key takeaways
- Hernandez is the founder and CEO of makeup brand Beauty Creations Cosmetics, which was launched in 2016.
- The business is eyeing major US expansion and growing sales with limited collections, including the recent Halloween drop.
Esmeralda Hernandez, 38-year-old founder and CEO of makeup brand Beauty Creations CosmeticsHe got his start in entrepreneurship at an early age.
As a child growing up in Mexico, Hernandez attended garage sales and flea markets with her mother, who bought and resold things to make money. Hernandez was inspired to turn her passion for Barbies into profit at the age of 12: reselling the dolls became her first business.
Hernandez came to the United States at the age of nine and at 18 won a full-ride university scholarship to study medicine. That same year Hernandez found out she was pregnant with her first child, so she leaned into her own flea market resale business.
“I sold literally everything,” explains Hernandez. entrepreneur“During the (Halloween) season, we used to sell costumes, everything that was trending. I was really good at catching what was trending, so I’ll always be like that, Oh, what’s new for Halloween? Is it an accessory? And I always liked the business part.”
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“I’m going to do something completely different, something you don’t really see on the market.”
In 2014, Hernandez jumped on another trend: high-quality hair tools. However, the products were so top-notch that their long usage time did not deter repeat customers. That’s when Hernandez landed on another idea – high-quality makeup at an affordable price.
It wasn’t that high-quality, reasonably priced makeup products didn’t exist on the market, but those that were available often left a lot to be desired in terms of packaging compared to their more expensive counterparts, Hernandez explains. With her creative and trend-savvy eye, Hernandez knew she could improve the options there.
” I was like, I’m going to do something completely different, something you don’t really see on the marketHernandez says. “So we were one of the first brands (with colorful packaging) and one of the first brands that started using paper palettes. I started making paper palettes because I was able to create more colors and effects like 3D.”
Hernandez officially launched Beauty Creations in 2016.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Beauty Creations Cosmetics
“Being able to pay for everything remains the biggest challenge.”
Of course, like most early-stage businesses, Beauty Creations had to secure enough funding to get started — one of the biggest initial challenges, says Hernandez.
Hernandez credits the Latino community for helping her get Beauty Creations off the ground and running. The founder attended Kundinas, a form of mutual aid It is common in Mexican culture in which members of the clan pay a certain amount of money, with one of them receiving a lump sum. Hernandez also received financial support from family members, many of whom ran their own businesses.
Hernandez says that commitment to plowing nearly every penny back into the business — a mindset that her mother instilled in the founder during her days selling at flea markets — has played a key role in the brand’s growth trajectory, though it hasn’t been an easy path.
“Last year was such a tough year,” Hernandez admits, “because we were going into Walmart and growing into HEB — they were giving us more stores. The biggest challenge (remains) being able to pay for everything. We didn’t have a fridge for three months. I told my husband, ‘If it’s going to take three months of not having a fridge to pay payroll, that’s it.'”
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Beauty Creations has 100 employees and is on track for $84 million in revenue this year. The brand’s online sales account for only 10% of its business, double from 5% last year, but still a modest volume compared to its “bread and butter” distribution in retail stores in 47 countries, with a particularly strong presence in Mexico at Ulta and Walmart.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Beauty Creations Cosmetics
“With every collection, we take our time. We try to incorporate a new formula with every launch.”
Now, Beauty Creations is eyeing a significant U.S. expansion, though a bigger challenge will be competing with major brands that can afford to spend millions marketing for a single launch, Hernandez says.
Stiff competition hasn’t stopped Hernandez and his product-development team from bringing out the best of the brand, especially when it comes to its exclusive collections.
A few drops of Beauty Creations bring Hernandez’s flea market business days full circle: The brand has featured a licensed collaboration with Barbie and introduced several Halloween-inspired collections this season.
“We have a great product-development team,” Hernandez says. “They do their homework. They watch the film (on which the products are based) a couple of times. We are very detailed on every little thing. The attraction, thinking about what will be meaningful to the fans. With every collection, we take our time. We try to incorporate a new formula with every launch.”
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Beauty Creations Present Goosebumps, The Nightmare Before Christmas And corpse bride ii The collaboration builds on the success of last year’s Halloween offering.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Beauty Creations Cosmetics
corpse Bride The license is the only one the brand has fully renewed for the second time and was expected to see an increase in sales of around 20% compared to the 2024 product – but the collection has already exceeded those forecasts.
“This year was amazing,” Hernandez says. “The three Halloween collections performed even better than we thought. So we’re already working on our Halloween collections (for next year).”
“If something doesn’t work I don’t get stuck on it.”
As Beauty Creations aims to take hold in the US, many expected Hernandez to be most excited about the ability to break into major makeup retailers like Ulta, and she is, but Target has a special meaning to her.
“(Going to Target) has always been a dream of mine because I had three kids by the time I was 23, and whenever we did that, Oh, let’s go out, We always went to Target,” Hernandez explains. “So it’s been an exciting experience to talk to him.”
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Hernandez has learned a lot from her early entrepreneurial days at a flea market, and the beauty brand founder has some valuable words of wisdom for young entrepreneurs ready to bet on themselves and start their own business.
“I didn’t go to school for this,” Hernandez says. “We learn as we go. Maybe your fourth product is going to be your bestseller. (Sometimes) we launch, and it’s not what we were expecting, but we live and learn. I don’t get stuck on something if it doesn’t work. I’m like, Well, what do we learn from this? We have to keep going. We have to clean up our knees and keep running.”
key takeaways
- Hernandez is the founder and CEO of makeup brand Beauty Creations Cosmetics, which was launched in 2016.
- The business is eyeing major US expansion and growing sales with limited collections, including the recent Halloween drop.
Esmeralda Hernandez, 38-year-old founder and CEO of makeup brand Beauty Creations CosmeticsHe got his start in entrepreneurship at an early age.
As a child growing up in Mexico, Hernandez attended garage sales and flea markets with her mother, who bought and resold things to make money. Hernandez was inspired to turn her passion for Barbies into profit at the age of 12: reselling the dolls became her first business.
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