This is not lotion. This is legacy.
TO MOISTURIZE IS TO RESIST.
TO SHINE IS TO REMEMBER.
TO LAUGH IS TO SURVIVE.
OUR STORY
My grandmother lived to be a hundred and one. She kept a spotless house — not for anyone watching, but because she was watching. Better Homes & Garden. Southern Living. Essence. Jet. The magazines were stacked like scripture, teaching me that I could be an architect of the beauty in and around me. The Jet Beauty of the Week was my go-to. They were beautiful AND brilliant. These women had degrees, had full lives, and served as inspiration for how I was going to construct an upwardly mobile existence.
Don't B. Ashy is inherited resilience. Born of the Great Migration's journeys, carried in grease pots, laughter, magazines, heels that announce your arrival, a hundred and one years of tending.
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My mother's uniform was a shiny mauve lipstick and heels. I loved the way she looked; I could hear her coming before I saw her — the click of her heels announcing her unapologetic beauty. It was an announcement. She taught me: you don't leave this house looking any kinda way. You are part of a legacy that values our skin, our bodies, our shine — that is luxury. It means we value our family, our friends, our community — that is what survival looks like. |
Then November 2016 came and the world shifted backwards. What came next was the hardest chapter of my life — and Don't B. Ashy was written in the middle of it. I had finished an artist residency, and I was tired in a way that went deeper than skin-I was weary. My body was ashy and so was my spirit. I went to my grandmother's house. She took one look and said "Come outside and help me replant some pansies". We didn't talk much. We just planted. And in that silence, I understood what she'd always known — create beautiful things in the midst of chaos. Tend to yourself when the world tries to drain you dry.
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Shortly after, I came home to Brooklyn and made my first body butter to heal my skin with what I had. Vitamin E Oil. Tamanu Oil. Coconut Oil. Shea Butter. As I struggled to get it into the bottles, my friend said this could be a business. I said if I did, I'd call it Don't B. Ashy. We laughed. It stuck. |
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Ash shows up on everyone. Dry elbows don't discriminate. The inside ash-depression, depletion, the people who drain you — that's universal. Don't B. Ashy is for anyone who needs to tend to themselves and doesn't know where to start. This is where you start.
TO MOISTURIZE IS TO RESIST. TO GLOW IS TO REMEMBER. TO LAUGH IS TO SURVIVE.