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

Schenika, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I am domestic violence survivor who turned my pain into triumph by creating my cosmetic line Natalia Me-gan Beauty.

As a child I always had a love of makeup and would get in trouble when I would play in my mom’s cosmetics. That love continued on throughout my life but then things changed. I went from loving and wearing my makeup as an enhancement to needing it every day just to leave the house. Makeup became a necessity to me it made me feel normal while I was dying on the inside. See in order to leave my house I had to cover my black eyes, bruises and marks that were on my face, neck and other visible parts of my body. I wasn’t worried about the bruising that you couldn’t see. It was then that I realized there are so many other people going through what I was going through and I wanted to create something not just for them but for everyone.

Six years after that horrific relationship, Natalia Me-gan Beauty was born. I poured my blood, sweat and tears into this brand. And the tough skin I had to have in my past relationship that is helping me in business.

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 this business based off of my love for makeup and the purpose it took in my life. When I started the brand in 2018 I only had mink eyelashes and hair extensions.

In 2019, I started making lip glosses in my kitchen and posted a video on Facebook and Instagram and it took off from there. WEnow have a factory that we work with in the US and have expanded our product line to include eyeshadows, lip-glosses, lipsticks, matte liquid lips, blush, highlighter and so much more.

What sets me apart is the story behind my brand and the purpose of my brand. It’s not just about the cosmetics, but the quality of my products, how they make people feel when they experience my brand, how I know I am helping people with whatever their needs are, and purpose is for wearing makeup. We live in a society where people are so quick to judge others not realizing or understanding what someone may be going through.

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

I initially started making our lip-glosses in my kitchen. Having an uncle as a chemist he taught me a lot. So I used what he taught me and created my own.

However, as the company has grown, we now use a manufacturer for all of our products. I wasted so much money finding the right company because I went about it the wrong way. I literally sent money t over 13 manufacturers when that was totally unnecessary. However, I found one that is located overseas I used them up until early 2022.

I now have a US based vendor who is absolutely amazing!

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

I have five letters COVID!

During covid the world literally came to a halt. All stores were closed unless you were deemed essential, work transformed to a hybrid model. I had to figure out how to pivot the brand now that we were all on lock down.

After many sleepless nights it hit me even though we are all in the house we still have our video meetings and there is still the need to have your face beat. I used that as my marketing strategy and it worked, business picked back up. I was also able to secure the brand on Walmart.com during covid.

The problem was the overseas shipping of our products. Of course, Japan was closed along with us. But I was blessed and thankful that my last big order was enough to get us through until our factory reopened.

This was one of the most stressful times I’ve had while being in business. I stayed up late, I cried, I had several thoughts of why am I doing this but I also prayed, strategized and pushed forward and was successful in doing so.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nataliambeauty.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/nataliambeauty
• Facebook: facebook.com/nataliambeauty
• Linkedin: linkedin/nataliambeauty
• Twitter: twitter.com/nataliambeauty

Image Credits
MUA: @artistrybytia, @daryalatham and @marysinepro Hair: @jazzitupstudios and @ishiawillaims Makeup provided by: @nataliambeauty Photography: @eavisualsbookings, @fotofinessephotography and @collettebonapartephoto