Sunscreen that works for every shade: the next big beauty trend? | Dujon Smith

DS: 00:00

We have the tropes of black don't crack and those sorts of things, Asian don't raisin, like all these terms that we've made. But the fact of the matter is that UVA and UVB rays do not discriminate based off of your skin tone.

TS: 00:17

Welcome to Made For Us, the show where we explore how intentional design can help build a world that works better for everyone. I'm your host, Tosin Sulaiman.

In a stand-up routine on Conan, comedian Orlando Baxter recalls a moment while shopping for sunscreen. A store assistant says to him, I didn't know Black people use sunblock. I thought you had the ability to absorb the sun.

Baxter replies, I don't know where you get your information from, but just because we're darker than you doesn't mean our skin is made of solar panels.

survey by Consumer Reports in: 2020

My guest today, Dujon Smith, puts this down to a lack of education challenging the myths around sun protection, the under-representation of people of colour and sun care advertising, and the way many products are formulated, often leaving a visible cast on darker skin tones.

TS: 01:20

Two years ago, Dujon launched his own sun care brand, My Block Skin, to change that. It's designed for all skin tones, but as you'll hear, Dujon's goal is to bring overlooked demographics into the conversation around sun protection and help reduce the incidence of late stage skin cancer and melanoma among people of color.

We'll also be talking about Dujon's other role as a full-time investor at Accenture Ventures, where he leads a program helping underrepresented founders scale their technology businesses. Here's our conversation.

TS: 01:53

Dujon Smith, welcome to Made for Us. Great to have you on the show.

DS: 01:57

I am so happy to be here. Thank you for having me on your platform.

TS: 02:00

So you launched My Block Skin in 2023, but you had quite an interesting career path before you got to that point. So I wondering if we could start by talking about life before My Block Skin. What were your ambitions going up and what eventually led you to become an entrepreneur?

DS: 02:17

So I grew up on the north side of Chicago in a little suburb called Evanston, Illinois. Growing up, I had always wanted to be a doctor, a pediatric anesthesiologist or a pediatrician. Being a first generation American and coming from an immigrant family, you always think about doctor, lawyer, engineer. And I would say probably in high school when I finally got the first opportunity to travel overseas, I got to go to Italy and South Korea and then Vietnam for the full first semester of my senior year of high school.

My eyes got widened. And from there, I got to just travel the world. And since then, I've been to around 58 countries across six continents. And I would say I spent my 20s really just in search of one. Yes, I kept saying yes to a lot of opportunities because I was on this path to find my passion purpose intersection point.

DS: 03:07

I got introduced to entrepreneurship. I was a tax accountant for Deloitte in the UK. I was a parliamentary researcher in the House of Commons. I worked for a startup LED manufacturer in Shanghai. But I kept saying yes to these opportunities because I'm like, you know, there's so much out there besides Dr. Lawyer Engineer and I have one life to live. But each decision I make does not need to be finite. I could have seasons like what's going on. This is my Netflix show of Dijon season one. Yep, I'm in the entertainment space, but you know, now I'm to move over to corporate ventures.

s until I got to Accenture in: 2016

TS: 04:14

So take us back to the moment that you had the idea for My Block Skin. What made you think I have to start this company and what was going through your head?

DS: 04:23

It was the fall of 2022. I was in New York in Brooklyn at my good friend Brandon's place. He had let me stay there because I was there for a conference and he was out of town and I was sipping some tequila with my best friend TJ. And we were just thinking about business ideas. We're both entrepreneurs. I'm just writing things down, scribbling on pieces of paper and shout out to black girl sunscreen and super group. They've been doing such an amazing job pushing the narrative that we need sun care, not just for Memorial Day to Labor Day, but all year round. And I was just really inspired by that.

And after seeing the clinical trials and data that black men were dying from higher rates of skin cancers and melanoma and being of Jamaican heritage and knowing that Bob Marley died from melanoma that started in his foot. For me specifically, I was like, I haven't seen a sun care brand fully bring men of color into the conversation, whether they were black, Middle Eastern, Southeast Asian or anything like that.

rn out of. It was the fall of: 2022

TS: 06:08

And when you say this demographic hadn't really been catered to, what about in marketing and ads? Like, did you ever see yourself represented?

