We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Vanessa Sachs. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Vanessa below.
Vanessa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you share a customer success story with us?
Ava Cyruli is a bodybuilder and avid fan of SWAKE cosmetics. Ava shared with me the story of her workout journey and how altering her mindset towards health and fitness changed her life for the better. Ava was a dancer for 17 years and even majored in it her freshman year of college. After transitioning away from dance, she started slowly developing eating disorder habits that led her to go to a treatment center to ultimately recover from an eating disorder. After coming out of that experience, Ava wanted to make a healthy change in her life, lose the extra body fat that I had put on, but in a holistic and sustainable way where it would cultivate into a lifestyle for herself and not just be a quick fix. Ava began lifting and really changing my habits and daily routine. She fell absolutely in love with the gym and the empowerment that she gained from being strong physically and mentally. Ever since then, the gym and lifting has truly been a safe place for Ava. She really reframed her mindset and found a beautiful relationship with her body and health and the way that she feels, not just the way that she looks. Sweat-proof makeup played a strong role in her confidence in the gym. When wearing SWAKE cosmetics to the gym, Ava testifies she not only feels beautiful but is able to work as hard as she possibly can without sweating off her makeup. Regarding her experience with SWAKE cosmetics, Ava fondly says “I want to be “beauty in a beast.” You can embody and empower both in you, and so I think sweat-proof makeup is like a complete correlation to that and I love the idea.”
Vanessa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
SWAKE is the very first cosmetic company devoted to changing the narrative of sweat and creating products to last the 9 to 5 and beyond. In 2022, Founder and CEO Vanessa Sachs was inspired to create a cosmetics company built with sweat and mind. A university student at the time, Sachs had a specific consumer in mind when creating her cosmetic collection – “the lifelete.” The lifelete is defined as the “always-on achiever who feels the pressure to look good regardless of their environment.” After researching the cosmetics market for products similar to her concept, Sachs found a gap in the availability of makeup meant to endure sweat while also protecting the skin. For every gym-goer, busy mom, college student, and workaholic, SWAKE cosmetics are built differently. Sweat-proof, humidity-proof, waterproof, and formulated with skin-friendly ingredients, SWAKE makes wearing makeup easier and healthier. Sweat, while messy and, at times, inconvenient, represents growth, grind, and pushing boundaries. SWAKE’s products are designed to withstand even the most demanding activities, so its customers can focus on their goals without worrying about their makeup. Currently, SWAKE offers multiple shades of sweat-proof foundation, brow gel, moisturizer and mascara. Equipped with a unique concept and successful products, Sachs’ next challenge was to secure funding for her sweat-proof makeup line. Within the past year, she has participated in several pitch competitions and won the top prize in four of them. Most notably, she and SWAKE won the 2023 Collegiate Great Brands Competition, which came with a $25,000 prize. In addition to securing additional financial backing for SWAKE, Sachs also closed a partnership with the Atlanta Falcons cheerleaders. With this new funding and partnerships, the future looks bright for Sachs and SWAKE
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
We do manufacture our products! They’re made in Vancouver, Canada, and we vet each product formula personally. If I, personally, don’t love the product and want to wear it on a daily basis, I will not green-light it. I got started by calling manufacturers across the globe and ultimately wanted to find one that I could get in my car and drive to if I needed to. When I found the one in Canada that had low minimums and believed in creating non-traditional cosmetic products, I felt so lucky and excited to move forward. I truly felt like I left no stone unturned when I was starting SWAKE because a) I was a broke college student that wanted to start a million-dollar business and would get as crafty as I needed to and b) I believed in SWAKE and would not settle for anything short of creating quality sweat proof products.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
To create a social presence that will draw an audience, create informative posts. People either want to learn or feel engaged in a community when they’re consuming content online. For SWAKE, we come into play as a new and exciting community that is not only uplifting women, but also supporting athletes. We make sure that our messaging is fresh and that our social media is an active reflection of the brand we are trying to build. We focus on engaging with each and every follower that we have by commenting on their posts, liking their photos, DM-ing and providing samples and discounts to those who engage with us. Our followers are our community and we value each and every one of them. You can’t build an empire without a strong foundation (no pun intended) so start with your 20, 50, 100 followers and make sure that each and every one of them know that they are valued.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.swakecosmetics.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swakecosmetics/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/swakecosmetics/?paipv=0&eav=AfY9PZk5exxhiMVzGONerOu6HDxgforYv_Hk3YHvmGMmvJh8Gd3XvxqKUR2ucAb1Gps&_rdr
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/swake/
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessasachs/