What motivated you and inspired you to create your brand Brooklyn Mavens?

Lauren: We wanted to highlight different parts of Brooklyn that people may not know about and just highlight other entrepreneurs and local businesses.

People always have one idea of an area to visit but that’s just one idea so we’re trying to help people expand their horizons.

Do you feel like your brand is separate or cohesive with your personal brand?

Merlyn: I don’t think it’s too far away from our personal brand because we do live in Brooklyn and there are some stuff that we would do in the city. I think it’s because of the way people perceive bloggers as trying to be fake but we try to stay real, stay upbeat and hype.

Lauren: I don’t know I feel like I focus more on the blog brand then my personal brand and I guess my life is kind of on the blog. However, I agree with what Merlyn said.

Merlyn: It’s like we have more to give but that’s the main thing about having a brand. When you have a brand, you have to stay on brand and you can’t be too far fetched. Blogging is a part of our lives and we try to be personable and real. We do have our personal pages and other things that we do and it’s just a part of our life that we decide to share.

How do you manage your time?

Lauren: It’s definitely hard but you just try to hold yourself accountable. Merlyn is not my official accountability partner but with working together I try to make sure that I am doing as much as she might be doing. I don’t want to let her down. So, when I get home I try to work on some things and it’s all about time management which is easier said then done. Sometimes, I will be up a little later than I want to be but I just have to get things done.

I know what helps me is I have a book where I list out everything I need to do so I can keep track. It will be a list of blog stuff and personal stuff that I need to get done. However, you’ll have to get in the habit of updating the list and looking at the list everyday.

Merlyn: Time management is key and I feel like when things get a little hectic it’s all about making sure we are on the right page. We’ll also have a high priority list, try to stay organized and have really good communication. We’ll make a list and delegate so one person can focus one one thing while the other person works on another task.

Over time what do you think was the catalyst for your growth and when do you think everything started to click?

Lauren: I think quality content and collaboration are two major things. Also, being mindful of the types of posts that we are posting. A lot of people take well to quality pictures. We’ve also had a few collaborations with tastemakers which has definitely helped. Even collaborations with smaller brands definitely help as well. Also, just being personable. I think that the people who actually really like our brand like it because we show that we are real and authentic.

What is one piece of advice you would give to your younger self or someone interested in starting their own brand?

Merlyn: I would say to my younger self to know the point of your brand. Some people just create brands just to do it but they don’t have a reason for starting. The main way that you can really make an impact on someone is if you know why you are doing it and sticking with your reason for starting. Everything is easier when you know that because you can build your content around that and collaborate around that as well. If you stick to that, you will have an idea of your end goal and your followers will understand your end goal.

Lauren: People always ask the question of why we started and if you can’t answer that question then you really don’t know why either. You are just doing it to do it. People are more inspired when you can explain why you do what you do with your brand.

Do you have any collaborations or projects coming up that you would like to highlight?

Lauren: We have one that hasn’t really been announced but we are collaborating with Hotel RL. We’ve had events for them but we are doing blog posts as well for them and that should be posted within the year.

Merlyn: We also have small collaborations with local businesses like Awoke Vintage where we are doing a winter to spring lookbook. We just did a collaboration for Valentine’s Day with The Underthing Shop.

We also have a collab coming up with FabLuxe which goes in hand with our fitness series. However, even though we work with other people we also just like to have our specific content that drives people to our page. Right now, we have our fitness series and then we also have Brooklyn Maven of the week that we do every week to keep the brand going and we make sure to have something new that drives people to our specific branded content.

How do you guys organize your content?

Merlyn: We are definitely trying to get more into it because before we used to just write about anything in Brooklyn. Now, we are trying to just stay attuned to what is going on like Black History Month in February and highlighting black-owned businesses in Brooklyn. As for content, we started a new thing where we’ll actually post the Brooklyn Maven of the week the same day as our time line and we get more views. If we have a collaboration and we have a due date then we make sure that we post on that specific day. We also make sure that we are always curating content and making sure we have content. We are always researching what’s coming up in Brooklyn and we try to always share that with our audience.

Where do you guys shop?

Merlyn: We love Rent The Runway for shoots. It helps us save money because we’re always shooting for content. How we organize shoots depends on what content we have going and sometimes we’ll try to feature neighborhoods that we haven’t featured on our page. We’ll look at the aesthetic and try to match it with our look. We will also work with what we have in our closet and build a look.

