Meet Carliss Johnson of Sweet CJ’s Hand-Crafted Lip Care in Southwest

Today we’d like to introduce you to Carliss Johnson.

Carliss, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Well, it all started in the middle of the Global Pandemic, know as Covid-19. The company that I worked for put an indefinite mandate on all employees to start working from home on March 17, 2020. After working from home for nearly a month, my family was hit with a terrible tragedy with my oldest nephew being murdered at home, while my sister and brother-in-law were in the house one room over on April 10th. This was a low blow for all of us and it made me start to reevaluate things and I realized how short and precious life is. I started to think of other places to channel all of the sadness and anger that I was dealing with from losing my beloved nephew at such a young age, so I started to look up recipes for lip balms. Why Lip balms? Because anyone who knows me knows that I am very passionate about caring for my lips, and I wanted to find natural ways to do so.

So the journey began; I got online and found a recipe that I thought to be the best. I ordered everything I needed and started crafting lip balms. The more I researched, the more I found about lip care products, so I decided to add lip gloss to my collection. I would get up in the morning and work my day job from home, and in the evenings, after making dinner, I would work on my lip care items. Months passed and I decided to share my newfound passion with my family and friends, and I received some great feedback. At that point, I decided that I was going to share my products with my Instagram followers. So I got busy creating Sweet CJ’s Website and Instagram page. I ordered mailers and cute organza bags, I created my own business cards and then I introduced Sweet CJ’s Hand-Crafted Lip Care to the small world of people I know.

A few months passed and my department at work was ordered to return back to the office full-time, but I still continued to work on my business and shipping out products weekly. Sweet CJ’s is a small home-based business and a one-woman show, but the business is growing every day. On September 11th, after 21 years on my job, I decided to resign in order to focus on self-care and nurture my business full-time. It is my deepest desire to provide quality Lip Care Products to the world and for Sweet CJ’s to become a household name.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Nothing is easy. I still have to deal with the loss of my nephew daily. He at the time had a ten-month-old baby girl and three days after his murder his son was born. So I have been trying to manage being the best wife, mother, and auntie that I can be, all while managing my own website, hand-crafting my own products and all of the other day to day things that come with life.

Sweet CJ’s Hand-Crafted Lip Care – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Well, Sweet CJ’s Hand-Crafted Lip Care is an online business that specializes in hand made lip care products made with quality ingredients. I offer Lip Balm Sticks, Lip Balm Tins and Lip Gloss. I am most proud of the ability to offer products made with 100% pure oils that give your lips real moisture and shine. I think offering Lip Balms is what sets me apart. There are a lot of successful Lip Gloss makers out there, but Sweet CJ’s is all about caring for the health of your lips first and making them beautiful second.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment for me has been getting complimented on my website. It’s not easy building your own functioning site and it is very tedious and time-consuming, so when people compliment my page that I built from scratch, I feel proud.

Pricing:

• Lip Balm Stick are $3.00
• Lip Balm Tins are $5.00
• Lip Glosses are $7

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sweetcjs.com
• Email: sweetcjs777@gmail.com
• Instagram: @sweet_cjs

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