Starting VIKE Beauty was a gradual decision for us. With our huge passion for the beauty industry and love for business in general, we always knew we would have our own beauty brand. Although we did not have experience in running a business we believed we had the skill set to do so. We both graduated Baruch College in NYC with our finance degrees and have worked in business related positions. Asides from our business knowledge, we enjoyed spending time being beauty influencers! We created about 2-3 beauty looks a day and hated using makeup remover wipes for many reasons. Some of the main reasons are how harmful it is to the environment and how harmful it was on our skin. We then realized there was nothing in the market for makeup removing that was fun and innovative.
We had a lightbulb moment and wanted to create something very unique and missing from the market. A makeup removal SPRAY with skincare benefits! Since we had a platform before launching the brand, we were able to get our first three customers & more from just posting about our new product. We are so grateful to have lots of love and followers on our influencer page who supported us with the launch of our brand. In 2019, we won CEW x Preen.me rising influencer award. This was such a great honor for us! We launched our beauty brand at IPSY Live in NYC. Having launched at IPSY gave us an opportunity to be in front of lots of beauty lovers and give out samples of Makeup Melt.
Who is your target demographic?
Our target demographic is the everyday person who wears makeup about 4-5 times a week. A millennial who enjoys trying innovative and new products when it comes down to their beauty and skincare routine. We have had the most amazing customers ever! We love how supportive and responsive they have been.
How did you fund the idea initially?
We funded our idea with our savings. Since there are two of us, it definitely made it a little easier. From a young age we were definitely workaholics, getting our first job as soon as we turned 16 years old. We also learned money management and we would save a lot of our earnings as we knew we had better plans for it. We knew our love for beauty and makeup would lead us to owning our own Beauty Brand in the future.
After graduating College, we got jobs in the finance field and we saved our earnings to put into opening up our own brand. We own our company and we are very proud of that. It is a blessing to work with your sibling, especially your twin. We are so blessed to have the same amount of ambition and vision for our company. So far, we are the only two who are running the whole show!
Did you run any companies prior?
This is our very first company. We love the challenges and hard decisions that come with running your own business. We also love the rewarding feeling you experience when you win. Our parents came from Belarus to the USA when we were 2 years old. We want to make them very proud and our motivation heavily comes from that. Our family and friends were very supportive of our business. Often giving advice and ideas of their own to us, which we are very appreciative of.
What motivates you when things go wrong? What is the end goal?
We have learned lots of lessons from just starting the brand about 4 months ago. One of the most amazing pieces of advice we always say is “we keep moving forward.” Sometimes deals or plans might not work out the way you would like them too but that is not an excuse to get frustrated and give up. You must keep moving forward and understand that if one door closes another door will open for you.
Our end goal is to be a global beauty brand with plenty of SKU’s selling all over the globe. We want to give people clean beauty, with the world's best ingredients, and products that actually work. We also learned that ads on facebook & snapchat work the best! You must make a very interactive and interesting video which is about 5 seconds long to capture people's attention. Also working with influencers to help spread your brand’s message and help create awareness for your brand.
How do you protect yourself from competition?
There will always be competition and we truly believe the way to stay on top is to mind your own business. We keep ourselves updated on beauty news each morning but we don’t let it influence our main core of our brand. We also believe consumers stay loyal to brands who created innovative products first. We did trademark our logo and that is very important to do so with any industry you are in.
What are the top 3-5 apps that Vike Beauty could not run without?
Our top 4 apps that we use to run our business are Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Shopify. Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat have been our main source of social promotion which leads lots of people to our website. Shopify is the app that our website is hosted on. The app makes it a very easy way to nativage how many consumers you have on your site live at that moment and how many are checking out. You can also see who brought from you and how they end up on your site.
What are your favourite books and podcasts?
One of my favorite books that we have read about is “think and grow rich” by Napoleon Hill. I would recommend this book to anyone, it is a really good read. We love listening to podcasts while we drive or even while answering emails. One of our favorite things to do is listen to other founders tell their story about their business. “How I built this” by Guy Raz.
What are the next products you’re working on?
We have decided to move into colour! Having a makeup remover as our first sku we have been in between makeup and skincare. Which is super exciting for us! We have started our formulation for our next product and hope to release later in this year, so be on the lookout! Our next product will complement Makeup Melt. In 5 years, we see our company with a handful of skus in a handful of locations. We want to be accessible to our customers!
| Company Name: | Vike Beauty |
|---|---|
| Founder: | Alina Vike + Inessa Vike |
