By now, you have heard me talk about my newsletter and my monthly small business feature! This month’s feature is one that is near and dear to my heart, Care Blackage! Care Blackage is a wellness box that features small Black owned businesses and for the Ultimate Wellness & Self-Care box I was so lucky to be able to help curate such an awesome selection of brands.

I had the pleasure of chatting with the founder, Courtney Heywood to get a better understanding about what sets Care Blackage apart from others, her favorite products so far and so much more.

Who are you and how did Care Blackage come to be?

Care Blackage started out as my contribution to the cause, and ultimately, the culture. On May 25th, the world watched as George Floyd was murdered and it was recorded on video. It was a time where I felt like we were continually pleading with the world to see us as human, and society kept All Lives Matter-ing us.

I’m an empath and I’m heavily impacted when the people around me are sad. On June 5th, I launched Care Blackage as my way of killing two birds with one stone. It offered people a brief reprieve from everything going on, while simultaneously raising money for bail funds. 100% of my profits from my first two months of sales were donated to National Bail Out, a Black-led and Black-centered collective of abolitionist organizers, lawyers, and activists.

As a Founder, I’m just taking it day by day. I’m learning a lot, and I’m excited to see where this brand goes.

What makes CareBlackage different? 

The community that we’re building is what sets us apart. The day I launched, I recorded a video explaining my vision for Care Blackage and asking people to reach out to me if they were willing to do a page takeover. In our first 6 weeks, we had over 50 people take over the page and talk about their Black experience as well as share their favorite way to practice self-care.

It turned out to have a bigger impact than I expected. People were extremely vulnerable and there was great discourse exchanged between the hosts and the viewers. People said that the page takeovers helped them through those difficult times and made them feel less isolated.

I considered ending the page takeovers following the first two months, but after receiving feedback about how people looked forward to them, I reconsidered. With that being said, I am pleased to announce that they will soon be making a comeback.

Favorite product(s) that you’ve been able to feature and few other Black Owned Businesses you love.

Obviously, I have to shout-out our collab!!! The Ultimate Wellness Box includes some of my favorite brand features that I’ve done through Care Blackage.

For the past eleven months, we have been restricted to our homes either homeschooling, working from home, or quarantining.  As a result, we are taking less and less time to shut out the ‘noise’ and gauge the impact that this lockdown is having on us.   I love that we really honed in on our experiences as Black women and assessed what we would want most from a box like this, and then created it to share with others. I love that we curated something specifically tailored to the members of our community, especially at such a crucial time.

A few other Black-Owned businesses that I love are Hustler’s Guild, Booze Scoops, Brooklyn WATE, Glitter Box, BFF Therapy, the CCC NYC, and Live Soaked.

What’s next for you and for Care Blackage?

For me, wrapping up wedding planning! I’m sooooooo looking forward to marrying my bestie. Shout out to Rob for being my anchor throughout this entire Care Blackage journey!

Regarding Care Blackage, I took a step back so that I could be strategic with how I moved forward. Right now I’m focused on holding brands accountable for doing the work they said they would when they posted their black squares on Instagram back in June. I want to ensure that Black-Owned brands are included when it comes to employee and client gifting.

One piece of advice for new entrepreneurs:

If it’s in your head and in your heart, do what you can to bring it to fruition. Do your best to put yourself in a position so that you’re not looking back at your life one day thinking “what if?”

Follow Care Blackage and shop the latest boxes on the www.careblackage.com!