We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ginger King a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ginger, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I am an award-winning cosmetic chemist in the beauty industry for over three decades. In the past ten years, I have been helping beauty professionals to develop their own beauty brand from concept to launch including formulation so they can have a second income or leave a legacy.

On March 2019, I was with my personal mentor Shark Tank’s Daymond John at an event, he took out a lip balm and used in front of me. A thought came to mind, if it is something so close to him, in his pocket, on his lips, it has to be mine. Thus I went ahead to create the healthiest vegan lip balm for him. Since he is a sought-after speaker and does a lot of speaking, I dedicated the lip balm to him and those who speak a lot as they tend to have dry lips. Meanwhile, I have a lot of people asking if I can also help them after I help them with creating their product line. I decided to walk the talk and created FanLoveBeauty and launched in 2020.

We all know the beauty industry is flooded with products. What makes the brand special is it is created out of fan love. I believe fan love is the most passionate and we only want to give our role models the very best. There is an inspirational element in FanLoveBeauty because if you use a lip balm created for a shark, you can be inspired to talk like a shark.

The second product in the line is a Hand Veil, it’s a lightweight non-greasy hand lotion inspired by Steve Harvey. At a conference, he told us he always uses a hand treatment before he talks because when you talk, you talk with hands and the camera zooms in so your hands must look nice. There are also studies showing when people talk with their hands, they appear more confident thus that was how the hand veil was born.

As you can see, the product creation process is inspired by people who empower, educate and entertain society. Most of them are entrepreneurs so despite beauty products can be used for all people but entrepreneurs have a special place in my heart as I am one and entrepreneurs are the backbones of the economy.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I knew I wanted to be in beauty when I was sixteen as I saw how makeup can transform ugly ducklings to swans (actually that was my SAT essay title). At first, I wanted to be a makeup artist but being Asian, I was expected to get if not a phD, at least a Master’s degree so I decided to major in Chemistry and became a cosmetic chemist. I have worked in every single aspect of beauty from being at the beauty counter to fulfilling my makeup artist dream while going to college to research and development, manufacturing, marketing, and sales and currently owning my consulting company and my beauty brand. I live and breathe in beauty daily.

What differentiates me from other consultants is that I have a well-rounded of experience in beauty so I can help in every single aspect of the business. I am also frequently quoted by beauty editors on average 140 times a year on various beauty topics and have been the breakthrough award judge for Allure magazine since 2017 and brain trust for New Beauty magazine since 2020. I also appear regularly on Good Day Sacramento for beauty segments. When I work with my clients, I work as a partner rather than a service provider because their success is my success. I am also known for speed, creativity as well as quality, and ensure my clients a wow experience.

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

My career path was not a straight road but I managed to use my passion in beauty to get me through and keep learning. As mentioned that I wanted to be a makeup artist but due to cultural expectations, I become a chemist. When I graduated, there were no cosmetic chemist jobs available so I took a chemist job with Dole Foods analyzing vitamin C in fruits and salads and moonlighting for Estee Lauder at Macy’s during nights and weekends. At the time, there was a pink disease that all senior scientists were scratching their heads on why pineapples turned black, and when you cut it open the meat was pink instead of yellow. At the time, Estee Lauder came out with the first sunless tanner using DHA as the key ingredient. I thought, perhaps it is the same chemical reaction that pineapples got self-tanned. I bought a bottle of the sunless tanner and analyzed it against the pink pineapple and voila, it was the same reaction. I was very happy to use my passion to solve an unrelated issue. Since there was no cosmetic chemist job available in Northern California where I was, after one year at Dole, I decided to go cold turkey calling all cosmetic companies in Southern California by showing up at their doors saying I want to be a cosmetic chemist and I landed my job. All it took was five hour’s physical drive and a strong mental drive to pursue what I really want and the rest is history. I have been in the making of beauty products ever since.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Almost 90% of my consulting business is from referrals as I do not do advertisements. For the past six years, I have become the source for beauty editors as I help them to navigate ingredients and formulations so they can pass them along to consumers, and that has established my credibility with the general public. I also do quite a bit of industry talks and podcasts to inspire and educate beauty consumers. It is important to get known because if you are good and no one knows, they can not benefit so learning to be the celebrity of your own industry is crucial. You are only benefiting the community when people know what you can offer. It is not a “sale” but a “service”.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.gracekingdombeauty.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebeautysharkginger/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBeautySharkGinger
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gingerking/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/asianginger
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@gracekingdombeauty7387
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/@FanLoveBeauty