Radiant Visionaries: Unveiling This Skincare Entrepreneur's Journey

Bella Rose is a self-made millionaire, as well as the CEO/Founder of Bella Rose Passion, an amazing cosmetics company in which she covers all things beauty. She has everything from skincare to candles. The collection has grown to house reliable products and body care essentials, such as her famous Unicorn body butter, lip butter, and body lotion. You may see her items used by celebrities and influencers such as Ari Fletcher, Cuban Link, and Alonzo Arnold! 

Bella Rose is a thriving entrepreneur and in a short amount of time, she has accomplished so much. From getting her Minority-Owned Business Certifications to Women-Owned Business Certifications and now running her beauty brand. In the 12 years, she has spent building her company Bella Rose has featured with Martha Stewart's Must-Haves, and right after that feature; her items were then placed in Macy’s, Walmart, and Now Target retail. She is a woman on the move. Although she comes from humble beginnings, she never let her circumstances stop her. That only motivated her and encouraged her to strive for more. 

Bella Rose has been featured in several magazines from Sheen, Fashion Gxd, Medium Magazine, Billion Success, to We Empower, Hype Magazine, Swagher, K.I.S.H., Soultivity, OnMogul, and Voyage. 

Bella Rose was Nominated by Boss Magazine as one of the Top Atlanta Women To Watch in the Beauty Industry, 

Bella Rose then received The Business Excellence Award from 2016 - 2021 Breaking new grounds. 

 Bella Rose has been Featured as FORBES Next 1000 Inspiring Entrepreneur of 2021. 

 This mogul in the making has a great support system, including her children, her brother, and her husband, who is also her business partner and financial manager. With strong backing, she is sure to take Bella Rose Passion to the NEXT, next level. You can also visit her website bellarosepassion.com to check out her items and keep an eye out for what new products may be added next. With her work ethic and continued support, Bella Rose Passion is a cosmetic brand that is sure to soon be a household name and growing every day with her retail partners 

Target.com and  Walmart.com 

 Bella Rose plans to build her Empire and become a Global Beauty Brand. 

Transcript

Bella Rose Passion Transcript

[00:00:00] Maggie: . Hello and welcome to another episode of Empress Conversations with Maggie Today. My guest is Bella Rose. She is a self-made millionaire, as well as the c e o founder of Bella Rose.

Passion, an amazing cosmetics company in which she covers all things beauty. She has 

[00:00:20] Bella Rose: everything 

[00:00:21] Maggie: from skincare to candles. The collection has grown into a house. Reliable products and body care essentials, such as her famous unicorn body butter, lip butter, and body lotion. You may see her items used by celebrities and influences such as Ari Fletcher Cuban Link and a Lazo Arnold Bella Rose, 

[00:00:45] Bella Rose: welcome.

Hi. Thank you so much for having me. That was amazing. Thank you. You're 

[00:00:51] Maggie: amazing. Thank you for being 

[00:00:53] Bella Rose: here. We appreciate you. Absolutely. 

[00:00:56] Maggie: Bella, share a little bit about your, tell us about [00:01:00] yourself. How you started the company, your journey. 

[00:01:03] Bella Rose: How did it all start? Um, well I started the company in 2011. Oh, wow. So I started, um, Bella Rose Passion brand in 2011.

When we started, we were just lipstick and lip gloss and, uh, uh, I honestly had no idea the direction we were going to go. Um, I did have a woman's clothing boutique for a short period of time, and I closed it, um, because the brick and mortar was not successful at all. Uh, I learned how to do e-commerce and as we all know, in 2011, social media wasn't where it is today.

Uh, e-commerce wasn't where it is today, so I, uh, I had to learn as I, as I was going and I learned, you know, the value of PayPal. I learned the value of having different. I'm sorry, different entities when it comes down to, oh, I should sell my products here or sell my products there, I would [00:02:00] have, um, different at the time, we would have different, um, now they're ambassadors, but we would just have different, you know, like models, uh, use our products in different places and they would.

Seldom as they were using the lipstick and lip glosses because like, look at your lips, your lipstick today, it looks amazing. And I'm pretty sure if you go out today someone will say, oh my gosh, your lipstick looks amazing. Where did you get it from? And that word of mouth carried on so much at that time.

And people would just say, oh my gosh, Bella Rose's passion. Let me try to find that. And uh, we became like really well known locally in Atlanta. And I knew that I just didn't wanna be locally like I knew it. Um, so we did reach out to a publicist and start working with the publicist that helped us get our products in the hands of some reality stars, which their, you know, world.

Wide on tv. So we had them wear our brand shirts, use our [00:03:00] lipstick and lip gloss and post on their social media. So their audience turned into our audience and their audience started purchasing with our products. Um, our products started growing and honestly, I was not educated enough to know what growth looked like.

Um, we were doing events. Every, probably every weekend, um, in, in random states, states are in somewhere in Alabama that I never heard of. But we had an audience there, so we had to feed the need. Mm. And um, one of our biggest events at that time when we were doing lipstick and lip gloss was at Macy's and one of the Macy's Re.

Macy, I'm sorry, Macy's, retail manager, buyer. It was some big name. Um, contacted me and started following me on social media and when he started following me on social media, he wanted to [00:04:00] actually buy into the brand to put into Macy's. Okay. That was a big deal for me, but I had no idea, you know, what that meant at that time.

And, um, You know, we, we followed through and things were very successful. So we ended up, um, not having a part of the lipstick and lip gloss anymore because that part of the brand. We sold off and I wanted to do something different. So we started focusing on a makeup agency and having the, uh, we would partner our makeup artists with reality stars to do their makeup.

