0:00

What's up, rich

0:03

friends?

0:08

Welcome to Net Worth and Chill with me, your

0:10

host, Vivian Tu, aka your rich

0:12

BFF and your favorite Wall Street girly. So

0:14

back in college, every Friday

0:16

and Saturday night, my roomies and I would

0:18

start getting ready to hit the town at

0:20

around 8 p.m. or so. And I hope they're

0:23

listening because in my life, there

0:25

have been some undeniable truths. One,

0:28

if you're someone who does their makeup sitting down

0:30

in front of a full-length mirror, aka

0:33

me, you know how to fight. Two,

0:35

nothing cures heartbreak like a little red

0:37

lip and a little black dress. And

0:40

three, if my winged eyeliner

0:42

isn't even on both eyes, we're not going out.

0:44

And I will guarantee that nobody else has

0:47

a good time either. I'm not even joking about

0:49

the last one. My friends knew that if my

0:51

eyeliner wasn't perfect, they'd have to

0:53

wait for me to remove, reapply, remove,

0:56

reapply, until I literally felt like my eyelids

0:58

were bleeding. But I'd finally get it

1:00

right. And I'm not the only one who loves makeup. In 2021,

1:04

the beauty industry was worth $511 billion, over half

1:07

a trillion dollars. And

1:10

it's predicted to exceed $716 billion by 2025. Unfortunately

1:15

for me, my makeup skills have not

1:18

really gotten much better since college.

1:20

But so many of my girlfriends seem to

1:22

know exactly how to contour, highlight,

1:25

conceal their faces so that they look

1:27

picture perfect. And it's no surprise.

1:29

A lot of them learn how to do so on YouTube.

1:32

So today I've enlisted the help

1:34

of two of the internet's biggest, funniest,

1:37

and most

1:38

influential makeup artists. Please welcome

1:40

Manny MUA and Laura Lee. Hi

1:43

everybody. Hello, hello, hello. Oh,

1:46

I am so excited to be chatting with you both

1:48

today. I told you this before we even

1:50

started recording. You are both even more beautiful in

1:52

person. You guys, their skin is perfect.

1:55

Thank you. Yours

1:58

too. You know what? That's just because the... quality

2:00

of the cameras now. It's

2:02

that it's that 720 HP. Yeah, that's 720.

2:07

But I'd love to just get a quick rundown of how you both

2:10

got into makeup. Was it something that you were

2:12

always passionate about always good at? Like, frankly,

2:14

I really only started wearing a lot of makeup

2:17

on nights out during college. So I've

2:19

never been great. I personally have

2:21

always wore a lot of makeup. I even have pictures of me

2:23

in the fourth grade with powder blue eyeshadow

2:26

from my 2k era. My mom

2:29

wore a lot of makeup. My older sister wore

2:31

a lot of makeup. So naturally, I

2:33

loved hair makeup, beauty, skin, all

2:36

of it. I just felt right in line. It's always

2:38

like since day one, I would even say

2:40

my mom and sister loved makeup more

2:42

than me. And I'm the one that came to give a beauty

2:45

guru. So I was born

2:47

into it truly born into

2:50

it. And I carry the legacy for my family.

2:52

I love

2:52

it. And my mom was his

2:55

mom's sorry, Manny to cut you off.

2:57

No, please do it. Do it. But you know,

2:59

some moms are like don't allow their daughters or dads

3:03

to wear makeup until they're a certain age. I think that's

3:05

a pretty normal thing. My mom was literally like in

3:07

fourth grade.

3:08

Girl, go.

3:10

And like, I think it's part of why I am

3:12

who I am today. My mom was so free

3:14

about it. That's awesome.

3:16

I love that. No, I um, my

3:18

I didn't actually start my makeup journey until I was in my early

3:21

20s. I didn't. My mom has always been

3:23

the glam girl. My grandma was

3:26

a hair stylist. I've always been around like

3:28

glam my whole life. And it's always

3:30

been something fascinating to me. I would always watch my mom glam in the

3:32

morning before school. So it was fun for

3:34

me. But I didn't get into it until I was in my early 20s

3:37

when I was playing with like drag

3:39

and cross dressing. It was like Halloween once

3:41

I me my friends decided to be the Sailor

3:43

Scouts from Sailor Moon. And I was

3:46

at Sailor Mercury. And my friend did

3:48

my makeup because I know what I was doing. And I felt

3:50

so pretty. I was like, this is so fun.

3:52

But I didn't like having to wear a wig, the

3:55

dress, the heels, everything else was too hard. I was

3:57

like, I can't do this. I can't I don't want to

3:59

be I don't want to be doing this. So I ended up kind

4:02

of loving the makeup portion of what I was doing,

4:04

not necessarily everything else. So that's technically why I'm just like

4:06

not a drag queen. I'm just a person who

4:08

likes to play with makeup and be androgynous

4:10

and play with the features of the face. So that's why I

4:13

got into it was kind of drag got me into it.

4:15

Yeah, wait, quick question.

4:17

How long would you guys say it takes you

4:19

to do like a full face of makeup? So

4:21

me and Manny differ on this big time. Because

4:24

there's one thing about Manny that I envy

4:26

so badly. He doesn't have to do hair.

4:29

Right. So I always have to cut out 30 to 45 minutes

4:31

for hair. So like I have

4:33

to be really fast at makeup or else we're

4:36

three hours in because I have all this hair

4:38

that I have to do. So I mean,

4:41

how fast can I probably do a full face?

4:42

Lauren can like literally do a full glam in like 45 minutes. 40 minutes?

4:46

I'm talking like I'm talking full painted

4:48

full coverage, lash on

4:50

makeup, eyes done liner on

4:52

Lauren can get it all done in like 40 minutes.

