,type=downsize)
It’s no secret, Latinas are admired for their entrepreneurial spirit. Trusting their vision, passion for makeup and personal expertise, Mabel & Shaira Frias joined forces to create Luna Magic beauty. Pulling from reaggaeton tracks and words they heard growing up like ‘bebe’ and ‘amor,’ the Frias hermanas got creative.Staying true to their values, the Dominican sisters combined their mindsets to craft the brand’s colorful eyeshadow palette, lash extensions and lip stains. When it comes to getting an expert‘s blessing, the Afro-Latina inspired brand even got Cardi B’s makeup artist stamp of approval for their lashes. Talk about, Latinas supporting Latinas! Before starting the company, Mabel worked on different brand projects for Macy’s, Nordstrom & Savage x Fenty. When it comes to creativity, Sharia’s helps her hermana with different pigment picks, formulations and more. Together the dynamic duo is celebrating melanin, showcasing Afro-Latina beauty and creating high quality projects. We caught up with the fierce force on hearing from the I Like It Like That rapper’s makeup artist, being raised by immigrant parents and the truth around growing a business today.
HOLA! USA: Tell us about the time Cardi B wore your makeup?
FS: That was such a wild experience. We are so grateful to her talented and amazing makeup artist Erika La Pearl for using our eyeshadow palette and stacking our lashes for Cardi B’s BeautyCon NYC look last August. We exchanged messages via DM and sent her samples. We thought it was a long shot, then we saw that Cardi B rocked them. It was such an honor for us! We couldn't believe it, it was a dream for us and we hope to work with her again in a larger capacity or a beauty campaign with beautiful photography in our homeland of Dominican Republic.
Growing up what are a few morals you learned from your parents that have positively supported your business?
FS: We witnessed so much hard work and creativity come from our immigrant parents —that magic — it made our childhood special and built us to become entrepreneurs. Our family also instilled the values of family and togetherness, remaining humble and the power of a positive mindset. My grandmother always tells us to never forget where we came from, have fun in the process of life, love and forgive - life is too short!
How has being Afro-Latina impacted the growth of your business? FS: Well, when we started we were just creating a brand to celebrate our love for our culture and beauty. But something we didn't intend to happen, happened. We started getting orders from women all over the world (even as far as Australia) and messages about how happy they are to see two women of color starting a beauty brand. Their letters and encouragement made us realize that we are doing this for our community as much as we are for ourselves. Being the first beauty brand with Afro-Latina co-founders, for us we are in a space where we can evolve the narrative on what it means to be beautiful and shape our vision along with the input of our amazing customers and community.
How important was it to create this look for darker skin tones?
FS: Very important - as women of color who LOVE makeup for us it was important to create products that served many women across skin tones. Fenty Beauty changed the beauty industry by solving this problem and following in Rihanna‘s inspirational footsteps we know that we can aspire to help our customers feel beautiful and confident when using LUNA MAGIC products.
What are some ways people can support local businesses during coronavirus?
FS: Best ways to support local businesses are to be vocal. As we are gearing up for our second collection, we are always asking our community what they want to see next. I also think that supporting a local business is also writing a review, spreading the word about our products. Word of mouth is very powerful and women relay on it especially in considering beauty purchases.