And from the makeup agency people got to know the actual brand. Mm. That brand led us to Steve Harvey Show. Mm. Steve Harvey show led us into me, led me to know him. I can do so much more. And, um, I, I did, uh, coming from the Steve Harvey show, I started a skincare collection and my [00:05:00] first couple products I put into beauty supply stores.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I don't know if you're familiar with this model, but fake it till you make it. It's a model, 

[00:05:09] Maggie: it's a business model. 

[00:05:11] Bella Rose: I, I, I used to call the beauty supply store. It's like, oh, hi, my name is Bella Rose. I spoke with the owner of your beauty supply store. He told me to bring my products into your store.

Can you give me the information? They're like, huh. So some people, it wasn't receptive to, but some people I did, you know, get a fish on a hook and they were like, yeah, we're interested. They send over the, um, portfolio, send over the information and we'll, you know, purchase the product. And they used to purchase in bulk and have the products, um, in the beauty supplies store.

All because I had, I feel, I feel myself, I had so much confidence in the brand. I knew it belonged in stores.

Um, so the Beauty supply store was where I started and it was all because of my confidence. And, um, once [00:06:00] we were able to land those beauty supply stores, we started off with 12, 12 beauty supply store. I'm sorry. We started off with two and then we ended up in 12, and then we ended up in all the beauty supply stores, um, in the state of Georgia.

Uh, from there I was like, listen, We gotta keep going. And, um, I wanted to get on Amazon so that everybody can purchase on the Amazon. Everybody's buying on Amazon. Amazon denied me maybe 15, 15 to 18 times. I think. I think it's somewhere around that. Wow. They kept pushing my product and I, I like to tell this story because a lot of times people think we can just upload our products to Amazon and we just, we'll just start selling.

But with my brand, we're organic. Organic. That's not just to say we're organic, we're actually certified through the U S D A and we're at, we actually had license from, and, and the reason why I say that is because, [00:07:00] uh, when we applied for Amazon, we didn't have the license, we didn't have the certifications, we didn't have any of that.

We didn't, was uploading products with the organic ingredients. So Amazon's like, listen, where's your proof? You know, if you're gonna sell like this big retail price, where's your proof? So Amazon pushed me to get that proof. I mean, even though they kept denying me, I kept getting more certifications, which helped the brand grow into a very successful organic brand.

But as I was getting those, um, certifications, which I got women business owned certifications, yes. And everything, I got into Walmart my first try. Fantastic. Fantastic. Thank you. Because. I was turned down by Amazon. Mm. Obviously God has something bigger for me, but Right, right. Of course. Of course. And so, you know, once we got into Walmart, we got our first two products into Walmart and I just couldn't stop [00:08:00] with two products.

I mean, I was whipping them up like, let's, so we we're gonna sell everything in Walmart. And honestly, I feel like that was a eye opener because you can't. Put all your products into Walmart, but do you want to, and this is something that I like to tell a lot of entrepreneurs that I talk to, being all over the places and being saturated is not gonna help you grow.

Mm. Help you be everywhere. So I had to focus on the key products that was selling. Because you can go and, you know, go onto, um, Google and uh, or go onto your Walmart app and type in Be Rose's passion. And of course you'll see maybe about, um, 25 to 30 products, but you're only gonna purchase maybe two, three, you know, so you wanna focus on the key products that's selling a lot.

You don't wanna have so much, and then you get so little. And that was one of the things that I had to learn [00:09:00] in that retail space right there. Um, it was definitely a experience. Um, what, what I will say is all the products they did sell, you know, really well with Walmart, but not the way the major products.

So we had one product that Walmart, Walmart prices, their own products. And we had, um, one product that Walmart priced at $30 and it was a shampoo. I'm not buying shit from $30. Why was somebody else? And it was confusing to me as to why they would price it at this price. And we debated about the price with my buyer and, um, he said, no, it's worth it.

The ingredients and the results is worth the price and it's selling. That was my number one selling product with Walmart. I don't even, it's, it is not even in stock today because of how sells. Um, and it's sold that way for, we've been in Walmart for five years now and it's been selling consistent. When I [00:10:00] say consistent, people buy three, four of them.

That's fantastic. I don't even market this product. I don't market this product at all. Um, you know, and that's one of the great things about being involved in retail because they have their own marketing, you know, thing. Um, but from there, you know, as you said, we do have a signature product, which is our unicorn product, and our unicorn product has developed as my baby.

And I felt like it was a product that just was not. Could not, and I will not allow it to be a part of any other store, but Target, I felt like it was a target bread and um, You know how you go into Walmart, you know what you're going to get. Right, right, right. Target 

[00:10:48] Maggie: whole different ballgame. 

[00:10:49] Bella Rose: Exactly. You know, and it's not to bash Walmart or not, but not at all.

Not at all. I have a love hate with their price value. You know, Walmart, they roll back my prices a lot and [00:11:00] you know, we have to eat that in, you know, us being the retailers, we have to eat that. Um, there's a difference. Target doesn't do that for me. Um, one thing about my relationship with our target partners is we have our own target marketing team that they.

Gave to me, which they feel like is helpful towards their target friend. Um, and that's amazing. We have four products currently in Target, which is all the Unicorn products. Um, and they also push me to get the certification so that we can have our badges. If you go onto target.com, you know, on your Target app, and you look at the bottom, you'll see the badges, the Clean badge, the black-owned badge, the woman-owned badge, fantastic.

