Today we’d like to introduce you to Farelle Christine Bikoro
Hi Farelle Christine , can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’am Farelle , a Gabonese and French beauty entrepreneur currently living in USA since 6 years since i moved from south of France to Chicago in 2017 and then moved to Minneapolis 1 year ago to live with my future husband whit who i am newly married since 7 months ! My road to entrepreneurship mainly started with the fact that i always knew that I would not fit in to work for someone else dream and to lets someone else decide of my salary , when I must take vacation , when I must pause to have a lunch ect…This refusal to fit in like everyone around me after the college to get a job just for to pay bills and taxes , the 9/5 culture was making was not for me , by anticipation and too impatient to learn real life I dropped from college when i am as studying HISTORY OF ART to launch my first business which was fashion jewelry .I always knew that to live on my own term and to take risk while using my full potential for go towardly dreams and to fulfill my creativity was my fit , I found out that being entrepreneur would allow me to live on my own term . laughing Topjewel put me right in all of it and with all the challenges that I did not anticipated so the whole experience with my first business Topjewel , was catastrophic but I learned so much from that very useful things that still will serve me forever . Then still in my twenties I went back to a professional school in Cannes to studie Esthetic& Cosmetic and sales during two years where i had half time in school and half time in paid internship so could get a salary as a employees but with a student status while continuing my education , the internship where i got accepted was at Sephora in Nice France. After I finished my internship and school they wanted to keep me at SEPHORA as the manager was satisfied about my job and evolvement but I am not ready for the 9/5 lifestyle one day i didn’t showed up at my work at Sephora , but my work experience to Sephora definitely shaped the road to Faracosmetic years later. I moved out for France and Europe to USA in part because I needed to be into the middle of a strong entrepreneurial mindset and culture and capitalism , in France i did not felt enough of that entrepreneurial mindset and the government system in France helps too much people with a lot of social helps for individuals so it makes people lazy and put very high taxes for businesses so i figured out it was not a encouraging environment for to open a business. Despite the fact that I grew up for most part of my life in France , i think the reason I am was willing to move in another country for personal growth reason and business reasons it is because of my background of grew up in different countries with my parent who as GABONESE AFRICAN DIPLOMATE so we had to change countries every 3 /4 years so I grew up out of Gabon in Africa while i kept all my African roots , pride and knowledge about my motherland intact until now . I knew a friend of my mom who was living in Chicago and who invited me for holidays , after I went back in France so I decided to move by myself in Chicago as I fallen in love with downtown city where I stayed during my stay . In between before to laugh Faracosmetic again I went tback to school online while exploring life in Chicago i completed a certification at SAÏD BUSINESS SCHOOL online program IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND LEADERSHIP as I wanted to be this time well prepared with the entrepreneurship structure and and to learn more about different stage of creating a brand and the marketing to avoid same mistake like I did with topjewel , I am a perfectionist ! After I earned my certification in Entrepreneurship , I took class in Organizational Leadership which I am also passionated about and earned a certificate also then I launched Faracosmetic a beauty makeup brand for the diversity of the beauty inspired of the African women so we are focused on offering high pigment level make up product , vegan , non tested on animals with a African touch of inspiration on contemporary African art and tribal draw and with naming colors and palette shades with African queens names .The brand is still evolving , we are not completly where we want to be yet but our mission and values as well our brand identity is built to keep growing and to take our shares in the global market of colors cosmetic as we are working to reach and to implement in the African continent with one physical store in Gabon and Nigeria with few distributors while the main store it is in USA with our E-COMMERCE store faracosmetic.com . A natural skin care line hand made in Africa will follow soon with to add to the make up range hopefully in 2025 . For now I am focusing on growing in inventory , in product development and content creation on social media with optimism . I finally on my own term the life style i created for myself which fit me even if being entrepreneur doesn’t bring as much guarantee like a formal job but I would not change my seat with anyone because that journey of creating and fighting for my dream is teaching me so much and brings me freedom , the freedom to dream and the space and time to explore the potential that life given me . I am grateful every single day to be able to fight , to create ,to work doing what I love . My husband John he is from Iowa ( white guy ) branch manager at CHASE and he said what he like with me it is because I made him feels that everything is possible and that he can do anything . With my husband we launched ( I launched 🙂 ) SEERASTAY LLC seerastay.com in 2022 our hospitality brand for short term rental in Minneapolis and we thrive to grow our real estate portfolio while offering 5* hospitality service ! My husband is also preparing to get out of the 9/5 and to work on his own term in the sales and consulting so he is turning entrepreneur ! A other passion I have it is health and wellness , i am a runner and yogi on daily basic and I amgettimg yoga teacher certified soon i attacking class online from a school in India even I know I will certainly never teach yoga but doing the yoga teacher training program takes me deeper my own practice and getting a certificate it is just a bonus . With my husband we play golf together, occasionally and we love hiking around the river and weekends at the lakes cabins in Minnesota. I’m so grateful that you asked me about my brand and my story in my entrepreneurship journey which is not the most easy journey but thank you so much for this opportunity Camilla , and I hope to be able to share more about it in podcast or in person conversation in the future . Thank you much again
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Most of the struggle from me came with the lack of previous experience and structure about creating a brand and in entrepreneurship knowledge i did not had when I started even if I had all the necessary fund to start well but did not knew where and how to start so made a bunch of mistakes by focusing on things that was not important financially and losing money with working paying money to the wrong person or managing the business poorly . So later when I launched my second brand I went back to school to study entrepreneurship , marketing and leadership . I had the creativity and the drive but I needed the structure and knowledge about the different levels of creating and launching a brand . What I learned from it is that passion and drive is not enough for to create a brand , work experience and knowledge into the industry we wish to create a brand and to innovate it is a must as well the knowledge base about entrepreneurship and marketing even if the rest can be delegated but the core , success and quality of a business come from the experience and the knowledge of the owner .
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Faracosmetic it is a brand for the diversity of the Beauty which celebrate women of colors from all around the world inspired of Africa . We love pigments , we are focused and specialize in offering highly pigmented and high quality makeup products that are long stay , vegan , no tested on animal and affordable . What set us apart it the beautiful luxury design looking tubes and packaging with a African branding identity , the luxury formulation and high pigment level of our product and it is affordability . what set us apart it is the experience of a luxury products, minimalistic luxury design at affordable price , we are on the details when it comes to shopping experience . We are know for our highly pigmented and rich formula foundation and eyeshadow palette .We mainly focus on face products with matte foundation and concealer for oily skin , eyes with ultra pigmented eyeshadow formula and lips product like gloss and lipkits . I am most proud of the branding ,identity and design of the products and it is formula . What I want reader to know about the brand it is the innovative formula for our face foundation that is made to resist to humidity and heat , our full coverage formulation and high pigment formula as well rich of all Faracosmetic products . You must know that our online store is Faracosmetic.com and we deliver all over USA , our warehouse is based in Wisconsin , we offer fast two day shipping at competitive price .
What was your favorite childhood memory?
Traveling the world with my diplomatic parent and having friend form differents part of the world at a early age . Welcoming the president of Gabon when he was in duty visit Switzerland at 8 year old standing with flower bouquet and bow from head to toes on a red carpet a front a plane stairs ready to repeat like robot what I spend weeks to remember and to get ready for and toggle the flower to the first lady all ochestred by my mom !
Pricing:
- Gloss 12$
- Foudation 22$
- Loose setting powder 14$
- Eyeshadow palette 22$
- 2 days Domestic shipping 8$
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Faracosmetic.com
- Instagram: @fara.cosmetic @faracosmetic.ga
- Facebook: @faracosmetic
