We recently connected with Sasha Mkdad and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Sasha, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
Single-handedly my resilience comes from my mom. My mother is an immigrant-born woman that endured so many hardships in her life, but always overcame them — but not only that, she excelled and exceeded expectation. She taught me how to be fearless and strong with her actions — never really needing to say words but speak with her decisions. My whole life I was able to see what a strong Latina woman was through the ever-changing world around us. I am blessed in this life to have her as a role model.
My first business endeavor was a cafe. For a few years we were busy and lively. Unfortunately the unforeseeable pandmeic cut the lifespan of the cafe. I did not let that stop me — it only motivated me to materialize my dreams. I always dreamt of starting my own cosmetics brand. At the age of 12, I started wearing makeup for the first time — it started with mascara to enhance my lashes. I was bullied for most of my life, however when I started enhancing my features with makeup, it made me confident. I decided to follow in my mom’s resilience, and turn my insecurities into a business. I now sell quality cosmetics to everyone, without prejudice, in hopes that it can inspire others to follow their own dreams, even if life gets hard.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am a daughter, a sister, a wife, and a dog mom. I love being able to work on my dream and bettering my brand! I am the owner and creator of Horror Lashes, a spooky themed cosmetic brand. From our social media, to our products (lashes, eyeshadow palettes, lipsticks, etc), to our posters & graphics — I create everything! I design every single thing that goes into our brand and I’m so proud of that! As it stands, we are run by just myself – a lone Latinx womxn. I have incredible help from my husband when the times comes (setting up our in-person displays), but I love that I can be true to what the supporters want!
I love being able to create this brand with every year that passes. At the time of this publishing, we are 3 years old. I’d love to believe Horror Lashes is a living concept — it grows and feeds off what makes customers happy. I always aim to go bigger and better, and fortunately we have done just that!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
What I learned is, you must have heart. You can have a business degree (which I don’t have), a bucket load of money + investments (which I don’t have), and endless amount of exposure (which I didn’t have at first) but if you lack the heart to create a brand then it will fail. I give my brand 100% of my heart & soul and it shows. I love what I do, I do what I love and that’s all I try to give into this world 🙂
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
As a part-time business owner with a full-time job, on top of being a wife & dog mom, sometimes life just becomes busy. Sometimes it becomes overwhelming, especially because it’s just myself with the help of my husband. My advice would be to achieve a balance. Easier said than done, however I find if you can find the time to just be with yourself for a while, and separe the “working” parts of your life, it will become easier with time.
Contact Info:
- Website: horrorlashes.bigcartel.com
- Instagram: @horrorlashes
Image Credits
@jessica.fragoza
