Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Dugan.
Hi Megan, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
When I look back on how my career has grown, it is truly a puzzle. The smallest experiences I had when I was a young adult made profound impacts on me, although they were unknown at the time. Every little job I had before creating my company taught me something that I needed in order to succeed. Because of this, everything feels very serendipitous. I planned on working as an advertising art director but I graduated in 2008 just before the huge crash. I still remember the day I was interning and everyone was laid off. It was terrifying. I had to get creative and began freelance makeup artistry in order to pay bills. I fell in love with every bit of the beauty industry. I took on different marketing projects for small businesses around St. Louis while doing makeup on the side. Wearing many different hats definitely helped me prepare for this life for sure. I committed to the beauty industry and worked for many different large makeup companies, eventually landing my biggest role as a regional manager for a major clean beauty company. The corporate side of cosmetics made me really miss the creative side and wall rebuilding my portfolio. I began creating my own formulas of makeup that usually intimidated me, the most being, of course, glitter. As it turns out, I accidentally created the world’s most perfect formula of glitter. Completely controllable, and zero mess with an “adult fingerpaint” vibe. I began bringing my creations to different photo shoots and sharing them with other industry heavyweights. When my products began to grow via word of mouth, I built a website (I happened to have experience from doing this for some small businesses in the past). I’ll never forget the day I received my 500th order. I was out celebrating at lunch and by the end of my lunch I received my 1500th. I never really had an adjustment. I just had to dive right in and say yes to things and figure it out later. The rest of my brand story is still being written, but it’s been over 6 years now and every day continues to be an amazing adventure.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Things have definitely not always been smooth. We’ve had to deal with hardships and just the ins and outs of running a small business and trying to make everybody happy. Some of the biggest struggles have been internal. When you run a successful business, many people you know from your personal life ask to help you out because they need work and don’t realize that it’s an actual job and a lot of times friendships and business just don’t mesh well. Another big challenge as an indie brand is creating innovative products and watching them get stolen by larger companies that have much bigger legal departments. They know how to play dirty. It definitely discourages creativity when you feel unprotected.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My brand, Lemonhead LA, is known for the world’s most high-quality glitter products. Our glitters are seen on some of the biggest celebrities, concert stages and film/TV in the world. We are proud to be one of the few remaining indie brands that actually designs, formulates and produces our cosmetics by hand. As a small team of women, we not only produce but also partner with many major retailers around the world and have a really fun event side of our brand as well. You might find our team glittering guests at a celebrity birthday party in the Hollywood hills or in a VIP lounge at a huge music festival… I am most proud of this brand because of how collaborative it’s been with not only our fans but our amazing team.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I have always been a rebel and a risk taker. So many people laughed when I told them I wanted to quit my job and make glitter full-time. I actually read a book called “the power of now” and it helped me release so many of my fears and as silly as it sounds, I highly recommend it to anybody that needs to ignore that voice in their head that’s telling them to play it safe. I’ve taken a lot of risks in my life and most of them have ended in reward. For the ones that ended badly, I still appreciate the risks because it taught me such a valuable lesson that I will use for something else moving forward.
Pricing:
- SPACEPASTE® – $22
- GLOWJAM® – $24
- SPACEJAM® – $26
Contact Info:
- Website: https://getlemonhead.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lemonhead.la/
