The philosophy behind the San Antonio-based cosmetics firm Chica Magnificence is easy — as in maintain it easy.
The road that features easy-to-apply merchandise, dual-purpose gadgets, palettes and units goals for minimal fuss to realize a refined look.
“We’re all about taking advantage of what you could have, the place one or two merchandise are all you want,” mentioned Toni Jimenez, certainly one of two sisters behind Chica Magnificence, the net cosmetics enterprise with a mission to empower ladies.
Mei-Lon and Toni Jimenez, the “sisterpreneurs” who launched Chica Magnificence in 2019 with a handful of merchandise, together with lip gloss and mascara that’s nonetheless offered because the Hustle Set, have been having fun with a few of their firm’s biggest successes — each in gross sales and publicity.
“I don’t even know the place to begin,” Toni mentioned throughout a current interview, as she started to excitedly recount the previous 18 months for the corporate, which has remained a fundamental line of sustainable, cruelty-free cosmetics with 100% recyclable packaging.
Chica Magnificence acquired an enormous increase in late 2022, when the sisters appeared on “The Jennifer Hudson Present” and have been stunned with a $25,000 small-business grant from Financial institution of America and Mastercard that was introduced throughout an on-set interview.
Throughout the roughly five-minute section, the award-winning Hudson appeared genuinely impressed with Chica Magnificence and its founders’ mission to empower ladies and unfold a message of positivity.
“It reveals in your lovely vitality,” the singer/actress advised the sisters. “You’re spreading it already with the vitality you give, alongside along with your merchandise.”
The interview and different media spots with the Latina entrepreneurs can be found on chicabeauty.com.
Showing on Hudson’s nationally syndicated present marked the start of a profitable run for the cosmetics firm. Chica Magnificence was acknowledged by the Nationwide Retail Federation in its 2023 small enterprise showcase, the place retailers chosen it as their favourite firm. Additionally in 2023, Chica Magnificence was featured in Financial institution of America’s Nationwide Small Enterprise Highlight, giving the sisters one other alternative to not solely discuss their cosmetics however to unfold their empowerment message.
This 12 months began with Chica Magnificence and its founders being acknowledged by Los Angeles Enterprise Journal with a Variety, Inclusion + Fairness award, partly for the sisters’ Chica Provides program, which shares a portion of gross sales with nonprofit organizations. As soon as centered on San Antonio nonprofits with varied missions, Chica Provides now concentrates on schooling and scholarships on a extra nationwide scope, reflecting the corporate’s progress and the sisters’ give attention to uplifting different ladies.
In April, the town’s largest occasion shared the highlight with Chica Magnificence, which launched its FIESTA mini eye shadow palette. The make-up set, that includes 9 matte and shimmery eye shadows with names like Sangria, Pan Dulce and Cascarón, was featured in IPSY’s April Glam Bag. IPSY is a subscription magnificence service that goals to provide shoppers a greater diversity of cosmetics selections, together with alternatives from small corporations, and people owned and operated by various teams.
The connection with IPSY has continued, with Chica Magnificence’s new dual-ended complexion brush showcased in IPSY’s/BoxyCharm’s Could Field; its three new make-up brushes featured in IPSY’s June Glam Bag; and its new highlighter make-up in IPSY’s/BoxyCharm’s July Field.
Whereas all that is thrilling for the Jimenez sisters, they are saying one of many 12 months’s largest highlights has been speaking to clients, significantly these in San Antonio, the place they grew up, and listening to what they like about Chica Magnificence.
“We need to make San Antonio proud,” Toni mentioned, including that that includes the story of Fiesta and its significance to San Antonians on the field of the attention shadow palette is particularly significant. And so was seeing the joy of ladies shopping for the make-up at pop-up retailers at Fiesta occasions, she mentioned.
“I feel they favored seeing one thing they acknowledged, one thing that they know,” Toni mentioned, referring to the papel picado imagery on the field and the coordinating Fiesta medal offered throughout April.
The gross sales of the attention shadow palette helped give Chica Magnificence its most worthwhile month but.
“We had our highest gross sales in April,” Toni mentioned, declining to reveal particular numbers. “That was our largest month ever due to the palette.”
The sisters plan to develop their product line, together with including shades to their top-selling 3-in-1 anti-aging tinted moisturizer with sunscreen. Additionally they plan so as to add to their attire line of T-shirts, caps and leggings bearing the “Get It Chica” message.
That bilingual messaging isn’t the one nod to the sisters’ Latina roots. In 2021, they launched Mija pink lipstick in honor of their late grandmother Martha Jimenez, who cherished carrying the daring lip coloration and would typically use that time period of endearment.
Although the sisters dream of rising their firm and plan to develop their product line, the enterprise has stayed mainly the identical as in its early days with the sisters working the operation.
Toni manages the enterprise from her home in San Antonio, whereas Mei-Lon makes use of her company background as a purchaser in enterprise growth to run issues from Los Angeles, the place she lives. The sisters typically journey forwards and backwards between the 2 cities to conduct enterprise. And the 2 rent contract workers, some who’ve been with them for years, to assist throughout busy instances.
Chica Magnificence stays a principally on-line enterprise, although its merchandise are offered in a number of shops in Los Angeles. SA Taste is the one San Antonio retailer that has offered Chica Magnificence merchandise, and that was its FIESTA palette and medal.
The sisters would like to be included in native shops, Toni mentioned, however such a partnership hasn’t materialized. Although the sisters have one high-profile supporter within the Alamo Metropolis with first girl Erika Prosper, a fan of Chica Magnificence’s “multi-tasker” 3-in-1 eyebrow make-up. Prosper has posted a video on her social media touting the product and agreed to provide her testimonial to be used on the Chica Magnificence web site.
Regardless of its progress and the introduction of latest merchandise, the sisters need to stay true to the corporate’s mission of positivity and empowerment.
It’s a philosophy that was born with the sisters’ earlier firm, Chica Woman journal. Launched in 2007, the journal focused younger Latinas and promoted schooling as the trail to attaining life and profession objectives. The sisters opted to stop the journal in 2017 to give attention to Chica Magnificence.
That the cosmetics firm has an identical mission isn’t coincidental. The journal used “actual” younger Latinas as fashions on its pages, and the transformation the sisters noticed as the ladies underwent make-up functions sparked an concept that cosmetics can rework a girl’s perspective.
If a girl regarded good and felt good about her look, that boosted her confidence, they mentioned. Taking that precept and lifting from their mom’s and grandmother’s classes on protecting their make-up functions easy but polished, the Jimenez sisters knew they’d a successful philosophy for a cosmetics firm.
Use minimal make-up to intensify your finest options, the sisters inform clients. Don’t use cosmetics to remake your self and be one thing you’re not, they are saying.
As Mei-Lon has mentioned in interviews, together with in the course of the 2022 look on “The Jennifer Hudson Present,” they need ladies to know “you’re lovely simply the way in which you’re.”