4:55

Yep.

4:55

And then I probably do 30 minutes hair. I

4:58

love that I made me answer the question for me.

5:00

That's how we know each other. I know. We just

5:03

went to Coachella and I know that too well because

5:05

it takes me like I would say the amount of

5:07

time Lord takes to do both me do the

5:09

one so it's taking me like an hour 15

5:13

to do a full face. Oh, okay. So

5:15

we finished around the same time but I'm we

5:17

do.

5:19

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5:21

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The makeup industry is enormous,

6:53

right? But like how do you guys decide what

6:56

products are worth the money and

6:58

what isn't? Oh my God, that's such a good question. I feel

7:00

like for me now with what we

7:02

do in the makeup world, I think that

7:04

for me it's about quality of the product

7:07

when it comes to what the brand stands

7:09

for. Like a lot of the times now brands

7:11

are coming out with stuff that's really good. Like you're not

7:13

gonna see like crappy stuff as often as

7:15

you did 10 years ago. 10 years ago brands like

7:18

weren't held accountable to things. Now with social media,

7:20

with TikTok, with Instagram, YouTube, people are like, brands

7:22

are like, oh shit, like if it's not good, people

7:25

are gonna find out. So I think that now

7:27

every brand comes out with great bangers, but now

7:29

it's more about the brand story, the

7:32

people behind the brand, what kind of thing the

7:34

brand stands for, are they trying to

7:36

be conscious of the environment? Things like that,

7:38

like I do take that into account now.

7:40

Whereas before I was like, does it work? Does it cover up my face?

7:43

Does it make my pores look small?

7:45

Why do you think that is? That just like

7:47

these days, why is makeup so much better?

7:50

Aside from like customers being like, this

7:52

caused me to break out into a rash. Is

7:54

it all just like chemically similar or like what's

7:56

the chemistry behind that, I guess? I think it's

7:59

the communication.

7:59

through social media before

8:02

we didn't have that at all. You know what I mean? We

8:04

bought what everybody else was using, whether it was good

8:06

or bad and what was on trend and we kind of did

8:08

that. And now people have a voice. Like the consumer

8:11

has a voice, influencers have a voice. And

8:14

they'll tell you what they really think about it. So like Manny

8:16

was saying, I think it forced all the makeup brands

8:18

to really step it up a notch because they didn't

8:20

want those bad reviews online, which were easily

8:23

coming out. So I think

8:25

it forced the industry as a

8:27

whole to step it up. And then like as Manny

8:29

was saying, what do they stand for? You

8:31

know, the people behind the brand also made

8:33

them step it up behind the scenes as well.

8:35

And like actual ingredient stories as well. So

8:37

I think that as you continue on, like let's

8:39

say you find out ingredients, like things like talc

8:42

might not be as great for your face if

8:44

you're putting it everywhere. So people might be taking

8:46

away talc ingredients and adding mica to it instead.

8:49

So it's like things like that that make small changes

8:51

that overall add to the quality

8:53

of makeup rising.

8:55

But I do think that's so insightful that what

8:57

you guys have both just shared, like brands are literally

8:59

afraid of de-influencing.

9:02

Oh my God, literally. Literally.

9:04

Literally. What's de-influenced

9:07

today?

9:08

I was just gonna ask, what

9:10

is each of your guys's, like if you

9:12

could pick one product to de-influence,

9:14

you think it's just so overrated, overpriced, just

9:17

not worth it, like one. Let

9:19

me think about that because I have a bunch that

9:21

I

9:21

know. Yeah, me too, me too. I think there's

9:23

a lot. I feel like, let me just did a video. Oh

9:26

my God, I got a bunch of stuff that I hate. Oh my

9:28

gosh. I just did a de-influencing

9:30

video. So I'm trying to think of something I talked

9:32

about. You know one thing that everybody

9:35

loved in 2016, cause

9:38

you know makeup's evolved since 2016. We

9:41

used to do the heavy full glam. It's

9:43

something I loved in 2016 and despise now. And

9:48

it's the KVD Lock

9:50

It Tattoo Foundation. That stuff

9:52

is plaster, okay?

9:55

And it's plaster, but you know,

9:58

if you love it, you love it.

9:59

no one should take it personal that I don't love it

10:02

anymore. But I used it the other day

10:04

just for fun just to see and I could

10:06

not believe that I use that

10:08

as my foundation. I'm like

10:10

my skin. Why not just show

10:12

some skin here? So I'm so happy.

10:15

Thank you. In 2023, we're

10:17

embracing a little more skin ourselves,

10:20

you know what I mean? But it had its moment. It

10:22

had its moment. What about you, man?

10:23

Yeah, I think for me, it'd be the one

10:25

thing that I think that as a little overhyped and a little overrated

10:27

are like the Charlotte Tilbury ones like the

10:30

beauty ones like the blush and highlighter ones.

10:32

Careful. I know. But like I

10:34

they, they stick to my face, you guys

10:37

like I don't know what it is. I cannot get them to work where

10:39

you put it on and it like moves

10:41

around like I literally will put a dot on

10:44

and if I don't blend away that dot immediately, it's

10:46

a dot. Yeah. And I'm so

10:48

confused like why it's doing that and there's not a

10:50

lot of product in there either.

10:53

I feel you.