All of that. And that is something that. I did not pay attention to admire until Target made it a big deal for me. Target was like, no, you are black owned, you're woman owned. You're this. They encouraged [00:12:00] me to learn my success. So those certifications helped me grow into, you know, a different lane. Even though we love the diversity.

Mm-hmm. We love the lane that Target pushed us in. And so that helped me advance in other retail avenues, which I was like, you know what? Walmart's so saturated. I got everything on Walmart. Let me pull some products back. Strategic. I love that. Yeah. So we pulled, I love that. Yeah. We pulled some products back.

Mm-hmm. And honestly, I will say I kind of took a hit. Financially pulling those products back because those products were pretty good and people were infatuated with our body butters. But I wanted to, you know, be very specific on what this brand represents. And at the time, over the pandemic, everybody learned how to make body butters.

So they were no longer exclusive. Let me go to this brand to get body butter because of. [00:13:00] This, this, that and the other. Um, when we saw that happening, we had to evolve as well. And you know, it was like, you know, let them have that link. Let's evolve. And that's what we did. So we evolved to, um, focus on facial skincare in our body.

Mm-hmm. Um, facial body. Um, I wanna say, I, I, I don't, I don't wanna use the wrong word because I did last time, but I wanna clear it up, is skin irritations and inflammation. Okay? And a lot of times when we do say, oh, my skin, I got a rash, or, you know, I broke out, or I can't wear that, or I can't eat that because I'm allergic.

And a lot of times people are allergic to things and it is what we eat. Um, but most of the times when we do say, Oh, you know, people wear heavy makeup or certain things like that, or you know, the dark circles under our eyes or the hyperpigmentation. Mm-hmm. We're just not taking care of our skin on a daily [00:14:00] basis.

Us, as you know, black women, we feel like black don't crack. So That's true. Why should we have to use a skincare routine? We need it. We need it though. I had to learn that I turned 40 last year and I was like, ah, this is, you know, we gotta keep this looking good. So, absolutely, I wanted to learn my own skincare routine.

Um, it was something that I had to implement. I mean, I'm selling skincare, but I'm using these different products, you know, I'm not being specific about what I need to do, so I started icing my face. Um, in the morning mm-hmm. Is basically, you know, old, uh, old him, you know, get a bowl of ice and um, the water and just dump your face and remove that, uh, inflammation and the redness in your face so that your face is not puffy and swollen from the night before when you tossing and turning on your sheets and pillows.

And so I started icing my face every [00:15:00] morning and instead of, you know, doing a full glam, let me just do some skincare. And let me just, you know, maybe two days a week do glam, but the rest of the week let me just do my skincare routine. And I started doing that. I started, you know, using my exfoliator uhhuh.

I started, um, doing a nighttime routine as well. And my nighttime routine, um, was more with. Turmeric, uh, lemon and my ginger products. Love it. Yeah. I'm, I'm telling you like the lemon helped lighten up my dark spots. I used to have dark spots all over my face, and I'm telling, like I used to have. Really bad hyperpigmentation to the point where I was like, um, two or three different shades.

You know, like when I used to get my makeup done, they always had to blend it. Mm. And you know, it was like dark on my face, and then it was light, and then my eyes right here were dark, and then my forehead was another color. Oh, wow. Wow. And it was all because, not, not only did I eat bad, but you know, [00:16:00] I had a lot of.

Issues with my skin as I was younger and never took care of it. You know, we do need sunscreen, we do need skincare routines. Um, all of our skincare is organic and we, we wanted to be specific about the organic, um, skincare because I went, this study at Alta, picked up some expensive products, 60 to 80 bucks for like a two ounce jar and, um, heavy chemicals.

And those chemicals, not only do they give you, people feel like, oh, let me get a chemical pill, and that's what I mean. No, that's absolutely not what you should be doing. You know, and the chemicals that we buy in those cute little class jars, they are weighing heavy on our skin. 

[00:16:51] Maggie: Not only that, but it absorbs into your system and it affects your, your systems and all kinds of things that we put just on our [00:17:00] skin.

When you really think about the amount of chemicals between deodorant, lipstick, eyeshadow, all of these things, if you are wearing makeup seven days a week, it. Piles up and your body, just think about how much toxins you're putting in. So tell us more about the natural products that you're using. Why Bella Rose is so different from the other companies in the industry.

So a 

[00:17:24] Bella Rose: lot of the skincare products, they will tell you, oh, is dermatology approved? But it's not really dermatology approved. I can send my products off to, um, labs and have them get 'em approved for a certain amount of dollars. So that doesn't mean is dermatology approved that it's. It's just dermatology certified because you paid for the certification.

So that's a big difference that a lot of, a big misconception a lot of people have. Oh, well the dermatologist said to use this, and I'm not sure if you're familiar, but, um, dermatologist, they prescribe eczema creams. Well, if you have eczema and you're using the eczema cream that the [00:18:00] dermatologist, uh, gave you, the prescription for your skin is burning.

That, that, that burns your skin. Now your eczema might temporarily clear up, but it's burning your skin off. Using our eczema body wash. Our eczema's, uh, she butters and our eczema body butters. No burning. I'm telling you like, uh, we have so many raven reviews. Soon as you put it on, you feel the sooth. Oh, feel the calmness.

All of the irritation is gone. I'm talking. People say as soon as they put a dab onto their skin, no more itching for days. And then once the eczema is cleared up, It's no more inflammation in your body because the eczema, the inflammation is still there. It can still flare up if you eat it, depending on how heavy the, um, things are that you eat.

