CULVER CITY, CA (LA ELEMENTS) 11/23/2024 – “People looked at me like, ‘Who is he? Where he from?’ Because especially fashion that is on another level is very…I don’t want to get myself in trouble…it’s very elitist. The people who were doing the job that I was trying to do, didn’t look like me, anything like me. Didn’t talk like me. Didn’t walk like me. They made it very clear that I was an outsider. But I think when you face challenges like that, you just push through. You can’t let anybody convince you that you’re not worthy enough to do anything.”
Star stylist Law Roach made his comments during the panel discussion “Beauty Looks Like Me”at Beautycon LA. The premiere beauty event was held on November 2nd and 3rd at the HD Buttercup venue in Culver City. Powered by Refinery 29, this year’s Beautycon LA garnered a higher number of rave reviews from attendees than even last year’s event. With guest speakers such as Law Roach, GRAMMY nominated rapper Saweetie, Anastasia Soare, who revolutionized eyebrow shaping and grooming with her “golden ratio,” and actress Lili Reinhart from Riverdale who taped the very first episode of her podcast, Gloss Angeles live at Beauty on LA, just to name a few. The star presence on the panels was strong and kept the crowds coming back both days of Beauty Con LA.
Speaking of panels, one that especially impressed was Day 1’s “Inside Mielle” featuring Mielle Organics founder, Monique Rodriguez. Rodriguez shared the intimate story of the devastating loss that she suffered and the faith that sustained her. A faith that gave her strength to move forward and create her wildly successful hair care line that celebrates the beauty of textured hair. Prior to founding Mielle Organics, Rodriguez was a nurse. She suffered a miscarriage when she was 8 months pregnant and that led to a personal reevaluation of her life.
Monique Rodriguez
“I realized that something had to change. I needed to become closer to God. I needed to develop my spirituality, and once I did that, I started to realize that I have to do things that make Monique happy. I wanted to live a life that was fulfilling. Being a nurse was a great career, but it wasn’t fulfilling to me. What was fulfilling was going back to that passion that I had as a child and that was haircare.”
“I started on social media as a way to create and express myself and to talk about my hair journey. From 12 until my late 20’s my hair was always straight. And I wanted to go on this natural hair journey. I wanted to embrace my curl. And so, I initially started with just posting information and sharing my own hair journey. The intention was not to create this brand, it was to educate my community on how to take care of their hair, what products to use…taking the science background that I have with my nursing career and educating women as to the best ingredients, the best products to use for their hair. And then I started mixing mixtures together at home and then people started asking, ‘Can I buy those mixtures that you’re mixing?’ And that was a lightbulb moment and the same, ‘Your gifts will make room for you,’ That was literally what was happening.”
“I think it’s important to show our community that we all go through things and what gets us through is our faith in Jesus Christ.”
Although Rodriguez sold Mielle Organics to Procter & Gamble for $640 million, she remains the CEO.
The brands featured at this year’s Beautycon LA were especially generous to all who attended-or at least all who had the patience to stand in line however long it took. There were plenty of full-sized beauty products that were gifted to those who held the General Admission tickets. Here are some of our favorites:
Pixi offered makeup touch-ups and gifted their Beauty Blush Duo in Peach Honey, the shade perfect for all complexions.
JVN Hair gifted hair styling by their celebrity stylists. We were thrilled to experience first-hand the wizardry of Brandon Mayberry.
K-beauty OG Hanskin, had guests select a brightly colored ball which corresponded to a special product from this OG of K Beauty skincare line.
Palmers understood the assignment and gifted several items from their skincare line: Brazilian Coco Cream, Coconut Oil Formula Amino Bonding Complex for damaged hair and Shimmer Radiance Body Oil.
Cetaphil gifted their Daily Facial Cleanser and Advanced Relief Lotion with Shea Butter.
Bodycology gave gift bags filled with their scented body sprays. We’re crushing on “Whipped Vanilla.” Mielle Organics gave away selections from their hair care line.
