PHOTO | TROY HULL

Diamond Weems (second from left) is founder of Lip N Pour, which helps customers produce their own custom-blended body butter, lipsticks and foundation.

A Charlotte makeup artist is helping Black women find the right shade of foundation and lipsticks through custom products.

Diamond Weems, 33, is founder and owner of the first Black-owned custom blend franchise, Lip N Pour, a cosmetic experience where customers learn how to make their own foundation, lipsticks and body butter, a new class she added in October.

“I feel like as a woman, period, it is hard for us to just go to a store and find typical colors for our skin tone. It's a unique experience,” said Weems. “You're actually making a color for yourself. You know, it's going to work for you. You can create your own color, you can add your own shimmer, you can add on sent, and then you have to name your product.”

In her business, located at 1811 Sardis Road, Weems teaches her clients how to make their own products. However, for those unable to take a class, Weems sells her products individually and online. Her specialty is encouraging her clients to take part in a unique educational experience.

When Weems' clients come in, they are greeted and offered a glass of wine to begin their experience.  Each class has its own unique experience, each creation its own process.

“You can have five different bases,” Weems said. “You can do a cream or a matte lipstick. So, you can choose whatever base that you like. I tell people to pick something, a base that they're actually going to wear.”

For the lips, Weems offers her clients 21 colors to choose from, shimmer and scents ranging from peppermint, pineapple and strawberry, all for them to leave with one perfect shade of lipstick. For foundation the process is more rigorous, but clients leave with a primer, a brush and a perfect custom color for their skin tone.

“It is full coverage and in that class you'll particularly learn how to apply it,” Weems said. “I know a lot of people don't really know how to apply the foundation, so the good thing about that class is you'll be able to leave knowing how to apply the foundation that you created.”

Though there are thousands of makeup products in the market, many women continue to struggle to find the right products for their skin.

According to McKinsey & Company, a business consultant, Black people’s experience with the beauty industry is markedly more frustrating than that of other people and filled with multiple friction points that non-Black consumers, entrepreneurs, and brands are less likely to face.

“Consider, for example, that Black brands—defined as either Black-founded or Black-owned—make up only 2.5 percent of revenue in the beauty industry, yet Black consumers are responsible for 11.1 percent of total beauty spending,” it stated in a study. “Or that Black consumers simply don’t see themselves in beauty advertisements on TV, in magazines, or on billboards because of a lack of diversity in ad campaigns. Black consumers also don’t have access to quality beauty products the way that non-Black shoppers do, and when they do, it is harder for them to find the products they are looking for,” the study continued.

Having experienced this, Weems began her makeup journey in 2015, where she became certified after taking classes at Central Piedmont Community College.

“When I got my cosmetology license, I would use my classmates as test dummies for different lip colors and they would be like ‘Damn, you have really good products.’”
 The idea to begin her own business came to Weems when she participated in a Sip N Paint.

“I just felt like it was super hard to find new lipstick that fit my skin tone,” she said. “So, I would honestly stay at the beauty supply store for hours swatching colors in my hand. But it wasn't until my boyfriend I went to Sip N Paint, and I was like ‘I can do the same exact idea but with lipstick and lip gloss.’”  To test her lip bar idea, Weems gathered 16 women at a hotel conference room that same year.

“It literally took off from there,” Weems said.

For the past three years, to keep up with a beauty bar she had previously, Lip N Pour was open on Saturdays only. However, Weems closed it to focus more on Lip N Pour and began offering classes six days a week before including Sunday operations.

Through the years, Weems has gained a large social media following where she shares thousands of custom lip shades her clients have created because of her classes. Each class has a maximum of six people who come from as far as California, New York and South Carolina. With her business continuing to progress, Weems will announce the first franchise of Lip N Pour in January.

“We are opening a franchise in Huntsville, Alabama,” she said.

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