Lauren: I don’t always shop at thrift stores but Awoke Vintage has really nice things.

I want to thrift more but I don’t always have the time to shop. I think my go-to place more than Rent The Runway is ASOS.

Merlyn: There is also Indigo Style Vintage in Peace and Riot as well as Shop The Break. They have really interesting pieces.

Lauren: I’ve gone into L Train Vintage and a lot of people love their pieces. Brooklyn has a lot of vintage stores and a lot of boutique stores. It kind of gets a bit pricey to be honest and I like to stick within my budget but I think this year I want to buy more pieces that have more meaning instead of shopping at brands where everything is mass produced. It’s definitely one of my goals.

Comment down below if you relate with Merlyn and Lauren’s story!

Boss Watch will feature creatives, entrepreneurs, influencers, digital professionals and anyone who is moving their passions from an idea into a reality. Boss Watch is for anyone who aspires to live a fulfilled life and just needs a little bit of inspiration to know that they are not alone on their journey towards self-realization. Boss Watch is for anyone who has made it through the growing pains of realizing their dreams and is now looking to share wisdom or just find new people to increase their network.  Is this you? If so, then feel free to leave a comment or email cnkstylebook@gmail.com for a chance to be featured on the next Boss Watch.

What motivated or inspired you to create your brand?

I actually didn’t want to have people do my hair so I learned to do everything on myself.

Is your personal brand separate or cohesive with your work as a makeup artist?

It’s definitely separate from who I am because if you hang around me then you’ll know I’m very calm and laid back. I am huge movie person and I love watching movies and chilling. I’m not a rowdy type of person and I don’t go out all the time so when I do it’s kind of a relief. I feel like I work too much so when I get the opportunity to go out I really love to have some fun. I’m also glad you asked this question because I have so many girls in my inbox who just write to me like I’m this big person and I just think to myself, if only they knew, I’m just normal. I love the energy they bring and the lovely things they say about me which gives me a lot of motivation to just keep going.

How do you manage your time?

First of all, I have a full-time job and I just switched to the overnight shift. Switching to overnight has been so much better for me because I have so much more time on my hands because when I was doing the day shift I was really stressed out. I felt like I couldn’t get anything done and I couldn’t take any clients because I was never available. Now that I am overnight, I go in at 11pm and get off of work at 9am so I have so much more time on my hands to create looks and  to take appointments. Changing my schedule has helped me to grow my appointments. I also have time to myself from Thursday to Sunday unless I take appointments.

What do you think was the catalyst to your immense growth? Or what made everything click?

Last year was the time when everything really started to grow. I started to not only be consistent but hashtags has helped me a lot in the business. I reached a larger audience and tagging brands and makeup pages has helped me as well because they repost my images which opens it to a larger audience. The past year is also the year that I really got good with makeup. I wasn’t doing shadows like the ones I am doing now. I used to study Youtube and I’d be on there everyday and hour just studying looks. I would look at little details like how they would move their head and just every technique they would use I would practice. Watching the videos really helped me grow. A lot of people pay to go learn makeup but you’re not going to learn as much as you can learn for free. Take your behind to Youtube because it is free and you can just practice. This is my biggest piece of advice because everyone always asks me what I recommend and it’s simply just to practice and you have to have patience as well. I would mostly practice on myself and then I also had a neighbor downstairs who I would practice on as well if she wanted to have her makeup done. I would also practice on my cousin. People don’t understand that if you don’t have patience then this isn’t the right industry for you to pursue. There is an artistry to makeup and you have to perfect your craft. I used to actually draw and now I’ve turned that skill into my face. The crazy thing is I don’t even really know how to draw anymore. I haven’t practiced drawing in so long now I feel like I don’t even have it anymore.

What did you learn over time that are huge no’s?

I honestly don’t know because  I don’t have any regrets. I feel like everything is a learning experience.

It’s just a whole learning process. There is nothing that is perfect and nothing happens overnight.

What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who may be interested in going in going into makeup?

I would say again to just practice and have patience. It is the only thing that I feel that you need to succeed. Once you have practice and patience down then you are good to grow in your craft.

How long did it take you to build up to where you are now and price your services effectively?

