­
☰ Menu

Archive for Beauty – Page 7

Leanna’s Hair

Leanna Archer was just 9 years old when she began bottling and selling her own hair pomade to friends and family. Based on her great-grandmother’s secret recipe, Archer’s line of all-natural hair products has expanded to include a variety of hair cleansers, conditioners, and treatments. The now-17-year-old serves as the CEO of her company and has been recognized by prominent business publications like Forbes and Success Magazine. She even started the Leanna Archer Education Foundation to help build schools and safe learning environments for underprivileged children in Haiti.

Unsatisfied with the simple status of a CEO of a six-figure company as a teenager, Archer founded a charitable organization, the Leanna Archer Education Foundation, which provides education and food to poverty-stricken children in Haiti. Leanna first visited Haiti in 2008, and she was shocked to see so many starving children living in the streets. Her next project was to start the Leanna Archer Foundation, which currently supports 200 children in Haiti. The foundation’s goal is to start a school to educate more children.

 

Actress Turned Entrepreneur

lauren-conrad-1Lauren Conrad is a well-known actress and reality-TV show star however most people do not know that she has become a successful young entrepreneur, owning two clothing lines as well as a book franchise and two websites. She used her fame and publicity to help launch her first clothing line and demonstrate that she wasn’t just the next star to create a business on a whim, instead she was committed and passionate about where she wanted her business to go. In 2007, she launched her first clothing line, The Lauren Conrad Collection. Although it ended up being a dismal failure, she learned and grew through her mistakes and launched a second, successful clothing line in 2009, LC by Lauren Conrad, in conjunction with the retailer Kohls. Since then, she has launched another clothing company, Paper Crown, written eight books, and started two websites.

lauren-conrad4

In 2013, Lauren and her friend Hannah Skvarla were inspired to start a non-profit named the Little Market. It is a company that empowers women artisans and provides a market for their products to be sold in order to provide for their families. Today, The Little Market partners with 26 artisans in 16 countries to carry their products and they hope to grow that number even more.

lauren-conrad-3

Lauren has found much success with her products and websites, however she is not stopping there. She said stated that she no interest in returning to television, instead she wants to continue on with her businesses and keep doing what she loves. Lauren Conrad is a millennial entrepreneur who gives a wonderful example of using fame and success to get where she wanted to be, entrepreneurial, and then taking her success from there and giving back to others with dreams just like hers.

lauren-conrad-2

Her personal website: https://laurenconrad.com/

The Little Market website: https://www.thelittlemarket.com/

 

All Natural Hair Product

Leanna Archer was only nine years old when neighbors and friends started asking what hair products she used, and where they could get some for themselves. She started packaging samples of her Haitian great-grandmother’s secret hair product recipes in Gerber jars and giving them out to friends until people began showing up at her door with money asking how much they could get with the money they had to offer.

Fast forward to age eleven, where Leanna was selling more than ever before and launched her initial brand, Leanna’s Hair. Her all-natural hair products, with no parabens, sulfates, or other harsh chemicals, started selling all across the country and expanded to world-wide. Surprisingly, one of her top buying countries is Singapore. A few years later she re-branded as Leanna’s Essentials, which has remained the brand’s name.

Leanna’s Haitian background influenced her greatly, and in 2008 she visited the country for the first time. After seeing the poverty and pain, she started the Leanna Archer Education Foundation, which supported over 200 Haitian children with their education and basic needs. She became the youngest person to ever ring the NASDAQ opening bell on Wall Street at age 13, and her foundation was endorsed by Janet Jackson. Leanna has also been featured on numerous major media outlets, including Forbes, CNN, Time, ABC, and NBC to name just a few.

When she’s not selling her products, Leanna is travelling the country as a motivational speaker and guest lecturer at universities. Her hope is to become a politician, and use her influence to help impact the lives of even more people. What started as a secret recipe from her great-grandmother grew to become a multi-faceted empire. While no longer alive, her great-grandmother saw much of Leanna’s success, and was proud to the very end. Leanna found a need in natural hair care, and that opportunity has become a chance to change the world.

Snap Caps – Maddie Bradshaw

maddie-bradshaw

Maddie Bradshaw was worth her first million at only 13 years old.  At 16, she was selling over 60,000 of her unique necklaces a month and making over $1.6 million annually.

Her idea for these unique, interchangeable, bottle cap necklaces started out as simple school locker decorations.  At 10 years old her uncle had given her 50 old bottle caps.  She decorated them, attached magnets to them, and when her friends saw them they all wanted some.  This inspired Maddie to create different designs with bottle caps.

She created Snap Caps.  Snap Caps are necklaces with metal pendants on them to attract and magnetize bottle caps.  Every bottle cap has some kind of symbol, letter, or design so that a person can swap different caps out depending on the style they want to wear for the day.