10:55

Those are really, really good ones. And a quick

10:58

pivot, you know, talking about the chemistry

11:00

behind makeup, you know, I did a little

11:03

stalking before this call and found

11:05

that

11:05

both of you guys have your

11:08

own makeup lines. And, you know,

11:10

Manny, you have Lunar Beauty, Laura, you have Laura Lee,

11:12

Los Angeles. What inspired you guys to

11:14

create your own product? And how

11:16

do you feel like being makeup

11:18

gurus on social media has really helped

11:20

contribute to that build out of those

11:22

companies? I don't want to speak

11:25

for many, but I feel like we kind of always

11:27

wanted to do that. Like it was,

11:29

I think it was always like in the back

11:31

of our mind, but it was something so

11:33

big that I, and maybe

11:35

Manny too, like didn't really feel like

11:37

there was ever a time where that was going to happen because

11:40

the amount of money and power and connections

11:42

it takes to do that. But once we

11:44

had made it online specifically

11:47

for makeup, it nothing

11:50

could possibly make any more sense than us

11:52

creating our own. I know we both love to create.

11:55

I know we had both done collabs with makeup brands,

11:57

so we had our toes wet and doing

11:59

it. We had some big.

11:59

experience. We had been reviewing makeup

12:02

for years and years and years. So we knew what

12:04

was good. We knew what was bad. We

12:06

knew how to make good makeup. And

12:08

when the time was right, I mean, the

12:10

market exploded as well, which helped us

12:13

because we both created our brands as

12:15

indie brands on our own with zero investor

12:17

investors self funded. Wait,

12:20

Laura, can I ask about that? You guys both

12:22

self funded like, you know, creating a

12:24

makeup brand is not cheap. You have to

12:26

obviously buy ingredients, production,

12:28

you know, marketing

12:29

everything that you guys really said, like, we're

12:32

all in on this. We were we were both

12:34

all in on our makeup line still to this

12:36

day, they're self funded makeup lines. And

12:38

we're all in on them. And that's how

12:40

passionate we are about it

12:43

and wanting to do it make it happen. Were

12:45

you guys scared to do that? Because, you

12:47

know, I'm assuming ostensibly, like you

12:49

guys are massive creators have these, you

12:51

know, killer brand partnerships, you make great

12:54

money. Were you ever worried for a second,

12:56

like, I'm going to take all of this money that I've made and

12:58

put it into this, you know, my

12:59

baby this brand, and it's not going to work.

13:02

A hundred percent. I

13:04

was shook. I'm also not wanting to speak for Laura.

13:06

But I think we can both say we were like, holy

13:09

crap, like that first launch is literally

13:11

like you feel like you're about to give birth. Like truly,

13:14

I felt like I was in an epidural

13:16

the full thing. I'm like, you guys, let's do this. Come on.

13:18

Let's do the the the Lamaze breathing. I

13:20

feel like for me and Lord to like it felt

13:22

like more of like our final form, like an evolution where

13:25

it was like we started off as influencers, then we started

13:27

doing brand partnership collaborations, and

13:29

then it became having our own brand. Like it just felt like

13:31

a correct trajectory for what we were doing.

13:34

And since it was something that we were so passionate about, and

13:36

what we were using for years and years and

13:38

years, like literally, like we review products for a living,

13:40

we know what is good. And we

13:43

wanted to provide things to people that you

13:46

knew is coming from a good place and not just like

13:48

this random conglomerate CEO

13:50

that just like just give us your money. We don't care what is

13:52

inside. We came from a place that was like, you guys,

13:54

like we made this specifically for you and for us

13:57

because we are creators and we know what works

13:59

well. Yep.

13:59

Exactly what Manny said. That part. That

14:02

part. You guys obviously have

14:05

so much history and like you guys mentioned, like

14:07

you very literally were reviewing product

14:09

for a living. It feels like these days, everybody

14:12

and their mothers dropping a skin care line

14:14

or a beauty line, like, you know, and

14:16

I'm not going to name names, but there was in fact

14:18

a lip color gloss situation

14:21

that I bought that completely pilled and was disgusting. But

14:25

does it bother you when celebrities

14:27

or people who aren't makeup professionals

14:29

or don't, you know, don't know the first thing about makeup, create

14:32

their own lines?

14:33

Because I would I guess this is

14:35

my thing. Whenever it feels more like

14:37

a cash grab, my only thing that

14:39

bothers me is like, I understand

14:41

you're doing maybe makeup and skin care because

14:43

the market's so big right now. But why not do

14:45

something that you're passionate about instead

14:48

instead of do the cash grab? Because there's so many,

14:50

you know, like Selena's makeup line and all that

14:52

out there. There's definitely not a cash grab. Like

14:54

it's I mean, you can tell when it's not. You

14:56

can tell when it is. But I guess my only thing

14:59

whenever you feel like it really is just a cash

15:01

grab and it's shitty product. It's like,

15:03

why not just do something that you're passionate

15:05

about instead?

15:06

That's why I felt too. I feel the exact same way. I think that

15:09

whenever I see it, it's not that I like I remember

15:11

back in the day, I used to get more annoyed. I was like,

15:13

oh my God, not another one. Like it seems

15:15

so like why are you in the space

15:18

that like let's say we've been in for years

15:20

and years and years like putting in that work and then you

15:22

just like it's like when it's like when music artists

15:24

get annoyed that influences create a song.

15:27

It's like really that's literally like that's not

15:29

a Bob like that's trash. So it's kind of like that same

15:31

thing where but on our side of it being

15:34

more in the makeup world. So I now I

15:36

really don't care

15:36

because I think at the end of the day Pete like money

15:38

talks and I think that if they have an audience

15:41

for what they're creating if their audience

15:43

think that it's going to be good. Great. If they don't

15:45

then they'll go somewhere else and find something different that will

15:47

work for them. So they have them the day if it's a cash

15:49

grab you can tell and I think I don't think that

15:51

the cash grab brands do

15:54

as well and you can kind of tell like that beauty

15:56

lines from so that we kind of like go like this and

15:58

then like okay. And

16:00

you never see or hear from them again because their

16:02

audience like doesn't really care about them selling

16:04

makeup or skincare.

