We were lucky to catch up with Ebony Little recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ebony, appreciate you joining us today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later

If I could go back in time, I’d keep everything exactly the way it was and wouldn’t change a thing. I would not have been able to open and operate my business without years of management, service providing, administrative, accounts payable and receivable experience that I gained during my decade span in the corporate America world. It takes lots of knowledge and discipline to be a full time entrepreneur as well as the faith to take calculated risks so no I don’t wish I’d started sooner or later because God made sure to use everything I’ve been through for my good and nothing I’ve went through was wasted.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I fell in love with makeup as a teenager, using it to cover my cystic acne. Its funny because nobody and I mean nobody on my mother or my father’s side had acne- everybody has clear baby smooth skin no matter what they do to it, they never broke out or had the texture that I did. If I didn’t have severe acne I would have never picked up a makeup brush. My acne was so severe for most of my life that I had to go on Accutane and when I finished the program I was unrecognizable. Even to this day, I’ve had people that I went to elementary/high school or church with say “are you Ebony Little?… I don’t recognize you”. Once my skin was clear and I didn’t feel the need to focus on my makeup daily and I started practicing on family and friends because I would get asked “if I was a makeup artist?” before I even became one so I just took it as a sign. I did this for a number of years and then announced in 2016 on instagram that I was an official makeup artist. From there my career began and I did nothing but eat, sleep and drink makeup studies, I went to G Skin Beauty school and graduated in 2019, I’ve learned from some of the greats including Sir John (Beyoncé’s makeup artist) and made sure that my makeup style was geared more to individuality versus makeup trendy looks. Not one client has the exact same face so why would they get the exact same makeup look, this is the part where you see more diversity in my portfolio than anything. I study everyone’s face so that I can craft the best yet custom glam for them. In 2020 my artistry segued into a makeup product business for consumers because I needed something that could bring money in if I wasn’t providing makeup services on demand (hence the COVID lockdown). It took about 3 years of working with different factories and manufacturers to find the best products that I wanted to sell. I actually almost went into debt paying for things and even classes learning as much as I could about makeup lol! I remember one makeup training costing the same amount as my rent and I still paid for it and went and had to drive Ubereats to make the rent money back on top of the late fees so don’t be crazy like me when going after you dreams kids, still be responsible haha! What my consumer doesn’t know (until they buy) is that each product comes with a message when you open the cap or it’s printed on the packaging. I can’t tell you what it is because each message is different and made to inspire you the moment you open it.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Networking. People want to know you, it sounds cliche but its so true. The market is saturated with talented artists so I am sure consumers are hesitant about who to pick but what always seals my fate is the fact that someone has met me before, I’ve talked to them before, I’ve laughed with them before. In a world of technology and tiktok, we all still crave human connection and thats what people still want and is my number one marketing strategy.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I sell on Shopify, I’ve had it for a about 10 years now. I love how diverse it is my ecom store is based there but also my intake forms for wedding services are as well. I am doing my best to use Shopify for every single feature these days as I want my consumer/viewer to always be led to my domain (Flavor Cosmetics Co.). The only con and challenge with Shopify is the fact that some applications they don’t have and because I really wanted a certain feature on my site I’ve had to code it in myself, but looking back I won’t complain because now I know how to code a website. Thanks for inviting me to share my story on your platform, I really appreciate it, bye everybody!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.flavorcosmeticsco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makeupebony/?hl=en