DS: 06:18

No, I would say every time I saw sun care brands that usually were people of fairer skin tones that were putting it on, I barely saw myself until Black Girl sunscreen came out and I barely saw a product that I wanted to use until I saw a super group come out with their unseen sunscreen. I was like, okay, cool. But I hadn't seen like men of color more broadly and intentionally being brought into the conversation from a marketing or social or educational standpoint. So that's why I wanted to create My Block Skin, which was a play on words of sunblock, but then also how Jamaicans, when they often say black, it sounds like block. I was paying homage to Jamaican vernacular with My Block Skin.

TS: 06:57

Right. And so have you always been a religious sunscreen user yourself? Is it something that you were conscious of growing up and your family members as well?

DS: 07:09

Growing up and then I stopped using it for a bit because I hated the white cast and I'm like, if I'm going for one, I do not want to look like a ghost running around looking crazy. Not to the women in my life, Raven and others who use sunscreen are like, no, Dejan, you got to protect the melanin. You got to, you know, it helps with hyperpigmentation and photo aging and wrinkles and all these other things that you think about from a beauty perspective with aesthetics, but still functional to protect you from those UVA and UVB rays.

So I would say it was the woman in my life that got me back on the product category. And then it was the research that I saw from like the American Dermatology Journal that got me to do a deep dive in wanting to create a product and a service in this space.

TS: 07:49

So let's talk a little bit about that research and the whole education side of things, because that was one of the gaps that you identified. There are a lot of myths around sun care and melanin, and I'm sure you've come across a few of those from people that you've spoken to. So let's kind of go through sort of these myths and maybe tackle them one by one.

DS: 08:10

Yeah, just the one thing that black and brown folks don't need some care products. We do. We have the tropes of black don't crack and those sorts of things. Asian don't raisin like all these terms that we've made. But the fact of the matter is that UVA and UVB rays do not discriminate based off of your skin tone. They might have different effects while black and brown folks might not burn as easily and as visibly as folks of lighter skin tones. We think about the Fitzpatrick scale and the skin tones from one through six - four, five and six are the deeper tones like you and I and others, but we all still burn in some way, or form. And there's also still long-term effects around the skin cancer and melanoma that can be developed. And oftentimes when you see those studies specifically with black and brown folks and the study that I mentioned with black men dying at higher rates, it's because then it's not caught early enough. We're not educated to go do our annual skin tests and checks. When we do then catch the skin cancer and melanoma late stage, it's often more deadly.

And I've just been on a mission really to dispel the misconceptions and the myths to say that we do need products. The fact of the matter is that we just need to be prioritized by the industry to create formulations that work on our skin tones and skin types when we're thinking about everything from aesthetic to function. And then two, just really being focused on just more broadly, just nuanced education as well.

DS: 09:31

I mean, especially for black and brown folks, when you think about sun care and then how the products were formulated and how they show up on our skin tones and who's often tested when you're developing these products, there's a lot of deep rooted things. At least I'm going to speak from a North American lens and probably even you could say this from a UK eye as well. The beauty industry has been centered around European standards of beauty, fair skin tones. And even when you go over to Asia, there's still these tropes around fair skin. You're not a worker. You're not like in the fields or lower class caste systems. There's been so much colorism that's been brought to beauty that if we don't also start working from a beauty industry to start dismantling those as well, to let people to just be themselves and feel beautiful in the skin that they were born with and that they came into this earth and then using the right products that can help protect and not alter what they were born with. That would just be such a beautiful space.

And for me, with the global South, like we are becoming the new majority. The new majority is black and brown folks, to really put it plainly, when you look about, you know, the demographics and the population sizes. So we are the center, but we need to center ourselves with the products that we use and the products that we develop so that we're not like, you know, using things that just weren't made for us or made with us in mind.

TS: 10:53

And thank you for mentioning the name of my podcast while giving your answer.

DS: 10:54

Come on.

TS: 11:03

And the other misconception, I guess, is you only need to wear sunscreen when it's sunny.