16:05

I think everything is like 10 times more

16:08

transparent than it used to be. Like what Manny

16:10

was saying before it was like a little under

16:12

wraps when it was a cash grab and some people

16:14

behind the scenes would be like cash grab and now

16:16

people know they can see through it. I

16:18

also feel like people on the internet are like

16:20

the FBI like how?

16:23

CIA. It's crazy. It's crazy.

16:26

But honestly, I'm over here watching. Yes, tell me more. Tell

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You guys, I'm curious, you know, this

18:03

the show is entirely about money. I'd love to know

18:06

what is the most expensive

18:08

product that either of

18:10

you have ever bought? And was

18:13

it worth it in makeup specifically,

18:15

or in life? You're asking that why? Because

18:17

it feels like you want to talk skincare or hair care. I

18:20

think makeup would probably be the most

18:22

expensive. I think I

18:25

don't think I've bought any crazy.

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I think I'm like, I feel like in life, my

18:29

house, in

18:32

life, my house is my most expensive thing.

18:34

And then in makeup, I would say it's the

18:36

really high end, high end, high in

18:39

skincare. There's high end skincare

18:42

and foundation. So there's like these brands called like La

18:44

Mer, La Prairie. There's these brands

18:46

that have these really high end things that are

18:48

way, way overpriced

18:50

or like Manny, please. I love La Mer.

18:53

Like what's

18:53

great? No, it's fantastic. Like, they have

18:56

good stuff. I just think that there's things that can

18:58

do a similar thing. Unless you're literally using

19:00

like, Augustus Bader was a very

19:02

high end skincare line that has literal

19:05

like stem cells in it. Like that

19:07

will make a difference. But if you're not doing things that

19:09

have that dramatic results, then it's like

19:11

you're really paying for the name a lot of time. Okay,

19:13

so the Augustus Bader is what

19:15

I'm getting. I love it. Yes. This

19:17

was also a ploy for me to ask for recommendations.

19:21

Laura, what's the product that you've got? I'm curious. The

19:23

La Prairie, I think this is

19:26

a $280 foundation. I think it's one of

19:28

the top five most expensive foundations

19:30

in the world. And it has

19:33

skincare in it. And that's why

19:35

it has like skincaviar, blah, blah,

19:38

blah, blah, blah, for instance, and

19:40

it

19:41

is foundation. It's literally

19:44

foundation and no one should ever be spending 280.

19:47

I did this for review for my business.

19:49

So that's why I bought it. But no one should ever

19:51

be talked into buying a $280 foundation.

19:53

When you have

19:56

Mario for 42 over here

19:58

doing the same thing.

19:59

And those books are ones that look just

20:02

as amazing too. We love, we love,

20:05

we love the reality of, you know, hey, you

20:07

don't have to buy the most expensive product

20:09

to have the most beautiful makeup

20:11

face.

20:11

What would you guys say is the biggest

20:14

makeup mistake you've made?

20:16

It can either be a trend, it can either be something you regret buying,

20:19

just like any sort of mistake. I just want to make sure

20:21

that anybody listening does not repeat your mistake.

20:23

I think

20:26

I used to, in 2016, got

20:28

really heavy into the dip brow era.

20:31

I don't know if you remember Anastasia dip

20:33

brow. Oh yeah. I remember it

20:35

well. I remember it very well. A lucky brow.

20:37

In a lot of days I had really good brows, but

20:40

I look back at some pictures and I look extremely

20:42

masculine because, I mean,

20:44

it's that's the look you're going for. But that wasn't

20:47

the look I was going for. I was actually going

20:49

for a soft feminine look, but I had these

20:51

huge blocked off unnatural

20:54

brows.

20:54

Mani can attest to it. Okay. And

20:58

I can't even laugh. 2016 was hard

21:00

for Laura. Listen, girl

21:02

learning and growing

21:04

and it was the trend. You know,

21:06

it was the trend. Some days I executed

21:09

it. A lot of days I didn't. And I just feel like

21:11

now like a softer brow on me

21:14

is better. So I feel like that's one trend that kind

21:16

of got me. It got you together. Cool. I

21:19

used to, a trend that I used to do,

21:21

which I'm like, I'm not doing this really anymore. It was using

21:23

the concealer I use underneath my eyes, like a normal

21:26

brightening concealer. And I would carve out the top of my

21:28

eyebrows with that same concealer. And

21:30

it would look like I had this white streak

21:32

above my eyebrow mixing in with my

21:35

foundation color. And I'm like,

21:37

what am I doing? Looking back, I'm like, why did I carve out my brow

21:39

to look like a little, like a

21:41

little Roblox character? Like, it just wasn't,

21:43

it wasn't the vibe. It literally looked like

21:45

a little Lego. So I no

21:48

longer do anything like that. Like that's, I go,

21:50

I still go heavy on the glam. I definitely

21:52

do like I'm still a full coverage girl, but I wanted to

21:54

look very well done and not

21:57

overly done when I'm doing it. I

21:58

love that. And I want to.

21:59

share a really interesting kind of like concept

22:03

that I don't know if you guys have heard of before, but you

22:05

have, I'm sure seen the headlines. People are pretty

22:07

concerned about the economy right

22:09

now. And they're actually this really weird

22:11

phenomenon called the lipstick indicator.

