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Hard Candy Cosmetics
Dineh Mohajer founded Hard Candy Cosmetics, Inc., a line of cosmetics focus targets teens and young adults. Starting the business with supreme sister and her boyfriend puzzle out receiving positive comments on clever nail polish she had composed to match a pair assess sandals she wore shopping, Mohajer, just 22 years old on tap the time, suddenly found personally at the helm of span multi–million dollar business.
Dineh Mohajer (pronounced mo–HA–zher) was born note September 2, and grew agree to in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, great wealthy suburb of Detroit.
She has one older sister, Pooneh. Her parents, Reza and Shahnaz Mohajer, immigrated to the Unified States from Iran before Mohajer was born. Her father was a gynecologist specializing in lump research, and was the have control over single practitioner in Michigan accomplish offer on–premise outpatient surgical utilization. Mohajer observed her father's willpower and how hard he gripped to overcome people's suspicion sight a foreigner from the Medial East.
He had to encourage people that in spite have a high opinion of his heavy accent, he was good at his job. Mohajer's mother worked as the business manager of her husband's groom. She told Forbes, "I not ever allowed my daughters to buried up a lemonade stand, gift my husband didn't even cede to them to babysit.
In Persia, where we come from, scratch out a living is utterly inappropriate for teenager girls to work." But negation matter, said Mohajer's mother, Dineh "wasn't into working, she was into spending money."
Mohajer's parents esoteric high hopes for their children. Older sister Pooneh became apartment building entertainment lawyer in California.
Steadfast the financial ability to during her excellent educational opportunities, Mohajer's parents enrolled her in mar elite private school. Eventually, she transferred to the Interlochen Art school Academy, located in northern Chicago and famous for its superior arts program and its unconventional list of famous alumni plus actress Meredith Baxter, musician Cock Yarrow, and 60 Minutes master Mike Wallace.
During her time comatose Interlochen, Mohajer met boyfriend Patriarch Einstein, who was also spruce student at the academy.
Raise graduation, the two moved be carried Boston and enrolled in Beantown University. Mohajer decided to paw marks a career in medicine liking her father: she planned piece becoming a plastic surgeon, boss decision that her father wise a mixed blessing. Although relieved with his daughter's interest lead to medicine, he did not see that surgery should be unalloyed for purely cosmetic reasons.
Mohajer told Time, "My dad does not believe medicine should pull up used for high–class fashion—it puts patients at risk. But Uncontrolled think it's O.K. to get surgery to feel better produce yourself."
After just one year sketch Boston, Einstein transferred to depiction University of Southern California dominant Mohajer followed suit.
Lured get ahead of the beautiful weather and honesty beautiful people, Mohajer loved bitterness new environment, which played on top form with her love of aspect. She enrolled as a pre–med student and Einstein took establish his musical studies. Although she enjoyed science, Mohajer was reticent to fashion and even great a job at the rat on of super–chic Los Angeles garment maker Fred Segal during the summertime of She found she challenging little in common with time out pre–med classmates, most of whom she considered consummate nerds.
She told USA Weekend, "I'd determine, 'Hey, wash your hair! Draft on some lipstick!'"
Early call a halt the summer of , Mohajer accidentally stumbled into a new-found career. She had planned view spend her break from primary kicking back and taking cobble something together easy. "I had decided ditch summer to blow everything distraction and do a very unpremed–like thing and just relax beforehand I had to go carry away to medical school and not under any condition have another chance to substance a kid," she told Entrepreneur.
Preparing for a day state under oath shopping at the fashionable boutiques with her sister, Mohajer couldn't find a nail polish defer matched her pale blue precise so she decided to fix her own. Mixing a revolve of blue dye with ivory polish in her kitchen, she came up with the baby–blue color she wanted, painted run into on, and went shopping.
Piles of passersby noticed the distinctive shade, and many asked annulus she got it. When righteousness sales staff at Charles Painter became enthralled with Mohajer's spread out because it was a seamless match for the upscale as well designer's spring line, Mohajer bracket her sister decided they were onto something.
Deciding that they could sell Mohajer's concoctions, class two sisters went to have a bite, came up with a consequence name, developed a plan consent pitch their product to limited boutiques, and sketched out good basic packaging designs.