So you drink some soda, eat some chocolate. Mm-hmm. Eat some blood, something like that, that eczema that's inside of your bloodstream and it's, it's still [00:19:00] gonna flare up. Yes. It's still gonna flare unless you take care of it organically. So the organic ingredients and oils that we put into our product, it actually exfoliates into your skin and it takes care of not only your skin, but into your body and it cleanses it inside out.

So you don't have any more flareups? I haven't. My son, I started using the products on him when he was maybe five, six years old. He's 13. Mm-hmm. No. Excellent. First. 

[00:19:33] Maggie: Bella Rose what on your website? Bella rose passion.com. What is the name of that eczema product? Just uh, for clarity, just so our viewing and listening audience can know what the name of that product is.

Can you 

[00:19:46] Bella Rose: go ahead, I'm sorry. So we have the eczema collection, which is in the lotion a. Mm-hmm. Um, but a lot of times people don't like to use butters. They just wanna use lotion. Mm-hmm. So the eczema collection is the body wash and the body lotion, but we also have the [00:20:00] body butter under our, um, skincare.

Um, I'm sorry, under our butter section and they can just use the body butter, um, the eczema butter, which is just as mu just as good, but. I will say if you add the body wash with the body butter or body lotion together, that dynamic duo does something to your really, okay. Oh, you can feel it exfoliating.

You can feel your skin cleansing. Like I had so many. Dark marks from eczema. I had eczema really bad when I was younger and so many dark marks on my skin from eczema. Wow. And it's like literally gone like nothing. Wow. I to get really bad right here. And I used to be embarrassed to show my hands, but.

Eczema no more just in case 

[00:20:45] Maggie: somebody's watching this on YouTube, that was a tattoo lower down, right? That's not, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:20:59] Bella Rose: We. [00:21:00] Pay attention to our skin. We pay attention to our hygiene. Our hygiene. Like if you look at your, you know, inner hands, you wanna make sure that your palms are very, there you go. You pay attention to your inner hands. Like when it start to get dark, you know that you have some type of heavy chemicals in your body.

You ha you know that it's something not right. Oh yeah. You definitely pay attention to your skin. Your skin will definitely talk to you. Your skin is going to actually. Feed you the information our products now has, um, included with the natural ingredients that we have. It's like a, I wanna say it helps with your dopamine.

Mm-hmm. Well, it helps with mine and we have gotten it tested, so it, it helps with a lot of others. Um, it, once you use your skincare routine during the morning, now, I don't know if it's my icing that I do in the morning or if it is my products, I'm gonna say it's my product. But it helps me have a better day.

It helps me start my day knowing that my skin is [00:22:00] refreshed, my attitude is better. You know that song I'm working on my energy, and that's the thing that we want. We wanna work on our energy, we wanna work on our health, we wanna work on everything that makes us glow. And that's starting our morning off with, you know, some good.

Skincare products. Wonderful. And, and to me it's like, um, it, it really depends on which product you start with first. Um, a lot of times, and I was just with someone, they told me, Oh, I washed my face with soap and water. I said, oh my gosh. That's like the worst thing you can do, putting soap, like actual soap.

I know a lot of times people feel like maybe it is, uh, depending on what soap it is, like Dove soap or something, because they say how good the uh, soap is, they feel like it's good to wash your face with it, but it's really not. Um, putting soap on your face drives your face out. Water also drives your face out.

You're in the shower and you know, you just. Wash your face with some water or whatever, you [00:23:00] know it's gonna dry your face out because you're not moisturizing your face. And then we go and put. A lotion that we probably bought from, uh, maybe Bed Bath and Beyond, or maybe Walmart or something, you know, like a smell of the lotion on our face.

But you're not supposed to put those lotions on your face. You're not supposed to put any of that perfume or any of those chemicals or anything on your face. Your face is definitely something that you wanna protect from those heavy chemicals, uh, those dyes, those perfumes, you don't want anything like that on your face.

Makes sense or on your skin at all? I mean, I, I, I, I don't really, you know, wanna put anything like that on my skin, but your face is something that you definitely wanna protect because it's the first thing people say. 

[00:23:46] Maggie: Absolutely. It's funny you say that. I grew up in the era where my mother would. Do the cold cream, you know, do her wash, wash her face, do the cold cream, and get her ola vle and she's out the door.

But you [00:24:00] know, now we've learned so much and beauty care has definitely changed. And I loved how your packaging in that, uh, face care that you just showed a moment ago, it is 

[00:24:10] Bella Rose: absolutely beautiful. And for those who are listening, 

[00:24:14] Maggie: it is, go ahead and share with us what everybody would get 

[00:24:17] Bella Rose: in that packet.

Okay, so I'll start with the step one. Cause we do it in steps. We don't want people to do it backwards. Cause a lot of times people just put oils on their face and just be done with it. So we have it listed as step one, step two, separate three, step four, and I'll go steps with you. So our first step is, oh, the lightning is too bright.

Let's see if we can, that's. Also you can. Okay, so it's a CLEs foam. With the CLEs foam. We put a brush where we are right here. Yes, we put a to it and it's a Clinton brush. Cause a lot of times when we wash our face, we use our hands, but we don't know what's on our hands. We don't know what bacteria or whatever.

We probably just got finished, uh, using some toothpaste or something. You know, I'm putting nothing on your face, so leave your [00:25:00] hands alone. Uh, or get one of those, uh, cloths, one of those, uh, washcloth that, not an actual washcloth, but a hand washcloth. But this is actually. You can take it off. Oh, how cool is that?

