The 85 South Show with Karlous Miller, DC Young Fly and Chico Bean - #BlackMarket - What's Vegan Nail Polish? with Karlous Miller and IV KULTURE

Episode Date: December 27, 2021

Taja and Toi are two sisters who started a booming nail polish business out of South Florida! Watch them talk with Karlous Miller about their motivation to start a vegan nail polish and learn exactly what that is!https://ivkulture.com/Hit Our Website for more info: https://www.85southshow.com/Get our custom merchandise: https://85apparelco.com/Subscribe To our Channel: bitly.com/85tubeFOLLOW THE CREWKARLOUS MILLER - https://www.facebook.com/karlousm/DCYOUNGFLY - https://www.facebook.com/DcYoungFly1/CHICO BEAN - https://www.facebook.com/OldSchoolFool/Director - JOE T. NEWMAN - www.ayoungplayer.comProducer CHAD OUBRE - https://www.instagram.com/chadoubre/Producer - LANCE CRAYTON - https://www.instagram.com/cat_corleone_/It's Jon - https://www.instagram.com/holaj_o_n/ Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Your entire identity has been fabricated. Your beloved brother goes missing without a trace. You discover the depths of your mother's illness. I'm Danny Shapiro. And these are just a few of the powerful stories I'll be mining on our upcoming 12th season of Family Secrets. We continue to be moved and inspired by our guests

and their courageously told stories. Listen to Family Secrets Season 12, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Summer's here, and with the kids home and off to camp, it's easy for moms to get lost in the shuffle. On Good Mom's Bad Choices, we're making space to center ourselves with joy, rest, and pleasure. Take the kids to camp. You know what? It was expensive. But I was also thinking, if you have my kid, this is kind of priceless.

Take her, feed her, make core memories. I don't have to do anything. Main thing, I don't have to do anything. To hear this and more, listen to Good Mom's Bad Choices from Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Adventure should never come with a pause button. Remember Movie Pass? All the movies you wanted for just nine bucks? I'm Bridget Todd, host of There Are No Girls on the Internet. And this season, I'm digging into the tech stories we weren't told.

Starting with Stacey Spikes, the black founder of Movie Pass, who got pushed out of the company he built. Everybody's trying to knock you down, and it's not going to. to work and no one's going to like it. And then boom, it's everywhere. And that was that moment. Listen to there, no girls on the internet on the IHurt Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The Black Market is an initiative created by 85 South Media to highlight, amplify, and

showcase leaders, entrepreneurs, and educators from our community. The show tapes monthly at our studio in Atlanta, Georgia to submit you or your organization for consideration called 85 Southshow.com. Backslash Black Market. And welcome back to the 85 South Show. Black Excellence Business Spotlights. We are in here today. We're two lovely black ladies, black women, black girl magic.

Yay, I'm like that. Oh man. How y'all doing today? I got my girl Tasia. See, I got a girl, Toy. I know you was going to do that. No, I actually did that. No, we got Taja and Taya.

Thank you, Adam Jake. Taze and Toy. We were just sitting here talking about names and how I was trying to make sure I didn't mess them up. Make sure you're on your toes. What's going on? Nothing. I mean, we're excited to be here, so thank you.

Welcome to the trap. Hey. First of all, thank you for having us. Yeah, this nice little chat. A girl, look how Marvin Gay looking at. She's like having us. You better stop. No, what's up, man?

We wanted to invite y'all for our Black Excellence Spotlight. We know y'all have a lot of nice things going on and things of that nature. So we wanted to use our platform to invite some black business on us on here to tell the word about it I love that so introduce your product and yourselves so my name is toy toy and I'm one of the co-owners of four cultures so it's basically a vegan nail lacquer that me and my sister's open so it's actually four of us that opened up the vegan nail lacquer and so

when we say vegan that doesn't mean you can you know eat it yeah not like the well I'm glad you said that because we're living in the time right now where people using drill glue style their hair and I'm so glad you said don't eat it so you're not supposed to eat it you might have to start putting the warning label on it I know I mean it's not safe it is it is I mean we had the whole privacy notice all that type of stuff yeah yeah but what vegan basically means is that it's non-toxic so that means that it's cruelty free it's not testing on animals right so we wanted to get into like a business that promoted clean beauty being girls and growing up in a house full of girls we play dress up

all the time. All the time. It was always painting nails, do your hair. Right. So we came up, you know, to a product that we wanted to all, that we all liked to come up with together. And we just noticed, like, in the industry, there wasn't a lot of clean beauty products, meaning that, you know, most products had more toxins that were banned in other countries.