Stratia gave away their famous Lipid Gold Barrier Lotion. Perfect for restoring the moisture barrier of dehydrated and over- exfoliated skin.
The VIP Hauler bag was reserved for those who paid $299 for a VIP ticket. Gifts inside that bag were filled with products from some of the most exclusive names in beauty including: Find Comfort Hydrating Body Lotion from Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez, The Protective Type 5-in-1 Heat Protectant Styler by Fenty Beauty, JVN Complete Nourishing Shine Drops, Tower 28 JuiceBalm Lip Balm, Pore Cleansing Oil by Hanskin and more.
One thing we love the most about Beautycon LA is discovering exciting new brands and talking to the visionaries behind them. Here is the inside story on a few of our favorites.
Emily Cole
“This is Le Monde Gourmand,” says founder and CEO Emily Cole. “We do predominantly gourmand fragrances, fragrances that are edible, yummy. Think vanilla, coffee, hazelnut. We wanted to create a fragrance collection that was a really fun, fine fragrance for everybody. Good quality but also very approachable. Our Eau de Parfums are $25. With our prices being so approachable, you can collect them and try new ones too.”
“We have the Coterie Collection where we collaborated with three different fragrance and beauty community members, Caroline Stern being one of them. We’ve had a long relationship with her so we wanted to create something together and we came up with Angel Soiré. It has notes of lychee, rose milk, pink marshmallow, apricot and strawberry. It’s so mouthwatering! Angel Soiré has sold out several times on our website on Amazon and on Ulta.”
“We’ve been around for ten years. We originally launched at Urban Outfitters and then this year we launched at Ulta Beauty. We’re at Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack.”
Dalton Lee for Pixi.
“The newest addition that we’ve added to Pixi’s “On the Glow” line is the “On the Glow Superglow” which are a cream-based formula in that same “On the Glow” packaging,” says Pixi social media manager Dalton Lee. “It’s like a twist up stick. They have a nice botanical blend that gives you a really nice radiance with almost like a metallic sheen to the skin to make you look healthy, hydrated and make you look like you but better.”
“We are cruelty free. We use more of a botanical blend for our things, but we don’t classify ourselves as fully organic because we do use some other ingredients that are not. We are officially 100% vegan. In 25 years the whole brand’s history we’ve never once tested on animals. We’re gluten free. Cruelty free. We don’t use any alcohol, silicone, parabens, or anything like that.
Brittni Dixon for Bobbie Miché.
“All my oils are natural and are made with argan oil, the base is all natural,” says Bobbie Miché founder Brittni Dixon. “I transitioned to making them into perfumes. So each fragrance oil has a matching perfume as well. I have a range of florals. I have fruit scents. I have vanilla scents. Everything for everybody I have it.”
“You can purchase online. I ship everywhere.”
Beautycon LA once again proved that it was a great place to make new friends, film social media content and be inspired by the best in the beauty biz. Law Roach exemplified this beautifully by gifting signed copies of his book, How to Build a Fashion Icon and sharing his personal experiences and advice during closing night.
“I’m just now learning what balance means. I’m just now learning that ‘no’ is more powerful than ‘yes.’ All these things for me are very new.”
“If somebody sent us a check in China, then I was going to China to get that check. And especially when you get accustomed to living a certain lifestyle…I was literally flying back and forth. I would go to fly from LA to Paris, Paris back to LA, LA to New York, back to Paris, like three, four times a week, it was crazy. I kept saying, ‘I have to do this.’ Going back to what I said earlier, holding this burden of ‘you have to show them’ that we can compete at the same level and be better. So, it was just like a whole lot of things. It took me to retire and to go through a stage of depression to start to figure out that it was more important for me to put myself first than anybody else.”
“You have to figure out what your balance is.”
On our cover from left to right: Saweetie, Law Roach and Sloane Stephens. All media by LA ELEMENTS.
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