Yeah. You can take it off and clean it and once you rinse it, it's clean. You don't have to worry about that. A lot of times we keep, um, the bacteria into our skincare, and that's something that we just put right back onto our face because we're just basically putting it right back on. So you gotta, you know, wash it off.

Once you wash it off. Clean it. Patchable. Yes. That's so cold. Oh yeah. And then you can put it right back on. You can put it so cool. So it's a foam brush and you could just take the brush and use it in circle motions and cleanse it. And you know, once you clench your face, you put the cover right back on.

So no bacteria, cuz there's a lot of bacteria in our bathrooms. So no bacteria goes onto your foam brush because you're actually covering it up. So that's step one. Step two, we wanna tone our face. Remember I was talking [00:26:00] about the hyperpigmentation? Yes, yes. How the face is a bunch of different colors.

This toner has rosewater in it, and it will help even your skin tone out. So that's one thing that you wanna focus on. When you keep it, when you wanna keep your face toned, you don't wanna have so many different, uh, product. Because when you use different pro, this is why I say focus on step one, step two, step three, step forward.

Because if you use a bunch of different products, You're going to have a bunch of different results. You wanna just stay focused and be specific about your results. So this right here, moisturizer, tones, refunds your pores. Um, Like I said, it has rose water in it, which is one of the things that helps height your skin.

Um, hyaluronic acid, um, which is something that we love, is vegan and cruelty free. And it's for, uh, dry and combination skin, dry and combination skin. A lot of people say, oh, I got dry skin. Oh, I have oli skin. Oh, I don't know what I have. Well, if you, even if you have a combination of both, [00:27:00] This toner will help moisturize your skin and also help even out your skin tone.

Like, I mean, skin tone has to be balanced and this really helps. Yes. And that's step two. And then we go over to step three. Okay. Uh, where are we? Okay, there we go. Yes. 

[00:27:20] Maggie: That, 

[00:27:20] Bella Rose: that is the clay, clay mask. Yes. So it's a clay mask and it does come. Covered up, and once you open it up, we, it does come with a, um, a little stick that you can use.

Like I said, leave your hands alone and you're gonna put the clay mask on your face. And it's really up to your timeframe, how long you wanna leave it on your face. But you can leave it on for a minimum of one minute and just let it, it doesn't have to get hard or anything. It's basically to moisturize your face.

So when you put it on and you put it on with our stick that it comes with you, just put it on and gently rub it into the spots that you wanna focus on. Basically your forehead, [00:28:00] under eyes, your cheeks, your chin, and when you put it on your face. Like I said, it doesn't have to sit on your face forever, just, you know, put it on really good so that it's good.

And then everyday mask 

[00:28:14] Maggie: that you would use though, or 

[00:28:15] Bella Rose: like three times a week. I personally do it two ti two to three times a week. Um mm. Sometimes two times a week. And I do that because I don't have to focus so much on the blemishes that I used to focus on. Mm. It's really for, you know, if you really wanna get rid of that under eye and you let it sit under your eyes, if you have those blemishes and you let it sit, you do wanna have like a everyday routine, maybe five days for the clay mask.

So then you're gonna take your um, uh, well, I use like, um, a hand glove. The wash hand glove. Yes. Yes. And irin, the clay mask off. All done. Your face is clean. But then we go to the last step. The last step. Oh, here we are, is gonna be our serum. [00:29:00] Okay. Can see that. Perfect. Yeah. And the serum, everything is, uh, with rosewater.

So this serum is a, I don't know if you can see that, but it's anti-aging. Yes, I can see that. Yes, it's kinda small, but it's anti-Asian, all natural. Um, we're gonna put the serum on our cheekbones, forehead, nose, and just rub it in and it is good to go. You ready to go for the rest of the day? Um, I will say a lot of times when we go out into the sun, And our face does start to feel warm or start to feel hot.

Don't worry about it. A lot of it, it is more so like sunburn, um, but it's not skin burn, you know? Like we, this is, this is gonna protect us from that skin burn. You don't want skin to get burnt and you get rashes and that's where the inflammation and comes from when you do things like that. So you don't want that.

So you definitely wanna keep moisturizer and that's it. That is [00:30:00] beautiful. Be LaRose. Seriously, 

[00:30:01] Maggie: it is absolutely beautiful. Thank you for sharing. You know, in today's world, sometimes when you go to YouTube and you look at all these tutorials, it is a little intimidating, even as a woman to be like, oh, I gotta have this step.

I gotta have the, there's so many D. You've boiled it down to four simple steps that I could do, and that is, Fantastic. And it saves me time too, so I can move on 

[00:30:24] Bella Rose: to the next thing. That's awesome. Me, I mean, obviously we've gotta brush our teeth for two minutes, but once you start doing the skincare routine, if you do the icing, do your face, I would say, uh, 10 minutes tops.

I mean, you got, you got 10 minutes. Absolutely. You got 10 minutes to take care of your skin, take care of your health, and it makes you feel better. You start, like I said, it, it helps you start your day. Um, that rose water, like I, um, I explained to you, it does help with your dopamine. It does help you enjoy and have a good energy about yourself.

Um, is gonna [00:31:00] enlighten a lot of things about your skin that you didn't know. Um, it. Pure. It makes your skin look pure. It's called, the collection is called Pure Glow cuz it makes your skin look pure. It looks like. Oh my gosh, is refreshing. Cannot wait to try it. I cannot wait. 

