- 15 hours ago
AJ Crimson and Nyma Tang
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00so first of all we want to start one by one just tell everybody how you got
00:05your start in the beauty industry so I started making wearing makeup when I was
00:0921 and I noticed quickly that there was a lot of products that did not exist for
00:15deeper skin tones so that was something that really started irritating me so I'm
00:19like trying to find foundations concealers bronzers all that stuff and
00:23then I went on to YouTube like everybody does trying to find makeup tutorials
00:29yes all day yeah exactly and I was like wait there's really not many people
00:34that look like me on here and that was one of the main things that really
00:38frustrated me so I was just like you know what I'm gonna give it a try I'm gonna
00:41see what I can do maybe I can be the makeup tutorial that other people are
00:45looking for so that's pretty much how I started and AJ what about you I started
00:50in artist development actually so I used to work with Michael Bivens from New
00:53Edition and we would develop a lot of his artists and I was actually working on a
00:58project a young girl she was like 16 and we were trying to figure out her look
01:01and the makeup artist that was hired for the job I just told her I was like you
01:05know these are not the looks that we're looking for if I had your stuff I would
01:08do this myself because I could see what it was that I wanted but I just couldn't
01:12really figure out how to execute it and I think that was just really inspired me to
01:16to really go figure it out and go find out so I did why do you think it's so
01:22important to have a voice in this beauty space I think it's really important to
01:27have a voice in this space especially now I mean I've I've been about maybe 15
01:31years in the beauty business at this point so I feel like I've seen it
01:35transpire in such a different way from there not being colors for black girls or
01:40not seeing black women on the faces of of beauty campaigns in the way that you do
01:46now to watching social media come in and watching black women really stand up and
01:51saying hey like you know what we want to we want a voice we want to be seen we want to
01:55see ourselves in that and it's been exciting it's been an exciting journey to
01:59see how how you guys have pressured the beauty industry to to listen because for
02:07years like we've been saying hey we don't have colors we don't have we why do I
02:12have to mix this up in order to get to this place that I'm trying to get to to
02:15see myself you know but because of your voice and because of social media the
02:20power behind it you've got a lot of people shook a lot of people have just
02:24like they had no choice you know so what about you Neema why do you think it's
02:28just so important for you to have a voice in this beauty industry I think it's
02:33important because like you said we didn't really have products for a very
02:37long time for me mainly is to inspire young girls that look like me for them to
02:43feel like they are beautiful and that they're not unwanted or unwelcomed in the
02:48beauty industry and that's why I think it's so important for us that have the
02:53confidence and the courage to step out to put ourselves out there and represent
02:58for everyone since you've started your YouTube channel what is the feedback been
03:03like it's honestly been insane I never really expected that I've always been
03:08like a very shy person so I've kind of just been like okay you know and it's
03:12been this experience has forced me out of my comfort zone it's forced me to look in
03:17my inwards towards myself and find what my true purpose is and I feel like I've
03:21truly found it the response from all the amazing people that reach out to me and
03:28be like you've made me feel like this about myself you made me realize that I
03:32don't need validation from like the white beauty standards and stuff like that
03:36it's been the best thing AJ there's been like a influx of beauty products for
03:42women of color do you think that it's a great start or do you think that we still have
03:47more work to do so I started my brand AJ Crimson Beauty in 2013 and the color
03:53that I started with was the color of a girl who's South Sudanese and for me
03:58that was important to start that brand to start my brand there and work my way
04:02backwards because most other brands they start from the lightest colors and they
04:06barely make it they barely make it to a color that could work for you or even one
04:11that could work as a contour color for you so for so for me it was important to
04:14kind of do that and I think that where we are in beauty today so many more
04:19brands have entered the market and I think it is a good thing I think that I
04:23think that you deserve variety I think that that's the thing that we've been
04:27missing the whole time and so it's not that there can only be one you know line
04:33for women of color or one that caters to this you absolutely need the variety
04:37because there is there's so many there's so many different wants and needs so I
