We were lucky to catch up with Angelita Parham recently and have shared our conversation below.

Angelita, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Opening my storefront, SteeleDivine Cosmetics was about bringing a black-owned beauty brand for ALL to an area that once thrived. The area of Whitehaven played a pivotal part in my life by giving us places to shop, go to a movie, beauty salon, and more. Whitehaven was an area that you could find both whites, blacks, and other races enjoying the area; especially the Southland Mall & SouthBrook Mall. It is my mission to help restore that by advocating for change and planting my business there.

Angelita, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

During the pandemic, all hairstylists, barbers, and beauty industry workers were mandated to stay home. For many of us, not working put us behind on bills and supporting our family’s. Social media played a big part in everyone staying sane during the pandemic. One of the things I saw on Facebook were people being transactional. I quickly thought about what I could do to support myself, my daughter that had just entered into her first year of college, and my son.

I knew I was interested in makeup, so I developed a lipstick line to start my new venture. Surprisingly, my lipstick line sold out within 24 hours. Now in 2023 SteeleDivine has over 50 products in its catalog.

One of the problems SteeleDivine Cosmetics is solving is helping women to learn how to apply cosmetics, feel confident wearing cosmetics, and understanding a little makeup goes a long way. We seem to bring in many women and makeup lovers that are over the full face of makeup. Some feel that too much makeup is intimidating and I agree. I teach one-on-one or in groups how to achieve a professional simpler look that allows you to STEELE BE YOU!

My most proud moment is that even though the pandemic caused us to shift, God brought some old expertise back. SteeleDivine Salon is back operating and we are able to service brides, those who need professional services for photo shoots, and we are hosting makeup parties for children’s birthday parties.

Sustaining my business has been hard work. I sit back and brainstorm ways to create brand awareness and to develop my product more. One of the best opportunities I’ve had in business is helping other women- owned businesses through financial support, counseling, and making connections. I feel as a business owners we should give back our time to those in our community.

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

I absolutely love GoDaddy and what it has created for brands with both products and services. Business owners go online and build out their website, upload their items in a catalog, enter their services, and then connect to social. From there you’re able to engage customers and sell from your website, social media accounts, in-person, and from your phone. I rave about my E-commerce site all the time and say think about GoDaddy when considering how to sell and connect.

Pros would be access to sending emails to clients, developing a blog, refunneling clients, and so much more.

Cons would be getting started.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

SteeleDivine Cosmetics has taken some huge risk this year. We invested in several vendor events to bring brand awareness and developed a sales program. Some of those events were out of town as well as in town.

I believe that business owners must take into account that people are out in the marketplace and taking your products out to them is value.

If we hadn’t of done this, we may be short sales and clients. Every little bit helps.

Contact Info:

• Website: SteeleDivineCosmetics.com
• Instagram: SteeleDivineCosmetics
• Facebook: SteeleDivineCosmetics