22:15

Leonard Louder, obviously one of the heirs to the Estee

22:17

Louder cosmetics company, he essentially found that when

22:19

the economy does worse, beauty

22:22

sales do better. Because

22:24

since people can't buy big luxuries,

22:27

like a new TV or a vacation, they'll

22:29

pick up a small

22:29

treat, like a lip gloss or

22:32

a new perfume as that little like dopamine

22:34

hit. And if you guys had to name one product

22:37

that is the best bang

22:39

for your buck, what would it be? This is

22:41

like you're in a recession, you can buy

22:44

one product.

22:44

Well, you know, the Lunar Beauty lip

22:46

glosses. Well,

22:50

not that

22:51

you mentioned it. No, actually,

22:54

you was crazy. Like you mentioned that. Like I actually

22:56

agree with that. Because when I launched my first

22:59

blush palette in 2021, like right when you

23:02

guys it was pandemic, it was spooky.

23:06

It literally was like in the middle of the pandemic. And I was like, dude, like

23:08

the fact that we had to launch it, I was so freaked out, I was stressed.

23:10

I literally sold out of all my units in one

23:13

day. And that's never happened to me with the launch before.

23:15

And that was during the pandemic. And I truly

23:17

thought like we were screwed, screwed.

23:20

I'm like, I just put all this money into it. Luckily,

23:22

people saw it, they wanted it, they bought it. And

23:25

I couldn't believe that I sold out so quickly. And if

23:27

I knew I would order more. But

23:30

I would say one thing that I really think that is important

23:33

and something I'll always continue to buy is SPF.

23:35

I will always invest in products

23:37

that have SPF in it, at least SPF 40 and above.

23:40

I'm talking like maybe even the it's CC cream,

23:42

the LCC cream, like anything that's going

23:46

to make sure my skin is protected is so important

23:48

to me and hydrated. So always, it

23:50

doesn't matter where I'm at,

23:51

I will always be getting SPF sunscreen

23:54

tinted moisturizer kind of vibes.

23:55

I hope my future mother in law hears this.

23:57

And she uses SPF 50. and

24:00

like the tanning oil and I'm like, mm. No,

24:03

I'm not, it's not enough. It's here. Okay. No.

24:06

For me, just a product, like if I'm

24:08

not, like today right now, the only product

24:11

as far as makeup, I have moisturizer

24:13

on but as far as makeup coverage I have on my

24:15

face is a concealer. So like

24:18

if I'm doing a no makeup

24:20

look like today, the only

24:22

actual, I have a clear gloss on, I have

24:24

sunscreen on, which is my moisturizer mixed

24:26

together, but the only actual makeup I have on

24:29

is my NARS soft matte complete concealer

24:31

in the shade custard. So I would say

24:33

like, if you

24:34

were like, girl, this is it for you,

24:36

you get like one product for your

24:38

face. It's gonna be an actual makeup,

24:41

this. Bora, you and

24:43

I are the same skin tone. I also

24:45

get custard.

24:46

I love that. Oh my god,

24:48

why is that so exciting? That's so cute to me. Yeah,

24:52

I love that. Girlies. Yeah, I

24:54

get the exact same one and I also get the one in the NARS

24:56

stick because I like a matte and then the not

24:58

matte.

24:59

The glowy one. A girl after my

25:01

own heart. I love that. Okay,

25:04

so I've had so much fun asking you guys

25:06

what your favorite stuff is, this, most expensive,

25:08

whatever. Let's do a lightning round of the

25:11

best item for each category

25:14

and I want you to tell me roughly how much

25:16

it costs because the

25:18

BFFs are very price conscious and I

25:20

wanna make sure that they know exactly what everything is

25:22

going to be charged. So

25:25

best foundation. Mario's

25:28

the real skin 42. She knows

25:30

it down to the

25:31

single digit. Mine

25:33

is the Too Faced Born This Way

25:35

matte and that is also around 40 something

25:38

dollars.

25:39

Okay, that feels very fair for

25:41

a foundation. Yes, very fair, very fair.

25:43

Up next is concealer. I think we already know

25:45

that Laura's is the NARS

25:48

concealer. How much is that? I

25:50

don't remember. I believe this one could be close

25:52

to the 30.

25:52

28 to 30 as well. Mine's

25:55

also the NARS and it's tied between that

25:58

one and the Hourglass Vanish concealer.

26:00

Hmm. Okay. Love. This

26:02

one's important to me because I

26:04

love a jet black dark

26:07

liner eyeliner. The Rare Beauty pen,

26:10

it doesn't get any better than this. This is the best

26:12

liner and I believe it's 1920. Perfect.

26:15

I just used an eyeliner yesterday for the first

26:18

time because I just got an NPR and

26:20

it's the new Danessa Myricks eyeliner

26:22

and it's one

26:24

of the best eyeliners I've ever used.

26:27

It's a bristle, which is my favorite. I

26:29

like the tip to have like a little bit of a brush tip,

26:31

not felt. So I have a lot of the felt

26:33

tip liners. This one is a bristle

26:35

tip, dries to a matte finish. And

26:38

I was blown away with how easy it was

26:40

to use and with how dark it was. It's hard

26:42

to find a bristle tip liner that's super dark.

26:44

It's so awesome. So this

26:47

one I was like shocked by. So right now it's the Danessa

26:49

Myricks eyeliner.

26:50

Nice. Love it. Eyeshadow.

26:53

You know what? I'm gonna go ahead and plug myself at this

26:55

point. Laura, plug yourself because I'm gonna plug myself

26:57

too. Perfect. Nice. Plug yourselves.

27:00

You know, I've looked online, your palettes look

27:02

incredible, but I do want a specific

27:04

palette. It can't just be like the lines.

