Today we’d like to introduce you to Joanna Rosario-Rocha and Leslie Valdivia.
Joanna and Leslie, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Vive Cosmetics is a cosmetics brand created by Latinas for Latinas and the Latinx* community. We unite our love for all things beauty and culture all in one place. We encourage Latina women & the Latinx community to live life to the fullest, be unapologetically themselves- equipped with great lipstick and an unending cultural pride.
What inspired us to start Vive Cosmetics is the lack of representation of the Latinx community in the beauty industry. Latina women are the number 1 consumers of beauty products yet we don’t see people that look like us all the way from company founders to models & marketing campaigns.
We founded Vive cosmetics to fill this void within the beauty industry. We hope to grow as a credible brand and inspire the latinx community to own their identity and be proud of who they are and at the same time offer quality products.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Starting Vive Cosmetics has been a dream come true. But it definitely has not been a smooth ride. First off, not having a background in the beauty industry was an obstacle in itself. We had no idea how to start a makeup business, let alone manufacturing process, fulfillment etc. but we knew we wanted to unite our passion for makeup and serve our Latinx community. What better way than starting Vive Cosmetics.
One of the biggest struggles that we realized is that everything taxes 5x as long as you think! The manufacturing process takes a long time and we have grown to be more proactive and patience by working on things we can control and not dwelling when things go wrong.
Vive Cosmetics – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Vive Cosmetics is a makeup brand by Latinas catered to our Latinx Community. We want to unite all things beauty and Cultura in one place. We are most known for our Que Matte enduring Liquid lipsticks which are cruelty free, vegan and waterproof! We call them #besoProof #tacoProof anything proof!
The most obvious factor that differentiates us is that we have a niche market and the most obvious way we focus on our market is with our branding. Our brand is extremely colorful, vibrant, in which we feel represents the Latinx culture well. It is also intentionally made to create a different mood than that of other well-established brands, whose packing, and style is simple, black and white.
Vive Cosmetics is filling a niche that is almost empty in the cosmetics market. We are focused on growing brand loyalty to connecting and relating to our customers by our shared experiences style, heritage, and struggles. We want to empower Latinx to feel proud of their roots. We want women and the Latinx community to be courageous so that nobody makes them feel excluded or not enough because of their origins.
The other differentiating factor is our commitment- not only to promoting the beauty of the Latinx culture but also to give back. We are donating $.25 of each unit sold to one or several organizations focused on helping women of color and the Latinx community in the United States and eventually Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Our proudest moments are definitely all of the emails, direct messages and comments we receive on a daily from Latinx women who tell us how much our products mean to them. We have countless messages of women who tell us that a company like ours that caters to the Latinx community, was so needed in the beauty industry. They love the fact that we show regular women as our models, women that look like us, that we represent our cultura in the names of our products and that our brand is bright, lively, and energetic just like we are as a Latinx Community.
It’s an amazing feeling to get the messages we get from women who say they feel represented by our products, the names and that the lipsticks make them feel great! To us, it’s not about the lipstick it is about the feeling the lipstick gives you! We want to give our community good quality products but the main reason is give them a sense of belonging and that a company cares about them.
Pricing:
- Que Matte Enduring Liquid Lipsticks $19
- Cremosa Lipsticks $17
- Get a bundle (buy 4) and Save $8
Contact Info:
- Address: 2121 Broadway Unit 188345
Sacramento, CA 95818 - Website: https://vivecosmetics.com/
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vivecosmetics/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ViveCosmetics/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/vivecosmetics?lang=en
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
