Image courtesy of shutterstock.com

This month it’s all about celebrating women.  Women are strong, women are powerful, and when faced with a problem … women are resourceful and creative!

When noticing a beauty issue, these entrepreneurial female founders took charge and developed a solution to help others.  These independent beauty brands bring unique solutions to some of our oldest beauty conundrums.

Fashion Reverie spoke with some innovative women who are changing the beauty game one styling product and lipstick at a time.

Image courtesy of treStique

trèStiQue

A brand focused on simplifying your makeup routine. 

Clean, cruelty-free makeup in easy to apply crayons are the perfect way to get you ready in just 5 minutes.  Ideal for looking great before heading out the door or sprucing up before a last-minute Zoom call.  In fact, this case of cosmetics looks a bit like a pencil holder and is great to keep on the corner of your desk.

Jenn Kapahi spent years in the beauty industry.  Starting with a summer job as a makeup artist at Saks Fifth Avenue in Southampton, her love of beauty bloomed into a career.  Kapahi has worked with top brands including L’Oreal, MAC, Anastasia, Estee Lauder, Revlon, and more.  However, when it came to her own beauty routine, she dreaded it.

Recognizing the need for an easier makeup solution, she realized she wasn’t the only one struggling with overflowing makeup bags full of products that were overly complicated and took forever to apply.  She decided to build a brand that would fit into her own busy life and the lives of makeup lovers everywhere.  She decided to build a brand around 8 mainstay products and connected with Jack Bensason, who has 10 years of experience in cosmetic supply chain and development, to make it happen.  Bensason helped develop Kapahi’s vision, with his idea of the jumbo twist crayon design, into the trèStiQue brand.

The best part feature of this collection is that they are all double-sided, with an attached beauty tool or enhancer right on the other end.  Highlighter crayons with blending sponges, mascara wands with eyelash curlers, eyebrow pencils with eyebrow filler, and eyeshadow crayons with mini brushes just to name a few of the types of two-in-one products trèStiQue is known for.  

Plus, to get started, just snap a selfie and the trèStiQue experts will recommend your top shades to help you build your own customized essential 8.

Looking for a few simple products to replace your makeup bag? Check out trestique.com.

Image courtesy of Lunata Beauty

Lunata Beauty

Hair tools without the messy cords.

If you’ve ever flattened your hair on an ironing board because tools marketed for hair weren’t hot enough. you’re probably aware of how far flat irons and hair tools in general have come.  Not only were the old ways—before having solid hair tools at our disposal— dangerous, but it was so easy to fry your hair.  Over the years, hair tools have evolved, but one thing really hasn’t, the way they’re powered.

For many people, it’s easy to just plug in your favorite straightener or curling iron and style your strands in your bathroom mirror, but if you’ve ever travelled internationally this seemingly easy task can become a real problem. Not only can foreign electricity kill your favorite tools, and possibly wreck your hair, but the lack of outlets next to mirrors tends to a be a huge problem.

Stacey Boguslavskaya and Monica Abramov knew this problem all too well.  After countless trips facing these types of issues, they founded Lunata Beauty and the Cordless Styler Plus +.  A flat iron made up of titanium plates—for “snag-free” styling—that reaches up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.  The flat iron can be used on 2 rechargeable batteries and lasts up to 45 minutes or can be plugged in and used while charging.  Oh, and it’s dual voltage, so it’s great overseas!

Imagine the freedom, if your phone in the next room rings while you’re doing your hair, you can grab it without missing a beat.  You can step away to answer a question when your kids or partner calls mid-styling.  In fact, rather than being stuck in the bathroom, you can now do your hair in front of that gorgeous mirror in your bedroom—you know the one with great lighting. You can even sit down!  Seriously, the future is cord-free.

Now if you have thick or super curly hair, I wouldn’t throw away your regular straightener, just yet.  It may take longer to tame your tresses on this wireless straightener than some of the more traditional wired alternatives on the market. However, even those with the thickest of locks will appreciate having one of these in your desk drawer or gym bag for touchups on the go! As any frizz-prone person knows, no matter how great your hair looks when you walk out the door, all it takes is a few drops of rain or a little humidity and your polished look is no more.

It’s also great for touch-ups! Hello next-day hair!

For cord free straighteners and curling irons for trips, touchups, and just to free you of cords visit: lunatabeauty.com.

Image courtesy of CAPTIV8

CAPTIV8

A way to keep your products organized while on the go.

Tacky sheets placed in vegan leather portfolio and roll-up cases are ideal for staying organized while traveling is what CAPTIV8 is all about.  Designed to keep everything in place, each case also features a zippered pocket for other loose small items like brushes or pencils.

When Jessica Kriesel was young, she’d watch her father invent solutions to solve some serious problems—like cooling down the interior of race cars!)   After college, Jessica was quickly recruited by her father to work alongside him selling tackleboxes with a layer of a tacky substance for organization.

Faced with lots of trips to trade shows and other events, Kriesel found that packing her beauty products, jewelry, and accessories was a pain.  She began to pack her products in the tackle boxes and that’s when the idea hit her to incorporate a similar technology into a range of bags for beauty accessories.

After lots of trial and error, Kriesel and her father developed Tak Technology, their signature solution which firmly holds products in place without leaving a sticky residue.  Made from soybeans, these tacky sheets can be used again and again, without losing anything.  All you do is press down on your product into the solution and you’re ready to go. 

Able to withstand heat and freezing temperatures from 240 degrees to below 15 degrees Fahrenheit, Tak Technology can be cleaned with a damp cloth or makeup wipe without becoming any less effective.  In fact, you can even clean it in the dishwasher.

To learn more about these amazing travel cases visit: captiv8.shop

Image courtesy of GaBBY Bows

GaBBy Bows

Hair clips designed to stay in place.

We couldn’t write an article on female entrepreneurs without featuring this younger innovator making waves. 

Gabrielle “GaBBY” Goodwin, last year when she was only 12 had her collection of barrettes, bows and natural hair products featured in Target.

As any young, or not so young, hair clip wearer knows, clips seem to go missing like crazy.  It doesn’t matter how many you buy or how you weave them into your hair, they all disappear into some deep unknown void. (If we had to guess, they’re probably living happily with all those left socks that went missing from the dryer!)

Tired of the constant loss of her favorite clips, at only 7 years of age, Godwin, with the help of her mom, created the first patented double-face, double-snap barrette.  With their newly designed clips that stay in place, the mother-daughter duo went out to market them.  Before landing their big Target deal and working with other small retailers, they were turned away a lot.

Together, they’ve turned hair bows into big business and are inspiring other kids to do the same with their Mommy and Me Entrepreneurship Academy. Godwin explains that she’s heard NO a lot. But remember, NO is just an abbreviation for Next Opportunity!

Godwin and her mom are so confident that their bows will stay in place that they have a guarantee right on their website offering to replace a bow that might slip out of a child’s hair with two bows!

Check out Gabbybows.com to learn more about her clips and natural plant-based styling products.

—Janine Silver