Paula Hayes fell in love with makeup as a kid.
“I say from the time that I tried on my mom’s lipstick when I was little,” she said.
When she got to high school, she found the feeling wasn’t mutual. As she began to wear makeup everyday and experiment more with products, she suffered from breakouts and lesions on her skin. She went to a dermatologist, who told her what ingredients were causing the reaction and advised her to avoid those products.
“What I found is that if they didn’t cause skin problems for me, they often in my opinion just didn’t look right,” Hayes said. “Like the colors weren’t right, and I just walked out not feeling confident. But there was this cyclical relationship, because I’d want to go out putting my best face forward.”
Today, Hayes is the founder, CEO and head chemist of Hue Noir, a makeup manufacturer and distributor with products designed for women of color. Check out the full story.
By Erica Morrison, OPB
