We recently connected with Eva Jane Bunkley and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Eva Jane thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

Creating a product can be very daunting task. Going from start to finish from idea to actual physical product ready for sale can be a scary concept. When I first came up with the idea for what is now called “The Makeup Bullet® -HiDef Cosmetic Finger Sponge” I was in a television studio doing makeup and could not find my makeup sponge. I was starting to get nervous because my client had to get to set quickly. As I found myself scrambling and trying to search for where my blending sponge went, the thought came to my mind “if my sponge was attached to my finger that would be one less thing I would have to look for.” At that point I had an “A-ha” moment! I wondered if it was “a thing” so I put a mental pin in the idea to research it later and indeed it was not a thing and I wondered if I could be the one to create it. The initial excitement that came from this what I thought was a brilliant idea was quickly followed by the thoughts of doubt and fear of creating something that did not exist. It took me almost 10 years to build up the courage and determination to step out and bring a new product to market that did not exist before. Moving beyond myself I would say was the biggest obstacle. The next obstacles were simply locating a manufacturer that would work with me as a small business. I learned that the foam business was very compartmentalized and specialized within certain niches that the companies and manufacturers worked in, so it took me a little while to find both a factory with the capability and the willingness to work with me. Once I crossed that barrier it was a pretty fast moving process. From the time I took my first intentional steps to reach out to a manufacturer until the time that I had my first prototypes in hand was an 11 month period and then 6 months later I was at my first beauty show selling the makeup bullet and introducing it to the world!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

September of 2023 marks 30 years for my professional career as a makeup artist. I earned back to back Emmy Awards in 2001 and 2002 during my years in the television industry. I was the makeup artist for Fox 5’s GoodDay Atlanta for seven years and NBC 11Alive’s makeup artist for five years. I have been blessed to work with many high profile individuals and people of influence including President Jimmy Carter, Usher, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jennifer Holliday, Charles S. Dutton, Cicely Tyson, Jamie Foxx, Creflo & Taffi Dollar and Judge Glenda Hatchett. My transition from a service based business to products was organic and in 2013 “The Makeup Bullet® – HiDef Cosmetic Finger Sponge” was born! The Makeup Bullet gained a following not just in the United States but in places such as the UK, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Brazil! I decided that I would continue on my mission of “Making Beauty Easier” and Eva Jane Beauty, LLC was born and the product line has continued to expand! I have learned so much through makeup artistry and through my company as far as serving women in ways that help make them feel more confident, and using my story to encourage them to pursue their own goals. Being an entrepreneur that helps people achieve their own dreams, showing them that there are no limits they can’t work beyond and in spite of, keeps me going! I love to create so I do explore other forms of creativity and that includes my production company, Eva-Lution Studios, LLC. I have been awarded two first place honors for documentary film projects I created. My underlying motivation for all I do is my sons. As they watch me work hard pursuing scaling my empire, I wanted them to grow up knowing that they can blaze their own trail if a path is not paved for them already. They can be resourceful, resilient, brave and bold because they saw Mom do it!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

After my product, “The Makeup Bullet®” had been on the market around 3 years, I finally saw a factory in China advertising online that they make my product even though it was an American manufactured product! They even had the audacity to use photos I took with my own camera! I ordered samples from them and had a conversation online that I created that product they were falsely advertising and I was the patent owner. They apologized and promised to remove the photos from the website, which they did. I also recognized the impracticality of trying to fight “China.” In that if you have a “hot” product and the factories there can copy it…they will. The Makeup Bullet® is a premium product that retails for about $15 which a lot of consumers may find out of their price range. I wanted a “mass market” discount shopper priced product as well that the “budget conscious” consumer would mind buying too. The samples that received in the mail from them were no where near the quality of my product in that the material is stiff and difficult to use for blending but, there are tons of China manufactured sponges on the market here that sell! It would have my patented hole for “wear” so I ordered a few thousand from them in bright colors (“The Makeup Bullet” is black in color) and designed a less fancy lower cost package and bought a new trademark name “PRETTY STICK®” and it retailed for about half of the price of The Makeup Bullet®. So, I had two products on the market and some of my retailers bought both from me to offer to their premium shopper and their discount shopper! It was one way to fight a battle in the market rather than using the limited resources I had in legal fees. PRETTY STICK was my way of using lemons to make lemonade! “PRETTY STICK” was my lemonade product!

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

My introductory product to the market, “The Makeup Bullet® – HiDef Cosmetic Finger Sponge” is the only “original” and patented product in my line. It was a long and arduous process to get it done… It took about a year and a half in all (after the several years I took to build the resolve to do it in the first place). It was weeks and weeks of phone calls to find, what I discovered to be TWO manufactures that I would need to create my product. I needed one that would produce the raw material to make my product – the actual foam, and a second contract manufacturer to “convert” the foam into my patented wearable design. In order to quickly expand my beauty tool and product line to capture the attention of those who became aware of my brand through The Makeup Bullet®, I used “white labeling” of existing products that I found to be complimentary to my mission of “Making Beauty Easier.” I branded these items with the “Eva Jane®” brand. They include my very popular EVA JANE® Silicone Detail Angle Brush, the EVA JANE® 4 Piece Compact Brush Set and my new “EVA JANE® Mink Eyelashes.” It is a much quicker and easier way to expand my product line with carefully curated products that fit in with my mission of time-saving beauty tools and items!

Contact Info:

• Website: EvaJaneBeauty.com
• Instagram: @EvaJaneBeauty and @TheMakeupBullet and @iamEvaJane
• Facebook: TheMakeupBullet
• Linkedin: Eva Jane Bunkley
• Twitter: @EvaJane and @TheMakeupBullet
• Youtube: EvaJaneBeauty

Image Credits
Image credits are included within names of photo files Reginald Duncan for (headshots) Jeff M. for Kobe photo