Right. So we're wondering, like, if they're banned in other countries, like, why are we so far behind? So we wanted to develop something that was safer, cleaner, especially for black women, because we are fed more synthetic chemicals in our products than most people. and our products than most people. Who brought it to the table to be like, we're spending too much money on pink nail pilots? Or like, what did the idea, like, spark from?

It looks difficult. Because I'm sure y'all, like, y'all grew up in a house with a lot of women, so. Yeah. I mean, I just remember sitting at the table one day and we were just like, well, for one, one of our big goals is to open up our own black nail salon. Where we stay at in, you know, South Florida,

where we are from, there weren't that, there aren't that many, you know, black own nail salon. Now, Atlanta is a different story, you know, it's the black makeup, but we wanted to be represented. And so we were just saying, I think, did we come home when they ain't gotten mad about? No, I think we came home. We just want, you just want to make more money. I think that would be true.

I think we just wanted, we wanted to find a business to make and that we were passionate about. But, you know, we just didn't want to, like, come out with anything. We wanted to do something we were passionate about. And I think at that time, like, all of our sisters were in some form in the, you know, beauty, health, wellness. And so we try to, like, come together and say, what all four of us would have, like, a conference. men love for and so we just kind of like you know what we all get our nails done like that's one of things that we we just you know religiously are into and so we were like okay so then we started in our research and started realizing like a lot of big brands were more toxic and I mean there

was just like a lot of health concerns that most people just don't know about and so then we kind were like dang if we did come out with this I would want to come out with a different type of product that put health at the forefront and not just as an after thought so well how many palettes or colors do y'all have We have 17 right now. Yeah, we have 17 right now. That's what so good. I didn't even realize, at what age do girls start painting them now? I'm probably young.

We, five, three, like, playing with polish. Yeah. I mean, we took our young youth school, a girl that was living like a total of five. Probably, yeah. So this is... Start wearing acrylic, maybe in middle school, I don't know. Word?

I never knew. I just, I don't know. You know, we're not, we're the whole revolution. the whole revolution right now where men are discovering a whole lot of things about women, you know, as far as they view the secrets and stuff like that. You know, as far as with the social media

and shit, there's a lot of shit going on. I mean, like, even like the buying power, like with women that are black women. Yeah. And beauty is like over $1 trillion. So we spend a lot of money on beauty products. That's what I was getting into. Like, do you have any more products that you're launching as far as

on the live? Yeah, we do. I mean, it's a couple things we got on work. Like, um, So our bread and brother is our vegan nail lacquer line. That's like where we started. And then we kind of moved into like press on nail sets. So like when COVID hit and all the nail slums was closed, you know, we know how to pivot real quick. And so people aren't going to the nelson.

So then we start working with other black nail tech artists who were like out of work and giving them opportunity to like do some sets and sell them on a platform. So then we start doing press on those sets doing COVID. And now we're working. Then we launched our clean beauty subscription boxes, which is like all full size products. of clean beauty everything around health and wellness and then from there I think we're about to lunch some other projects too okay so out of all your

colors what would you say both of y'all what's your favorite shade or hue or I mean right now I'm being real risky because this is one of our new colors but I'm more into like the red breezy okay yeah but my favorite colors are red tones yeah that's me I'm like my change I feel like it depends on the season, you know, so, I mean, I go real bright. Like, we had, like, this forever young yellow color that I like to wear in the springtime. But in the fall, like, I kind of tone it down. So, like, my favorite colors now is the gray, this one here.

And this one is called cuffing season. We got to get together on some names. I got a whole list of names. That's the funnest part, like, coming up the names. Like, yeah. We have, like, cuffing season. That's my favorite. Coming out with some church lady red.

Box Chevy Blue. Oh, I mean. I like that. Oh, trap girl green. See, we did a rich auntie, but now we need to change. Rich auntie? Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Oh, okay.

Yeah, not the cool auntie, she's a rich auntie, yeah. You should have a whole line of just like scammer shades. Oh my, scammer shades. Ooh, just like shades for scammers. I mean, what colors would those be? Oh, money green. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, that's true.

Oh, well, that's true. Chase Derrick card blue. Oh, these are hidden. No. These, I need to write this down. Those are good. The scamma collection. I like that.

