ZD: What advice would you share for getting to a place of self love and wholeness?
S&J: Social media has created a world of smoke & mirrors and can breed a wealth of self doubt as the “perfect” images displayed focus heavily on beauty, success and happiness. It makes it nearly impossible for many to not judge themselves or value their own self worth. Don’t ever compare yourself to anyone else. Comparison is the thief of dreams. Besides, you never know what’s real and what’s fairy dust.
“…All of our brand collabs have been completely organic. That’s when you know the universe is speaking to you!”
ZD: What have been some trials and errors as an entrepreneur? What do you wish you would had known about the cosmetic industry/lash business before you started that you know now?
S&J: Prior to embarking on the journey to create a cosmetics company, we knew that as women of color, we’d face certain challenges other brands may not have experienced upon entering the beauty industry, like being validated by the masses. We wish we had known that many people tend to gravitate more towards cosmetics brands that aren’t black owned because for some reason, it’s viewed as the gold standard. That wouldn’t have deterred us from moving forward with our purpose, but it would have given us a more realistic approach of the obstacles we’d have to face. We understand that our brand is still growing and we’re gaining our share of exposure day by day, so we feel no need to rush the process. Our product speaks for itself so our motto has been and will continue to be patience.
Besides that, there have been several learning curves in regards to trademarking our brand name, building our website and pulling all-nighters prior to our launch date. We also ran into production issues that challenged us in bringing the lash sketches we created to life. Bringing our vision to fruition was not only exhausting, it required a ton of push and pull, but throughout the process we learned that patience and perseverance is key.
ZD: Congrats on being featured in-store at Henri Bendel. What have been some other brand wins and what have you had to do to create those wins for Fat Ass Lashes?
S&J: OMG Thank you! All of our brand collabs have been completely organic. That’s when you know the universe is speaking to you!
We’re so humbled by the fact that we were able to build a relationship with and host several pop-up shops at Henri Bendel, which have been amazing experiences for us. We launched Fat Ass Lashes less than a year ago so our brand is still in its infancy stage.
However through the power of social media, we’ve had the pleasure of seeing our lashes grace the faces of Wendy Williams, Claire Sulmers of Fashion Bomb Daily and June Ambrose. Our lashes were also worn by the models in Nicki Minaj’s “Krippy Kush” (Remix) music video. In addition, we’ve received brand praises from popular bloggers, influencers, socialites, tv personalities and an award winning makeup artist who works with Tyler Perry Studios and Teknique Agency. And while this is all incredibly amazing, we know there’s still much more to do in terms of building a successful brand.
To Purchase Fat Ass Lashes (my personal faves are the style “Date Night”) visit their website! Let’s support more black owned businesses!