It took me a year to get to where I am now and just last year I started with 2,000 on Instagram and I gained 6,000 followers in a year which I feel is good a good start and everyone builds at their own pace.

I also have somebody on Instagram that I really go to as a little makeup mentor and she helps me out with a lot of questions. Her name is Keke Adams and she is a makeup artist located in Newark so I go to her about everything and she will tell me to price things higher or even fix certain things that she notices. For example, I had no idea about setting up wedding contracts. I had a client that wanted to book me for a wedding and she brought up a wedding contract and I’ve never used them before that time. I went to Keke and she explained to me that it would help me and the client. She already had her wedding contract made so she helped me put my wedding contract together.

I used to charge $40 for faces but as I got better I wanted to up my prices because I felt I was worth the money. My prices grew with how much I grew in my skills. I also have to buy double of any product that I want because I have to buy one for myself and then also some for my clients so that’s a lot of money and I was only charging $40 for a face.

How long did it take you to build your kit to service your customers?

What I would do is every other month I would go and buy a lot of foundations like 8 different shades and I would mix it to match the client’s skin tone. The next month I’d buy a bunch of different concealers and that helps me to build my kit as I refill different products every other month.  Makeup is expensive but it does take a bit of time to go through the product so I make the money back easily. There are some things I have to get more frequently like beauty blenders, brushes and makeup wipes

Do you have any favorite makeup brands or hair products?

I love Maybelline foundations for clients and I also like Makeup Revolution. There are a lot of drugstore products I use on myself and clients like L.A. Girl Pro concealer, Absolute New York and I also have a lot of MAC. I love NYX lipgloss and I also have a lot of the Crayon Case. My go-to foundation right now is Makeup Revolution and every time I get a new foundation I always end up going back. I also love Juvia’s Place and I have a lot of Anastasia lipglosses. AC cosmetics is also good because their translucent powders are great for melanin girls.

On wigs I recommend Mane and Tail and Aussie for curly textures. On natural hair, I use As I am and Cantu. A huge tip too is using hair masks. I will mix egg, avocado and honey for protein and I’ll add castor oil for my hair masks.

Comment down below if you relate with DaiJah’s journey!

Boss Watch will feature creatives, entrepreneurs, influencers, digital professionals and anyone who is moving their passions from an idea into a reality. Boss Watch is for anyone who aspires to live a fulfilled life and just needs a little bit of inspiration to know that they are not alone on their journey towards self-realization. Boss Watch is for anyone who has made it through the growing pains of realizing their dreams and is now looking to share wisdom or just find new people to increase their network.  Is this you? If so, then feel free to leave a comment or email cnkstylebook@gmail.com for a chance to be featured on the next Boss Watch.

Fashion week this year has been a blast and the best part was doing it with my friend Sharra at Sharra Greene Styling

Day 1:

The first event I went to was thrown by my Style Collective sisters. The event was held at Anne Taylor and it was a fun filled event where we were able to mingle, meet fellow bloggers going to the shows, and capture great looks.

I was able to meet some fabulous girls and you can see a few of my favorite looks on my NYFW Highlight on Instagram.

Day 2:

To prepare for fashion week I created a schedule and kept track of my appointments, times and locations of everywhere I needed to be through my Google Calendar app. The first order of the day was my hair appointment at 9am.

Next, I carefully dressed and applied my makeup, hopped on a train, and then met my photographer before the show at 2pm where we shot at my new favorite place called The Park.

Finally, it was show time at 4pm. I was able to attend the Oxford Fashion Studio Group Show and it was great to see several amazing shows. My favorite designers were Ron Ramos New York and Pheren Couture.

Day 3:

The last day was a lot less hectic because the show didn’t even start until 6pm. I had the whole day to rest, put on a mask, and primp for the last show. Around 12pm, I started getting ready to meet my photographer Monica at 4pm before the show at 6pm.

At 6pm, I attended the Landeros NY Nocturne Fashion Show. The show was really amazing and featured edgy suits including a galore of patterns and textures that played with plaid, vinyl trench coats, and artfully disheveled blouses reminiscent of the 80s/90s. It was truly a well done show and the models gave off a fierce face to match the aesthetic. Highlights from this show can also be found on my Instagram.

Outfit Details:

Two Piece Set: Nasty Gal

White Boots: Nasty Gal

Black Blazer: Thrifted DKNY

Shot by: Monica Krystel Rose