We were lucky to catch up with Tanijah COley recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tanijah , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

It was November of 2017. I was a Sophomore at Susquehanna University. I had just changed my major and dropped a lot of classes, so I had a lot of free time on my hands. I’m in my dorm, playing with some lashes. I randomly ended up stacking the two pairs of beauty supply store lashes I had on top of each other, and it just made the FLUFFIEST lash I’ve seen (from beauty supply store lashes at that lol). From there, I knew it was lashes that I wanted to do. I called my mom and my sister immediately and was like ” I want to start a lash business.” I started researching the different styles, where I could by wholesale. I started looking for vendors. I think I ended up trying maybe 3 or 4 different vendors before I settled on my First official vendor. A few months later, Royaltee Lashes was born. The name came from my name Tanijah. I wanted my brand to put emphasis on a woman’s natural beauty. You don’t need make up to feel beautiful or feel like yourself; sometimes all it takes is the minimal effort. Nice fluffy lashes and some lip gloss is all you need. The RoyalTee came from my lashes having crystals on them, making them stand out from everyone else and I personally like being different so instead of “Royalty” I personalized it to myself and made it “RoyalTee.”

How I came to RoyalTee Kosmetics, back along the idea of emphasizing natural beauty I’m big on skin care. I ended up drafting up a skin care line (still in the works & coming VERY soon) that caters to dry and oily skin, works to fade dark marks and prevent future dark marks. It’s definitely going to be something that caters to all skin types and can be used all year round. Spring 2023 look forward to RoyalTee Skinn.

RoyalTee Kosmetics also consists of RoyalTee Extenzionz, where I offer an alternative to the 25mm strips I also offer. This is individual extensions where anywhere from 2-10 lashes (called fans) are carefully placed on each individual natural lash (NL). There’s different types of eyelash extensions Classic, Volume, or Hybrid. I Specialize in Volume extensions where 2D-5D handmade fans are placed on each individual NL. I got into this just by researching more about lashes. I went and took a course to get trained by a certified lash technician in my area. She only trained me for Classic lashes, which strictly one lash per NL. I ended up doing more research myself and watched videos, followed other lash technicians and taught myself how to do volume lashes.

I’ve been lashing now for about two years, consistently for the last 8 months. It was a struggle getting my lash extensions off the ground because I had no permanent area to take clients. I had just come home in 2019 from school and I wasn’t in a stable home environment until about 2021 when I managed to get my own place. I was able to take a few models here and there, travelling to them because I had a vehicle but that was short lived. Once I moved into my first place, I was able to start taking clients consistently.

Tanijah , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Tanijah Coley from Newark, NJ born and raised. I am 25 years old, and I am the CEO of RoyalTee Kosmetics. I got into the beauty industry at a young age honestly. I started off in high school with the black eyeliner and bright pink lipgloss lol. I always had really good skin so I would just wash my face in the morning, do my eyeliner and lipgloss/stick and I’m out the door. Over the years, I started tapping into the other side of makeup and by senior year of high school, I was into the eyelashes, eyebrows, etc. By college, is where I really started getting into makeup, like foundation, eyebrows, contour, highlight all that. My sophomore year is where I brainstormed was what then known as Royaltee Lashes.

Now known as RoyalTee Kosmetics, I offer lash extensions specializing in volume sets, Siberian Mink eyelash strips, lipgloss, and soon a skin care line. What sets me apart from others is what I stand for. I want to put emphasis on a women’s natural beauty, so my products are always going to make a statement in the simplest (and most affordable) way possible. High quality products and A1 customer service leading to high customer satisfaction is my goal; pretty soon RoyalTee Kosmetics will be worldwide!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I like to consider lash techs as ARTISTS because we take our time to create a look specific to each client. Every client is different to their eye shapes, preferences, likes and dislikes, style, etc. With that said, you’ll never repeat the same style for one person or the next and I think that’s the most rewarding aspect about this craft. It challenges you to think outside the box, test your limits to what you can do and sometimes you try new things and amaze yourself in the end. I love trying out the box ideas on my clients and I almost always end up loving the end result. Most of my clients are those who have either never tried lash extensions before, were scared to try it and couldn’t find a tech to put their trust into or had a bad first experience and just wanted to find a new lash home. It’s rewarding when these ladies come to me and put their trust in me to give them exactly what they want.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Sheeshh, let me start off by saying it was HARD! I literally started off by just posting any and everything, and mass messaging people my lash page. I had my family and friends share the page, a few strangers reposted and shared my pages as well. I paid for promos as well just to gain exposure in different areas. Outside of social media, it’s important to gain an audience in the real world. When I first started out, I had a lot of models for free sets so that helped with getting promo. My friends work at a mall, the airport, so word of mouth is definitely a great way to get your business out there. I had business cards where I would leave them EVERYWHER, on cars, mailboxes, houses, doors, grocery stores, etc. When starting out, you have to be excessive but in a good way. If you have cards, put them anywhere you can think off, flyers just the same. You have to generate a lot of traffic outside of social media in order to grow your social media.

Some advice I would have in building your social media presence is having a clear type of audience you want to appeal to and know what YOU want to portray to your audience. Have a clear bio of what your brand is, what it stands for, what you sell, etc, have an organized page, make sure your pictures are clear & professional. Use reels and the music options on instagram/facebook. Using popular sounds can generate a lot of foreign traffic. Most importantly, staying consistent is the best advice I could give. I stopped lashing, stopped using my social medias for almost a year due to COVID and other personal issues and I wish hadn’t but sometimes breaks are good to rebrand and refocus so if you feel you need a break, go for it. TAKE IT. But make sure you come back 100x stronger ready to work.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.royalteekosmetics.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/royalteekosmetics
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RoyalteeKosmetics/
• Other: https://linktr.ee/Royalteekosmetics – Booking a Lash Appointment Located in Newark NJ