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Meet Eve Dawes of Glamour and Gains By Eve | Dawes Custom Cosmetics in Las Vegas

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Eve Dawes.

Eve, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I have quite a diverse background but everything I’ve done has provided me with all of the skillsets I need for where I currently am and it finally feels like everything’s fallen into place and I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.

From 1999-2008, I was dancing around the world with ballet companies, musicals, and cruise ships. Going from contract to contract. It was always scary ending one contract and auditioning for the next contract. It took a lot of faith in my abilities, but I was always so fortunate to be continually employed and also rehired a lot.

After dancing, I went into the Personal Training and the fitness world, where again you’re self-reliant and self-employed. You don’t have a chance to have any doubt you’ll succeed as you have to; paying your rent, mortgage, and bills depend on it (I had a house in Florida at that time and was living in and paying rent on a place in Islington as well). The discipline instilled in me from ballet school was a great character trait to have as a self-employed person.

So many of my friends are entrepreneurs and promote having more than one revenue stream so that if one doesn’t take off, you still have multiple other sources of income.

I’d already transitioned away from one on one personal training to online programming as you are limited to your income if you charge by the hour and you can’t magically make more hours in the week. I was blogging on https://glamourandgains.com as another income stream (sponsored posts, products, affiliate links, etc.), as well as working with my husband on our company ‘Sorority Specialties’ but I was ready for a new project and wanted to invest in another company or create a start-up but I didn’t know what.

I first started having the idea for custom cosmetics after a trip to New York where custom products are already buzzing on the beauty scene. The idea snowballed into being experience rather than product-driven for several reasons: Vegas is the party capital of the World so why not give them something memorable and something to take home with them to remember their trip or special day by (bridal, birthday and bachelorette parties are my target audience). Secondly, I was Mrs. Nevada at the time and had been in the fitness modeling world for five years and was fed up of leaving makeup artists afraid to eat or drink as I didn’t have the right colour to touch up my lipstick with and the long-lasting formulas were chemical-filled and drying. Thirdly, the majority of the luxury brands were (and still are) testing on animals and the ingredients aren’t natural or non-toxic! What woman doesn’t love having something made especially for her and luxury makeup that’s cruelty-free and made it the USA.

What if you didn’t have to give up luxury brands or compromise on natural, cruelty-free living? If you can’t find the solution, create it!

After about a year of ingredient and supplier research and training, I opened online in the Fall of 2018. With four main collections: ready to wear, customizable ready-to-wear (scent, flavor, lip plumper, gloss or lipstick) cosmetics for a cause and virtual custom lipstick creations. Which is where your custom lipstick is created with you via a video call.

Once this was established, I opened the doors to Las Vegas’s first and only custom lipstick lab in the Summer of 2019. Where groups or individuals can come in and celebrate their special occasions or just come in by themselves and have our color experts create their perfect lipstick. It’s so much fun, a great way to create memories with your friends and family, and walk away with the perfect color for you that’s totally unique. You even get to name it!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Well, there’s COVID-19!!!

That really threw a spanner in the works as I’m sure it did for many people. Obviously, we had to close our doors and still have. We are open for individuals for appointments but it will be a while before we can offer group party bookings again.

However, we really didn’t have to pivot since we’ve always offered the virtual/online custom lipstick experiences: https://www.dawescustomcosmetics.com/virtual-custom-lipstick-online-appointment/

Clients can also reorder their custom lipsticks online as we store their formulas under their client profiles to make reordering really easy or shop the ready to wear collection to stock up. Our best seller ‘Miracle Lip Plumper and Moisturizing Treatment’ https://www.dawescustomcosmetics.com/miracle-lip-plumper-and-moisturizing-lip-treatment/ has been even more popular during this time as people are avoiding wearing lipstick and gloss under their masks but still need hydration and TLC for their lips. This lip treatment isn’t sticky which makes it perfect for being able to wear under our masks.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
What we don’t need is another lipstick but what we do need is to fill the void in the luxury cosmetic market for cruelty-free makeup that puts the client first and is based around their needs and ensuring they walk away with their perfect color. Dawes Custom Cosmetics fills the cruelty-free void in luxury cosmetics and is known for being not just another lipstick company but a custom lipstick and makeup experience that’s all about you and your specific beauty needs!

We’ve won 2 health and beauty awards in 2020: Best Custom-Blended Cosmetics Business 2020 – USA & LUX Customer Service Excellence Award – Las Vegas.

Based in Las Vegas, Dawes Custom Cosmetics offers a custom lipstick experience where you can create your own perfect, unique custom color lipstick and lip gloss that expresses your personality and compliments your coloring and personal style. A custom lip color and custom lipstick is a lot like having a signature scent and also a great way to celebrate occasions and make them memorable.

I was fed up of wasting time and money searching for the perfect shade and texture of lipstick and gloss that wasn’t full of chemicals and wouldn’t dry my lips out, or leaving makeup artists and not having the right shade to reapply later. So I set out to create a conscientious company that was kind to animals, your body, and skin and a way to be able to give back to the community via Cosmetics For A Cause. Sourcing and creating natural, cruelty-free ingredients from the USA, so gentle but effective that they’re recommended by a triple-board certified cosmetic and plastic surgeon.

What sets us apart is that we hand make everything in the USA and are client-focused. I want the wearer to feel special, to have fun creating their unique look, and to feel beautiful and valued. They can select the finish, color, scent, texture, and name it; it’s a really exciting concept that makes for a special bachelorette, wedding, birthday party treat, memento, or thoughtful gift. How much money and time have you wasted trying to find the perfect nude, red, or pink? This saves all of that by allowing you to play with the colors with me until we create the perfect shade and finish for you.

We are also built around a philanthropic core. The Dawes Custom Cosmetics For A Cause Program allows non-profit organizations to have their own exclusive, limited edition lipstick sold online with proceeds from the sales being donated to their charity. If the charities in Las Vegas, we also offer the option to book the custom lipstick experience for their charity events, galas, and fundraisers at no cost, with a percentage of proceeds going to their charity.

What were you like growing up?
I was always very adventurous, family orientated, disciplined, self-motivated and tenacious. I knew from the age of seven, I wanted to be a ballerina and that laser focus and the discipline it gave me has stayed with me throughout life. I love working on a project and seeing it through to completion and always trying to learn something new.

My parents always took me on vacation, ever since I was a baby, so I grew up with a love of travel and exploring cultures. Luckily my husband loves to travel too. We don’t really take days off as we both have our own businesses, so travel is something we really put a lot of time into planning and making the most of. I blog about our travels on https://glamourandgains.com which is my passion project.

The blog and podcast cover the latest fashion, curated cruelty-free beauty, health and fitness tips (I’m a NASM certified trainer and WBFF Pro Diva), and luxury travel. With lots of interviews with founders, influencers and leaders from around the world who share their knowledge in realistic, actionable tips that encompass all aspects of life.

I performed internationally as a ballerina and dancer for nearly ten years and still love performing and the camera. Staying true to my British roots, I have a beauty, fitness and fashion segment on ‘Spill The Tea’ which airs every Tuesday at 10amPST/6pm GMT. “We’re a little Brit different, and we’re about to Spill The Tea, so let’s have a cuppa and a natter!”.

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Image Credit:
Mario Ramirez, Paul Citone

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