We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Vesta Boateng. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Vesta below.

Vesta, appreciate you joining us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

I feel completely fulfilled as a business owner. It gives me so much joy knowing that I created something beautiful from the ground up. I kept my faith, spent years of research for it to finally pay off and do something that I love everyday. I love that I’ve created a small beauty community that allows Vesta London Beauty to creatively express ourselves freely. Most importantly I love that I get to show my 9 year old daughter the entrepreneurial side of me, she gets to see me in action everyday and she’s the best helper! She always throws in ideas every now and then too!

I’ll be honest, as someone coming from a stable 9-5 job, that’s all I’ve known. It’s always been comfortable, safe, secure and again as a mother the idea of being unstable is one of my worst fears. So for that reason, yes, I do wonder but I love being a business owner and entrepreneur too much to let that go to waste. I know for a fact if I went back do a completely regular job I would constantly be wondering what if.

Running a business yourself especially is no easy task, sometimes you have good months, okay months, terrible months and bad months. Going through turbulence like that can be scary especially as you are relying on something to to work out so bad. Whenever I feel like this, I simply just stop and take a break…during that time I recoup, get my mind right, start a new plan and repeat! There’s no shame in doing so! Burnout is real thing and I don’t operate well at all when when I’m frazzled!

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?

My name is Vesta Boateng and I’m the owner of Vesta London Beauty, a new small black owned, women owned business. We are reaching our third year on May 25th and it’s been a beautiful journey. Currently we produce custom formulas in a variation of lip gloss, lipsticks and lip liners with more product lines to be released in the near future. With a degree in Marketing, I wanted to create a business in a industry that I’m passionate about. From a young age, I’ve always found it difficult finding cosmetic shades that would be a perfect match, I went through hundreds of products just trying to find something that would work. Eventually I thought enough is enough, it’s time to invest in myself, my craft and bring my idea to fruition.

There are so many females out there like myself who struggle to find the right shade matches so this brand was inspired by them. We pride ourselves on being inclusive and diverse and want to cater to the wider masses which was a recurring problem that I found. With ingredients such as Shea Butter and Cocoa Butter we aim to keep your skin safe at all times.

Within the 3 years of business, we have had a huge amount of support from the beauty industry and publications such as Forbes, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Baazar and Stylist Magazine.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

For every business owner i highly recommend listening to podcasts by Jo Malone, her story is truly incredible, she breaks down risks, how she started, how she tried to get her business back but couldn’t, her loss of smell etc. The gems she drops are fantastic and it’s something that i refer back to often as a business owner in a similar field.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The people who you feel will be there to support you and encourage you will not. Often, you will be left stunned and speechless and you will find that strangers are more inclined to help you than the people you think will! – This has happened to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.vestalondonbeauty.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vestalondonbeauty/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vestalondonbeauty
• Linkedin: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/vesta-boateng-4a86521a9
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/v_londonbeauty

Image Credits
– Tina Miguel (lipsticks shot) – Kimmie Hoo (4 model shot)