Something real quick. That could just be a random color. Like, what color is that? Girl, it's just something real quick. Oh, that's name. I like that. I like that, too. We need the collab.

I just want to do the names. No, I literally, like, that's how hard it's part, like, coming up with names. And it's four of us, so it's like, if somebody don't like a name, I'm like, I don't like that name. Go back and forth. We go back and forth. Like, what's that? process like being in like so you got all your sisters involved in this you know it's so hard to get a group of women to agree on anything so has there been it back and forth like you've got a

process now what is it you know that's that's a working process that's a working process i mean i think that i mean we we've been getting better yeah yeah there've been some times where it's just like closed the doom call right right right right right but we got attitude problems all of us so yeah have y'all split up the whole like business like you do this you do this we had to. I mean, it got to a point sometimes. We were like, okay, I quit. Like, take me off the LLC. So what's your, what's your specialty as the, you know, like in the role of sisters and then, like, in the role of the business, like, what's your name? I would say I'm more media relations, PR, because I actually do it on my, like, everyday job. So I do it and bring that part of it to the business. So I'm like PR. Toy is more like, um, social media. Design, creativity, social media. And then my little sister, Tash, she's more.

more social media, creative design. And then my other sister, Tiana, she is finance, accounting. She's going to make sure all the money. We can come up with, like, cool ideas, and she's just pulling out the books. Like, nah, it don't make sense. Like, yeah. So have y'all always been, like, on some collab type stuff with everything, or just your first project is, like, the sisters doing the job?

We are, as sisters, we are very close. Yeah. Like, we do everything together, really. We, yeah. So, like, we're, like, best friends. Right. So it only made sense to hope. Just start a whole business.

Yeah. And we know each other attitudes and we know our storm points, you know what I'm saying? And we can take feedback from each other for the most part. I mean, until it gets some times when we closed the computers and stuff like that. But yeah. Okay. So how's business? I mean, what has been that moment where it's like, okay, this is, this could be something.

You know, I think like we, we had a boost in business last year, like during, you know, COVID, especially because, like we said, the nail salons were closed. A lot of people wanted quick and easy ways to get their nail. it was done just to press them on press and go right um but one of i think our biggest moments that stood out for us was when we kind of got recognition by candy the housewife yeah um and that just like skyrocket like our yeah so shout out of candy yeah she really you know what i love about her i feel like she yeah so genuine you see them they speak to everybody they show everybody love she's very genuine yeah we weren't even expecting like for her to even like do that so she had like a little post or something on Facebook and a couple of our friends tagged us in the

post but it was so many other like you know black businesses that were posted under this post but you know she reached out to us did a whole like video like for our company so I think that was the big like yeah that was uh because we were kind of going you know we were kind of feeling like defeated a little bit and then that just like happened and then like we just it's just like let's do this so that was gonna be my next question like say for instance somebody may be watching this and they you know they at that moment where they like man fuck it like what words of encouragement or you know lesson would you give them to try to stay in there and keep going and keep pushing because everybody need those

moments of affirmation where they can say all right this is not i'm not about to give up yeah yeah no i would say for me and i mean you could probably answer this differently i think for me like i'm very big on journaling and writing things so whenever i feel like something is like not going according to plan i write down how i wanted to go to you know to plan and i literally write it as if it has already happened and so i would say like you know magic type shit she's a manifester but i was saying you know last year like that's what i did with my business and even my own personal you know business that like i have going on as a trainer i wrote what i wanted to do and most of all everything just started falling in place but it's when you think it's not going to work

it is going to work yeah yeah that's that is real once you can take it out your mind and you put it into the physical world. That's the first step. What would you say? And I would say for me it's more so like I think when I started a business, I feel like there's like an expectation that everybody's supposed to support you when you start a business. And I think if you get so like tied down and thinking that who don't support you and start, you know, paying attention to who don't support you kind of lose focus on, you know, how to drive your business for it. So I think my advice to people is like, A, focus more on who is supporting you and less about who isn't supporting you because that small amount of support can get your business in front of the right people.

that's going to drive so much support your way. So like focusing on the angle and not like in the present moment, I would say that. Because if I stopped in the present moment, I would have stopped a long time ago. You know what I'm saying. Yeah. You never supposed to stop. That's what this whole spotlight is about. It's about, you know, people who are out there pursuing their dreams and making things happen, you know, the unconventional way. Definitely. So where can they find you or your products and things of that nature? Well, they can go to our website, which is WWW, IV, Culture with the K, and then you'll see like a selection of all our newest colors that just dropped as well as some other products that we sell and a little bit about our brand and how we're trying to bring health back to the forefront in the beauty industry don't let biased algorithms or degree screens or exclusive professional networks or stereotypes don't let anything keep you from discovering the half of the workforce who are stars workers skilled through alternative of rocks rather than a bachelor's degree.

