Get Like Me: Vivrant Beauty Owner Desiree Verdejo

Vivrant Press Shot Store with Text

When successful lawyer Desiree Verdejo set out to choose a second career she’d enjoying discussing at the dinner table she found herself closer than ever to square one. Inspired by the entrepreneurial spirits of women like Lisa Price and Marla Beck, the Harlem native and self proclaimed product junkie pursued her passion by opening Harlem’s go-to destination for ingredient-conscious, women-owned and local beauty brands, Vivrant Beauty. We chatted with this hometown girl about hard work, preparation, and how it all keeps coming back to Harlem.

Name: Desiree Verdejo

Location: Harlem, NY

Personal Style in three words: New York, Comfortable, Playful

Favorite Designer(s): I’m not a huge designer person I tend to stay in the Zara category.

Must Have Accessories:  A great pair of earrings and I am definitely a shoe person. I like Schutz. They’re affordable and always different.

What was your first step in transforming beauty from your passion into your profession?

My first step was writing the business plan. I felt like that’s when I took all my information and all of my interests, all of the research and things I learned from playing on social media and put it together into something that felt like work.

How did you know law wasn’t right for you?

I never got excited about it. I was getting really good at it. It was a nice stable career but if I was at a dinner table with other people it wasn’t the thing I wanted to discuss.

How did your background in financial law contribute to your new career?

One thing that translates is stamina. I definitely learned how to log long hours as a corporate attorney. I feel like I’m able to hang during this process because of it. It’s not the case that it’s this light workload. I’m definitely working long hours, building a website, and communicating with other people.

Learn more about Desiree Verdejo and Vivrant Beauty below.

Related: Bed of Nails Owner Candice Idehen 

Vivrant Desiree Yellow Pic

What was your biggest resource on your journey to entrepreneurship?

If I had to say one, I would say people. I have tons of friends that are lawyers that are brilliant and have been helpful with getting a loan and figuring out how to finance a business. I’ve reached out to other beauty entrepreneurs who have given me information about having a brick-and-mortar store. People have been very helpful and have made themselves very available.

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned on this journey?

I think the most important lesson that I’ve learned is really to do what you love and to learn what you love. As a ‘Type A’ person I’m going to be working hard at whatever I’m doing but I would rather be waking up at 6 am to make Vivrant great. I wake up excited nothing compares to that.

You’re a Harlem native. Did you consider any other locations for your business ?

You know I kept coming back to Harlem. I’m finding that that’s sort of the story of my life. I’ve lived other places outside of New York and Harlem just always feels like home. I feel like I’ve really been embraced here.

Growing up what was your experience shopping for beauty products like?

It was like hurry up and buy! There certainly wasn’t any opportunity to say “how do you use this?”  You had no expectations of any sort of service. My goal is definitely to make a woman feel catered to. We want women of all skin tones and hair textures to feel catered to, to feel like they can take their time and shop. They can ask questions. Vivrant has to be a place where people feel like they can get information. What we’re offering is offered online, the major difference is the people.

There have been lots of changes in Harlem how do you think they’ll impact the business community?

As a business owner one thing that I’ve been excited about is despite the changing face of Harlem there are a lot of black owned businesses. Growing up in Harlem there was very much this sort of “support Harlem” atmosphere and I think people that moved here recently have adopted that as well. And so you do see people going to the small coffee shop as opposed to the Starbucks across the street for example. I’m excited that atmosphere hasn’t changed.

Desiree Press Pic Round 1

Who are your professional role models?

Beauty entrepreneurs like Marla Beck of Blue Mercury, who turned a single Georgetown boutique into a retail outlet that can be found across the country serve as a constant source of inspiration. I also look to women like Jodie Patterson and Lisa Price, who have raised the industry standard of how to market and create products for women of color. And I recall how proud I was when President Obama appointed Sonia Sotomayor, as a fellow Uptown girl and a young attorney, I felt great seeing someone that looked like me in one of the most important roles in our government.

What’s been the biggest setback or obstacle on your career path?

I think my own fear and not an unreal fear the fear it was based in real things-leaving behind a potentially lucrative stable career, taking a financial risk. I had a strong fear of entering a space I wasn’t an expert in, especially after practicing law for seven years and becoming very, very competent. When you’re buying makeup you want the woman selling your makeup to be an expert. You want the person selling your face mask to understand how the product works. I think the fear pushed back the launch at least two years.

What three pieces of advice would you give to aspiring beauty boutique owners?

  1. Do your research. I took a lot of time preparing for opening Vivrant and fortunately I did.  Once you get started, once you sign a lease you need to know everything from the optimum way to lay a store out, to what’s going to be on the shelves, price points, who your demographic is and what they’re looking for. It’s also something you can start no matter where you are in life. Research!
  2. Trust your gut. As I went through the process of designing the store I’m happy that I trusted my instincts you can’t go based on “Sephora’s black and white so I need to be black and white”. Despite any consultants or experts or articles you’ve read trust you’ve got it.
  3. If you’re in the beauty realm to the extent you can do anything start building relationships. That’s something that I would start doing as soon as I can.

What’s in your handbag right now?

My Macbook, a Moleskin– I’m so old school I buy one every time I start something new, I like to write everything down. I have random beauty products, I take them off the shelves. Davines body balm because I fell in love with them, Eden BodyWorks coconut shea leave-in conditioner, Miu Miu cat-eye glasses, burgundy lipstick from Stiks Cosmetiks, an iPhone 6, business cards, a  Denman brush and rosebud salve.

Want to learn more about Vivrant Beauty?

Read about it at In Her Shoes or stop by their Harlem location at 220 Saint Nicholas Avenue New York, New York 10027.

 

1 Comment
  1. I really enjoyed this piece. It is inspiring that she was able to take the leap from something she was good at and comfortable into the unknown. Love her look also.