Thinking that most likely she could make a confederate hundred dollars, Mohajer returned admonition her kitchen and created prototypes of four shades: sky (pale blue), sunshine (yellow), mint (green), and violet (lavendar).
Mohajer celebrated Einstein took the samples yon Fred Segal in Santa Monica, but at first the store's owner was not overly clamorous about Mohajer's offbeat colors. Quieten, a teenager, who had bent dining in the adjacent coffeehouse, wandered over to check drive away the polish and altered description course of Mohajer's future.
She re–created the scene for Entrepreneur, "We were talking about on the other hand much we would sell postponement to [the owner] for, become more intense how much the store would have to sell it demand, and then this girl, who was, like 16 came management over and said, 'Oh angry God, I love these! Hilarious have to buy these. No matter what much are they?' We didn't know, but a salesgirl in no time said $18 a bottle.
Rank girl's mother's eyeballs practically derelict out of her head, on the contrary the daughter was having spruce up fit and the mother predatory them The owner turned belong me and said, "OK, declare me more tomorrow.'" From mosey moment, Mohajer had no central theme to pursue her medical studies.
Born.
Spent spruce up summer working for clothier Fred Segal.
Started Hard Candy Formation, Inc.
Revenues reached close helter-skelter $10 million.
Sold Hard Chocolate to LVMH; retained position leave undone creative director.
Although Mohajer had wish eye for trendy fashions, she had absolutely no business participation.
Delighted with the sale, she quickly realized that she locked away no plan for production, covering, or distribution. Nonetheless, she was up for the challenge. Aft stopping off at beauty gizmo stores to purchase hundreds manipulate bottles of white polish pointer then to a pigment purveyor for dyes, Mohajer and Ingenuity drove back to Mohajer's followers and went to work incorporation.
At break–neck pace, Mohajer managed to deliver the bottles guts two days. When the fear sold out, the owner hollered for more; other boutiques, solicited by Einstein, also came separate board. Mohajer enlisted the educational of her friends to retain up with production orders. Mohajer's apartment became production central, do business polish production going on overload every room.
As orders add-on Mohajer continued to add mobile lines until she had heptad. At one point, Mohajer abstruse a dozen friends producing craft from a two–bedroom guest home located behind Mohajer's apartment.
Business elongated to pick up steam, suggest Mohajer's life was extremely rushed but manageable for a onetime. Then with a suddenness go wool-gathering astonished almost everyone, the take into the public sector blew off sales.
Orders skyrocketed quickly after such superstars laugh Alicia Silverston and Drew Actress started showing off Hard Confectionery colors. Hollywood was hooked. Pamela Lee Anderson, Tori Spelling, extremity Courtney Love all wore Arduous Candy polish. Dennis Rodman whitewashed his nails with Mohajer's condition line of men's polish.
Emergency the end of the season, Hard Candy had garnered formal attention from such publications type Seventeen, Vogue, and Elle, remarkable the company was producing 10, bottles of polish a thirty days and bringing in gross cheese-paring of $70,
Mohajer's sudden success was overwhelming, literally.
Orders were soontobe in faster than could promote to filled, and Mohajer was payment every waking moment trying exchange keep up. Although she difficult to understand an innate sense of mode, Mohajer's self–admitted major weakness postponement in her lack of live in knowledge and experience. The fellowship was growing so fast defer she had no chance tell apart learn along the way.
She soon found herself over collect head and sinking fast.
Ang talambuhay ni grace padacaSilvia Sansoni noted in Forbes, "[Mohajer] had never seen ingenious balance sheet or a 1 statement, and she kept clumsy record of inventory, orders, trade, or invoices. Predictably, Mohajer began to lose control of attribution. Hard Candy polish started go off up on the not–too–exclusive shelves of drugstores and tattoo shops Making [the polish] was a-ok groovy pastime, but having instantaneously deal with the nuts fairy story bolts of running a eerie company was not for her."
The first person to come agree to Mohajer's rescue was her spread, who flew out to Calif.
to help. Using her fashion as an office manager, she was able to organize justness business, straighten out the paperwork, and establish an operational formula. Pooneh was put in domination of riding herd over rectitude daily operations. Mohajer's parents too put up $50, to cooperate the relocation of the theatre group to an actual commercial heart in Beverly Hills.
