Chris and Faye Breedlove met in law school and founded a legal practice after getting married. The couple worked remotely while traveling the world for weeks at a time. During COVID, when travel was restricted, the couple turned to their past experiences as inspiration for a new endeavor, TERMINAL B, a luxury candle line that connects travel with fragrance.
“We really just wanted to create scents that brought us back to all these places that we love all over the world,” said Chris Breedlove, who handles operations, fulfillment and marketing for the company.
Their products, which are handmade in Los Angeles use airport codes to distinguish between candle scents. Candle LAX features scents of fig, bergamot, jasmine, dried tobacco and smoked leather. CDG, their Parisian-inspired candle, smells of florals and musk and touts “best paired with champagne.” It’s all the brainchild of Faye Breedlove, the creative director and fragrance curator for the brand.
“You talk about candle making [but] it’s alchemy,” said Faye Breedlove. “You have to understand the right wax, the right temperature, the right fragrance oils that you’re using.”
The Breedloves credit Amazon’s Black Business Accelerator (BBA) with giving them support to open their store, improving accessibility to their product and giving them opportunities to meet new customers and share their story.
“The Black Business Accelerator on Amazon has truly been instrumental into our brand’s growth on Amazon. We have been allotted opportunities to get credits, to run ads, opportunities to attend in person activations, where it gives us more brand awareness,” said Faye Breedlove.
As a small business starting out, Breedlove calls the brand exposure TERMINAL B has received from Amazon as the best gift. “We’re able to interface with customers more and direct people to our storefront,” she said.
In addition to receiving support from the BBA, TERMINAL B was able to upload their Black-owned business certification for verification, receiving a badge that they display on their storefront in Amazon, distinguishing them from other brands.
“Representation does matter,” said Faye Breedlove. “We’re able to identify as a Black-owned business and that really does give us a lot of support from people that want to support Black-owned Business.”
Amazon is part of the Breedlove’s growth plan for TERMINAL B and the BBA is part of their company giveback initiative, as they continue to mentor and be mentored by other Black entrepreneurs. Faye said she wants to “change the game,” as a luxury, women-owned and Black-owned brand in the fragrance space. Black and women-owned businesses are underrepresented in the category and she hopes to pave a path for others like her.
“We want to be able to serve as a bridge for other businesses, to help them,” she said.