The start of a new month is slowly becoming our favourite time around here at The Skinny because it means it’s time to highlight another incredible woman that we admire and think you should know about.
You might remember that our Babe of the Month feature is all about empowering and supporting women who are doing incredible things in business and their community and today we’re so happy to introduce you to Karissa Bodnar, the sweetheart behind the beauty company that gives back: Thrive Causemetics.
After losing her best friend to cancer, Karissa took her background in cosmetics design and created a line that is made for real women, with real ingredients and that also follows the one for one policy. Every product purchased sees a product given to a woman undergoing cancer treatment or recovering from domestic violence. The story is pretty incredible and we highly encourage you to read more about it here.
We wanted to highlight Karissa for the way she involves her customers and community in her product development, the fact that she uses safe ingredients in her products and of course, in all the ways she gives back to the community, one woman at a time. How amazing is that? Read on to learn more about Karissa and Thrive!
Your story is incredibly inspiring – we love the story behind the false lashes and glue that were specifically created with cancer patients in mind. When you first started Thrive with those first few products, did you always have the goal to create a full makeup line?
Yes it was! Our mission is to empower women through beauty and that all starts with our amazing customers, which we call our #ThriveTribe. The lashes and glue were just the beginning and I knew that as we grew providing a full makeup line of products that are all vegan, cruelty-free and made without parabens or sulfates was just as important. With this expansion in our line we have also been so excited to expand our mission to include women thriving through domestic violence in addition to cancer treatment.
We love that you involve your customers and community in the development your products, was this always the plan?
Yes, we have involved our customers and followers in the decision making process from day one. I actually created Thrive’s Instagram and Facebook before we ever launched our website and asked for feedback from our #ThriveTribe on social media before we ever launched our products. We are customer obsessed and it is in our DNA to collaborate and co-create products with our amazing community.
If you weren’t doing what you are now, running Thrive Causemetics, what could you see yourself doing instead?
That’s tough! Thrive Causemetics is my business soulmate and being the Founder/CEO of this company is my dream job! If I wasn’t working at Thrive, I would be working to empower women in business. I would love to connect with young women starting out in business and help them to feel confident to execute whatever their vision might be.
You were quite young when you started this business and cosmetics product design and creation is no small feat! What would be your advice to other young entrepreneurs just starting out who might be nervous about the workload and responsibilities of running a business?
When everything seems to be going against us, I always focus on my “why” and my why is our mission. Women that we’ve supported through our giving mission like Nalie Agustin, Dionne Warner, Maggie Kudirka, Robin Roberts and more are women who constantly inspire me. My advice to young entrepreneurs starting out is to focus on your “why”. When you know your why, anything is possible.
Thanks Karissa for being our Babe of the Month! And if you haven’t checked them out already, take a minute to learn about Jessie and Nicole too! We happen to think these ladies are pretty darn amazing 😉
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