Maddie found immediate success with her necklaces.  In nearly every store she launched them in they all sold out.  As her business continued to grow and she made her first million at 13, she attracted the attention of the national media and ended up being interviewed on ABC and was able to pitch her project on Shark Tank.  The Sharks loved her idea so much that THREE of them invested into her company!

Currently 19 years old, Maddie continues to grow and expand her business.  She has said, “The great thing about our company is that it’s growing with me.  As my tastes change, so will the products.”  Maddie has also published a book called You Can Start a Business, Too.  Her advise to other young entrepreneurs like her is to, “Follow your passion. If you come up with an idea and you love it, chances are other people will, too.”

Inside voices? No, Outside Voices

Usually a great idea starts small. When you think of  the word “small” one of the things that comes to mind is childhood. Millennial Entrepreneur Tyler Haney reminds us all of our mother’s words to use “inside voices” in her clever, hip, and trendy line Outdoor Voices. Her clever company is based off the idea that fitness should be freed from the competitive world and thus make exercise a lifestyle. With that key idea in mind she has come up with a spunky and trendy line of great athleisure and athletic wear. All of her designs are simplistic and sleep thus giving the consumer the freedom to mix and match from any of her selections. What’s so incredible about Haney and her business though is how she brought Outdoor Voices into the highly competitive market of athletic wear. She started the idea at the Parsons School of Design, continued on to the Silicon Valley, and after pitching some 70 times landed a $7 million deal to start the business. However, it wasn’t the money that made Outdoor Voices successful, it was Haney’s ambition and smart marketing tactics that truly made her sight stand out. She implemented the idea of using celebrity fans and icons such as Lenah Dunham and Gwyneth Paltrow to help expand the knowledge and desire of her specific brand. Haney’s business is now a big and booming enterprise with a future as bright as the sun.

Bringing Back Classy Swimwear

rey-swimwear-modest-swimming-suits71f9323eb27d9e49f01a3d8d764f067fIt  was a hot summer in Hollywood, and between acting gigs Jessica Ray found herself spending most of her time by the poolside to meet up with friends and escape the blistering heat. After being frustrated by observing how objectified women are in bikinis, Jessica decided to boycott her normal scanty swimsuits for something with more character and coverage.

After surfing the web for hours, Jessica gave up. There weren’t any decently modest swimsuits available on the market that didn’t look like they belonged on a grandmother. Seriously, what’s so hard about making a cute, classic, semi-conservative swimsuit that’s appealing to the younger generation? Jessica was determined, if she couldn’t buy a cute swimsuit- she’d make her own. She had no sewing or design experience, but that’s not a problem for a true entrepreneur!

Jessica isn’t alone. Other people in Hollywood are interested in sporting classier swimwear; there is a healthy demand and Jessica decided to satisfy that want with from a creative and youthful approach.  8 years ago, Jessica Ray swimwear debuted their first swimwear line.

Jessica Rey swimsuits are becoming increasingly popular.  The brand is inspired by the debatably the most iconic woman of all time: Audrey Hepburn. The line strives to uphold the value and dignity of women through their designs. Classy doesn’t have to look frumpy, and Jessica Rey swimwear exists to promote that vision with a vintage vibe.

Leanna Archer

Starting at 9 years old, now 17 and serving as a CEO of a company that has been recognized by Forbes and Success Magazine, Leanna Archer is one successful entrepreneur! At just 9 years old she started her own business by bottling and selling hair pomade from her great-grandmothers secret recipes. Originally only selling to close friends and family now has a wide variety of customers. Besides her hair pomade business she also started Leanna Archer Education Foundation that’s mission is to help build schools and safe learning environments for underprivileged children in Haiti. leanna-archer

16-Year Old Millionaire Necklace Maker

image

Maddie Bradshaw is popular on the blog tonight.  Like Grace, I researched Bradshaw for this post. I want to talk about her success from a slightly different angle, though.  As you might have read from Grace’s awesome post, Maddie Bradshaw is a 16-year-old millionaire.  She designs and sells Snap Caps, creative bottle caps that can be worn as jewelry. She has 25 employees and sells over 60,000 necklaces each month.

I found her story particularly interesting because she isn’t selling something that solves a huge, mind-boggling problem.  In fact, she’s similar to Apple in that she’s giving people something they didn’t even know they wanted.

So, why are people buying from her?  Anyone can make a simple necklace, and many companies do. What sets Bradshaw apart?  She presents Snap Caps as the necklace that celebrates and brings out a girl’s unique qualities.  Each necklace has a theme, whether fairytale or music or ladybugs or faith.  Girls choose the ones they think fit their personality. Just like Zappos, she’s putting a bigger “why” behind a product most people don’t usually think much about.

