Today we’d like to introduce you to Alicia Scott.
Alicia, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I first started conceptualizing my brand in 2013 from actually working behind the scenes in the fashion industry while living in New York. A lot of the deeper skin models would bring their own makeup kits with them to shoots and runway shows because they knew the makeup artists’ wouldn’t have their shade. This made me look at my own collection at home and I realized I only owned like three cosmetic products! I began thinking about what my dream line would include. I have highly sensitive skin which led me to look deeper into ingredients. I wanted it to be clean and free of toxic ingredients like talc and fragrance which have been linked to cancer and hormone disruption. It needed to have my shade and deeper with correct undertones and I wanted it to be affordable. I couldn’t find this anywhere so I stopped looking and started creating. I bought my first round of ingredients, bases, and packaging to test for $150 in 2014 and started building towards what is now RANGE Beauty.
Has it been a smooth road?
Entrepreneurship is an inevitable roller coaster ride! My biggest struggle deals with keeping up with demand while bootstrapping the company (investing all of my own funds) due to the difficulty of a Black woman-owned brand receiving funding. I want to do so many things for our customers but right now I need to be realistic due to the funding limit. Aside from this, everything else has really been teaching moments that I make sure to note and come up with a plan to avoid in the future. Honestly, I’m beyond grateful and blessed I have people excited and wanting to spend their hard earned money on an idea I created. The messages and comments I receive thanking me for putting out a line for the forgotten shades while keeping the products toxic free, beyond validates the mission I have for RANGE Beauty and outweighs the challenges each time. Of course, there are still days when I wish something happened differently but I collect myself and reiterate that what’s happening is already more than I dreamed and whatever God has planned for me and this brand will occur in due time.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
RANGE Beauty is affordable, high-performance, clean beauty for the forgotten shades. Our product formulas are hybrid skincare/makeup to take care of your skin with wear instead of causing damage like other makeup products can over time. Currently, we have a foundation in 21 shades and 3-4 undertone options, BB Cream in six shades, translucent powder in four shades, dual eye/highlight in five shades, and a body glow. We are most known for our True Intentions Bronzing Primer which is a tinted primer made with melanin in mind that warms and evens the skin while protecting it from free radicals. It is a customer favorite and my personal favorite too!
There is an industry standard on most cosmetic shelves of what shades to sell and market towards. RANGE is for the skin tones that are often unacknowledged, mostly brown to deeper brown. Along with being inclusive with our shades, we apply this beyond foundation and into other products which a lot of companies miss the mark on when attempting to extend their shade range. A lot of the cosmetic giants occupying retail space currently are thinking of our skin tones as a trend that just needs a temporary answer. Majority of these companies do not have any people of color on the product development team creating for us. I’m a Black woman making products for people who look like me from my personal experience of feeling unseen. If I can’t use the product, it’s not being launched. A benefit of being a small brand is the ability to build a genuine relationship with our beauties and I’m really proud of the voice I’ve developed with them so far.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I actually moved to Atlanta from Brooklyn, NY because through my research, I found it ranked as a top city for Black women-owned businesses. I always attribute my growth to my relocation here because of the access to my target market. I sell to women of color mainly and there are a lot of opportunities, expos, events to get your products and face out there. HERMARKET is actually the first pop-up I ever did for RANGE and it’s a Black-owned Atlanta-based platform for female-owned independent brands to connect with shoppers through curated pop-ups, brand partnerships, and retail experiences. I had never seen that done before! That’s not the first time I’ve seen Atlanta show up for us and so for my industry, it is the perfect place to be. I would highly recommend it for anyone starting out. The resources are just so abundant from numerous non-profits which provide assistance for female entrepreneurs to social groups that offer a variety of helpful services and networking opportunities. It’s really an ideal city to live and start a business.
Pricing:
- Our price range is $9-$30 because I believe clean ingredients should be more accessible. Beauty products with natural ingredients are often looked at as a luxury when really I view them as a necessity due to frequency of use and the impact toxic ingredients can have on our health.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.RangeBeauty.com
- Email: info@rangebeauty.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/Range_Beauty
- Facebook: Facebook.com/RangeBeautyLLC
- Twitter: Twitter.com/RangeBeauty
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