04:42like that there's this this new beauty challenge to just kind of really service
04:47everyone do I think that every line needs to have 45 shades of foundation
04:51absolutely not but I do think that I do think that every girl should be able to go
04:56to the line of her choice and be able to find something there that works for her so
05:01what advice would you give to someone who feels like there's I mean the makeup line
05:05is just still not connecting with their skin shade they still can't connect with
05:10you know what's going on in the beauty space um so we see this on social media
05:15all the time where women were you know the girls like maybe I won't say a brand
05:19but let's say a brand comes out with like 50 shades of beige you know and you know
05:24and you just see everybody like tagging this brand and going off on them why
05:28waste your time with that because there's other brands that are out here that are
05:31actually catering to you and speaking to you and that spoke to you first so I
05:35my my advice is to to really pay to to go in and work with those brands and and
05:40really try to find your home in there because you know again like every every
05:44pair of pants is not going to fit the same so makeup is not going to be a one
05:47size fits all either and and every brand shouldn't necessarily be held to to
05:53making sure that every every person on the planet has a shape that matches them I
05:57just I just think it's unrealistic is it a sigh of relief when someone sees you on set
06:03and they say wow I have someone who can relate to me you know when you're on these
06:07movie sets and stuff like that are they you know relieved to see that wow I have
06:12somebody a person of color who can connect with my shade yeah absolutely I think that
06:17when you are I mean when in the business in general I think that people of color are
06:21just usually the minority in a lot of different spaces especially when you're
06:25working in television and film there's not a lot of us in union positions on a lot of
06:30those projects so if I'm not there I know a lot of my girls are definitely
06:34relieved to see that my products are there because at least they know that
06:38that okay cool like you you will know what you're doing like at least the girl
06:41she may not look like me but she's using some products that I can identify with
06:45and I can relate to on a recent trip to South Africa I the thing that I love so
06:51much about it was that I could go to every I could go to every magazine that we see
06:56here as mainstream magazines and I saw black women on the cover and black men
07:00on the cover of these magazines that look like us on the covers of Vogue and GQ and
07:05Elle so it's not something that's far out of reach I mean we create so many
07:09trends and we do so much so it shouldn't be foreign for us to see ourselves in
07:15positions that include us I agree Mima what are your thoughts on do you still feel
07:20like we have more work to do when it comes to representing every skin tone I think
07:25I've never been one to like kind of take away from the progress that we've made
07:28in the beauty industry there has been progress made with like foundations and
07:33stuff like that but I feel like people don't look past the actual foundations
07:37they look they think that okay if I have 45 shades of foundation I'm gonna be fine
07:42but some companies forget that bronzers and contours and like blush and
07:47highlights stuff like that is still a complexion product it's still a skin tone
07:52product and I think with that we're still lacking in that specific field I
07:57recently did a video where I tested all the bronzers from Sephora and none of them
08:04worked so that just goes to say how much more work there is to be done but that
08:08doesn't mean that there has not been a tremendous amount of progress made so so
08:12what's next for you guys how will you continue to push inclusion well I think for
08:17myself I mean I just I want to continue to tell the stories that I have been I
08:22mean I've all I've always had a black woman first story when it came to my
08:26brand I thought that was just always important for me the women that I work
08:30with in my life I mean the women that raised me are all black women and women
08:33of color so it's just important that we continue to tell that story and then
08:37tell it in a bigger way you know also one thing that I'm doing with AJ crimson
08:41beauty is it's not doing it in such a commercial way because a lot of times things
08:46that are sold to black people and black women is always commercialized and
08:50sensationalized in such a way I like fashion I like thing I feel like we we
08:55do set those trends so I want to make sure that that my visuals and that the
08:59things that the things that we put forth are are working for you in a
09:04fashionable way yes it is not it's not necessarily a drugstore item it's not
09:08necessarily that but why do you why do you always have to buy your products from a
09:12drugstore you know and that was something that that's why what what sparked AJ
