We recently had the opportunity to chat with Bridgette Jones and Valese Jones, owners of The Queendom Beauty Bar. The Queendom Beauty Bar is a mobile, luxury, self-care atmosphere that provides “women on the go” services such as hair care, nail care, facials, massages, and makeup artistry. The two created this concept when they noticed the inconvenience of not having such services together in specific areas of Dallas. To conclude Women’s History Month, we wanted to share the story of these two amazing women and display the value they offer to the community
As entrepreneurs we know you have to tell your story many times but for those who aren’t familiar with you and your business, please share your story of how you two partnered up?What was the aha moment that led to the creation of your company The Queendom Beauty Bar?
Co-founders Valese Jones and Bridgette Jones have been best friends for 17 years and have always wanted to own a business together. Through shared experiences of feeling like self care was a second job, The Queendom Beauty Bar, LLC was born! We both understood that women spend days and hours going back and forth to take care of their beauty needs, and we wanted to make it easier for those who couldn’t find the right products or didn’t have enough time to search around. Our goal was to create a lavish self care environment that would be inclusive to black and brown women while providing easier access and convenience to beauty.
That’s amazing! Who was the first person to #COSIGN (support) your business and help give it a push? Also, what was the significance behind this particular #COSIGN?
The first person to COSIGN our business model was Mahisha Dellinger, the CEO and Founder of CURLS. We had a great opportunity to pitch to her and other prominent investors and she LOVED our concept and truly understood the vision! She challenged us to begin our entrepreneurial journey in a different way in order to have an advantage with future investors.
We love Mahisha! Tell us, what are the positives and negatives of providing a mobile beauty experience compared to a standard brick and mortar location?
Although brick and mortar locations are a part of our future plans for The Queendom Beauty Bar, LLC, we wanted to begin with beauty buses that can provide easier access to self care. With our beauty bus, we will be able to go through black and brown communities to give them a lavish experience, reach the elderly and disabled community, and even travel to rural regions where such services are many miles away. With The Queendom being one of the first full service mobile buses, we provide a unique experience that can come to our clients whether it is a wedding, major event, business party or even a personal party! It takes more logistics to run a mobile business and we would not have as much walk in business as a brick and mortar, but we want to change the future of beauty through convenience.
Tha’t definitely innovative. You recently released “The Queendom Beauty Box” tell us more about this and why you wanted to get into the subscription business?
In 2020, construction of our beauty bus came to a halt when we lost our investor. Instead of accepting that as defeat, we created The Queendom Beauty Box to continue to raise brand awareness and generate profit. Being in quarantine gave us a lot of time to try new beauty products; however, it was really hard to find black and brown brands. The Queendom Beauty Box is a way to have access to black and brown beauty products at the fraction of the cost! We realized that the majority of black and brown women owned businesses also struggled to stay afloat through the pandemic; therefore, we teamed up to provide those in quarantine a way to enjoy black and brown owned beauty products easier.
Who are some beauty entrepreneurs that inspire ya’ll and what about them motivated you two to enter the beauty industry?
Kahlana Barfield Brown, InStyle’s Fashion and Beauty editor, and Tai Beauchamp, a media personality and journalist, are just two of the women in the beauty industry that we admire. We actually had the opportunity to meet them and hear them speak at a business academy. Faced with one of the few black women in their beauty fields, they overcame any obstacle thrown at them with grace. They are bold and represent for black women, regardless of the audience and that is our goal! Through The Queendom, we will not allow black women to be an afterthought in the beauty industry.
We noticed that you have an all-star team comprised of powerful women such as Mahisha Dellinger and Maxi Kozler. How did you team up with them and how has this helped your business?
Networking is a powerful tool. We research events that can help us get into spaces to meet potential mentors and investors. Through social media, we were able to come across an event that Mahisha Dellinger held for African American women business owners. Through going to this event, we had access to attend her business academy, Black Girls Making Millions. This event held major gameplayers that we networked and followed up with in order to help get our business off the ground. They have helped us to understand to be “married to the vision and not the plan”.
Your company also aims to spread more awareness of BIPOC brands to put them on the map and provide financial and career opportunities, how are ya’ll going about completing this mission?
Through The Queendom Beauty Bar, LLC we plan to help elevate black and brown women though beauty from consumer to employee to partner. With The Queendom Beauty Box, we help black and brown small business beauty brands with publicity and marketing by introducing them to new and bigger audiences. With The Queendom Beauty Bus, we will have up and coming beauty industry experts in which we will provide supplies, marketing, customers, training and entrepreneurial opportunities. We are stronger together and through partnership our business can continue to thrive.
To learn more about The Queendom Beauty Bar and to support visit their website here and follow them on Instagram at @TheQueencomBBTX.