Hialeah is the city in America with the highest percentage of Cubans and Cuban Americans, according to World Population Review. This is the city where one up and coming beauty entrepreneur gathers her inspiration from with a line of products, which she soon hopes to put on store shelves across the nation.
A journey starting back in 2018, Gabriella Trujillo always dreamed of starting her own business, leading her put her life savings into creating her first makeup palette. La Reina del Caribe: inspired by Celia Cruz and her native Cuba.
"The makeup that I create embodies my family so well. Like phrases we say. Colors my tías would wear. Turquoise eyeliner. Those bright colors I grew up seeing that were part of makeup style of Cuban women and I do think that between the stories we tell, packaging, names, tells the millennial version of Cuba," said Trujillo, founder and creator of Alamar Cosmetics.
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Alamar was named after the place where Gaby was born, a neighborhood in the heart of Havana, Cuba. Raised in Hialeah, Gaby has always kept Cuba close to her heart.
The Americanized immigrant identity is something she captures in her Spanglish collection.
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"It’s all about living life in the hyphen. Cuban American. Mexican American. Salvadoreña American. We live in that middle ground."
As the winner of the Valde Latinx Beauty Entrepreneur grant, Trujillo will receive $10,000 in financial assistance, $200,000 worth in legal counsel, mentorship from beauty industry executives, and the opportunity to pitch her beauty product in front of all beauty retail companies. This is all in the hopes that she can get her products in a beauty store shelf like Sephora and Ulta.
'UNDERSTAND OUR SKIN, NUANCES, OUR HAIR...'
Margarita Arriagada, founder of Valde Beauty, was the first woman of color on Sephora’s executive team as chief merchant. Her company and grant hopes to diversify the beauty sector.
"Traditionally, the industry has been Eurocentric. European culture has been superior," said Arriagada.
She says Latina women presence in executive positions to product marketing, is still underrepresented.
"It’s an irony. As a community we over consume in the beauty space."
"Not only do we need more representation but understanding. To understand our skin, nuances, our hair, the Afro Latina was not even being represented as much until Black Lives Matter came," said Arriagada.
Regardless of one’s cultural background, Gaby has one goal for her booming makeup brand: to connect beauty with global identities
"I want them to feel excited and connected to an overall story. Culture. Not just my own but whatever that is for them. Feeling like there’s beauty in their own families tradition," said Trujillo.
Trujillo currently operates out of a warehouse in Hialeah. Alamar Cosmetics is entirely funded by Trujillo who also says she is proud to employ immigrants life herself.