DS: 11:06

Yes, you need to wear it all year round, even when it's not sunny outside, because even through the clouds, those UVA and UVB rays will still penetrate. So it's not just a summer product or when you're in tropical places. Yes, you should be using it there, but it's something that you should be using all around. If, as I said earlier, you want to fight against hyperpigmentation, photo aging, wrinkles, and those sorts of things, this is an everyday product that you can wear that will have you protected, but then also keep the skin supple and nice.

TS: 11:35

And do darker-skinned people need less of it than fairer skinned people?

DS: 11:42

We all need the same amount. We all need to put the same amount on our face and our body, whatever is going to be exposed to those UVA and UVB rays. Even if you are indoors, I sit by a beautiful, big floor to ceiling windows. The sun is still penetrating. I could still be wearing it even when I'm working here, as much as I am outside on the beach, on a hike, even when I'm skiing and hitting the slopes and it's reflecting off of the snow. There's so many areas and so many points in your life that you need to wear sunscreen all year round.

If you're going to be outside, especially during peak hours from, let's say 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., you should be reapplying every two hours and you should also apply sunscreen probably 15 minutes before you head out so it can, you know, seep into the skin. But these are all things that I think we constantly need to be educated on and then also adding the cultural nuance as it relates to these products so that it actually makes sense for the demographics that you're trying to go after. And that's what I'm trying to do with my black skin. How can I bring culturally sensitive and nuanced education to a demographic that has not been the center for so long in this category and in this space.

TS: 12:47

And I'm curious, do you often encounter skeptics, people who aren't sure that they need to wear sunscreen because maybe they have dark skin, for example, and what do you think is most effective? it emphasizing the benefits or the potential dangers of not using sunscreen?

DS: 13:05

Yeah, it all depends on the person. Like I don't want to be the doom and groom guy. If you don't wear, you're going to die from melanoma. That is terrible. So I would say, you know, for those folks, it should maybe just educating them like, hey, if you wear sunscreen, you do reduce your likelihood of getting skin cancer and melanoma by 50 percent. And if you are about being preventative with your health and taking ownership and control, this is just an easy product to wear.

DS: 13:29

And the fact that our sunscreen gel is clear and doesn't leave a specific white cast. makes the story even easier for folks because they're like, my God, yes, I would wear that. You would wear something that just blends in seamlessly into your skin that doesn't leave that white cast that you've seen for so long, you know, within the marketplace. I would say the other piece that we go if we don't want to go the doom and groom, you're going to die from melanoma. It's just the functional areas. Everyone still has an aesthetic that they would like. They want to keep young, youthful looking skin. So then you can appease to some of those aesthetics as it relates to just traditional beauty products around photo aging, wrinkles, hyperpigmentation, even skin tones, moisturizing. So it depends on the consumer, but we tap into both the doom and groom of just wear it so you can prevent diseases further along, but then also just the functional parts of the product as well as just keeping your skin moisturized and healthy and protected.

TS: 14:25

Great. Thanks for the demo. So I want to talk about innovation in the sun care industry, because you're trying to do something different with a different type of formulation. It's clear. It's unlike what you typically get in the market. And there's been a lot of innovation in the sun care industry in recent years, but it depends on which country you're in. Because I understand in the U S it's more heavily regulated. So I was just curious how that impacted the choices you made as you were building the brand.

DS: 14:54

Yeah, so we had an opportunity to launch our brand physically within London, thanks to Soho House and their beautiful Soho House festival that happened in 2023 where the Suncare partner. So we got to sample and get our product in front of people to test out product market fit and get reactions to the formulations. Europe has different standards. Their cosmetic standards, I think, are top tier and wonderful compared to the US cosmetic standards, I would say.

So sun care in Europe and rest of the world is usually regulated as a cosmetic product. In the US, it's regulated as an FDA over-the-counter drug, and they have a monogram on the specific UV filters that you can use in your sun care products. I would say Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific have done a lot more to open up more UV filters in their formulations that give a lot more inclusivity and diversity of formulations for sun care protection compared to the US. I would say the US has been very slow to adapting new UV ingredients or UV blockers that they will allow on their monogram.