[00:31:15] Maggie: Thank you. You know, velar Rose, when if we were to go into a time machine and the success that youre today, May, 2023, and if we're to flash back to 2011 and the story of you going into a pizza store asking someone, could I sell my products in here?

I will pay you to sell my products in here. That was a hundred percent 

[00:31:41] Bella Rose: confidence. If nothing else, forget the degrees. 

[00:31:45] Maggie: Forget the success. Forget Walmart. Forget target. Forget Amazon to be able to get up and go into a stranger's Pizza store, pizza, beauty products. There's no connection there, but. Still, you would have a place [00:32:00] where traffic would be coming in to buy food.

People are coming to buy food. What was it that just made you get up that day and be like, you know what? I have this product. I need to get some money. I need to get this sold. What was it that drove you, because a lot of people don't have that. Tell us about that mindset. What pushed you? What made you be that bold and just do 

[00:32:22] Bella Rose: it?

Well, I will say it was out of desperation at the time. Mm-hmm. Um, I used to, and you know, this was so long ago, like you said, 2011, I would get in my car, no money, no nothing. And I had like one debit card, which was like a PayPal card. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I, like I said, I had no money, but I was hungry and I had a little son, he was like two years old at the time, and I knew I had all of these products.

Like I knew I needed to sell these products and I know if I talk to some people I'm gonna sell some products. So it was, I have to make this money. It was no. All right, well, if I don't make it, I'll make it tomorrow. It was like, no, tomorrow [00:33:00] for me. Like, I have to make this money. I have to do this today. Mm.

And um, my friend, he was hosting a karaoke night at the pizza bar that we're talking about, but it didn't start yet. So I went there and I went there early and the owner of the pizza, uh, pizza bar, he was there. And, um, everybody's, they're busy. They're working. And I asked the owner of the pizza bar, um, I went up to the counter like I was gonna buy a slice of pizza.

And I asked him, I said, um, You mind if I sell my products here tonight? Um, I promise I'll pay, but I don't have any money right now to get anything to eat. But I, if I, if you let me sell these products here, I promise I'll pay. And he was like, oh no, you're good. You can set up right here at the table. You need a table.

He was that, that gave me the energy I needed to say, alright, I got this. And he did. He gave me a tablecloth, it was a, um, high top table. He gave me a tablecloth and once he gave me the tablecloth and I start setting up people that was in the [00:34:00] restaurant, eating was like, oh, what's this? What do you have?

And that first sale, which was a $10, uh, lip gloss, that first sale turned into three, then three turned into six, and then the karaoke night started coming. And it was like a, um, uh, a gift back. It was like a, a toy drive or something. Okay. Okay. So it was a big crowd, a lot of people, and it was a few, um, Like reality stars that came and, uh, we got to connecting and talking.

And the more people they saw, this is something I learned that day. The more people they saw at my table, the more people was interested in purchasing. Mm. So I learned that from that day. I, I ended up making about $200 and he didn't charge me. And I still, I, I told my publicist to send him the clip of me thanking him publicly because, Like he helped me.

Um, but I learned from doing it. I started doing vendor shows [00:35:00] and one of the big vendor shows I started doing, which was Briner Brothers. What I did was, and this is something I, I think people should definitely, you know, tackle into, if they start doing shows and they don't know how to get traffic to their table.

I, hi. I had a, you know, cute little setup and everything was nice, but I hired a videographer. I hired a photographer, and I also had my friends that was in line getting their makeup done, and my friends wasn't paying or anything, but it was a big thing about, oh my gosh, who's this with the video? You know, why?

Why are they being videoed? Who's taking pictures and why are they getting their makeup done? It was like a big thing about what are they doing? People wanna be included about, you know, what's going on. So five, 10 minutes after we set up, we have a line all the way down the hallway for people, get their makeup done and purchase Bella Rose's passion products.

You know, just because we hired a videographer, we had lights, it was like a [00:36:00] production, and people was literally waiting in line like I was. Giving away free stuff, you know, and they were paying to get their makeup done and whatever. My artist would charge it. They were buying our lipsticks and lip gloss.

I mean, my first Browner brother show. Um, we actually did a barter with Broner Brothers and we got for free Uhhuh. We wasn't supposed to be charging, but we were like taking tips and I think we ended up making close to like 37, anywhere from like 3,700 to like 4,000. And I, wow. Obviously we had, I had to, you know, give the artists their money, but the next day we went back, that was encouragement for us to, let's double this.

Let's make some more money, you know? And it was exciting because that was the first big production and we were in Briner Brothers for maybe the next three years after that. And um, that's how I learned how to grow a audience. Like make people, [00:37:00] make people be attracted to what you have going on. Like of course, it don't matter if you gotta hire models or hire a team or whatever you have to do, make them interested in you.

[00:37:11] Maggie: This is why it is so important to support businesswoman like yourself, because as a person 

[00:37:18] Bella Rose: of color, 

[00:37:18] Maggie: and no truly, truly Belarus, because there's a million products. When I go to Walmart in the beauty aisle, a million 

[00:37:26] Bella Rose: products when I walk into Target, 

[00:37:28] Maggie: but there's only one arose and I, there was something about when I.

Get that product in my hand and I know your story, that this woman was just like me and she was 

[00:37:39] Bella Rose: bold enough to go ask someone, can I please 

[00:37:42] Maggie: set up in your, you know, in your place today that is just touching that story makes you real and not just, you know, someone in a corporation behind a desk. And it's just real.

