We recently connected with Queen Thomas and have shared our conversation below.

Queen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I started Queen’s Beauty Services LLC (QBS) in 2019 as an outlet for Black people to trust with skincare services and products. I, personally, experienced ingrown hair and blackhead outbreaks and those were the main focus of the business starting out. My mission was to start open conversations about ingrown hair and blackheads, dig into the stress, embarrassment & stereotypes about ingrown hairs and blackheads and lastly, to provide solutions and products to help cure those skin impurities. QBS partnered with other Black Owned businesses to source out body butters, skin scrubs, etc. I wanted to create a product and space for brown skin to thrive.

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 got into my industry by mistake. I was starting a new job and casually talking to a friend about my skin abnormalities. i’ve always been really into skin care, since high school. I remembering using all of the Noxema and Proactive products, hahah nothing really words. I dealt with really bad acne & then ingrown hairs after that. Once i spoke with a few of my closest friends i realized it wasn’t just a me problem and that people had no idea how to handle these skin conditions. I also realized that men, Black men specifically, suffered the most from ingrown hairs and blackheads on their necks and chin from shaving and naturally having curly hair. It took a couple days to do research, look into what the industry currently offered, (which was not much), find out the products a typical client would need, etc.

i mean i researched a lot, websites, products, vendors. and ultimately, we started super small. haha using Dollar Tree items. But in 2020, the dynamic of the company changed because of Covid, which is a gift & curse.

Originally, we wanted to offer hands- on removal services, but with Covid we had to pivot the company, and fast, so that we could not only stay open, but still get people the skin products they needed. We started selling “At Home Spa Boxes” now “The Spa Box”, which provides customers with skin care and spa products in a box, that ships directly to your doorstep.

What a pivot, right? In our 1st year of business we had to restructure the whole company to adapt to a world crisis that would change our lives’ forever.

Today, Queen’s Beauty Services offers over 20 Skin Care products for Men + Women. Our Spa Boxes make the perfect gift or pick me up for our customers and often reflect a major holiday. These include but are not limited to Valentine’s Day Box, Christmas Box, Mother’s Day Box, LGBTQ Box, Breast Cancer Box. Our Men’s Box includes a full beard kit including beard comb, beard oil, beard balm, and beard leave in condition, etc.

Other items include: Mini Kits, Beard comb, Bath Salt, Clay Face Mask, Ultrasonic Face Scrubber, Bonnets and Durags, etc.

We have expanded our business to candles and plan to expand that business this year. Our candles are 100%Soy Wax for a safe environment & offer 20+ scents. They are really big sellers and are often compared to BBW.

One thing that sets us apart from other businesses is our willingness to partner with other businesses. Early on we realized the power of community and we wish the best to everyone. By having another business’ product in our Box, we are not only promoting another business but we are also helping that business gain customers. Selfishly, it also takes some responsibility off of us hahaha

I am most proud of still being in business. Entrepreneurship is very hard because there is so much required from you and it can become overwhelming. Self doubt can diminish your entrepreneurial light and bring you down. No matter what, stay working and stay encouraged. One of the biggest failures i’ve had is second guessing myself. Going with my first thought has always been more beneficial in this business than second guessing. If the idea works, amazing. If not, make more ideas.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Perfection. Trying to be perfect will set you back more than help you prosper. In business, your plans will not always be perfected, however, you have to put it out and fix it along the way. waiting to have an idea perfected is missing out on money, it is prolonging exposure, and someone else may beat you to it. (which is not a deterrence) Your customers will not know, only you will.

Put it out, perfect it later.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Starting out my business, it was unreasonable to just ask people to give me money for materials. Instead, i decided to host multiple business showers so people that support me could shower me with business supplies i needed.

i hosted these businesses showers in the three cities my business primarily operates out of, Atlanta, Cleveland, and Baltimore. Each shower had invitations, signs, food, mimosas, games and of course a presentation about Queen’s Beauty Services.

Having a business shower was very beneficial because it allowed people to actually see the direct impact their purchase made to build QBS.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.queensbeautyservices.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/queensbeautyservices_
• Facebook: Queen’s Beauty Services
• Twitter: @QBSTweets_
• Youtube: The Crafting Corner
• Other: Tiktok: @queensbeautyservices