Culture D-Tour: Toni Porter Brings Luxury Scents to Detroit’s West Side

Meet Toni Porter, a serial entrepreneur from Rosedale Park. She’s been in business for nine years and finally opened a storefront for Toni’s Collection.

Courtney Wise Randolph writes about Detroit’s movers and shakers for Detour Detroit. Once a month, she stops by CultureShift to chat with a notable Detroiter. This month, she talks with Toni Porter, a multi-hyphenated entrepreneur and owner of Toni’s Collection, a scent company specializing in candles, mists and tarts for your home and car on Detroit’s west side. 

As owner of Toni’s Collection, a scent company specializing in candles, mists and tarts for your home and car, Toni Porter has been on her entrepreneurial journey for nine years. Now, with her first brick and mortar, Porter joins a budding community of Black-owned businesses in Rosedale Park on Detroit’s west side. 

Courtney Wise Randolph
Courtney Wise Randolph

“I grew up in Rosedale Park, so it feels nostalgic. To come back home where I grew up and put some money back into the neighborhood where I’m from, means everything to me,” Porter says. “When I was growing up, there weren’t as many Black-owned businesses, but now seeing the transition of how many not just business owners, but Black business owners are coming back to this area and just revitalizing it, it excites me!” 

Doors opened for Toni’s Collection on Juneteenth this year, and Porter has been circulating the neighborhood meeting and greeting residents and building a comfortable space for business and community. “It’s a real homey feeling, if that makes sense. People have been stopping in and it’s been good for me so far — interacting with my neighbors and neighborhood.” 

In her new digs, Porter has been able to create a space for the retail portion of her business as well as host candle parties and soon live, virtual  DJ sets — a hobby she picked up during quarantine. “It was really just a vibe so this space allows me to not only house the equipment but to continue doing live segments, as well as creating a physical space for me to manufacture the product.”


Read the full article “On W. McNichols in Detroit, Black women entrepreneurs are holding it down” on Detour Detroit


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Authors

  • Amanda LeClaire
    Amanda LeClaire is an award-winning host and producer of CultureShift on 101.9 WDET-FM Detroit’s NPR station. She’s a founding producer of WDET’s flagship news talk show Detroit Today, and a former host/reporter for Arizona Public Media. Amanda is also an artist, certified intuitive and energy healer, and professional tarot reader.
  • LaToya Cross
  • Courtney Randolph
    Courtney Wise Randolph is a storyteller and Detroiter. In addition to her work as a writer and audio producer, she runs Keen Composition, a small business that specializes in writing and editing true stories about ordinary people and businesses that make an extraordinary impact.