being happy and healthy in my body. Those are the things that I’ve worked for for a long time, and I can say that I’m finally in a really great place. That’s all I want.
In Her Author Era:
Writing a book just came into my mind one day. I remember maybe a couple years before that, I was talking to one of my friends and I asked her, how the hell do you even do that? I’m also a person of few words, so I think that that’s why it was such a big deal to me.
And so a couple years later, I just thought, well, I think it’s time. And actually it started out as a whole different book. But then once we went out to the world to shop it and get a publisher and do all the things. It became really apparent to us that the strategy that we were thinking about wasn’t the right one. And so then we kind of switched and it became a memoir—just stories about my life and what’s gotten me to this moment.
Honestly, it was really my self-help book to myself with prayers of it being able to help people in their lives. But that’s really how I came to the journey. And I found a really amazing writer that helped me write it. I really love Rachel Bertsche, and we just spent a lot of time together because there’s an art to writing. It’s not just throwing words on a page. You have to know how to tell a story.
What It Means To Her To Be A Black Woman Making History:
I think it means a lot to me to be able to be a human having an experience, being able to do the things that I really enjoy. I am a humanist through and through, and I’m just grateful that I get to enjoy this experience in this body at this time that I’ve tapped into myself to know that I’m capable of almost anything. I’m capable of getting through pain. I’m capable of going through heartache. I’m capable of building beautiful businesses. I’m capable of having really loving people around me. I’m capable. And I just think that’s what it means to me.
I’m just so grateful to be able to be here and have the experiences that I’ve been able to have. I believe that we choose our parents from heaven because our souls never really die. You know what I’m saying? So I’m just grateful that my soul got to be put on this planet to accomplish this thing that I’ve been put here to accomplish. And so because of that, I want to do it really well because it’s not lost on me that all things are in order all the time.
Who She’s Giving Her Flowers To This Women’s History Month:
There’s so many. I’m surrounded by so many incredible women. Obviously, my mommy is the dopest. I have so many beautiful, beautiful, beautiful human beings around me, I could go on and on. But it’s so amazing because I have the most incredible group of women around me. And I’m just at a really beautiful phase where this circle feels right. Everybody’s happy and healthy and well and living with peace in their mind and building beautiful companies and just working in philanthropy, working in spiritual work. Everybody is just thriving. That feels good because we are a reflection of who we hang with. We’re all mirrors, so I’m very grateful.
What’s Next For Honey Pot:
We’ve got perimenopause pads launching soon. It’s dope because it’ll be the first of its kind. It has a perimenopause herbal blend that has Black Kohosh and Dankwai and Chase Street. It’s just incredible. And we’ve got a new calming and cooling wash line that’s coming. We’re also putting out larger pack sizes on our cooling pads—that’s something our customers have been asking for for a long time. And so I’m really excited about that.
We’re also working on our innovation pipeline for the next couple of years, and I can’t talk about those things, obviously, but what we’re developing is just really incredible.
