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

Alright, Justice thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

I always looked at the beauty industry as something that shapes everyone around the world. From putting make-up on Barbie at a young age to picking out the blush you want to wear at your wedding, the beauty industry is in every stage of our lives. However, one thing that has gotten lost in my opinion with the beauty industry is that we forgot the main purpose of makeup which was to have fun and feel beautiful while doing it. I was tired of individuals discussing makeup as if it is a 20-step process you have to do every single day. I wanted to create something that felt fun, and made my consumers feel a part of a community that rarely exist today. I wanted to create a different approach in the makeup world and let individuals who would love to be a part of the makeup industry but are afraid, know that makeup is there for you to have fun with, to play with. It’s there for you to create your own new standard of beauty. This is where the name NuBeauty came from.

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

I am from Washington, D.C. and I come from a big family. Growing up, I was always into looking good even as a little girl. I would always want the hottest clothes, and the cutest accessories. I first got started wearing makeup in college. However, I was always drawn to makeup at a young age. When I was about 7 or 8 years old, I would play in my mother’s lipsticks. She didn’t wear much makeup but the little bit she did I would hide to sneak and put it on. Once I finally got older, I explored it more heavily. In college I was no makeup professional, but I remember the first thing that I got into was eyebrows. This was during that time where everyone was drawing their eyebrows on heavily and concealing them. And in that moment, I realized I love this. I love the way I could take something and transform my look. I loved the way it boosted my confidence at the same time. I had no idea I would start an actual makeup brand back then, but I knew it was going to be something I continued doing and showing others how to do as well.

I think that’s what sets NuBeauty apart from other makeup brands is that our products aren’t created for you to feel like doing your makeup is a chore. It is created for you to have fun with. That is the main takeaway we want our customers and potential customers to know. You don’t have to know how to do makeup in order to wear it. Wear it however you see fit. We currently have eyeshadow palettes that you can wear on your eyes and also on your cheeks. There is no one rule book on how to wear makeup. Do what you want and what makes you feel good. And as NuBeauty continues to grow, I am most excited to continue to create products that have this message resonated in them.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I started Nubeauty in 2019. When I first launched, I had brought all this inventory from my manufacturer in hopes that I will sell out and people would actually like my product enough that I would make a lot of sales. I was certainly new in the game and had a big misunderstanding of how this business thing works. I had got sales but I still had more than half of my inventory still leftover sitting. I remember feeling so defeated everyday as I looked at my inventory and tried to find ways to sell it because quite frankly, I had lost so much money from it just sitting. It did not take me long to realize that being a brand-new business in a heavily saturated industry that it would take more than cute product photos, nice website, and packaging to sell my products. So, I went back to the drawing board and I did tons of homework. I studied big makeup brands in the game and watched what they did. I soon realized that folks were not going to purchase any products from me, if they did not know my story and who I was. Therefore, I took a year long break in 2021 where I just researched and researched. I realized that I did not have the funds nor the support just yet to buy tons of inventory. So I took a different approach. I began to really focus in on my target audience and speak to them instead of trying to sell to them. And when it came time to launch I took a different route which was pre-orders. I had already gained my audience attention and trust and realize in order to create some hype around the launch I needed to take preorders to ensure that my products would sale and be successful. I had to quickly pivot in order to boost my sales. This is something that many startup brands and business owners don’t talk about enough when it comes to starting a business. Even big brands today still do this.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

To be honest, I am still building my audience and social media presence. The one thing I have learned and that has always been reiterated to me was “just be yourself”. Folks love it when they can relate to you. It is so easy today to get caught up in social media and start to rethink what you are doing and want to do what others are doing but don’t. Stick to what you know, stick to what you are good at. It may take months, even years to see a successful return on it but being your true authentic self is worth it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nubeautyco.us
• Instagram: nubeautyco_
• Twitter: NuBeautyC
• Youtube: justicecierra
• Other: tiktok: Nubeautycosmetics

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