Welcome, amina!

Hi Amina. Thank you for the compliment and the friend request!

Thanks so much!

You are very welcome, young lady.

Please get permission from your folks before you start working at a job. Since you are a minor, we have to tell you that, ya know. And I wouldn't discourage disobedience of parents (being a parent myself, right?)

To be sure, I probably disobeyed mine a time or two as a kid and I know I got in big trouble for that. I can remember one example where I stayed afterschool w/o permission to watch some friends audition for a talent show back in jr. high, I would have been about a year younger than you. My mother would not pick us up from the school and not only punished me, but my friends as well by making us walk the 10+ miles home in freezing cold weather.... we probably deserved it too. When what you did gets your friends in trouble too, you remember that for a lifetime. Luckily they were wonderful friends and forgave me for that cold walk home and then getting grounded by their parents afterward.

I hope that your folks will be supportive of your dream by letting you find some kind of age appropriate work to fund your product research and development phase and of course encouraging you to finish your schooling and assist you in getting scholarships or finanical aid for college or vocational training after high school.

I was thinking last night that maybe some college courses in cosmetology (the art of makeup and/or hair) and small business account and marketing might be be a good goal for you to work toward once you graduate high school. That way you learn more about the fundamentals of both business and cosmetics. Also there is a lot of research you can do online and in your local or school libraries that will help you in your business.

Hope you had a good day at school and are doing your homework like a good girl!

Gotta run now because my lip balm stuff arrived a couple hours ago in the mail and I need to get to work to have more product for a holiday craft fair this weekend. Made some shaving butter this moring and cut up a batch of soap and put that in the drying cabinet.

Rebecca

Amina,
If you are one of 9 children in your family, you'd be a fabulous babysitter! I wish you lived closer to me, my dear. I would love to find such a child-care experienced young lady close to where I live to watch my 2 sons. I'd hire you myself to babysit if you lived near me. But Maryland is a very long way from me.

It would be nice to find someboy like you, here in South Dakota. I have trouble finding a babysitter because my oldest boy, Charlie, has a learning disability called Austim. He is quite high-functioning and easy to deal with for someone to watch him, if there is a dvd/cartoon to pop in and you can tolerate his repetitious speech patterns. But people generally hear "the label" and say things like "Uh-uh... NOT ME!", because of some movie or news article on tv. Because of a lack of child care available, my husband and I have not had a "date night" (i.e. dinner and a movie or such) in well over 4 years. It's been hard on my marriage, not being able to find time to even realy talk much as adults or going out w/o kids to do something fun like we did when we were dating, engaged and then newly married (up until Charlie was born 13 months after we married).

I hope I can be of help to you by mentoring you in some way. If nothing else it is fun to "talk shop" with others who have similar interests.

I mostly make goat milk soaps and bath products. (soaps, shampoos, lotions, scrubs... that kind of thing.)

I have wanted to get into making mineral make up, but so far have only gotten as far into that as dabbling in lip balms and a few makeup samples for myself. The eyeshadows/liners are coming along (applied w/ a wet brush... just a wee bit of tweaking on those and they'll be great) but I am having trouble with foundations and blushes particularly in getting them to adhere to skin. I've been playing with the idea of makeup primarly because I am allergic to many ingredients in "traditional makeup" sold in stores and I am also a very fair skinned red-head w/ lots of freckles (thanks to Irish, Welsh and Russian ancestors), so I have lots of trouble finding suitable shades.

I am thinking of doing a few sample sets of makeup for my mom, grandmother (a former AVON lady) and sisters-in-law to see what their response is to them.

Some of the soap supply websites do have some free make up recipes. You might get yourself an inexpensive notebook & pen/pencil like you'd use for school and start writting down free recipes and such, tweak them if need be for your skin tones and those of relatives or friends. Then you can go through them all later when you do start making some income and can decide what you need to buy first, second, etc. to start making up some samples. Always try stuff on yourself or a family member first (you are your own best guinea pig and sisters (or sisters-in-law), moms, grandmothers or aunts will usually volunteer to be your first product samplers. ) In a year or two perhaps you will be to the point that your school friends will be willing to let you give them makeovers and maybe be your first customers if your family members aren't already.

Think of it this way... Almost all of us here began as a young (or not so young) woman.... ok maybe we should include men here too... with a dream of creativity and independence, but little else. You have to realize that even one of the biggest guru's of indie beauty products, MaryKay, began with an idea and a dream. It will take tons of hard work to start your own business, but over time your dream is possible. Much will depend on how hard you work at it (including the work you do to fund your venture, never discountthe hard work and experience that gets you going), educating yourself for both your life and your business and how your creative ideas are transferred into the realm of the marketplace. If your ideas don't work out like you'd planned, how can you adapt and better them? Being adaptable and flexible are an asset.

I hope and pray that your ideas will take flight and help you soar into a bright future. Keep in touch with me. I am looking forward to helping where I can and watching your young dream unfold.

Rebecca