If you could do it, I could do it and hopefully somebody else could do it. Um, so with that buildup as you were telling us [00:38:00] and through walking us through your journey, Breaking into the beauty industry. I mean, when you think of the big Lancome or any other product that's out there, but it, we are not focused on them.

This is Bella Rose. What? Breaking into that industry and carving a space out, and then Macy's and all these other wonderful place and these brand ambassadors who are now attached to your brand, how did you do it? Because yes, you had something. Yes. You knew it was good. Yes. You, you believed in it, but you're at the table.

[00:38:32] Bella Rose: You're now at the table. Yeah. And I'm glad you said, you know, somebody that looks like me, because when I first started, like I said, I didn't have the knowledge of what it is I'm here to do. I had no idea that I would get to where I am today. That wasn't mm-hmm. Like, you know, I wa I didn't think that far ahead, but in the journey.

I, I was kind of lost and someone did tell me, oh, you, if, [00:39:00] if I knew that you were the face of the brand or this was your brand, I wouldn't buy from you. You should hire, um, a white girl or a Asian girl to be the face of your brand. Oh, wow. Mm-hmm. And with me not being confident in the brand at the time I did hire models.

I did hire, you know, light-skinned girls and white girls to pose with lipsticks and lip glosses. So that they can, so I can get that diversity audience and thinking that I was not good enough to be the face of my brand. Mm-hmm. So, you know, it, it, it was okay. But it wasn't where it is today. My brand got where it is today.

Once I start doing the interviews, once I start posting, you know, what I was doing, showing up to, you know, events and putting my face on the posters and everything, once people start seeing, oh, who's that? Oh mm-hmm. Oh's that you, you know, and once people [00:40:00] start seeing me and start seeing. I suffer from what you suffer from.

I go through what you go through. I am you. I am trying to help you Yes. Grow your journey, you know, your skincare journey, your health journey. Mm-hmm. I am trying to help you as I'm helping myself, and I, I want people to look to me that way. Mm-hmm. As you know, and I, I get emails and calls, oh, well what can I do to help with this?

What can I do to help with this? And, You know, the skin pigmentation and everything, and I don't mind answering those questions, whether it's on social media, email, text message. I don't mind answering those questions because the knowledge I have is gonna help the next person, which is gonna help the next person, help the next person.

Well, in my mind, I really feel, I really believe that. So when I started growing, as you know, me in the face of the brand more, You know, other, other brands, more retailers, more [00:41:00] people started to get interested. And that's how I was able to, as you say, get to the table. Because people wanna know, you know, what, what, what do you have going on?

Well, tell me what, what's your secret? How did you do this? And what makes you different? And once you explain to them, you know, is not like a broken record, but it's just I'm me. And that confidence, you know, just made me feel like I could definitely be a part of, you know, the big Girl league and the big Boy league.

And nothing was gonna stop me until I got to Target. And you know, even that we are in target now. I'm still trying to push like. What we doing next? You know that, that 

[00:41:45] Maggie: leads me to my next question. What's, what's on this on the horizon for Be Rose in the next 5, 10, 15 

[00:41:52] Bella Rose: years from now? 5, 10, 15 years? I don't know.

I haven't thought that far, but I will say like in the next five years [00:42:00] I do wanna be like, With Oprah's most, uh, most celebrated product or something, you know, Oprah, contact me. I got you. So if I can, you know, get into the hands of someone like that, or, or also be a part of, um, you know, collections with Disney collections, with, you know, those bigger brands.

And, you know, sponsor different things. You know, the color purple's coming up, you know, we can, eh, do some things together, Oprah, but, you know, things like that. I was featured with, uh, Martha, one of Martha's store's favorite products. Mm-hmm. And knowing that I can get with Martha, I know Oprah going cold.

Auntie Oprah 

[00:42:48] Maggie: is gonna call. Just hang on there. Oprah gonna 

[00:42:53] Bella Rose: call, call me. I, I got that confidence into one day her makeup artist contacted [00:43:00] me actually when I was doing Browner Brothers makeup, and he was like, I've been following your journey. I'm a Facebook friend of yours and I am so proud of you. And I mean, he, I was.

Overwhelmed. Like, I dunno who I'm, but you know, you never know who's watching you. Exactly. Yeah. I do want be Rose's passion products to not only enhance, um, not only enhance the beauty of others within the next five years, but also enhance the confidence. In everyone within the next five to 10, 15 years, I want people to say, you know, because of Bella Rose's passion products, my skin started going and this happened and this ha I want to be a part of someone else's journey story.

And that to me is the only thing that I'm looking to grow. I'm looking to basically not only be a household brand, but. Be a household story. I want, you know, people to say because of me, I made a difference. 

[00:43:58] Maggie: That's awesome. [00:44:00] You know, one thing I would love to just touch the topic on is you mentioned you pivoted in when, what was it, 2020 when Covid happened and you changed the formula of.

One, because I guess you said everybody was doing their own body butters. People had time and people were you pooping and doing things, but you're like, you know what, lemme elevate this. I mean, is that one of the ways that you survived and just did that pivot so that you would continue to stay above water?

Tell us a little bit more about that 

[00:44:31] Bella Rose: strategy. No, it was, it, it, it took a toll on us financially. I will say when the pandemic first started, everybody panicked. Mechanics. Mm-hmm. I didn't, I was a stay-at-home mom and our kids were already homeschooling. Um, I was like, okay, I don't leave my house anyway. I mean, Okay.