Her approach fits right into the “conceptual age” idea we were talking about in class.  To have a place in the market, products need to be more than just functional.  They need to stand for something.  Snap Caps stand for uniqueness.

Bradshaw’s success shines far beyond her net worth.  She has appeared on multiple TV Shows, like The View and Shark Tank, and has even published her own book, You Can Start a Business, Too. Her biggest piece of advice to young entrepreneurs is to follow your passion.  She says, “If you come up with an idea and you love it, chances are other people will, too.” I think people forget this a lot.  They don’t work towards something they love because they’re scared it won’t interest others. That has certainly been true for me and many people I know.  Bradshaw is a wonderful reminder that you can create a business around any passion.  She took the risk most people wouldn’t have and it’s paying off for her in amazing ways.

(Image: The Toggery)

Makeup Madness

Rejected by Lancome as a makeup artist, Phan started a hobby she loved- filming makeup tutorials out of the comfort of her own home. After two years of YouTubing, Lancome’s executive noticed her artistry and signed her as the company’s first official video makeup artist. Since then, Phan has increased company annual sales rate by $120 million.

Now, Phan has made her mark on the digital world. Wanting to expand her horizons, Phan created Ipsy in San Mateo, California. Ipsy partners with a multitude of different makeup brands to deliver trendy bags to subscribers every month for a $10 fee. These Glam Bags are themed to the specific month for the perfect facial style every girl may need. With 1.7 million YouTube subscribers, 1 million watchers are loyal members to the Glam Bag fashion in locations including both the United States and Canada.

Ipsy employs over 100 people and is a rival to the fashionable Birchbox. BirchBox spends millions in PR, TV advertisements, and online outreach while Phan increases subscriptions by 100,000 per month on her videos alone. No marketing techniques, not a dime spent on PR.

She is not stopping there. Phan is in progress of developing her own app with photo and video editing software to fulfill one of her career aspirations- educating young followers with tech proficiencies and other skills to make them marketable to employers. Striving to change the world, Phan has travelled with Michelle Obama to Japan as part of The White House’s “Let Girls Learn Initiative”, and wrote her own novel, Make Up: Your Life Guide to Beauty, Style, and Success — Online and Off . This young dreamer is no longer looking to make an impact with just face products, she is working to be an influential role model to every single one of her subscribers.

“My dream is to see a new generation of entrepreneurs who are creating and having more meaningful jobs than the day-to-day grind.”

Phan YouTube Tutorial

Dream Closet?

Now ladies, how many times have you seen a dress watching the VMA’s, Red Carpet Awards, Counrty Music Awards, or any other awards show that you wish you could just wear it for one night?  Are you jealous of the guys being able to rent their tuxes for one night and returning it the next day while you have to buy a dress that you probably won’t even wear again?  Would you love the idea of getting expensive dresses for cheap by only renting them for a night?  Well Jennifer Hyman was thinking the exact same thing and thought of a way to fix that.  She created Rent the Runway.  On the website it says:

“Rent the Runway is a fashion company with a technology soul. Powered by a transformative business model, proprietary technology, a unique reverse-logistics operation and some of the smartest people on earth, we’re in a position to challenge old systems and rewrite new rules. By giving people access to remarkable luxury experiences, we’re changing the meaning of ownership — and revolutionizing retail in the process.”

Hyman compares her business to one of your best friends, only with a much bigger closet.  I don’t know about you but I always love borrowing my friends clothes.  Once you get online the overall all process is really simple.  You can start by setting up the date for which you need the dress, accessories if you would like too, then look through their collection for your rental day.  Next narrow it down by designer, price, length, or whatever you like to find the perfect outfit.  After that you book the outfit for a 4 or 8 day rental period and it should come in 1 or 2 days before your event.  For that one night you can feel like a princess and return it the next day in their pre-paid envelope they already provided you with.  You don’t even have to dry clean it or anything because they will take care of that for you.  The only thing Rent the Runway asks you to do is to upload a photo online and review the dress on their website so others can see how fabulous the dress was.

When Hyman first suggested her idea of Rent the Runway to a boardroom full of partners at a big-time Boston venture capital firm, one of the of the men interrupted her and said, “You are just too cute. You get this big closet and get to play with all these dresses and can wear whatever you want. This must be so much fun!”  Thinking that comment would stop her from making Rent the Runway, this only made her want to pursue the idea even more and I’m glad she did.  Rent the Runway is such a creative and innovative idea because no one has done this before.  I have always been interested in the idea of clothing and fashion for starting my own business so it is an inspiration for myself that even though she was shut down at first, she kept going and created something amazing.  I will for sure be using Rent the Runway for different special occasions in the up coming future and suggesting it to all the girls I know.  Thanks for reading and happy blogging!