Many people don’t realize this but Reynell Steward, aka Supa Cent, tried her hand at many businesses before finding million-dollar success with her cosmetics brand The Crayon Case. Her initial rise to notoriety came from her authentically funny but highly viral videos that she would post on social media. But it wasn’t long before the New Orleans native felt the call to launch a beauty business that has grossed over a million in sales since its inception. In this interview with BAUCE, Supa Cent shares how her commitment to not giving up on herself ultimately led to entrepreneurial success.
Let’s talk about your journey into the beauty industry. When you were first starting out people really fell in love with your dynamic personality on social media. Did you ever imagine that you would be starting a makeup line?
Supa Cent: Beauty never crossed my radar in the early years as a young girl. When I was young I was more into music. I was an artist first. I was in a rap group when I was young. I was very much a big old tomboy so I wasn’t thinking about makeup, about beauty. I was wearing makeup. I was wearing lipstick, I was wearing eyelashes — I was doing all of those things, but wasn’t making it feel like it was a big part of me. I didn’t really start getting into it until like 2008 when the storm happened. Once I started getting social media, once MySpace happened, we started taking pictures more. Once social media started being the thing where you started communicating to the world, that’s when I started kind of paying more attention to how I looked.
So, as your online presence started to increase you started focusing on your appearance and your beauty overall. At what point did you realize you know what, I want to start my own makeup line?
Supa Cent: I don’t think that really kind of jumped into my lap until 2016. I kind of hinted at it [before then] but I didn’t really think it was possible until February 2017 when I was doing my makeup online. Every time I was getting booked, every time I was going to these different cities, I had to find a different MUA in every different city. And it was hard trying to find a different MUA. I had to put on Instagram every week, “Hey, any MUAs in Dallas? Any MUAs in Cali?” and it was always a different price. It started getting time-consuming. It started getting crazy. So I was like well, I’m gonna just teach myself how to do my own makeup.
Around this time, there was no Instagram live. There was no Facebook live. There was only Periscope at the time. So I was on Periscope learning how to do my makeup! And my following used to watch me learn how to do my makeup. And at the time I didn’t know what I was doing. So I was laughing, they were laughing and [my followers] used to teach me some things. I was learning on YouTube. And at one point it was just all funny. I was messing up. It was hilarious.
And then after a while months were passing on, I was actually learning how to do [makeup]. My brows were looking better. My lipstick was better. Everything was actually coming together and then people would start asking me well what products would I use? What’s this, what’s that? I’m like, you know, y’all start asking what I’m using and I’m gonna start selling some stuff. So that’s when I started exploring the idea to sell my own products.
Where did you look first to get this idea off the ground? What was the first thing you invested in to start your own makeup brand?
Supa Cent: So the first thing I did was research suppliers. I really did not know where to look for suppliers at first. I remember a lot of people were talking about Aliexpress so I thought let me look into Aliexpress but I realized quickly that Aliexpress was not the place to look. I got scammed on Aliexpress so then I just kept researching and researching. Then I found another website that led me towards doing private labels in the beginning. And then I soon realized private label wasn’t good for me either.
Then I looked into outsourcing and soon realized the folks that were doing private label could also assist with custom makeup brands too. So, I kinda like learned everything through trial and error. Everything from suppliers, formulas, seeing which products would work for my skin tone or what would irritate my skin came through trial and error. Like there was no one I could have asked, no one I could have talked through because I had no one in my camp that knew anything about beauty. Now I have a lot of friends who can teach me about hyperpigmentation or formulas but back then I had learned through trial and error. So, yeah I took many losses and I had some wins but I just had to kind of just deal with it, you know? It was a long ride, but it definitely was worth it.
You talk about taking losses but ultimately these are moments that set us up for success in the long run. What are some of the lessons in business that you’ve learned over the years?
Supa Cent: I used to think that selling out of products on Black Friday was a great accomplishment. But I realized quickly it’s not a great accomplishment [laughs]. Like when you are doing a big sale on Black Friday and you run out of products, that is the worst thing that could happen during black Friday. Because if you start your sale at 12 am and you sell out by 4 am there are people who still haven’t woken up that won’t get a chance to buy your products at 8 am. Now you are missing out on millions of dollars because you didn’t get your inventory right. I learned quickly that you have to get your quotas right and you’re supposed to have so much inventory in your warehouse so you don’t sell out and you can capitalize on different time zones.
Also, I feel like a lesson I learned was trying to jump into retail to keep up with big brands. Even though I had built a multimillion-dollar brand if you’re still under five years you are still considered a small brand and you’re too early to find success in the stores. That’s something I wish I had done was waited three more years and focused on growing my brand more online.
So, what do you think truly helped you make your first million dollars in your business?
Supa Cent: I think mine was truly from pouring back. I believe my marketing strategy was literally from me pouring back into the underdog MUAs. So basically I worked with MUAs who may have had less followers than me but they had great content and they were active on social. They had great makeup content. So I sent them makeup and I gave them exposure. I never put them in any type of contracts. My deal with them was I’m gonna send y’all makeup. I’m gonna give you exposure. And I just want y’all to give me content. And I wanted to give them exposure so they could also be seen by other makeup brands too so they could grow too. I wanted them to be bigger than The Crayon Case. I wanted us to all win.
So the more content these MUAs shared the more my page would grow, the more their pages would grow and we were all growing together. That’s how I got the product shots, that’s how I got the reviews. By pouring into others and lifting them up as I grew is how I made my first million.
Wow! I love this! By pouring into your community, they poured into you. Your motto is “There is no elevator to the top, you have to take the stairs.” What is your biggest advice for women today that are looking to become an entrepreneur or run a successful business?
Supa Cent: So I feel like when people see The Crayon Case, they feel like this was my first brand. This was not my first brand. I had many businesses before the Crayon Case. This was my fourth business. So don’t look at Crayon Case as my first stop this was the last stop. I tried and I tried and I tried and then something happened. Don’t stop trying. Just because something didn’t work for you does not mean you have to stop trying.
I was cooking, I was doing suppers. I was sewing clothes. I was selling CDs. People who have been following me for a long time have seen my journey. I was selling t-shirts. I was selling Fanny packs. I was selling headphones. I was selling all types of things. So just because you’re trying and something didn’t work for you does not mean to stop. You can still start doing something else. If you’re a true entrepreneur, entrepreneurship is always gonna be in you so don’t give up, don’t stop, just keep doing it.
