Key Takeaways
- Hernandez is the founder and CEO of makeup brand Beauty Creations Cosmetics, which launched in 2016.
- The business is eyeing major U.S. expansion and growing sales with limited collections, including a recent Halloween drop.
Esmeralda Hernandez, the 38-year-old founder and CEO of makeup brand Beauty Creations Cosmetics, got her entrepreneurial start at a young age.
As a child growing up in Mexico, Hernandez attended garage sales and flea markets with her mother, who bought and resold items to make money. Hernandez was inspired to turn her passion for Barbies into profit at age 12: Reselling the dolls became her first business.
Hernandez immigrated to the U.S. at nine years old, and at 18, she secured a full-ride university scholarship to study medicine. That same year Hernandez found out she was pregnant with her first child, so she leaned into her own flea market resale business instead.
“ I sold literally everything,” Hernandez tells Entrepreneur. “During [Halloween] season, we would sell costumes, everything that was trending. I was really good at catching what was trending, so I would always be like, Oh, what’s new [for] Halloween? Is it accessories? And I always liked the business part.”
Related: I Made $14,000 in 1 Week With a Spontaneous Halloween Costume Side Hustle — Here’s How
“I’m going to do something completely different, something that you don’t really see in the market.”
In 2014, Hernandez jumped on another trend: high-quality hair tools. The products were so top-notch, however, that their long use time didn’t translate to repeat customers. That’s when Hernandez landed on another idea — high-quality makeup at an affordable price point.
It wasn’t that high-quality, reasonably priced makeup products didn’t exist in the market, but those that were available often left a lot to be desired in terms of packaging compared to their more expensive counterparts, Hernandez explains. With her creative and trend-savvy eye, Hernandez knew she could improve the options out there.
“ I was like, I’m going to do something completely different, something that you don’t really see in the market,” Hernandez says. “So we were one of the first brands [with colorful packaging] and one of the first brands that started using paper palettes. I started doing paper palettes because I was able to do more of the colors and effects, like 3D.”
Hernandez officially launched Beauty Creations in 2016.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Beauty Creations Cosmetics
“The biggest challenge [remains] being able to pay for everything.”
Of course, like most early-stage businesses, Beauty Creations had to secure enough money to start — one of the biggest initial challenges, Hernandez says.
Hernandez credits the Latino community with helping her get Beauty Creations off the ground and running. The founder participated in cundinas, a form of mutual aid common in Mexican culture wherein the cundina’s members pay a set amount of money, with one of them receiving the lump sum. Hernandez also had financial support from family members, many of whom ran businesses of their own.
Hernandez says that a commitment to putting nearly every penny back into the business — a mentality instilled in the founder by her mother during their days selling at the flea market — has played an important role in the brand’s growth trajectory, though it hasn’t been an easy road.
“ Last year was such a hard year,” Hernandez admits, “because we were going into Walmart and growing in H-E-B — they were giving us more stores. The biggest challenge [remains] being able to pay for everything. We didn’t have a fridge for three months. I told my husband, ‘If it’s going to take three months of not having a fridge to pay payroll, it is what it is.’”
Related: He Emigrated From Mexico and Used an Underrated Tactic to Build a Business Worth Over $1 Billion
Beauty Creations has 100 employees and is on track for $84 million in revenue this year. The brand’s online sales make up just 10% of its business, up double from 5% the year prior, but still a modest amount compared to its “bread and butter” distribution in retail stores across 47 countries, with a particularly strong presence in Mexico in Ulta and Walmart.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Beauty Creations Cosmetics
“With every collection, we do take our time. We try to include a new formula with every launch.”
Now, Beauty Creations is eyeing a significant U.S. expansion, though a substantial challenge lies in competing with major brands that can afford to drop millions on marketing for a single launch, Hernandez says.
The steep competition hasn’t stopped Hernandez and her product-development team from putting the brand’s best foot forward, particularly when it comes to its special collections.
Some of Beauty Creations’ drops even bring Hernandez’s flea market business days full circle: The brand has featured licensed collaborations with Barbie and rolled out several Halloween-inspired collections this season.
“ We have a great product-development team,” Hernandez says. “They do their homework. They watch the movie [that the products are based on] a couple times. We’re very detailed on every single little thing. The charms, thinking about what will be meaningful to the fans. With every collection, we do take our time. We try to include a new formula with every launch.”
Beauty Creations’ current Goosebumps, Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride II collaborations build on the success of last year’s Halloween offering.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Beauty Creations Cosmetics
The Corpse Bride license is the only one the brand has renewed for a second full run and was expected to see nearly 20% sales growth over the 2024 product — but the collections have already surpassed those forecasts.
“ This year was amazing,” Hernandez says. “The three Halloween collections performed even better than we thought they would. So we’re already working on our Halloween collections [for next year].”
“I don’t get stuck on something if it doesn’t work out.”
As Beauty Creations aims to gain ground in the U.S., many people expect Hernandez to be most excited about the potential to enter major makeup retailers like Ulta, and she is, but Target has a special meaning for her.
“[Going into Target] has always been my dream because I had three kids by 23, and whenever we were like, Oh, let’s go out, we always went to Target,” Hernandez explains. “So talking to them has been an exciting experience.”
Hernandez has learned a lot since her early entrepreneurial days at the flea market, and the beauty brand founder has some valuable words of wisdom for young entrepreneurs ready to bet on themselves and start a business of their own.
“I didn’t go to school for this,” Hernandez says. “We learn as we go. Maybe your fourth product is going to be your bestseller. [Sometimes] we launch, and it’s not what we were expecting, but we live and learn. I don’t get stuck on something if it doesn’t work out. I’m like, Okay, what are we going to learn from this? We have to keep moving. We have to clean our knees and keep running.”
Key Takeaways
- Hernandez is the founder and CEO of makeup brand Beauty Creations Cosmetics, which launched in 2016.
- The business is eyeing major U.S. expansion and growing sales with limited collections, including a recent Halloween drop.
Esmeralda Hernandez, the 38-year-old founder and CEO of makeup brand Beauty Creations Cosmetics, got her entrepreneurial start at a young age.
As a child growing up in Mexico, Hernandez attended garage sales and flea markets with her mother, who bought and resold items to make money. Hernandez was inspired to turn her passion for Barbies into profit at age 12: Reselling the dolls became her first business.
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