What They DON'T Tell You About Starting a Beauty Brand

It was a really tough day for me because I put in so much work. It was a really big letdown. I spent so much time, and like, how did I miss that? I literally go bowling with this thing to make sure that when people get it, it's not broken. The floor feels great. Where are all my suggested content? All right, it's me, Julissa. I need to not get distracted with social media when I'm trying to work, but when I get stressed out, I need a break. So, what am I stressing about these days? It's happening! My baby. República. What is República, you ask? A sugar body polish. It's a heritage brand inspired by where I was born, República Dominicana. I was born in Santo Domingo. It's actually the capital of Dominican Republic. It's wild because I never even considered myself a beauty influencer. I mean, I just love doing makeup on myself. Then started doing it on my friends. And for me, beauty is all about skin. Being born in Dominican Republic, and then growing up in New York, and going back and forth, I really saw the difference in my skin. How hydrated, glowy, dewy, as opposed to being in New York, dry, flaky, ashy. Is it glowing enough? Can you guys see it? Can you see it? Can you see it? Like a boomerang? You got it? I really wanted to mimic that look on my skin. I got to turning the wheels in my head, and thinking, you know, one day if I were to ever put my name on something, I would love for it to be a beauty product. When I was doing Empire Girls, I realized that before I would go to bed, I would apply my body cream like this, like really aggressively. And then that's the same way I would apply my body scrubs, because I always was trying to figure out how I could minimize the appearance of cellulite. And then again, I just started thinking about what would my first body product be? And that's how doing a body sugar polish, we call it a polish, because the goal is to look polished, always and forever. I started just doing my own, and then in conversations with my mom, just researching literally where I'm from. I say literally a lot. Literally. I just realized that in doing this show, one of the most natural resources from the Dominican is sugar cane. So my mom was like, mija, you can literally use that to scrub your body. And I just started mixing all kind of things. I did a DIY. And I woke up the next day, and my entire countertop was full of ants and bugs, because I left so much sugar behind. My friends that would brush up against me or touch my arm would be like, wow, your skin is so soft. And I'm like, really? Your skin doesn't feel like this? This is finally the product. It's here. The first step for me was to find the right lab. I wanted this to be cruelty-free. I wanted it to be organic. It was something that even somebody with the most sensitive skin can still experience. I mean, the way you open the box, to when you open the box, the little tab and the scoop. Because I thought, all right, well, we have nails. It's not really sanitary to just be digging into a product. My original goal was to make it in Dominican Republic. And as I was researching, I realized, okay, I would probably have to live there. I started just researching labs everywhere for a good amount of time, because I'm putting my name on something. Literally, it has my name. I wanted to be a lot more involved. You know, being in the influencer space, I can co-sign brands that have been around for years. They're proven and tried and people love it. And I'm just saying, hey, this is my favorite out of this line of products. But when it's your own and you are putting your name on something, it's a whole other ball. The way I found the lab was actually insane. It happened during quarantine. I would walk the neighborhood with my good friend, Liz Kennedy, who is a big beauty influencer, walk in the neighborhood with my friend, and I told her, I'll race you to the stop sign. When I got to the end, I let out a big scream. I was like, whoo! The neighbor was washing his car, and he's like, wow, that sounds like the scream of a winner. Yup, that's me, I won, I'm the champion, whoo, whoo, whoo, all these things. And we got to talking, and he starts telling me how he has an organic pet care brand. And I said, wow, I really am trying to work on this product, and I'm having a hard time finding a lab that can meet all of these organic, vegan, cruelty-free requirements. And he's like, oh, well, maybe the lab that I use might work for you. Cut to, it ended up being the lab that helped me formulate custom formulation, Republica Skin. We made it, we made it. Bienvenido. Because it is a heritage brand, I really wanted to figure out how can I give back to the Dominican Republic. I know I can always go back and shoot in the Dominican Republic, and that's when I thought of my friend Jesse