Today is one of those days that I want to scream because I am so happy! What I am going to share here is the result of a year of hard work and that makes me feel proud of myself. In fact, if I analyze correctly, this project is the result of several things that happened in the course of my life. And as the moment allows, I wanted to tell you a short story …
When I was about 12 or 13 years old, I asked my mother: Mom, I want to be a Avon representative. Just after that, my mother called Avon and signed up – after all, I was a minor. This career as a Avon representative lasted for years. I started to earn my own money and run a mini business. Parallel to this, my love for the world of cosmetics was born. One of the coolest things was checking out the exclusive catalog to know what the next launchings. This work was part of several phases of my life.
At age 19, I went to Tubarão to study Journalism. I kept selling the products to new friends and contacts and loved visiting the beauty supply shops to buy new products and lots of nail polishes. After graduating in Journalism, I began to follow beauty blogs, which were becoming successful. I loved exploring the posts and I found myself wondering what my posts would look like if I had a blog. In July 2010, I turned those daydreams into reality. I remember that me and Thiago spent a whole Sunday working on the layout of the Habitat Feminino, name chosen for my blog.
On the blog, I wrote about cosmetics, gave tips about what worked for me and reviewed cosmetics. I also started to write posts about fashion. Year by year, I was growing as a journalist and improving my content, creating my criteria and my curation for the topics covered in the posts. With Habitat Feminino, I have achieved many things: social media management clients, a visit to the Natura (Brazlian cosmetic brand) factory, an invitation to be a columnist in the Diário do Sul (newspaper) and two trips to Medellin in Colombia, not to mention the various other contacts and jobs that I did.
In 2014, as many of you know, I moved to New York. I already loved to follow the beauty news from the USA and then imagine how crazy it is when you have access to all this news. The city began to be part of the blog posts, until that, after one year living here, I decided to focus only on the Big Apple. Not talking about fashion did not hurt me, I confess, but the idea of stop writing about beauty distressed me. That’s why I started to include tips about cosmetics and stores related to New York – after all, a lot of people love doing beauty shopping around here. I’ve always been the one that my friends asked for product tips. And I’ve explored several unobvious places for beauty shopping around here. Suddenly, it popped and I created a Personal Beauty Shopper service to help Brazilian women choose their cosmetics. But the dollar’s currency rose and it was unfeasible to maintain the service.
It was not a problem. I’m from the team that thinks it’s always good to try to see what happens. The creation of this service left me a legacy: a lot of knowledge about the stores here. And it would be a waste not to share this knowledge with the readers. That’s where I came up with the idea of putting everything together in an e-book – released last November – to show unusual sotes. The e-book was a success – I also got a mention on Glamor Magazine website. I already had a list of stores to add to a second edition of the e-book. And I had another idea: this market is so dynamic that an e-book is not enough to follow every store that opens or closes. The idea of an app was born: a guide to beauty shops in New York, in a mobile version.
Today, after working for several months on this project – along with Thiago, who embraced this idea with me and was essential in every step – we are launching NYC Beauty. And I breathe with that well-done feeling and, at the same time, eager to put into practice all the ideas I have for the future of this app. If I could say something to 13-year-old Laura, that would be, thank you!
Now, after this moment, let’s talk about the app? NYC Beauty brings together a lot of NYC beauty stores, divided into categories: beauty in a budget, pharmacies and multi-brand stores, makeup, skincare, body, hair, Korean beauty, beauty destinations, natural beauty and fragrances. Inside each store, there are icons that indicate what kind of cosmetic you will find in that store. Let’s say we are talking, for example, about Aveda, which is in the category “hair”, because is the main category of the brand. But Aveda also has makeup and body and face products, and these icons will help you identify this information. The text has a description of the store / brand, information and some tips. You will also find locations, hours of operation and phones. By clicking on the main photo of the store, you will see a pictures gallery. It is also worth mentioning the “Map of the city”, where you will see all the stores mapped and you can navigate by region.
NYC Beauty is a Beta projetc – it means we’re still working on it, with improvements and new features. In addition, we are already planning new things for the second version. It is available for now only in the App Store – so if you have an iPhone or iPad, you can now download it for free. We will also try to offer deals and discounts for users.
UPDATE: It’s available for Android too!
Now, I need your help: download and use the app, and if you have suggestions for improvements and features, share with us. It can be here, through Instagram or through my e-mail (laura@lauraperuchi.com). The app is on Instagram @nycbeautyapp and I will love if you follow the profile, because we intend to develop a very cool job there, always talking about the beauty market of the city. If you already enjoy my product tips, I’m sure you’ll love it.
For now, thank you very much for all the confidence in my work! I hope NYC Beauty can help you explore the wonderful world of cosmetics that exists in New York!
Laura Peruchi is a Brazilian blogger, author, and entrepreneur. She has lived in Manhattan with her husband since 2014. Since then, she has shared on her blog varied content about the Big Apple. From travel tips, including unusual things to do, shopping tips, etiquette, restaurants, and a lot more, her blog has become a reference in Portuguese (also available in English) for anyone planning a trip to New York City.