DS: 16:04

So there has been innovation in the States, would say, know, Black Girl Sunscreen and Super Goop as far as new chemical sunscreens have. And then there's been innovation in how to make even the organic physical sunscreens like the zinc oxides and the titaniums a little bit better so that they don't leave that white chalky cast on skin tones.

There's been a lot more innovations with manufacturers, but I would say there's still a ways to go in the US. I think the rest of the world has definitely leapfrogged the US as far as like more innovation and inclusivity in UV filters that can be used in sun care products. And I would say Europe and the rest of the world are more inclusive in the number of UV filters that they allow in their sun care formulations that are not yet approved in the US, which is limiting the US's consumers access to other products that are out there that are still performing just as well as some of the products that are in the US.

TS: 16:58

And so if you had wanted to launch your product in the U S could you have done that? Or because of these regulations, it means that the product that you have now would not necessarily be approved in the US?

DS: 17:11

Yes, so I first focused on my European formulation. I'm glad that it's done and well, we're sold at Boots in 130 stores now, which is amazing. In that time that we were spending onboarding as a supplier with Boots, I also worked with a team of all-black women chemists down in Florida to develop the FDA version of our clear coat gel formulation. So hopefully soon after this goes live, we'll have the additional funding that we need from a business perspective to manufacture that at scale to sell within the US. But right now, our US customers are buying our European formulation for personal consumption.

TS: 17:49

And so you had the idea, you decided you were going to start the business. Talk a little bit about the next steps and how you went about figuring out what it takes to launch a Suncare brand. You're an outsider essentially in this industry. So like how steep was the learning curve?

DS: 18:07

Yeah, I mean, I learned something new every day, especially with the US and Europe difference in regulation. But for me, after the idea occurred in the fall of twenty twenty two, I then spent the rest of that season just doing some research, reaching out and figure out who manufactures sun care products, what kind of formulations are out there that I can take on and manipulate and try to make my own with the ingredients that I wanted and with the functionality that I wanted as well, because me, as I said, I just wanted a gel that would just see flawlessly within my skin. So I reached out to a few manufacturers and some folks. It wasn't until December that I was like, all right, Dejan, I'm really going to go and go do this idea. January comes around in the new year in 2023, and I get some sample formulations. I was like, all right, this is a sign I got to go all in now.

DS: 18:59

So in tandem, while I was getting formulations to test out and play around with, I hired someone just to do a logo for me and to do some initial brand identity. They kind of get the my black skin look and the design. And shout out to Joellen Smith out in New York. She did an amazing job of bringing it to life. She did the logo product placement, show me what it would look like in editorial. And that's what made it real. That is what I then used to pitch Soho House to say, hey, can I be your official sun care partner this summer for their festival and they said yes. Then the rest was like, John, you have six months to get this brand out there. So then I tested probably 30 different formulations, did focus groups with my friends and family. We were testing out creams and gels and everything until we got to the gel formulation that I liked.

rd,: 2023

DS: 20:50

So yeah, it was really having the idea, putting pen to paper on just what the look and feel of it to bring it to life for me and making it more tangible. And then I was on Google every day looking at contract manufacturers, cosmetic formulators, and then just Blitz. Because then I had an anchor point. was like, Dejan, you need to be able to launch this by Juneteenth digitally. And then you need to have product in person for a sampling event at Soho Festival. And that is what really set the fire underneath my wings to really take this to the next level. And then I was reaching out to family and friends. I can I get $1,000, $2,000, $10,000. I was raising from friends and family to get some funding so we can make the product because you manufacturers have minimal order of quantities like you 2500 units. So like I need money for this. I need money for the regulators to do the product safety reports. And luckily, I was able to raise you know, some money from family and friends at various times over the last two years to continue to take the business to the next level from launch to in-store launch with Boots like two months ago.

TS: 21:48

And one thing I was wondering as you were saying all that, because you were trying to take a different approach and be disruptive and just do things a little bit differently, did that complicate things in any way?

DS: 21:59

It did, I would say initially launching because we're like, oh my god, we have a European formulation. Now we got to go make an FDA formulation if we really want to come into the US market. The US sun care market is huge. So then that put time and like, oh my god, now I got to spend more money to make a US formulation. But then that was a cool process because now we have a proprietary formulation that's owned by the brand.