I, I, it, it didn't, uh, it gave people time to [00:45:00] figure out what they wanted to do with their life or, you know, like jobs and things like that. But I was like, okay, let's, uh, you know, let's see how we going, you know, grow. Um, I started working with a new marketing agency. I had no idea that marketing was the monster that it is.

Yes. Um, once we started working with that marketing agency, uh, our brand was already pulling in anywhere from maybe 10 to 15,000 a month. Right. Um, and that was 2020. And I was happy. I was, oh, I make this, I make that type of thing. I started working with that marketing agency. He made me over 20,000 in a day, and I couldn't hold the new tax bracket.

Whole new tax price. I said, wait, I, he, his agency charged, well, they were a bit pricey. And I told him, I said, well, let's do a, a 30 day retainer. Let's see. You know what you can do in 30 days? And he was like, well, I'm gonna be honest with you. Not too many people can do much in 30 days, [00:46:00] but cause it is the pandemic and people are getting, you know, people are at home online shopping.

Let's go ahead and boost out, you know, some ads on social media. So at the time I did have a few, um, influencers that was promoting the products and, you know, it wasn't too much my daughter. Was the one who did the ad for my body butter, and when my daughter did the ad for my body butter, standing in front of our house, rubbed the body butter on her skin, that ad made us close to $60,000 in one week.

Wow, that's awesome. I ain't have to pay her

and it, you know, because these influencers are expensive, you know, and the things are really expensive. Me not having to pay her to do. That one little thing on her hand in front of our house made that much money. That was the most money I ever made. So with [00:47:00] her doing that, we, we posted the ad, well we sent that ad to the, um, ad ad agency.

The marketing agency. They put the ad on Facebook, Instagram, at the time, Snapchat, Pinterest and YouTube. Mm-hmm. Google. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And, um, I will say Google. I'm sorry. I will say Facebook was the most lucrative at the time. Uh, Facebook was pretty much floating my entire business through the pandemic. We, wow.

We were killing it, uh, with the body butter, with the, and then we had the collection. We had the body butter, unicorn lotion, unicorn baths, uh, unicorn lip butter, unicorn, everything. The unicorn. And we were throwing gifts. We would just, it was so many orders and at the time we were like, we were home. It was the pandemic.

Our living room was filled up, our dining room was filled up. Wow. It was everywhere. We did not know how to get these orders out [00:48:00] on time, you know, mail, you know, post offices were delayed and. People were complaining, oh, I still waiting on my order. Oh, it's taking so long. And then it's body butter. So it, you know, sitting in a post office and melted some, some people orders came, looked at like, you know, liquid.

So we had to reimburse. Oh no. So it was great. We got to make 20,000 in a day. So some, we had the refund that very first month. I spent over 19,000 in shipping fees. Um, we, we had to run ads that cost to pay the, a marketing agency that cost. Yes. Um, we had to increase inventory. That was a cost. It was a lot that we had to do at that time.

So e even though the numbers was looking good, I wasn't profit in a way that I wanted to profit, so that's why I had to pivot. And see what I can do [00:49:00] to elevate, because yeah, this is selling, this is good, this is this, this it good, but let's see what else we can do to grow the, you know, grow the return. So when I was able to do that, Put more products on the web.

I was able to put more products on the website. I was able to increase the prices because, I mean, it was inflation. I mean, we had to increase the prices. The brand was growing. So once we were able to grow the brand, we were like, you know, let's focus on something else. And once we started taking it to the next level, our customers were very loyal.

They were very good. They followed, you know, they, they got with us. And you know, I, I think every last single one of our supporters, they were like, why is your prices so high? Why would it do that? And so when I did get what Target, target did ask me, why would someone pay? What was the darn question? Why would someone pay $20 for a four ounce jar of Shea butter when regular shea butter is [00:50:00] about $4?

You know, a regular yellow shave butter. Okay, I'm not a regular shea butter. No, you're not. And I don't want my clientele or your clientele to walk in somewhere. Let me just get some regular She butter. No, let me get this pretty sh uh, this pretty moisturizer, which happens to be she butter mixed with other butters that increase electricity.

Smells good. Looks good. It's gonna look good on your bathroom sink. Mm-hmm. On your nightstand or whatever the case may be. And you're gonna wanna show it off. I have a customer that. Bought four bundles because she once, one at home, one at work, one in her bathroom. And like, it's beautiful and it smells so good.

And the, and the scent lingers. And, um, you know, that's, that's, that's pretty much, that pretty much was my pitch. Like, I'm not a regular shea butter. Like, no you're 

[00:50:52] Maggie: not. No, you're, no you're not. Love that 

[00:50:56] Bella Rose: Bella Rose. 

[00:50:58] Maggie: Um, tell us a little [00:51:00] bit more about how people can get the product and 

[00:51:03] Bella Rose: where they can find you please.

Yes. Um, so depending on what product, we only have four products inside of Target. Um, target.com. You can search Bella Rose Passion on target.com, uh, walmart.com. You can search Bella Rose passion and you can get any skincare from our, um, Walmart partners, which is, you know, on walmart.com. But you can go to the website and that is bella rose passion.com.

And you can also follow us on social media at Bella Rose Passion. It 

[00:51:35] Maggie: was a pleasure having you today. Thank you so much for your time. Looking forward to 

[00:51:41] Bella Rose: staying in touch. Yes. Thank you so much for this. This was amazing. A breath of fresh air. I was excited to speak with you. I appreciate you having me on and you are amazing to speak with.

Oh, thank you so 

[00:51:54] Maggie: much. Thank you. Until next 

[00:51:56] Bella Rose: time.