Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Melissa Polanco. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Melissa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

I have never been one to take a lot of risks but I decided to pursue an entrepreneur journey when I founded my beauty brand. Entrepreneurship was never something that I thought about and certainly not my with introvert personality. When I started this journey, I really didn’t know much about running and business and learned as I go. I have always been a firm believer that as long as you have passion for something, you can learn anything. I had a lot of passion for the beauty world and in creating a brand that represented those that don’t feel seen, so operating this brand has been such a learning experience and also such a great journey.

As a person, I have learned to be more assertive and confident with myself so taking this risk of creating a brand and running a business made me realized that I can do anything I set my mind to. If I wouldn’t have taken a risk, I would not have develop the skills that I now have, would not have make connections with other entrepreneurs and would not have gotten out of my comfort zone.

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?

Growing up I was always very reserved and shy and my confidence was never there. I started to play around with makeup and watch makeup tutorial videos when I was in my mid 20’s and learned to love myself through the power of makeup. I learned that color means many things for every person, so I learned how to highlight my traits with color.

As I grew my passion for makeup, I noticed there were not a lot of brands that would cater to women that looked like me. Even beauty ads would always look the same for every brand. There was no diversity and that’s how Ring of Color was born. I wanted to create a brand that celebrated every person that didn’t feel seen and to remind others that beauty looks different in every person. I also wanted to have a brand that empowered others and created a sense of community.

Ring of Color currently carries a collection of lip products that caters to different skin tone as our shades are inclusive, which is always a goal of mine every time a product is launched. All of our products are cruelty free and paraben free as well.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I initially had founded this beauty brand under a different name along with my sister, who was also the co-founder. She as well shared the same passion for wanting to create a brand that empowered others. For four years we were able to run a brand together and do all the operations.

It was this past March that my sister decided to take a step back from the operations and from the co-founder role. There was no sibling rivalry or anything along those lines, on the contrary, I really enjoyed having to shared that journey with her but she just wanted to make a change for herself and had respected her decision.

The change in operations made me want to give the brand a re-fresh with branding overall so that’s how Ring of Color came to be this past March. The name just goes along with what my mission was initially, which is to celebrate all beauty.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

Ring of Color is an e-commerce business so we make our products available to consumers on our website, but we also have them available on Verishop.com, which is another e-commerce platform.

E-commerce was my first choice because Ring of Color is a self-funded brand, so it makes things easier and more cost effective. The big picture is for the brand to branch out and be in retail stores eventually.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ringofcolor.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ringofcolor/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ringofcolor
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-polanco-3879551ba/

Image Credits
The Unfiltered Collective