By Linda Castillo
Growing up in Argentina, Gabriela Hernandez has fond memories watching her grandmother and aunts’ beauty routine recalling how the products were so feminine and romantic. She wanted to bring back the glamour of makeup capturing the magic of this precious era. Initially, it started out as a project to make a lipstick capturing that magical time period. After her first lipstick, she continued to make another piece and another piece. Soon she had a strong following and turned it into the thriving business. This year marks the 15th anniversary of her vintage makeup brand Bésame Cosmetics.
Curious by nature, Gabriela built the brand on two years of research where she worked to recreate the lipsticks from the formulas used in 30s and 40s. She took care and time to deconstruct formulas to reproduce what was the kernel of a good idea, which she strongly feels is worth preserving. She carefully researched how companies created the products and why they were using certain ingredients. While some of the ingredients were no longer used she had to search for alternative ingredients.
Gabriela is proud of the fact that Bésame Cosmetics is cruelty free. The older cosmetics didn’t need so many ingredients to make something that actually works well. As time has gone on formulas have become very bloated with extra things. “The core of the formulations that we make are going back to more simple formulas,” Gabriela says.
Overcoming Challenges
Bésame Cosmetics was fully funded by Gabriela. She never stopped working until about six years ago when she knew her business could pay a salary. She talked about how being in business is really hard and a big commitment.
“You have to be all in,” Gabriela says. “You are challenged all the time. The business needs constant attention to move forward. It needs energy to push forward. It not only takes your energy but all the people around you to.”
Over the years she has made many sacrifices, not only by her but her family as well, and she had some difficult learning experiences. She persisted because she saw the bigger picture.
Looking back on some of the lessons learned growing her business she offered the following words of wisdom for entrepreneurs.
“Have a specific plan on how and what. What are the end goals? What do I want to do? Those decisions at the beginning will lead your business. You figure it out before you do anything then you can foresee where the problems are,” Gabriela advises.
Creating Connections from Makeup
Gabriela shared how Bésame Cosmetics can bring a connection between different generations and family members. This was seen with the Victory Red color, a World War II color in which part of the lipstick sales proceeds went towards veteran services. Many military supported this special edition lipstick and remembered the shade of red.
“It was great to see how color can bring back so many memories. Bring a connection between all these different family members. Being able to connect because of the product between the granddaughter and the grandmother. It was a family type affair than just a personal experience. Where grandparents can share stories and they wouldn’t have because there wasn’t that spark to start the conversation,” Gabriela recalls.
Bésame Cosmetics has opened the door to many amazing opportunities that Gabriela never thought would be possible. One notable example is her work with Disney on many projects including creating the collection for Snow White. She was trusted with archive properties that had been in the vault for 80 years in order for her to reproduce the special colors for the Snow White collection.
“Having grown up with Snow White, to be able to go to archive to have the actual colors of the ink from the film. I never thought I would be able to handle the items or even see them. It was so rewarding to be able touch them,” Gabriela recalls.
Makeup Can Create a Persona
Makeup has the power to create a persona, create who you want to be. There are many examples of people in entertainment who defined their personas by their look.
“Look at the band KISS for example, their whole iconic look is based on makeup. That defined their brand and it is still a brand that is here today. You can use makeup to determine who you want to be seen as,” Gabriela says.
Bésame Cosmetics truly captures the art of makeup. The art of making somebody feel good about themselves with just a stick of red lipstick. Bésame Cosmetics is truly timeless.
Linda Castillo is the Founder and Executive Editor of www.ModernLatina.com. She writes on topics that empower and inspire Latinas including art, motherhood, green living, culture, travel, and issues transforming the Latino community. Linda has earned a B.S. in Business and a M.S. in Mass Communications from San Jose State University.