I would say there was some things that we just learned along the way. I would say just getting into deals too early, you think you're going to get an investor, you sign a contract and then the investor falls through and then now you have to deal with the implications of trying to pay your vendors and pay all the contractors that you're working with. Just the ebbs and flows of being an entrepreneur and even just being an underrepresented entrepreneur. As you know, black founders get less than 1 % of VC funding and then black beauty founders are getting like 0.003 % of VC capital.

And then if you don't truly have a strong family and friends network to put in 200K into your business, it can be really hard to like bootstrap a business from the ground up. And it was really interesting because by day I'm still working at Accenture running this program for underrepresented founders to get them their proportional slice of the VC pie on the enterprise tech side. So I'm seeing and living just on a different side of the coin in a different vertical, like the struggles that the entrepreneurs that I was serving are going through as well with trying to get capital, trying to get people to believe in them and view and asking them promotion questions instead of prevention questions around like the opportunity and what's out there.

DS: 23:32

So it's been really interesting, I would say being this suncare CEO and also corporate investor, focus on underrepresented founders and really experiencing it firsthand with their experiences and even just the thought leadership that we have been developing. We proved with data that, you know, black founders have a 4X drop off from making it from C to series A, or black founders are raising 1.7 X deals and getting 47 % less funding when you control for non-black founders. So you and I could be creating the same exact business. If I was black and you were non-black, usually would say that I would have to get like twice as many checks, but still get half as much funding that working twice as hard to get half as much. We proved the data with funding for black founders specifically. So it's just been really interesting over the last two years putting out this thought leadership, supporting founders and then being a founder and be like, God, this really is tough. This is not an easy feat.

TS: 24:30

And knowing these statistics, how have you approached things differently when you're meeting with investors and pitching My Block Skin?

DS: 24:38

Yeah, overall, mean, separate from my emotions on the topic at the end of the day that like, look, we're still not even getting our proportional size of the VC pie. Like what more do we need to do to prove that our ideas are worthwhile? Our ideas can be billion dollar opportunities. And even if it's not a unicorn, stallions are still great. And stallions are still making folks money and providing a return. So I would say my approach has still just been like, how can I just focus on the fundamentals of the business. Like, look, the sun care market is growing. You know, it's valued at let's say 11 billion today and going to be 23 billion in five years or just focusing on the traction. Even with me bootstrapping the business and having some family and friends put in like granted, if the business shut down tomorrow, I can still say I got my brand into the largest pharmacy and beauty retailer in the UK and Ireland.

DS: 25:30

Like that's still so cool to be able to say, even with my limited resources and funding, we at got it on store in the shelf. Like I got photos and videos like it's been a journey, but to even say that we got that far where a lot of brands even further along than us have not even gotten yet. It's just a testament to just our grit and our journey. So I try to like bring that to life when talking to investors to say like, this is our story, I think it's compelling. And then here's some data that we can marry to this as well, so that you can make a structured decision on whether or not you'd like to be involved and ride this wave with us.

TS: 26:07

I wanted to talk a little bit about the marketing side of things. You're targeting customers who've been traditionally overlooked. How did you approach marketing and reaching that very specific audience?

DS: 26:20

Yeah, I say the first thing when we initially launched was important for us to have a man of color as the face of the brand, because we just hadn't seen that in the sun care industry. It was always like fair toned individuals. It's always a beautiful sunny day. But if you look at our initial launch campaign videos, great looking guy, broader contour, deep dark skin tone, putting on our product, showing that like, look, this is working on his skin tone. It's going to work on everybody else's from porcelain to espresso.

And then it was like a cloudy day in Malibu. Like we just really wanted to create a beautiful aesthetic for the brand itself and something that people would love to have in their bag, their backpack, their back pocket. Like this is not your normal everyday sun care brand that you see in the drugstore. Even when you look at the packaging and the design, like this is not what you see of typical sun care products. It feels premium.

And that's what I wanted to go for. Just a premium sun care product that people can be proud to have and carry along with them, whether they're on a run, at the beach, on the slopes, wherever they might be, you know, in Jamaica, in Ghana, they want to have this beautiful product on them. And for us, it was really around like, that's not so much about us selling products, it's really around creating a lifestyle brand and an education platform to really educate, as I said, this underserved audience that hadn't really been spoken to in this space.

