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

Alright, Dirisey thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

The story behind my mission is my mother her strength before she passed in 2013 was so inspiring and i wanted to carry that into my brand. Back in 2013 after my mom passed away from COPD(Cardiac Obstruction Pulmonary Disease) i was in the process of coming up with a name and mission statement and immediately i thought of my mom. She as in Gwendolyn Taylor was someone that set trends and didn’t mind standing out despite the norm around her, she always spoke her mind. To this very day i have items from her clothes that i get complimented on and it makes me so proud to be her daughter. The bold and fearless she possessed is something i want every woman to embrace when they wear Taylor Lacquer. Nail care is so important and essential to how you look and feel. Getting your nails done completes your look and gives you that extra confidence and that is why Taylor Lacquer encourages every woman to be their bold fearless selves through nail care.

Dirisey, 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?

Well I’m a mom of 3 beautiful kids two boys and a girl, I’m born and raised in California specifically Compton to the west side of Los Angeles. I’m the youngest child of 5 and growing up I was always surrounded by adults and older kids. So being surrounded by older people i paid attention to everything, I guess you can say i was nosey. How I got into the industry was me simply being nosey and observant of people nails first, then asking questions about where they got them done. From there while i was working in Bed Bath & Beyond I started to wander in the nail polish section and that’s where i started to get ideas of creating my own line of nail polish. Taylor Lacquer was officially born in October 2020 and its a vegan friendly nail polish plus nail treatments free of 10 harmful ingredients most standard polish have. The problems I solve is caring for your nails in an organic way, most nail polish if you leave on your nails starts to damage and eat away at the surface of the nail. Testing all the polish my self this does not happen with Taylor Lacquer not only does it not damage your nails but it stays on longer than the typical nail polish. What sets us apart is we actually care for your nails with our nail treatments that range from top coat to our 7 in 1 exlixir that helps to keep natural nails from breaking and splitting. I’m most proud of the fact that i took a chance on myself because it’s not easy when you don’t come from an encouragement environment. Growing up i doubted myself a lot because people use to make fun of me and sometimes still do but I’m way more confident in myself now truly. I want my fans to know that you can always change your story by stepping into the best version of yourself, everyday you wake up make it your mission to be bold and better than you were yesterday.

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

In 2017 i started working at The Salvation Army as a CNA(certified nursing assistant) and we did reports using the computer, so through out our shifts we were able to access the internet. At this time Taylor Lacquer was still just an thought because i had no idea how to make my own nail polish. Since i had access to the computer one day as I was browsing the internet, something told me to start researching logo’s. It began with me first finding the logo for my brand, then i started researching how to create your own line of nail polish. This is where my manufacture for Taylor Lacquer was found, of course i researched different companies but one stood out because it was vegan and cruelty-free. It aligned with my brand and it was easy to communicate, from phone calls to samples being mailed to me. Some of the lessons i learned about manufacturing is that having a clear sense of what you want makes the process much easier. Also being patient with shipping because your order can possibly be backed up due to other businesses or them not having what you want at the moment.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

What helped me to build my reputation within my market is doing pop up events. My mentor says if you want to be the best then do what the best do. One of my favorite black owned nail polish “People Of Color” does pop up events and one day she did one very close to my house near Inglewood. It was shocking and also inspiring so I wanted to do one for my brand because I noticed the community support. This is where i researched pop up events and to my surprise there was so many which was very exciting. My very first event was “The People’s Market” at the South Bay Galleria, here I connected with so many different business owners. This is where i built a reputation for myself and began to get some really good footage that i could post on social media. I learned that when the world sees people buying from you then they get curious and want to buy. Posting my events lead to people coming to visit me at my events and tell others about me.

Contact Info:

• Website: taylorlacquer.net
• Instagram: taylorlacquer
• Facebook: taylorlacquer
• Twitter: taylorlacquer
• Other: Were also on Pinterest at taylorlacquer

Image Credits
First i would like to thank God for giving me life. Thank you to Candice for referring me to you and to my sisters Toni, Tanisha, and Trina for always supporting me in my journey. Thank you to my mom Gwendolyn Taylor without her there would be no me or Taylor Lacquer.