Terrero, who is a huge director. We've known each other forever. He's also from Queens, New York. He's also Dominican. And I called him up and I said, Jesse, I have the biggest favor. This is another thing. If you're starting your business, call in those favors. When it's your own, I don't know, you get shy, at least I did for Mia, like the fear of, oh my gosh, there's no way that I can afford my own friend because he's literally a huge director. I just basically reached out to him and I said, look, this is my brand, this is my vision. I would love to be able to go back to Dominican Republic and shoot the campaign. That's what I did. Saying it and then saying that's what I did is actually mind-blowing because I certainly couldn't do this and still don't do it alone. So when you are putting your name on something, and I cannot stress this enough, it's like Murphy's Law. All the things that could go wrong will go wrong. Something as simple as even the scoop. I was so adamant about this scoop. You can literally just take a scoop. Boom, brand new hands. Boom, brand new feet. Take as many scoops as you want and polish your whole body. So the scoop was something that I was not gonna waver. This is made out of 100% bamboo, so all the details are different. Each scoop is gonna be different. It's not gonna be the same. These are called components. So the component of the scoop and also the top of the jar, the jar itself. This is made from recycled plastic. The jar top is made from bamboo. These three things took almost six months to be shipped. There was a whole debacle when it came to, obviously, the pandemic and the Suez Canal. There's a huge ship that literally got stuck. So they kept telling me, oh, yeah, your components are gonna arrive in two months. Two months turned into three months. Three months turned into four months. Four months turned into five months. Mind you, I'm teasing all of this to my followers and telling you guys it's coming, it's coming, it's coming, and everybody's looking at me absolutely crazy. I've pushed back the release date no lie about 10 times. Someone that can attest to all those things is Liz. Liz Maris. Ven pa'ca, mija. I come bearing drinks. Cheers. To us getting those labels. They finally arrived, girl. And by the way, hey guys. Some of you've seen me on her Instagram. This is my bestie, the hardest working girl I've ever known. We've known each other since, I want to say 2012. I used to have a blog. I would feature her all the time, and she was kind enough to always repost me. And then one day she invited me to an event, and we hit it off, and we've been friends ever since. So you already know, Dominicana's link up, and we just vibed. And I can't express how grateful I am for her because she really just... Don't make me cry. She helped me elevate not just my personal brand, but then even stepping in to do damage control with Republica. You guys see that I've struggled to finally get my hands on my shipper boxes. I rented a truck. Okay, wait. I'm going to cut her off. You should have seen her whipping this man. It's a beautiful, sunny California morning, and I'm on my way to finally pick up my product boxes. That's right. The boxes for Republica Skin are ready. And I'm so excited. Each step, it just feels more real. I was like, when did you learn how to drive a big truck like this? We went and rented a truck, went all the way to the lab, picked up a pallet of shipper boxes to then finally come home and realize... Please tell me what that says. Please zoom in. Which camera? I know that your mind wants you to read it, and it says in your mind, Republica. But what the heck is Republica? They left out the B in Republica. And we came home. We cried together. Got drinks. I couldn't believe it. We went to sleep and then woke up the next day and we're like, maybe that was a nightmare. Maybe that didn't actually happen. But no, we picked up the box and realized that it did happen. But listen, this is the only way that you learn, right? We figured it out. We came up with a solution. And basically, that's what I just got today. Confirmation email. We got labels. So we made some labels from the same material. And it basically is just going to cover it. When you get yours, because I hope you're ordering one, you're going to get one of the very original ones that have a label over the mistake. So consider yourself part of the process. Yes, absolutely. It was a really tough day for me because I put in so much work in making sure that this was recycled materials, which took even longer, just like the components. Sorry, I didn't think I would cry. But again, when you put so much time, effort, and money to put an order in for the amount of boxes that I did, you know, I waited so long because this is corrugated recycles. I really wanted this brand to be sustainable the same way I wanted