DS: 27:45

I think about men of color, like in the skincare and beauty. Yes, we got our beard oils and those sorts of things. But I just hadn't seen a sun care brand speaking to men of color. Overall, now more ends are doing that a bit more, I would say over the last, you know, year or so. But still authentically, I just felt that it would be great to bring us in, but then still have an inclusive platform, regardless of your gender identity and how and where you come from cultural ethnic perspective, you felt like, wow, this product could work for you. I've gotten so many emails, you know, even from folks of Indian descent, they're like, my God, finally a brand, a sun care brand that works on my skin tone. It's brought me a lot of joy to see those notes to see people say, please keep going. Don't ever discontinue your product that boots because I haven't seen anything like this before. Like just seeing real customer feedback in real time on these various platforms, getting DMS on Instagram, people loving it.

DS: 28:41

Like it's just that's my little baby. I'm like, I'm so glad. Like that night in New York from tequila and scribbling things on a piece of paper to me actually bringing it to fruition is now here, you know, and people are reacting to it well, which just shows me like this was needed. This just wasn't a problem for me. So I would tell anybody who has an idea or has a problem that they're trying to solve. If you have a problem, probably a few other people have that problem as well. And it's worthwhile you going after and at least taking that idea out of your head and bring it into the marketplace.

TS: 29:19

Yeah, I love that advice. I'm curious when you look at the data on your customers, what interesting trends have you noticed? Are your customers who you thought they'd be like, which countries do they come from?

DS: 29:30

So far, I mean, obviously, since we've still been highly organic in our approach, but even on our direct to consumers, seeing obviously folks from the US by our product across the UK, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Germany. my God, how this person find out about us? Aruba. I'm like, how did you find out about us? So it's been cool to just see organically where people are coming from, as well as just us being, you know, probably we're the first black owned sun care brand at Boots and their 175 year history which is awesome.

DS: 30:01

I think, you know, obviously when we get more funding, it can really market and advertise this a bit more, it is my goal and my intention, at least in the European market, to be the number one multicultural sun care brand that's offered in this space. And really, as I said earlier, pushing the narrative again to have folks and specifically folks of color be happy with the skin that they're in and throw away the whitening lotions, throw away the bleaching creams, and really just focusing on protecting the melanin that they were born with. That is the conversation that I really want to move forward while also at the end of the day, hopefully bringing down the number of people of color that are developing late stage skin cancers and melanoma.

TS: 30:45

And so we talked about investors earlier, but just to go back to that, now you're two years into My Block Skin, what insights would you want to share with potential investors?

DS: 30:57

I would say with investors just continuing to look out there for entrepreneurs that fit your investment thesis that you can make bets on. think we need more people specifically for black and brown founders. We need more investors that can just take bets. If you have the appetite and you have the risk appetite and the capital to deploy, even cutting someone initial 25 K or 50 K check can go a long way to help someone, you know, solidify and bring their idea to life. I think a lot of times we either find folks, people find investors and you're like, come back to me, come back to me later. Or, you know, bootstrap a bit more, which is great. There are people that can bootstrap, which is awesome. And there are people, especially in our communities, are not short of ideas or just short of capital. And to be honest, like at the end of the day, yes, there's a lot that we can do now in this world with AI that can automate a few things, depending if you're on the tech space and sometimes even the product space with like iterating on MVPs and what products could look like, you can get to a pretty late stage now with AI to mount up something.

But at the end of the day, we still need capital to make that first product. And some folks just do not come from a space where they even have the capital to take some of their ideas that they have in a PowerPoint or a pitch deck to life. And then they just sit. And I just imagine a world if more investors could find more people with more innovative ideas that do not look like them, that don't have the same lived experience with them and then helping them to bring their innovations to life. How much more could we see within this world of products and services really truly benefiting everyone across this planet? So I just want to investors to do a little bit more to widen their aperture of what they're investing in and who they're investing in and not always, you know, focusing on confirmation bias or identity bias as it relates to their small ecosystem or circle of influence.