It's time to tear the paper ceiling and see the stars beyond it. Find out how you can make stars part of your talent strategy at tear the paper sealing.org. Brought to you by opportunity at work and the ad council. Adventure should never come with a pause button. Remember the movie pass era where you could watch all the movies you wanted for just $9? It made zero cents and I could not stop thinking about it. I'm Bridget Todd. Host of the tech podcast, there are no girls on the internet.

On this new season, I'm talking to the innovators who are left out of the tech headlines. Like the visionary behind a movie pass, Black founder Stacey Spikes, who was pushed out of movie pass the company that he founded. His story is wild and it's currently the subject of a juicy new HBO documentary. We dive into how culture connects us. When you go to France, or you go to England, or you go to Hong Kong, those kids are wearing Jordans, they're wearing Kobe's shirt, they're watching Black Panther. And the challenges of being a black founder. Close your eyes and tell me what a tech founder looks like.

They're not going to describe someone who looks like me and they're not going to describe someone who looks like you. I created There Are No Girls on the Internet because the future belongs to all of us. So listen to There Are No Girls on the Internet on the IHurt Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Pretty Private with Ebeney, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free.

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Shit, I hope all the ladies see it. It's like, yep, it's going vegan with it. I know. Or men, I mean, it's something in the, like, though. Yeah, if you want to, anybody that's all of college. I mean, I didn't see all the colors. I just saw, like, you know, these. I didn't know that y'all had some everybody colors.

We need that. We need that name, though. I'm not saying that you're not supposed to. I mean, it's a whole lot of dudes who love some nail polish. They have all types of phases of, you know, things of that nature that they're going through. So, yeah. Yeah. It's for everybody.

Every age. Anybody with fingers. If you got fingers, you need to wear it. If you got fingers, you can wear it. Yeah. Basically, yeah. And it's just that, you know, it's healthy. I think that's the, you know, a big driving point for me.

Just because especially like black women, we put so much stuff like on our skin, on our hair. Right. That it, you know, it caused birth defects. and there's a lot of things that you don't even know that you put in half of these product. So I think if you want to choose the nail polish you should go with the healthy route like that's something that you need to

And do not eat it. No, don't listen, y'all listen. You think that you won't have to say this but after the recent events I know you're right We definitely have to stress Put it only for your fingers and toes. We all have a separate toenail polish line

You know somebody said that said we should I mean what's you mean? I'm just saying you could put the same this thing polishing your meal on clothes yeah I have the same I know that but I'm saying I'm thinking that you're talking about like someone asked that we have like press on toenails

I'm like that's kind of weird yeah that'll be a little strange people do press on toenails I know they do acrylic on their toes I know yeah you should get into that I can't do that the toenail business is at least a billion dollar in the shit

motherfuckers got 10 toes The average, some people have 12. Stop. I mean, some of them do, though. How long does sphinger in their polish last? I mean, it depends on, like, your roughness, like how, you know, active you are. But I would say our polish at least lasts

between seven to ten days. Yeah. Are you saying a bottle? Yeah. Or are you saying, like, wearing polish? No, how long does the, on average, does a woman keep a bottle? Oh, a bottle apology?

It has a lifespan, and then it's what people keep it for. You know what I'm saying? Some people have polished around and a half for like 15 years. You're what I'm saying because the average woman got about 500 of them. Yeah.

And it can change. I mean, it varies between like, I would say safely like five to seven years I would not hold on to anything. Keep the same polish. Y'all do like custom order.

People can hit you and get like their own custom color. Custom color. We thought about doing that. Remember when we was going to launch out of color? They could get stressful, haven't it? Yeah.