the ingredients to be vegan, cruelty-free. And it was a really big letdown. I spent so much time. And, like, how did I miss that? At the end of the day, when you are the founder or the CEO or the person behind the brand, you can have 20,000 Liz Maris working for you. You can have 20,000 people working for you. And a mistake like that can happen. Wait, what just happened? Oh, my God. Oh, my God. You know, I have 10,000 of those boxes that are misspelled now that are paid in full that took almost a month to make. To catch this at the very end of that process was just, like, a blow to the gut. Like, no, seriously, what is Repulica? No, I was just asking you. I'm just saying, like, you know how badly, like, the mess-up is. Although I will say, a lot of people just automatically in their brain insert the letter that's missing. But, of course, I'm still going to have to make the labels to cover that. I'm trying not to worry. But I think I have the solution. And it's going to still be really nice. And if they can just mimic the stamp image exactly like it is, obviously spelled right, then I'm good. I just want to say I've been her friend. You look like a big crybaby now. You don't. I've been this girl's friend for so many years. And I actually have never seen her cry. I saw her tear up in DR when we, like, finished the campaign video. But the drop, like, the teardrop didn't actually fall. So I'm kind of sitting here like, oh, my God, is she actually crying right now? Like, this is, this is, um, it's a moment. Could also be the sip I took of this. No, it's a moment. But I understand why it was such a big deal for her. Because, I mean, guys, this was supposed to launch before the summertime. Because the whole point was for you guys to get your body ready for the summertime. Because you're wearing shorts. You're in bathing suits. And it's just been, like, obstacle after obstacle after obstacle. There's no big investor behind this. So it's like every single time we had to go back to the lab. It's like thousands of dollars every single time. It's literally nothing but invoice after invoice. Oh, we still have to do a launch event, by the way. So that's another invoice. My baby! This is my baby! But it's been fun. I don't want to take away from what has been fun about this. Like, finally approving the logo. You know, approving the bamboo lid. And the ending details. And also, I think for me, what's been the most fun is, like, getting everyone's opinion. Because of the pandemic, like, there's so many friends that we haven't been able to see. And now that things are opening back up, you know, we've been hanging out and reconnecting. Even when Adrienne was here the other day, she finally got to try it. And she was like, yo. Like, it's different. And just knowing that, like, we did this baby from scratch. These things happened. I reached out to one of my friends who has a super successful swimwear line. And I said, I don't know if this entrepreneur life is for me. I just, I really don't know. Because it's been obstacle after obstacle. And she was like, Julie, trust me. This happens. But I also learned in that lesson of the date getting pushed back more and more. Is that I actually don't have a seasonal product. You need this more than ever in the colder months. Living in New York and having that dry, flaky skin throughout the really cold winter months. And that's how you even started. So I think the universe has a sense of humor. And was like, you can launch whenever. It's just a lot of trial and error that I think a lot of people don't tell you about. Before you finally get to putting something out there. Even now, I have this one all boxed up and ready to ship. Because I've been doing what's called quality control. Like, I literally go boating with this thing to make sure that when people get it, it's not broken. Don't you love that no one lives downstairs? Because you in your own house. Yes, we do love that. No one downstairs. Let's do it again. And again. On Instagram, it's republicaskin. This is one of many products that I hope won't be as challenging to finally get to you. But I learned so many lessons along the way. And I'm just going to apply that to the launch of the next one. And not look like a crybaby. So if there's anything that you take away from this episode, try your hardest not to mess up your beat when crying. And don't give up. Because ultimately it's worth it. And I mean, it's part of the story. We definitely laughed about it. But what doesn't kill you makes your brand stronger. And I think nowadays people are willing to hear your story, your brand story especially. To just feel more connected to them. That's part of this show and why I'm doing it and sharing these moments with you. It's me, Julissa. Thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to subscribe. Bye! Clank, clank.