TS: 32:52

And what about companies? So how would you advise companies that are looking to develop more inclusive products to reach previously underserved communities and maybe even companies that aren't even thinking about this yet?

DS: 33:05

I think companies do need to think about it, look at the data a bit more, do a lot more social listening, especially now there's so much data out there on all of these social media platforms of what folks are wanting what people desire. I think you got to pay attention to that a little bit more, especially the companies that have the resources to do that. And like, don't keep overlooking these audiences because they're there. And then you see time and time again, when someone breaks through and creates that thing blows up. It's awesome.

But maybe not. Maybe the big companies don't need to do that. Maybe it just needs to be, you know, the small, medium businesses that do that. And then the big companies just need to keep an eye on them and then create a liquidation event for those founders to, you know, start building and accumulating their generational wealth.

DS: 33:48

So it is interesting. It's like, should the big companies just continue to do it and gobble all everything up? Or is should there be a better platforming way for small businesses to feel empowered to then create these products and services and then a way for the bigger companies to provide a liquidation event that allows them to, you as I said, build generational wealth by selling their solutions to a larger company that then has broader scale and infrastructure to take it to the next level. But I would say nonetheless, these companies need to have these smaller companies on their radar. And they also just with their vast amounts of data, just look for the white spaces. And if they can't create those solutions on their own, how can they find ways to better work with entrepreneurs and entrepreneur serving entities to enable entrepreneurs who can then take that IP, take those ideas and commercialize it and then funnel it back up into the mothership later.

TS: 34:37

And what can we expect from My Block Skin in the future?

DS: 34:41

Two new SKUs are going to be coming out right in time for summer. So really, really excited about that. So look out for that by June, hopefully by Juneteenth. Yeah, I would say just continue to look out for us out there in the space, trying to do community work, trying to do educational partnerships. That's really moving the needle forward and pushing the conversation to have more folks. Fitzpatrick scale four, five and six using sun care, embracing sun care as a category.

TS: 35:10

Can you say bit more about the products that are coming out soon?

DS: 35:15

Well, what I will say, we have a clear coat face, a body and an after sun. The next product is going to is going to protect the lips. So look out for the clear coat lip balm. And then for those winter months, you know, when the skin might be a little bit more ashy, we're going to have a clear coat cream that's more of an ice cream consistency, which will be cool for the skin as well for moisturizing in those off summer months. So that will round out our clear coat collection. Clear coat face, clear coat body, clear coat after sun, clear coat lip balm and our clear coat cream.

TS: 35:47

Okay, before we wrap up, are there any final thoughts that you'd like to share?

DS: 35:52

I would say this thought is specifically for my Black and brown brothers and sisters and everything in between out there. Support your local Black owned businesses that are out there. If you see a beauty brand, a hair care brand, skincare brand like this is where we're really going to be moving the needle with our dollars. And the more that we can spend with other black and brown businesses to allow the circulation rate of our dollars to last a little bit longer than I don't know what it is in Europe, but at least in the States, it's like seven, eight hours compared to other demographics where it can last for 21 days or 14 days. The more we can circulate the dollars within our community to really do more within our communities, I think the more power and influence that we have to really influence policy and other things that are really gonna do more to help our communities and our people thrive a bit more. So I would say continue when you can and when you have the capacity. Support that small local black-owned, women-owned, LGBTQ-owned, veteran-owned business that's in your neighborhood so that we can keep these dollars circulating in our communities a bit longer and create more jobs and more opportunity and more wealth.

TS: 36:57

Thank you so much. I really enjoyed our conversation. So thanks for taking the time to speak to me.

DS: 37:02

And thank you so much for sharing your platform. This is an amazing space. And I love that you are highlighting founders and entrepreneurs and thought leaders in this space and giving them the opportunity to share their stories. Our stories are who we are, and they can inspire, they can motivate, they can do whatever. And I'm just happy to be here on your platform today.

TS: 37:20

Thank you so much for that.

TS: 37:30

That was Dujon Smith, founder of My Block Skin. Thank you for tuning in this week. If this episode made you think of someone, text it to them. Word of mouth is how podcasts grow and you might be the reason they find their new favourite show. I'm Tosin Sulaiman, see you next time on Made For Us.