27:05

Exactly. I'm doing the same thing. Laura, what's yours? So

27:08

mine would be the Cool Nudes palette.

27:10

This is the palette I pretty much reach for every day

27:12

just because it has a lot of good neutrals in it. 36.

27:15

Oh my god, you know what? I'm literally stacking my freaking

27:17

palette onto my laptop. I was like, where'd

27:19

my palette go? It's literally to raise my laptop.

27:22

Okay, mine is gonna be my

27:24

nude prism eyeshadow palette. This

27:26

is 48 and it literally has

27:29

every neutral, incredible

27:31

moment they could potentially ever need neutral

27:33

mattes and really bright and bold

27:35

shimmer. So I'm gonna go with Laura

27:38

and there's a shade called Laura right there.

27:41

Right

27:43

there. Oh my gosh,

27:46

you guys need colors in your

27:48

eyeshadow palettes after each other. If

27:51

that's not messy,

27:54

I don't I really don't know what is same and

27:56

the shade Laura is like my favorite shade in the palette too

27:58

as it should be.

27:59

I don't know why. You guys, wait, that's so cute.

28:02

That's really cute. La está gustando mi podcast? Thanks to

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29:39

What about blush? Um... I

29:41

love it. Oh my god. I'm like so happy

29:44

I'm sitting at my makeup desk. No, seriously, I'm like pulling my shit out. Okay,

29:46

do you know what I literally

29:48

love and I use this all the time, but I never really talk about

29:50

it that much? It's the NARS Orgasm

29:53

Liquid Blush. It's

29:56

so freaking- I have the powder, I don't

29:58

have the liquid. No, dude, the liquid.

29:59

telling you, like it's a little job goes such

30:02

a long way. It looks so pretty on the skin

30:04

has like that same kind of glow, but

30:06

it's perfect. Like it's crazy.

30:08

Like I use it all the time and it lasts so long on the skin.

30:10

And it's

30:11

amazing. Truly. For me, I

30:13

would say to face just came out with

30:16

these cloud push blushes. And

30:18

I feel like this is definitely

30:20

my favorite shade. This one's called head in the clouds.

30:23

And I believe this one's around 30 bucks. But

30:25

it is such a pretty layer. It just works really

30:27

well for my skin tone.

30:28

I would say the noise is like 35. Perfect.

30:31

And then lip gloss. I

30:33

am I actually just launched a brand

30:35

new lip gloss. And it's called

30:37

nude blossom. It has a magnetic lid.

30:40

And this is the cheapest thing I've actually talked about

30:42

on here is $12. Whoo, 12 is

30:45

the best. We love the high shine

30:47

not sticky.

30:48

They're amazing. It's so funny,

30:50

you guys. You guys can't see this.

30:52

But we are on this, you know, podcast

30:55

recording and Laura and Manny are literally

30:57

pulling out products, doing the thing

30:59

where they put the hand and try to focus the can

31:02

you can tell they are you to like

31:06

the cool

31:08

thing about having brands. So this is like something me Laura

31:11

bond over to so my lip gloss would have

31:13

to be also my lunar beauty lip gloss

31:15

and probably like dreamy. We create

31:18

products that we feel like

31:20

can be missing in some capacity in the beauty world,

31:22

not necessarily missing, but things that we can alter

31:24

to be better. So when we create things, we

31:27

create it to be the best it could be like we want like, if

31:29

I didn't love all my products, what's the point of me

31:31

creating it truly like, if if

31:33

my lunar beauty gloss wasn't my number one, why would

31:35

I make it so

31:36

I'm very passionate about like creating

31:38

products that that become my absolute

31:41

favorite, because I wouldn't see a point in doing

31:43

it otherwise.

31:44

I like that. And well, Manny,

31:47

I saw on your YouTube, you recently

31:49

made a video that was like,

31:51

if you know, a tornado hit

31:54

my beauty closet, and I lost

31:56

every single product, how would I restart

31:58

my travel makeup back?

31:59

And I guess I'm curious, do you guys have

32:02

any advice for all of our

32:04

listeners how to build a

32:07

affordable, effective,

32:09

beautiful makeup routine that

32:11

doesn't cost a zillion dollars

32:14

because I'm looking at Laura's closet

32:16

right now and I'm seeing literally thousands

32:18

of products and I don't people at home,

32:21

you know, who aren't testing all of this can

32:23

do that. So

32:24

what do you recommend? Transparently

32:27

me and Manny and other beauty gurus people

32:30

should know we get our product for free.

32:31

Yeah, right. So, and people

32:34

should know that because you can look at it and be

32:36

like, wow, is that what I need to do

32:38

good makeup? Absolutely not. None

32:40

of us are paying for it. And that's the truth.

32:43

So it's just not fair to even compare

32:45

for an audience member to compare in that way.

32:48

But I think drugstore has stepped

32:50

it up immensely compared

32:52

to where they used to be. And I

32:55

and Manny as well, we both have so many videos

32:57

on our channel called drugstore starter kit. I was

32:59

about to say that I was like,

33:01

no, watch in my videos of the

33:03

drugstore starter kits. We teach

33:05

you step by step at the

33:07

drugstore only like what

33:10

you need to build a

33:12

full makeup kit for the drugstore and now

33:14

you have brands like Colourpop, Sheglam

33:17

that create also such good products

33:20

that are online that run between

33:22

nine and $10.

33:23

I exactly that's literally I was gonna

33:26

say Laura hit the nail on the head. We have videos that are

33:28

literally we have

33:30

one mind a hive mind we um,

33:33

there's literal like drugstore we have drugstore

33:35

starter kit videos that we tell all

33:37

the prices of the products. These are the products that as

33:39

testers of makeup, we can wholeheartedly

33:42

recommend and you guys will be shocked and you would think that

33:44

they were high end.