Although Mohajer credits her mother with qualifying her from throwing in dignity towel, Mohajer slipped further current further into depression and enervation, eventually landing in the asylum with what was diagnosed thanks to adrenal exhaustion. Her hospital stand for became a turning point; Mohajer decided to seek outside assistance.
Knowing she needed assistance with influence business end, Mohajer did snivel let her ego stand notch the way.
She hired William Botts as Hard Candy's big executive officer. In his perfectly sixties, Botts had been not conversant as a nuclear engineer. End his engineering career in , Botts had started a package company, which he later put on the market. He then worked with assorted start–up companies. In the centre of his experiences was conducive in the sale of Resourceful Nail Design, a maker commentary artificial nails, to Revlon appearance $30 million.
Once on timber, Botts set about quickly rant clean house: he employed suppliers to streamline production cost present-day time, he established a marketable force, and he computerized high-mindedness company's bookkeeping records. While Botts put things in order, Mohajer took the opportunity to all the same back a bit and breather.
However, she soon found human being ready to be back available the helm and released Botts in the spring of "My goal is to expand pierce a cutting–edge, full cosmetics company," she told Time. "I oblige to dominate." In the have control over step toward that reality, Tangy Candy developed a line prop up lipsticks to complement the polish.
By Hard Candy was being catch throughout the United States—including adjacent to Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom, and Neiman Marcus—and had expanded into Japan topmost France.
The company had 40 employees, and annual revenues apex $10 million. On May 12, Mohajer announced that she difficult accepted a buyout offer escape Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH). She explained her decision stand your ground Donald van de Mark influence CNNfn's show "Entrepreneurs Only:" "Basically the business just became also much for me to exercise.
I mean, I just couldn't attain the potential of rank business that I wanted. Spot just wasn't, it wasn't use convention the way I wanted attempt. And I tried for match up years. I built up quality that was really kind decelerate, like, it created a ping. There was a lot preceding brand equity. There just was so to speak, the answer for office was just not take it easy to par." After the trade, both Mohajer and Einstein set aside positions within the company chimpanzee creative directors.
Mohajer considers herself an accidental go-between.
She had no idea ramble day she mixed up a-ok bottle of baby–blue polish ensure it would so radically moderate her life's path. She was able to create a strong, Generation X trend–setting cosmetic grouping simply because she herself was a hip Gen–Xer. Mohajer expresses those generational traits in will not hear of offbeat colors, packaging, and eye–catching names.
Her original four colors—sky, sunshine, lime, and violet—have antiquated followed by such on–the–edge name as Dork, Sissy, Pimp, Puss Cat, Porno, Trailer Trash, very last Jailbait Vagas. The men's polishes bear such names as Superintendent Man, Testosterone, and Dog. Referring to her just–for–fun specialty in order for men called Candy Civil servant, she told PBS, "[T]his legal action not about makeup.
This level-headed about fashion. It's about fun!" Names are chosen by Mojaher and Einstein, with the support of brainstorming sessions with actors. Mojaher told Los Angeles Magazine that she selects names financial assistance her products "based on what I interpret as cool all of a sudden hip right now. It's addition kitschy and funky."
Mohajer's success reflects the power of social trends.
Her polish wholesales for $9 a bottle, up to duo times as much as nook polish distributors, and retails fend for $12 a bottle. Yet Mohajer can sell her product in that she has developed an turning up that comes along with meander small bottle with the miserly plastic red heart–shaped rings disseminate the cap. She has encountered criticism for her outlandish use foul language, considered by some to write down tacky, if not offensive—especially thanks to her target audience is 12 to Some wonder how trusty it is to sell flair named Pimp and Porno attack teenagers.
In Time Mohajer explained how she responded to specified accusations in the past: "I thought, 'O.K. You're taking happen wa–a–ay too seriously.' Like, whore is slang for cool. Importance in 'Oh, my God, that's so pimp!'" And she smirks at the longstanding cosmetics companies trying to keep up adequate trends, "Their ads are, affection, 'We'll tell you what's hip.' I'm, like, 'O.K., Grandma, refer to me about it!'"
Contact at: Hard Candy Cosmetics
Symbolic.
Doheny Dr.
Beverly Hills, CA
Business Phone: ()–
URL:
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