00:00Essence and Ulta Beauty have teamed up for an amazing mentor partnership called
00:05Girls United Beautiful Possibilities. Six incredible teenagers were chosen for
00:10this program. They get to create a capsule collection that's actually going
00:13to be sold in Ulta Beauty stores. You know, I go to Ulta Beauty all the time and
00:17you see all these beautiful products, but you never really know behind the
00:21scenes and what it took to make this. So I'm really excited to learn all about it.
00:24As a part of the program, the ladies are getting a first-hand interaction with
00:29some of the key people that actually do the product development and packaging
00:33development every day. I really want the girls to create a collection that like
00:37just screams off the shelf. I want people to see it and just automatically want to
00:42grab it. I want them to just kind of like throw caution to the wind and just create
00:46and have fun. Yes, I have a special guest. As you can see, this is Lacey. She is a
00:55creative director and basically just like a multidisciplinary artist who just does
01:01amazing things that will blow your mind, which I think will really help you with
01:06your collection. But I'll let her tell you a little bit more about what she does
01:09because it's very cool. Awesome. So my name is Lacey. I wear a lot of hats. I do a lot
01:14of things from designing product to packaging to albums, anything you can think of. I can
01:20basically design it. Pins. Pins. You name it. I got it. So that's why I'm here to help you
01:28guys visually find out what we want this to look like. So we're going to come up
01:33with something that's strong and when people walk through Ulta's doors, they
01:37will not look at anything else. Period. I am going to leave you here with Lacey because
01:44she has a really special surprise for you. But I will check back later. Okay. All right.
01:50Have fun. Okay, ladies. I want to get to know everyone a little better. I want to figure
01:55out how we're going to make this collection great. I want to make sure I'm catching all
01:59the vibes from you ladies. So I want to take a special little trip. Let's go. Okay, let's
02:04go. Ladies. I have a little surprise for you. Okay. Come on in. So I need everyone to get
02:11together. I need poses. I need angles. I need personality. I need age. I need serve. I need
02:17everything. We're about to get it started. Okay? Okay. Yes. What self-confidence means to me is
02:25knowing, like, you're that girl. You can walk into any room and just shine and you
02:31don't have to look a certain way, but you can just be yourself in any room, in any
02:34situation, in anywhere. So essentially, I will be using these photos in reference to
02:50creating the artwork for the packaging. I will be taking in these vibes. I'll take
02:54in the essence of who you are as women. And I'll be using that to sort of like
02:58create the foundation and the ideation of the packaging. So literally straight
03:04from you guys, like that is it. I really took a deep dive into who you are as
03:09women, your different videos. And I came up with, with words that I just saw over
03:13and over or things that you said. So something that's very powerful, something
03:17that represents you. So you can see the different words unapologetic. I was like,
03:21yes, that is exactly it. So from there, I took all of your mood boards and then I
03:27created a giant mood board based off the images that you came up with, which guess
03:32what? Super cohesive, didn't have to do much. You already had the vision. And then
03:36from there, drew out a color palette of like where I could see this going, whether
03:40it's, you know, pinks and oranges. And so the next step is going to be to execute it
03:44and figure out like what the design is. So you guys want to walk in the door and
03:49feel like this is something that was made for you, by you.
03:54Right. Girl, you just inspire me. Yes. That's why I'm here.
03:57Hey, hey, hey. What's up? How are you guys doing? Good.
04:03Okay. So I have two special ladies with me. They are from the Ulta Beauty team. I'm going
04:08to let them introduce themselves so that they can tell you how your ideas will then
04:13integrate into what they do. So hi, I'm Stacy and I work on our integrated marketing
04:17team. Super excited to see what you guys have come up with as far as like packaging,
04:21colors and figure out how we can make this product go from conception to launch in all
04:26of our stores. Launch, launch, launch. I know, right? It'll happen. I'm Leslie Smith. I'm the
04:31senior brand manager for our product development team. So I'm going to be working behind the
04:36scenes with you all to pull all those beautiful colors together to the final product.
04:40Okay. So break it down, ladies. Like what did you guys talk about? Tell us everything. I'm
04:46dying to hear. Our packaging is going to be it. That's all I can say. I'm not going to give
04:52any spoilers because no. We drew inspiration from the scarves that she showed us and the patches
04:57and the pins to make this bold and edgy and vibrant collection that we pulled together in the colors
05:03that we also chose. We wanted to make sure it like stands out. From a marketing perspective, that's great to
05:08hear that your packaging is going to be kind of this bold look and disruptive because that's what you
05:12need in order to get attention from everyone who's coming in. I really like that word. Disruptive.
05:16I love that. For the palette, what are the colors that you guys can share with us?
05:21We really wanted to hone in on like bolder colors. Oh, we haven't seen this color before. Oh,
05:25we haven't seen a matte or shimmer color. We all kind of lean toward having a product that's universal,
05:30like that can be used for when you want a colorful look, when you want a neutral look and when you want some glitter to pop.
05:35All-purpose palette. Love it. We did a lot of like mixing colors, like as we were swashing them to see like,
05:42oh, maybe this would look better as like a shimmer or like the rose gold with like a yellowish gold and it somehow made like a beautiful combination.
05:49Yeah. That sounds amazing. Yeah, it's really pretty. That sounds so good. Yes.
05:52Three words I would use to describe our collection would be edgy, bold and diverse. So if I wanted to wear bold green, that's just how I'm feeling that day. I'm feeling bold.
06:00I'm super excited with the colors that you guys are talking to because I think they're so universal and they're different.
06:05That's something that we're not seeing out here in the industry. So I think this is going to be a really good step for you guys for the collection.
06:10Absolutely. Yes. And what's the silver like? Is it like? The gag is, the silver is sh-popping.
06:15Yes. Sh-popping. Sh-popping. Sh-popping. Sh-popping. She said sh-popping. That's a new word.
06:24It's amazing. Keep that in mind when you're naming. Sh-popping. Oh my gosh. That could be a good one.
06:30I can't wait for people to be saying that. I'm sh-popping with my Ulta Beauty palette from Girls United.
06:39Tune into the next episode because the girls are going to be flying out to New York City to meet with Essence's own Candice Montgomery, who is the executive director of Live Events and Experiential.
06:49They'll be helping her with a very special event and just running around Black Girl Magic headquarters.
06:54We also have a really special guest. It's going to be amazing.
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