33:45

Do you think that drugstore has gotten so much

33:47

better to like try and keep up

33:49

with all of the brands coming out

33:51

because I'm trying to like think through like, you know,

33:54

walking through a drugstore aisle and do you

33:56

remember back in the day, every

33:58

single person you knew had that?

33:59

I don't even know how to call it, like the watermelon,

34:03

like colorway, Maybelline,

34:05

mascara with the pink in the green.

34:09

All of these products like have really kind

34:12

of come into their own and they're starting

34:14

to use things like, you

34:16

know, what's the, what's

34:18

the hyaluronic acid or like these

34:21

important products that these higher end brands

34:23

are using? Like what would you each say is your

34:25

favorite

34:25

drugstore product? Like it's so hard.

34:27

You know what's funny when people ask me like, what's

34:29

your favorite drugstore product? I'm like, I don't know. Like

34:32

I can tell you my favorite drugstore product in one category,

34:34

you know? But I think that a big

34:36

part of it is because not only are they trying

34:38

to compete with higher end, but

34:40

they're trying to compete with themselves. So when brands

34:43

come out that are inexpensive, that are doing

34:45

things that are so almost high end,

34:47

for example, in the past, like Morphe was a humongous

34:50

makeup line that was creating these like

34:53

very inexpensive things at

34:55

a very great price point that worked really,

34:57

really well. Same with ColourPop, same with Sheglam

34:59

right now. There's a lot of brands and ELF

35:02

is really booming because they're creating

35:04

things that have these high ingredient deck stories

35:06

at a lower price point. So you have to see

35:09

other brands like L'Oreal, Maybelline, all these

35:11

other brands catching up to being like, okay, well we have to create

35:13

products that are better now because the consumer is smarter.

35:15

I kind of felt like it was a monopoly before

35:18

out there because you kind of got what you got

35:20

and there wasn't a lot of competition. And

35:22

now there's competition like Manny was just saying

35:24

across every single price range. So

35:27

now they actually have to show up and compete. Whereas

35:29

before they kind of got to do whatever they wanted.

35:31

And like all of us, we were stuck with

35:33

the pink and green mascara.

35:36

Literally.

35:37

Amazing. We're starting to

35:39

wrap up. But last but not least, I love

35:41

asking this question. Can each of you tell

35:43

me the biggest mistake you've made

35:46

building your makeup empire? And

35:48

then on the flip side, what has been your greatest

35:50

success? Gosh, how long do

35:52

we have? I'm just kidding. We got a lot of mistakes.

35:56

I feel like whenever I started

35:58

specifically, my makeup.

35:59

I didn't

36:02

really, again, it was self-funded.

36:05

I didn't have like this big team to come in and

36:07

tell me all the things we were supposed to, what we were gonna do.

36:09

And I didn't really have as clear

36:12

of a vision as what I wanted

36:14

the brand to look like. And I think

36:17

that's something we grew into as

36:20

we started developing more product and got more

36:22

feedback from our audience and the people who were actually

36:24

purchasing our makeup until we like kind

36:27

of found our name, kind of found our design

36:29

and who we are. So I think too

36:32

though, spending a little time before you launch

36:34

something on your complete and total

36:36

vision of what you want it to be, what

36:38

you want it to look like, the cohesiveness of

36:40

the project is so important. And it

36:43

is a step that I actually skipped and

36:46

I wish I didn't, but we

36:48

all learn and we all grow and I'm so happy where I'm at

36:50

right now. So I think my biggest,

36:52

well, I guess, Mandy, you say your regret

36:54

and I'll say. It's funny,

36:56

I had this one mistake that happened that literally cost

36:58

me thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars was

37:00

when I remember I launched a product

37:03

and it launched in test mode.

37:06

We made the website live. So on

37:08

the backend of your website, you can have things like on test

37:10

mode to buy it, to see it goes through perfectly,

37:13

right? So you can make sure it actually goes through, it

37:15

actually buys the whole thing. We launched like

37:17

the site to purchase in test

37:19

mode, not knowing that it was still clicked

37:22

on the backend. So when people bought the product, they

37:24

didn't have to pay for it. So people literally

37:26

bought the product and didn't pay

37:29

for it because they were on test mode. So

37:31

I remember we had a shoot out an email that

37:33

was like, hey guys, like, you know, that your

37:35

cards didn't go through because it was on test mode. Can you

37:37

please purchase what you bought? And

37:40

a lot of people did, a lot of people didn't. So we just

37:42

lost out on all that money because it was just like a mistake that

37:44

we made that we didn't know was even a thing. And that's

37:46

kind of like the growing pains of having a line. You

37:48

don't know all these things that really happened. You could

37:50

never know the amount of hiccups that you could potentially

37:53

have unless they literally

37:54

happened to you. So that was something that I remember being

37:56

like, okay, we'll never be on test mode again. You

37:58

know, and all these like little. things that could

38:00

really mess up that you have no idea.

38:03

That was a mistake I made that literally cost me a lot of money. That's

38:07

a really big one. I

38:09

remember that one actually. I'm

38:12

shocked all over again,

38:14

actually. No, I know. I even remember I'm like, Oh

38:16

my god, I can't believe that happened to me like just thinking

38:18

about it right now. That's part of being a small business

38:20

owner right there. Things like that. I would say

38:22

my biggest triumph is keep going. I

38:27

think the statistic is the number

38:30

of small businesses that fell in the first

38:32

three years. It's just massive. Honestly,

38:35

being able to keep it alive,

38:37

keep going all these years through all

38:40

the critiques, all the hard times, all

38:42

the mistakes that you make as a small business owner.

