Tell us about your backstory, and how Gorjue came to be? I was destined to be an artist, but got pregnant at 17 years old, and gave up pursuing that career to find something with more stability in order ensure a better future for my daughter. I got a lot of backlash for having a daughter young and many told me my life would most likely “be over.” I knew if I had the will and focus to succeed, I could make anything possible. I worked in healthcare for 13 years earning a doctorate degree putting 200% into providing for my family, but still, deep down inside, I still always had a love for art, but wasn’t sure how to or when to turn that into a professional dream. My daughter and I bonded a lot over makeup, a different form of art, and while watching a makeup tutorial, my daughter made a joke and noticed that the lipstick swatch was hotdog color! We both laughed hysterically! I knew I wanted to buy a hotdog lipstick for my daughter, but could not find one in the market. The idea came to me like lightning! I knew it made sense because food and makeup are two massively trending entities within social media. And just like that, we began working hard to build a foodie-branded cosmetics line and we were creating the art I always wanted to do! I always says, “It’s as if I had to have my daughter or she was meant to come into my life in order to lead the way for me in finding my dreams and helping them to come true.”

Your packaging is so fun—how did you come up with the concept? I’m one who loves to think outside of the box and create new, unique ideas. We knew we wanted something that really captured the essence of our theme “colors inspired by foods from around the world.” I sketched a lot of different designs and this is what really stood out to me. A lot of lipstick containers show the color of the formula at the bottom of the lipstick, so why not show the food that the color represents?

What is your most popular shade? New York Hotdog is a very popular shade, probably because the color is super wearable and really goes well with a lot of different skin tones. Who knew that hotdog color would be such a hit!

Do you have a personal favorite? The hotdog color is a favorite of mine for many reasons: 1) because of its wearability, it’s definitely an everyday – on the go – color, 2) it’s near and dear to my heart because it’s what started it all with my daughter making such a hilarious joke about it so every time I wear it, it reminds me of my daughter. The brand is built on the hotdog! 3) I live in New York City and hotdogs on every street corner is one thing New York is known for.

Worth Anne Herrell of Oilogic (our October ‘Indie Inc’ profile) wants to know what is the advice you are most happy you ignored—and what might have happened if you had listened to it?” Definitely the criticism about getting pregnant young and that it would be too difficult to care for a daughter and pursue a career. Throughout the years, I’ve learned people’s advice is usually geared more toward actions of low risk, low pain, safety and organization. I think people find comfort in what they know will usually produce guaranteed outcomes. People who are risk averse may be more swayed to take this kind of advice, especially if they don’t have focus or a strong mind to overcome pain or fear of failure. But at the same time, people can be very content living a safer and more structured lifestyle, and that’s ok too. It’s just a way for people to offer safe advice that causes less pain.  But for me, I know I’m much happier to take risks, live outside of the box, and live a more independent lifestyle outside of the corporate world. I am very fortunate to have had a strong mind, high pain tolerance, and enigmatic will to go after what I want because those are the traits that carried me through every step of this journey to have unwavering certainty that the criticism offered was just not for me. Had I listened to the advice, I know I would not have found happiness or self-fulfillment because I prefer a more autonomous and high risk/high reward lifestyle. The lesson here is to be authentic to what you want out of your life no matter the criticism, and have a strong mind and focus to get there.

So, what’s next for Gorjue? We do have new moisturizing matte lipsticks coming out in the next couple months, they will be even more adorable than the first line, with even better packaging design. After this launch, sky’s the limit and we hope to be able to expand to create a full makeup line outside of just lipsticks.