When U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports surged to rates as high as 140% in March of last year, Esmeralda "Esme" Hernandez was preparing for a high-stakes meeting with Target. Instead, the conversation shifted to supply chain uncertainty.
"The first quarter was the best in the life of Beauty Creations," Hernandez told The Latin Times in an interview. "And then in March everything went down."
Her company, Beauty Creations Cosmetics, had just recorded 40% growth in the first quarter of 2025. But the impact of the new reality was immediate: sharply higher import costs and a tightening inventory. "At one point we didn't have any inventory, so that was affecting us drastically," she says.
The disruption forced a faster restructuring of global logistics as Beauty Creations opened a warehouse in China to ship directly to international markets, accelerating plans that had previously been set for a phase of future expansion.
For many companies, that level of volatility could stall momentum. Beauty Creations, however, closed the year with 18% growth. To understand how it absorbed the impact, Hernandez looked back to where things started.
Founded in 2016, Beauty Creations now operates from a 92,000-square-foot headquarters in Santa Fe Springs, California, employs roughly 120 people and sells its products in 47 countries. Its origins, however, were far from the large corporate world.
Hernandez was born in Mexico and immigrated to the United States at the age of nine. As a teenager she helped her mother sell products at flea markets. First it was dolls, then perfumes and cosmetics, which eventually led them to import hair tools. At 19, after earning a scholarship to attend college, she became pregnant with her first child and decided to focus fully on building a business.
She formally launched Beauty Creations after identifying a gap in the market: affordable cosmetics that met quality standards and reflected Latina consumers' undertones and preferences. "We're not pale, we have a different undertone," Hernandez says. "Creating those colors for our Latinas — that was an advantage."
Beauty Creations was launched in the United States, where Hernandez built the brand through wholesale accounts and retail partnerships, rather than relying primarily on e-commerce. Today, approximately 90% of sales come through those channels.
International expansion followed. Given Hernandez's background and longstanding ties to Mexico, Latin America became a natural growth market. There, distribution expanded quickly, supported not only by product demand but by relationship-driven business practices.
In most cases she speaks directly with store owners in Latin America who operate dozens — sometimes hundreds — of locations. Personal is central to closing deals. "They want that close relationship with me," she says. "It's not so much, 'please send me an email.' It's, 'Hey, can you come to my store?'"
That dynamic stands in contrast to the structure of major U.S. retailers, where communication moves through layers of buyers, category managers and corporate processes. In those settings, access to ownership is not part of the equation, and growth depends less on personal ties and more on formal negotiations and marketing budgets.
The distinction reflects more than geography. It underscores two different ways of building retail presence: one anchored in direct relationships and cultural proximity, the other defined by scale and institutional structure. In the United States, Hernandez is competing directly against multinational conglomerates and celebrity-backed brands with far larger marketing resources.
"Here people have budgets of millions of dollars," she says. "We don't have any investors. I'm the sole owner."
The challenge, she says, is deciding where to deploy limited resources.
"In the U.S., it's being able to compete with the biggest brands and with their budgets," Hernandez says. "In our case, it's about where do we put the money? Do we do more ads? Do we do more community? Do we do more pop-ups?"
This year, the company is reducing paid advertising spending and redirected funds toward in-person activations in Los Angeles. Those include Pilates classes, Lotería nights, and events focused on women navigating major life transitions.
"I feel like right now the consumer is looking for an experience," she says. "They want to feel part of something. And we're leaning into that.
Her experience as a Latina entrepreneur has also included structural hurdles. Early in the company's history, she says a bank closed one of her business accounts after flagging high volumes of cash deposits tied to flea market sales. "They closed my account and labeled me as risky," Hernandez says. "No one took the time to explain the right process."
She later established a relationship with Bank of America and has since secured multiple loans, including financing for warehouse properties. "I feel like sometimes we as Latinos are not educated on how the system works," she says. "If I would have known, we would have implemented things differently."
Beauty Creations is currently preparing additional U.S. retail expansion, including a July launch in CVS and placement in 2,800 Walgreens stores.
But for Hernandez, one retailer carries a different weight: Target. The retail giant has been part of her story long before Beauty Creations existed.
At 23, she was raising three children. Weekend trips to Target were routine — practical, familiar. "Where are we going this weekend?" she remembers asking. "We're going to Target."
Now, nearly a decade after launching her brand, she is preparing for another meeting with the company — this time with the possibility of nationwide placement in 2027.
"Target has always been my dream," Hernandez says. "I feel like we're getting really close."
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