09:16crimson also it was like hey like you know what I spent a lot of great money on
09:19a lot of expensive things and I'm buying it from people that don't look like me so
09:24why can't I create something that is of quality that has a higher price point and
09:33people love it just like they love Gucci or Fendi or anything else so that is what I
09:37see for myself and the brand to continue on that path because because we spend we
09:42spend that money anyway and why not spend it with each other so amen to that
09:46Nima what about you for me I think what I hope to see is like I said there's still
09:52so many products missing in the beauty industry I would love to see more
09:55products being created such as like bronzers contours just filling all those
09:58gaps that we have right now in the beauty industry and then also there's still so
10:04much work to be done as far as having more representation especially like on
10:10YouTube and like those kind of platforms I would love to be able to bring more
10:14people of color more women more black women of course and like have us have our
10:20voice be even bigger than it is now we're already making waves but imagine how
10:24big our voice would be with more of us on this platform so any tips to someone who
10:28may be trying to break into the beauty industry I would say your struggles are
10:35what's gonna make you different and I know it sounds so crazy because everyone says like
10:42oh find yourself and then you'll find where you fit in but that is so true because I never would
10:48have thought as someone that was dodging hallways in high school being so afraid to see people have
10:54people see me like I didn't want people to see me I was hiding to think now I'm like
10:59putting myself out there that was my struggle and now I'm putting myself out
11:03there and I've created a place for myself based off of my skin tone so
11:09AJ what about you I would say find the hidden gems in the beauty industry because
11:14everybody they see this part but they don't see the part that it takes or the time that it takes to
11:19actually develop the product to actually to market the product like I mean so many I mean
11:25this is a focus group right here and imagine if most cosmetic companies had a focus group of of this
11:32that looked like this then those product launches would look totally different when they come out you
11:38wouldn't see 50 shades of of beige you would see a lot more diversity so I think it's just it's digging a
11:43little deeper um and and trying to find uh trying to find like just other avenues it's not always
11:49about you know what you can do on the surface but you can make a lot of impact on the back end of
11:54things and everybody's not everybody's not made or cut out to be in the forefront you know but
11:58there's a lot of there's a lot of uh opportunity behind the scenes uh in the beauty business across
12:04the board well I think we have a few minutes to open up to the floor if anybody has any questions
12:10anybody has any questions you can head over to that mic right there in the middle
12:16come on don't be shy don't be shy come on now is the time get your education right here anybody have
12:22any questions nothing all right well clap it up oh oh we got one we got one head over to the mic in the
12:31middle hi hey okay um i'm tori but we just wanted to know what your youtube channel was and we wanted
12:46to know what your makeup brand we didn't hear when they first came out but we want to like get to know
12:50it okay nice my name is neema tang and that's pretty much my youtube channel as well okay yeah yeah and
12:56my name is aj crimson and the beauty line is aj crimson beauty okay thank you you're welcome anybody else
13:09hi um i was wondering if you could give any pointers and tips on promoting your brand via social media
13:17i know it's a hard question so maybe like a top three tips or something like that i would say like
13:23what platform are you trying to grow on specifically instagram instagram okay instagram is a little bit
13:28more difficult um i would say right now you just have to follow the algorithm what i've noticed right
13:35now is doing really well is like videos and like igtv so um they're really really trying to promote that so
13:42like ig videos and stuff like that like a nice pictures are still good and i think people get really
13:48hung up on quality they're like okay you have to have the top of the line quality that's not true
13:53at all as long as you have content that's engaging and you're following what i like those platforms are
13:59promoting then you'll do fine like igtv is a really good thing to pick up on in ig videos okay thank you
14:05you're welcome anybody else
14:08so we have one in the back no no questions all right all right well i mean well thank you so much
14:17aj crimson neema tang y'all clap it up for them thank you and come check me out at the shop essence uh
14:23booth i have aj crimson beauty their products i'm also doing some many makeovers for you guys
14:28so if you want to try anything out or or come get a makeover you can come check me out thank you so much
14:33you guys
Comments