Fempower Beauty: Rewriting the Meaning of Makeup
To close out June (and our first month of the publication!), we wanted to highlight a business run by Alexis Androulakis and Christina Basias, partners who are reshaping the connotations of makeup to provide more inclusive and uplifting ways to use it. Founded in 2019, Fempower Beauty offers bold lip products and accessories with a mission to instill confidence in its customers and “heal the harms of the beauty industry.” This week, Androulakis and Basias share their insights on the patriarchal history of beauty, struggles of work-life balance, getting back up, and more.
Fempower Beauty model. Fempower Beauty
A First Date - The Origins of Fempower
Alexis Androulakis: “When I sat down in 2014, to get ready for my first ever date with a woman, (spoiler alert) it was with Christina, my now fiancee and cofounder of Fempower Beauty - I genuinely had no idea what makeup to put on my face. I sat there almost dumbfounded that I didn’t have the first clue as to how to present myself as a woman who liked women. I skipped lipstick entirely because I thought it was something “lesbians” didn’t do. In so many ways, this experience and conversation that it sparked on our first ever date was the impetus of Fempower Beauty before we even knew it. The soul and energy of changing the way society communicates with beauty, reclaiming and reshaping a beauty narrative which is FEMPOWER was born that very day.”
“It wasn’t until the Women’s March in January, post Trump election, that we saw the collective power of women rise up and we were truly inspired. It was such a deeply rooted energy of fear that suddenly was exploding with the desire for change.”
Christina Basias: “We don’t realize how much the media and what we consume is taught to make us feel bad about ourselves, saying we are not enough, so we can give them more. Here at Fempower Beauty, we want to educate people that you are enough, and to rewire the way you perceive yourself and your own needs. It’s unfair that we are brought up in a society that makes us believe we need to “conceal” and hide who we are, just as unfair that we are brought up in a heteronormative society that lacks representation. To me, the manipulative nature of society, as ran by the heteronormative patriarchy, is permeated in all industries, but truly shows itself worst for women, queer, and femme communites in the beauty industry.”
“When we started Fempower, we took the best of both of our worlds: my English teacher brain and Alexis’ beauty experiences. We played with the story of Genesis and wanted our brand to read like a critical piece of literature by asking larger questions meant to entice thought, all off of the story of Adam and Eve. Some of these questions read like “What if Adam took a bite out of the apple first? How would life be different?” We also launched art alongside each lipstick shade, and incorporated queer and trans identities. We saw some mega success with our journey at the time, but with COVID reframed our narrative towards mental health and affirmations.”
Androulakis and Basias: “We need to broaden every spectrum from identity to sexuality and beyond. Fempower is the cultural pillar that provides a place to start, and our community is welcomed to spread its wings and define evolution together.”
Bootstrapped
“As far as challenges, [one is] being a bootstrapped entrepreneur - bootstrapped, for context is when you have used entirely all of your own funds. We have other jobs in addition to running our startup - and that is a misconception that a lot of folks don’t really understand. You, in many many instances, are working multiple jobs until you can prove enough traction, that your business can generate roughly $1 million per year. It is very hard to prioritize time, it is very hard to feel creatively inspired after you’ve worked a full day at a full time job to go in and do the things you need to do. But those are the sacrifices that ultimately you do have to make. This isn’t about hustle culture. This isn't about working yourself to the bone. This is about having a value, a moral compass, a dream, a journey, and doing everything in your power to make it a success.”
“When it comes to challenges there are actual, literal, physical, and financial challenges that you face personally. Many times we are choosing between personal progress in life as business and life partners versus where we are gonna invest our money first - on certain trips or vacations, or back into our business that we’ve been working so hard on?”
Fempower Beauty models. Fempower Beauty
Failing Fast
“The truth of the matter is, there will be extreme highs and extreme lows, and as long as you’re equipped to understand that this is not a linear experience and that this will come action-packed like a literal rollercoaster ride, you cannot necessarily overcome them in the traditional sense. It’s never always about winning. It’s really about failing fast and learning from every single mistake that you have and every single challenge that you have, because the reality is that you will have challenges forever. And that is the journey of an entrepreneur, and really is what entrepreneurship is at its core. So we’ve found that constant communication and being wildly resourceful to lean on people that we’ve networked with over the years, both during COVID (which was really hard) and thankfully now, a little bit post-pandemic in real life.”
“And sometimes it’s just a matter of being really really patient and grateful for everything you’ve learned and overcome. And I know that sounds a little bit fluffy and cheesy, but we have over fifteen examples of moments where we thought things were gonna take a turn for the worse, and miraculously in a week, things shifted completely in ways we couldn't have even imagined because we were open, and believed in ourselves to keep going and find success. That is actually how we’ve grown as business owners. To believe. To not worry about having every single answer figured out. You never possibly could have every single thing figured out. It honestly would take all the fun out of the experience. It’s about pivoting in any way, shape, or form to put you in the direction or path where you need to be on - to greater revenue streams, greater value for your customers, and greater success.”
“Now, everyone’ s definition of how quickly they want to get there and how they want to do that is gonna be different. You’re gonna pick up fifty different books, you’re gonna read a million different blog posts, hear a bunch of different podcasts, and everyone will have a different opinion. And that is the hardest part of running a business. There’s no one size fits all model. There’s no easy way to do it. There’s no, oh my god, I just got completely lucky. Every single facet and all the elements that go into it involve a continual, constant progress, a consistent workstream over a span of years.”
Your Best Customers
“Community. Build your community. Find your audience, whatever your niche is. If it’s TikTok, if you like to write, if you like to dance, if you like to make videos. Whatever it is you’re trying to create for whoever it is you’re trying to create, start now. You can do it through YouTube, you can do it through TikTok, you can do it through blog writing, you can do it through Web3, you can do it through NFT projects, you literally can do it in every single way possible. Because all you really need to have a business is customers. And your community, if they believe in you, will ultimately become your best customers.”
Five Solved Problems
“Never giving up is a key, key theme. We’ve definitely learned over the course of the last three and a half plus years, to really go back to look at how far we’ve come. It is very very disheartening and discouraging when you feel like you haven’t made progress. But the reality is if you’re still working towards a goal, and you’re still working inside of your business and in some capacity, if your business is generating revenue (even if it’s not the revenue you want), you are making progress. Even if you’ve solved five problems and have seven to go, you’ve made progress because you’ve solved those five problems. So the most important thing to learn as business owners is that you never know what the next day or next opportunity is going to unfold and bring you. You just keep going because you know that ultimately if you believe, and you have faith, and you connect to the vision of what you’re building, that door will open.”