Late in 2019, beauty and fashion industry entrepreneur Natalia Durazo and recording artist-turned-CEO LaLa Romero joined forces to launch their new premiere, cruelty-free beauty brand, Sweet Street Cosmetics. Having previously collaborated on Bella Doña, a line of designer accessories, apparel, and jewelry devoted to celebrating LA style, Durazo and Romero have created Sweet Street to further that vision, inspired by their own experiences, as well as iconic women from both neighborhoods and pop culture.
With vibrant and eye-catching products predominantly focusing on lips and eyes, such as the ultra-bold Wing Queen eyeliner, Durazo and Romero are hoping to enable everyone to achieve a perfect winged liner look by following time-tested, Latina-approved tips and tricks.
“A lot of cosmetic brands that have popped up recently are doing a really good job representing for women of color, for us there was still another layer that was missing, the neighborhood element,” the duo told Hip Latina. “There are so many beauty rituals and nuances that are unique to and bond women of color who grew up in the neighborhood.”
“I still use some techniques my mom taught me, like shaping my eyebrows with a double-edged blade,” Durazo said to Remezcla in an interview. “And my cousins in Mexico taught me to use a spoon to curl my eyelashes. It almost works like a curling iron and is actually really dope.”
The products available from Sweet Street, without exception, are big, bold, and statement-making.
“It takes a certain kind of girl who’d be down to wear [this lip combo]. I feel like some people are kind of put off by it, which makes me turned on to it more,” said a Sweet Street influencer on social media.
Thus far, Sweet Street has fully embraced this unique, bold image. Accompanying the launch of their first product, the aforementioned Wing Queen, was a short documentary series, highlighting some interesting anecdotes and historical timelines in both the beauty industry and our culture-at-large that have led to the widespread prevalence of bold, powerful eyeliner usage in American communities of color, particularly out West.
“For us, it’s really about crediting the neighborhood and the people there — the women who have been doing these things for generations,” Romero told Remezcla. “Our neighborhoods and the women in it are never really crowned the way they should be. I think one way to really start to change the confidence of the women and little girls in the neighborhood is to constantly remind them, ‘look, you don’t have to look even outside of your house. Just dig through a family photo album, and you’re going to find so many things to be proud of and so many things that are signifiers that you come from a legacy of fly and brilliance.’”
Sweet Street Cosmetics currently has a collection of eyeliners and lip liners, of multiple shades, as well as makeup bags for sale.
Looks good!I like this!