38:44

It's tricky because we're small business owners

38:46

that are completely 100% self-funded

38:49

with no investors, but we have hundreds of

38:51

thousands of eyes on us at the same time,

38:53

which a lot of small businesses don't. So it's kind

38:55

of like a double-edged sword there

38:58

where you can't really make a mistake,

39:00

but you're at the state of a person

39:02

who will make a lot of mistakes because you do

39:04

not have a lot of experiences in entrepreneurship.

39:07

But I think me and Manny both,

39:10

through all the hard times, through all the mistakes,

39:12

through all the money losses, we just kept

39:14

going and our brands are doing better than ever.

39:16

They're thriving. Even people have

39:19

mentioned wanting us to collab in the future

39:21

with our brands. We've done so much with them,

39:24

and I think that's so hard in itself.

39:26

The percentages don't lie in

39:28

the amount of small businesses that don't make it

39:30

in the first three years, and I think I'm six years

39:32

in already.

39:33

Go, Laura. I'm

39:35

like, yeah, Laura Bestie. I

39:38

could not agree more. And I think one of my biggest triumphs,

39:40

because I felt like a full circle moment, was when I

39:42

was in Sephora for a year. My brand had

39:44

entered Sephora, and it was something I was just really

39:46

proud of because I started my makeup, actual makeup journey

39:49

in the makeup retail world, working at Sephora

39:51

and St. JCPenney. So when I

39:54

left Sephora and JCPenney, started working at Mac,

39:56

started influencing full time, six years later

39:58

to have my own makeup line. in Sephora had

40:01

felt like this very insane, like full

40:03

circle, like hard work pays off kind of moment

40:05

where I was like, holy crap, like this is literally

40:08

insane. So it's an accolade. I'll cherish

40:10

forever. I'm not into for anymore. It was much harder than

40:12

I thought it would be. But but

40:15

I am so proud of the experience. I've been able

40:18

to do it and experience it. I'd be like, Oh my God. Like I literally

40:20

was I started working at Sephora and now I had

40:22

a brand in Sephora. That's

40:23

awesome. A full circle. Yeah. You

40:25

guys are obviously BFFs. You

40:28

know, I can't wait for the Mora or

40:30

Lanny collab, the celeb,

40:33

celeb name. You're so funny. That's our celeb

40:35

name. Stay tuned. Literally stay tuned. Have

40:37

you guys ever felt like competitive

40:40

with each other? Honestly, it feels like both of you guys

40:42

are, you know, speaking so much from a place of

40:44

abundance and supporting each other. And like, you

40:46

know, you literally named a color in each

40:48

of your pallets after each other. But has

40:50

it ever been competitive? I think me and Manny,

40:53

we are competitive people

40:55

naturally. Like we have some competitive, but

40:57

I think it's always been a light hearted

40:59

competitive competitiveness

41:02

that has pushed us to do more

41:04

and to do it better, if anything.

41:07

I will say there is a reason we've

41:09

been friends for over seven years, best

41:11

friends, and it's because like

41:13

we don't have an underlying, you

41:16

know, yeah, like some

41:18

friendships, I feel like, you know, in the same industry,

41:20

having both makeup lines, it can get really

41:22

sticky. But honestly,

41:25

before Manny comes out with a product, you

41:27

better believe he's got it at my house. I'm

41:29

wearing it for months. I'm giving him feedback

41:31

and same for him with me. I'm like, Manny,

41:34

you've got to try this. And we help each other. But

41:36

I do think we have

41:37

a little bit of competitiveness, but it's all

41:39

in good in like goodness. It's healthy.

41:41

I think it keeps

41:43

me. You know what it is? It's more so for me.

41:45

It's not even that I feel competitive with Laura. It's

41:47

that I feel like held accountable with Laura. And I see

41:49

like when she does things that are like uploading

41:52

a lot or she's coming out these products, I'm like, yeah,

41:54

it makes me want to do it more for myself. It's not

41:56

that I feel like how dare she do that and

41:58

me not.

41:59

Oh my God, I'm so glad that she's doing that. I need to

42:02

do that as well because I know it's working. Or something

42:04

along those lines. So actually, for

42:06

me, I don't even feel like it's a competitive. It's more of like an accountability

42:08

thing where it's like, because Laura is a hard worker, it's

42:10

a push for me. Where I'm like, okay, I can do

42:12

this too. She pushes me to do more.

42:15

And I think that it's easy to fall

42:17

into the, like the competitive jealousy thing. But

42:20

me and Laura and Sara sewn our own lanes

42:23

and we just like push each other more to do more things.

42:25

Like if I felt competitive, Laura, I would never

42:27

be like shouting out every product

42:30

and naming my products after. Like I would never do that,

42:32

you know, because that's not what it is. That's our relationship.

42:34

We've been friends for too long for anything like that.

42:36

I love, I love you guys both so much.

42:38

Thank you so much for being here. Please tell

42:40

everyone where they can find you guys.

42:42

Okay, so mine, Mandy, MUA 733 on all my platforms and

42:46

Lunar Beauty on all of them as well.

42:48

I am larlarly on Instagram.

42:51

And you can just type in larlie anywhere

42:53

on the internet. And I promise you,

42:55

I will appear. I've been doing

42:58

it, Mandy, as well for like 10 years

43:00

now. So type in larlie and

43:02

YouTube, TikTok anywhere and you will

43:05

find me. Amazing. Thank you guys

43:07

so much for being on the show.

43:08

Thank you for having us. Thank you. It

43:10

was so much fun. So

43:11

fun.