Well, we do do custom like press zones. So people do like, you know, make requests on different press zones that they want. But not like, the polish you know yeah people be requesting all kind of crazy stuff you know yeah they don't know what yeah it's better if you just give it to them we know what the craziest request or questions people have asked about you know your product um besides the

toenails besides that I would say the craziest I think we had a kid asked us can they eat it or you know or I think it's like when people like when you have a brand and like you start saying it's healthy and stuff and then people come up like with cool ideas like I love your brand it'll be really cool if you had it like you know for a nail biter so that we can eat the polish you know since it's vegan like it'll be real cool if you had a polished line like for the nail biteers so when we eat the polish it's not toxic for us I mean we get all kind of crazy stuff yeah yeah yeah be dope no no yeah you can see it now you too go get their nails

done and now you can taste it yeah so people get it Now you can taste it. Then somebody else is gonna make a reaction video. Reaction to the lady eating her nails. Yeah, yeah. They do that on YouTube. But I thought we get that at least once a year, like, are y'all gonna make it so it's more edible

so people can, you know, I'm a nail biter. You might need to look into that. It's a market for it that people keep asking. I mean, people are like, they nails look nice. Like, yeah. I feel like it's certain things for certain stuff. You wanna eat your nails, you'll need your nail then. You're smart.

that's that same but they both do kind of make sense like like if they had a thing safe for people who get nervous like you can just eat it all you calm you down lemon pepper that should have fly in it like yellow males that taste like lemon pepper I mean I might try those see you want some now yeah I mean what would we call it though Like, he just said it. Lemon pepper wet? Lemon purple wet? Oh, that.

Lemon purple, wet? We got too many fingernail polish ideas. Got to look into that album, yeah. Yeah, yeah. You can, that can actually, it's a lot of things right there. You can have the nail polish for people who are trying to stop smoking or people who who fucking got anxiety and get nervous, they can calm down. Oh my God.

I'm getting into this. I'm getting into this. You're getting your nail. Y'all got brought me into the, I'm in the finger, I'm polished business. They were trying to put like, oh, this is 250 calories. Oh, people who need to gain weight.

Oh, yeah, that'd be hard. You know what I was? No. Cannabis infused. Get high through your fingers. I don't know y'all. You're in a club like this. I think it.

Stop. Oh, no. Oh, no. I'm trying to try out home, man. My hands is high as fuck. Stop. That'd be hard. I mean, that could be.

But actually, I'm using it in a lot of beauty products, so. How often do you paint your nails in a week? I usually... Since you got your own line. Yeah. I mean, I wear press on, so I change my nails like every other two. She did. Just be like...

Yep. And I work out. And these don't, like, they literally. How quick can you take them off? Say for instance, somebody was talking shit. Oh, I can take them off immediately like that. They just, yeah, that's not a problem. If somebody was psych to stop.

Yeah, no. Yeah. Because you go get all your sisters. Oh, yeah, she got back up. That's what's up. And y'all got on social media and all that. We do. Yeah.

So, like, our page is at Ivy, Coach her with the K, K-U-L-T-U-R-E. Well, there you have it, folks. This has been another black excellent spotlight. Courtesy of the 85 South Show. Stop biting your nails. Give you some of this vegan nail polish that you cannot eat. That you cannot eat. My name is Carlos Miller.

This is Taja and I'm Toy. And we're out of here. We'll see y'all. Your entire identity has been fabricated. Your beloved brother goes missing without a trace. You discover the depths of your mother's illness. I'm Danny Shapiro, and these are just a few of the powerful stories I'll be mining on our upcoming 12th season of Family Secrets.

We continue to be moved and inspired by our guests and their courageously told stories. Listen to Family Secrets Season 12 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Summer's here, and with the kids home and off to camp, it's easy for moms to get lost in the shuffle. On Good Mom's Bad Choices, we're making space to center ourselves with joy, rest, and pleasure. Take the kids to camp. You know what? It was expensive. But I was also thinking, you have my kid. This is kind of priceless.

Take her, feed her, make core memories. I don't have to do anything. Main thing, I don't have to do anything. To hear this and more, listen to Good Mom's Bad Choices from Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Venture should never come with a pause button. Remember Movie Pass? All the movies you wanted for just nine bucks? I'm Bridget Todd, host of There Are No Girls on the Internet.

And this season, I'm digging into the tech stories we weren't told. Starting with Stacey Spikes, the black founder of Movie Pass, who got pushed out of the company he built. Everybody's trying to knock you down, and it's not going to work, and no one's going to like it. And then, boom, it's everywhere. And that was that moment. Listen if there are no girls on the Internet on the IHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast.