We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alyssa Caggiano. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alyssa below.

Alyssa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

With working in the beauty industry, I noticed the lack of representation in products and marketing. It was disheartening to see beginners, as well as professional makeup artists, feel discouraged and excluded by the beauty industry because brands primarily catered to only one specific look. I wanted to start a luxury beauty brand to prove that beauty exists within all of us. CAGGS to me is a brand that values individuality and inclusivity, so makeup lovers of all walks of life feel supported and seen.

Alyssa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

It wasn’t until my senior high school prom that I began experimenting with makeup. Although I grew up a tomboy, I wanted to learn how to do my own glam for special occasions. I quickly began to fall in love with makeup and realized makeup was a new passion of mine. I started working at Ulta Beauty my freshman year at Stevenson University, which only helped to refine my knowledge and skill. I became known as “the girl who knows how to do makeup” across campus, so it wasn’t uncommon for me to apply lashes or makeup for others or simply offer beauty advice. I slowly began to do freelance makeup artistry on the side, but I stopped after the pandemic. I still wanted to pursue and spread my passion for makeup, so I became a mentee with Women of Lyn for the push I needed.

I launched my own vegan beauty brand, CAGGS, in May 2022. CAGGS currently offers faux-mink and color faux-mink lashes, as I believe lashes are the easiest way to feel glam or put together. I believe CAGGS fills the need for inclusivity, representation, and vegan options among the beauty industry because there’s a lot more progress to be made. We firmly believe makeup is for anyone and everyone regardless of how they look.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Social media marketing has helped CAGGS tremendously to gain exposure, specifically through influencers and brand ambassadorships. The key to sending out social media packages to influencers or signing a brand ambassador is to do your research. Does this creator make sense to your brand? Do their values align with your brand? Does it make sense to collaborate with this creator? I’ve had to consider these questions when searching for creators to be a face for CAGGS. I wanted to choose the route of influencers/brand ambassadorships to represent various faces other than myself. Although this has helped CAGGS gain followers and subscribers, I believe it ultimately proves to clientele that we are serious in our mission to bring individuality and representation into the beauty industry.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A valuable lesson I had to unlearn was the idea that content had to be “perfect” before posting. I believe this is one of the biggest misconceptions entrepreneurs have when starting because it starts to give a sense of imposter syndrome. I realized this recently because I would spend hours on creating content only to feel it wasn’t “good enough” to post. Yes quality of content matters, but social media apps, such as TikTok, encourage organic content. It has helped me to film and plan new content to be launched in the new year for CAGGS.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.caggsofficial.com
• Instagram: @caggs.official
• Other: TikTok @caggs.official