Introducing successful GIRLBOSS Foundation grant recipient, Sholayide!
Hey Girlboss! Please introduce yourself and fill us in on your project.
I’m Sholayide Otugalu, a self-taught makeup artist/beauty aficionada by heart – and by day I am a Senior E-Commerce Merchandiser at a leading luxury retailer. I’m a 31 year old Yoruba girl and Brooklynite with a huge personality: a mix of diva and southern girl charm!
My career as a makeup artist started as a customer. I spent so many hours trying on colors at the beauty counters at my local mall that a manager offered me a job, citing my eye for creating original looks. While working counters part-time, I began to conceptualize a natural beauty brand that would have some sort of shock factor. I knew I wanted this line to be the opposite of other natural beauty brands, which seem to be very muted. I wanted it to be the go-to brand for the downtown cool girl. I wanted to go rogue! After researching ways to create healthy and functional skincare without chemicals, I began to develop a natural beauty line that appealed to those who wanted glamour and luxury, combined with edginess.
In May 2014 I created Joséphine Cosmetics– a glamorously healthy (that’s being trademarked!) line of hand-blended organic skincare and mineral makeup collection for the experimental brave.
How will the GIRLBOSS Foundation grant help you achieve your goals?
As a recipient of the GIRLBOSS Foundation Grant, I plan to create the premier campaign of Joséphine Cosmetics, entitledLa Garconne: Come As You Are.The campaign will focus on a minimalist yet bewitching approach to natural beauty.
The product offering is very intimate: Four color cosmetics in various shades and four skincare items, carefully handblended to make this unique collection incredibly sexy and complex, whilst youthful, powerful and glam rock-esque.
I’m also utilizing this campaign to raise social awareness with a partnership of local NYC LGBQT non-profit organization, and targeting the NYC non-profit The Center to see if we can work together to release a unique campaign. The main message of the campaign will raise awareness about genderqueer inequality, bullying and suicide amongst teens that identify as LGBQT. I will use my resources to create a short film featuring teens as they share their secrets to confidence and beauty with a focus on what really matters – feeling empowered.
What’s your ultimate dream?
To see Joséphine as more than just a cosmetics brand, but as a lifestyle. I want to take the basic principle of the brand – glamorously healthy – and tie that concept into other areas of our supporters’ lives, by raising social awareness through our advocacy platform Boundless Beauty, and expanding Joséphine as a leader in health and wellness products. I want to make everyone in the world embrace and enhance his/her unique beauty in the most natural way possible.
And lastly, your favorite piece of advice from the #GIRLBOSS book – and why?!
I’ll have to ride on the wings of: Be entrepreneurial – in all that you do! That’s my favorite piece of advice anyone can offer. You really don’t have to be an owner to have the mentality of one – It’s about knowing what you want and going after it: setting goals, fulfilling those goals, and then setting new ones. Whether you want to accomplish something specific in your career or quit your day job to become a ballerina, you really have to push forward with whatever you decide – then commit and own it!
Stay tuned to girlboss.com to follow Sholayide’s GIRLBOSS journey!
