LGBTQIA+ Owned Small Businesses!

My heart is full of love in sharing products from LGBTQIA+ small businesses this Pride Month of June on NBC’s Today show! Check out the segment in full here.

Greeting cards | $5.99, Ink Meets Paper

As an avid letter writer, I fell in love with our first company Ink Meets Paper immediately! Founders and wife team Allison and Jamie Nadeau believe in the art of card giving. They use the art of letterpress to create their custom-designed greeting cards, all made in the USA, crafted in South Carolina. I love their bright and cheerful designs, which is like sending a little gift of love in the mail! They are a stationery destination for custom letterpress greeting cards, journals and more, and include a Pride Collection. The variety of their designs before us, including categories for Congratulations, Celebrations, Friendship, Hello and Encouragement. Individual cards start at $5.99. Their motto? Text less, write more. I couldn't agree more.

DIY Candle Making Kit | $40, Reisfields NYC

If you aren’t traveling this summer, let us bring your favorite destination to you!

These DIY Candle-Making Kits from Reisfields NYC include a “cities” collection that will transport you to various destinations across the globe: NYC, Seville and Marrakech. Founder Reis Chester came up with the idea of each fragrance when traveling the world with his husband! The kits contain everything you need to make your own luxury candle including natural soy wax, wick and essential oil. Other DIY signature scent kits include Santal 6 and Geranium Balsam 13, all available for $40 each.

Here’s a fragrance guide for the city candles:

NEW YORK

Evokes the sultry, intimate atmosphere of a private Harlem jazz club. Notes of pink pepper, neroli, rum absolute, tobacco leaf, and vanilla bean.

SEVILLE

Walk through the world’s most beautiful orange orchards in the sun-kissed Mediterranean coastlands of Spain. Notes of orange blossom, bitter orange, angelica root, patchouli, juniper berry.

MARRAKECH

A luxuriously sensual blend inspired by the thrill of it all. Notes of sandalwood, cardamom husk, amber, vanilla, balsam and Amyris bark.

Functional Fragrance, from $35 | Biology Fragrances

Summer is a great time to explore and switch up your scent! What better way to do so than select a functional fragrance! Founded by Steve Sun, Biology Functional Fragrances are formulated with natural and organic ingredients to help boost your desired mood and restore your being.

For example:

Fragrance 1- Joy: Jasmine: Uplifts | Tuberose: Aphrodisiac | Bergamot: Stress Relief | Sandalwood: Stress Relief
Fragrance 2- Calm: Peppermint: Headache Relief |Lavender: Stress Relief | Ylang Ylang: Relaxation | Calendula: Regeneration
Fragrance 4- Immunity: Sichuan Peppercorn: Immunity | Bergamot: Stress Relief | Myrrh: Anti Inflammatory | Ginger: Detoxifies | Neroli- Stress Relief

They are natural – paraben-free, phthalate-free, animal-cruelty free–and made in small batches. You can buy this Mix & Match collection ($150), where you can customize your selection of 6 to test out or purchase individual roller balls from $35: available on their website and newly on urbanoutfitters.com.

Sea Silk Lip Balm, $26 | Mara Beauty

Our lips always taking a beating from the sun during summer, and we often forget to take care of them! So let’s go from desiccated lips to drenched!

These vegan lip balms by founder Allison McNamara are from Mara Beauty, an award-winning line of algae-infused skincare that are made to help your lips feels like silk. The algae is wild source collected in France and Ireland making them sustainable. The balms are infused with immune-boosting brown and/or red algae which help to plump and create a fullness to the lips.

It’s a celebrity-loved brand available in Clear (which contains Moringa), Soft Coral and Nude Beach ( pink). Products are available on Sephora and Amazon and are $26 each.

Freshy Brites, $99, normally $179, Freshy World

Have some fun this summer by adding a pop of color!

Freshy is a “sneaker company with attitude” founded by Scott Willman, who in his teenage years says he didn’t quite fit in as wanted to wear colors in a sea of neutrals. Now, his company embraces boldness and stepping forward with confidence.

His Freshy Brites sneakers come in a range of 6 technicolor options that have the rainbow covered! Your step will be pillowy and the lining offers temperature regulation so that you’ll stay nice and cool on hot summer days. Super cool, right? Sized for men and women.

The significance of the unicorn logo? We’re all unicorns and we need to celebrate our uniqueness.

And his newly formed foundation will be donating Freshy Brites to LGBTQ+ youth gearing up for college and making their first step towards a bright future!

Normally $179, grab a pair of Brights for $99 and exclusive discount for TODAY show viewers! Use code FRESHYTODAY on their website June 24, 2024 thru July 8, 2024.

Slides | From $49.95, Limitless Slides

Here are the perfect summer slides with positive messaging to wear to the beach or while running errands! These Limitless Slides by founder Lisa Rizzo come in two colors (black and white) have limitless insert options that you can pop in or out of the top of the slide with positive words that you can switch up according to mood and need.

The inserts are called TIBAHS or “habits” spelled backward and have phrases like: Self-love, Slay, I Am Inspired, I Am Worthy, I Am Driven, LGBTQ+ Proud. That, and positive affirmations are embedded in the interior of each shoe.

You can even have the TIBAHS/inserts customized, as we did with the TODAY show logo! They are super comfortable to wear as they are made with DoughFoam technology–you have to step in them to believe it!

When you buy a pair of slides, they come with 4 essential TIBAHS. You can buy additional TIBAHS on the site at an additional cost. Customized slides cost $69.95 and include a pair of slides, 4 essential TIBAHS and 2 customized TIBAHS: minimum order of 12.

Watch these products in action on TODAY!

Prices reflect time of publication. This segment is editorial.