Five years after it joined TikTok, BossUp Cosmetics exploded on the platform last year when celebrities and influencers such as Meghan Trainor and James Charles purchased and reviewed its products, notably its smash hit color-changing lip oil. Now, it has 100 million likes, 2.4 million followers and sold nearly 475,000 units through TikTok Shop on the platform.
By Black Friday 2024, BossUp was registering around $10,000 in monthly sales, according to founder Aaliyah Arnold. “That jumped to $200,000 per month, then to $500,000, and now we are at about $1 million in sales per month,” she says. “Everything changed overnight, even though it took me six years to get there.”
The next huge change for BossUp is leveling up its presence beyond TikTok. In January, it landed in T.J. Maxx’s almost 1,330 stores, where treasure hunters are overjoyed at spotting a TikTok sensation on the beauty selection. The ultimate goal for Arnold is to place BossUp at Ulta Beauty, Target or Walmart.
“TJ Maxx is a great fit for BossUp,” says Arnold. “I love the store and believe in its mission of making quality products accessible to everyone. It’s important to me that BossUp Cosmetics is available to a wide audience and partnering with T.J. Maxx allows us to reach more people who can enjoy our products without breaking the bank.”
Besides diversifying BossUp’s distribution, Arnold is busy diversifying its social media presence. The brand has surpassed 960,000 subscribers on YouTube, where Arnold has posted about scams her business deals with, producing her lip glosses and what a day in her life is like. Here’s a sneak peek inside her day: she shows off her outfit, teases future products in her bathroom and visits the warehouse storing her products.
It plans to grow its Facebook audience, too. Other plans include influencer collaborations and segueing into haircare. BossUp sells more than 100 stockkeeping units spanning makeup, skincare, apparel and accessories.
“I don’t want BossUp to be just a TikTok brand, and I don’t want to have to depend solely on social media for sales, even though it comprises 70% of them, which is why I’m excited that we are now in every T.J. Maxx store in the U.S.,” says Arnold. “They placed a second order for more than 100,000 units.”
A third-generation entrepreneur, Arnold launched her first company, Etsy slime business Tropical Smiles, at 11 and BossUp at age 14 when she had just $27 in her bank account. At the time, the home-schooled teenager who was bullied for her eczema was “obsessed” with lip gloss despite not being allowed to wear makeup. In 2018, she started making homemade lip glosses. She navigated Alibaba for lip gloss tubes to house the lip glosses in.
“I had to learn how to sell on e-commerce platforms, promote and market through social media and make a basic website,” says Arnold, 20. “When I started BossUp, I was only doing Instagram and promoting it with photos rather than short-form videos like I do now.”
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In 2020, during TikTok’s infancy, she took a stab at it, and BossUp began to gain momentum. It took two months for the brand to secure a sale via TikTok. Videos with Arnold’s grandfather, Paco, owner of a moving company, were among the early ones to blow up for the brand, and he became a regular in BossUp content.
Arnold handles all aspects of the brand’s social media and plans to keep it that way. “One thing that does well for us and always boosts sales is responding to comments with a video because it gives useful information about a product,” says Arnold. “I think people like to purchase from me because I show the struggles and behind-the-scenes footage that bigger brands don’t share, which adds trust because I take them through every step.”
In 2022, Arnold hired her mother as BossUp’s first full-time employee. “The pressures of running a business, doing finances, dealing with vendors, and paying taxes are stressful, and I needed help,” she says. “Once my mom quit her job, I knew the business had to succeed. Without her, the brand wouldn’t be here.”
Today, BossUp employs more than 10 of Arnold’s family members. She says, “I remember posting a TikTok video right after my mom came on board. We were packaging orders, and I said, ‘Imagine being 17 years old, and your mom quits her job to help her daughter. That went viral and got over 10 million views.’”
Once Arnold ventured into livestreaming on TikTok and put BossUp on TikTok Shop, the business experienced a seismic shift. She says, “I was nervous about going live and integrating TikTok Shop because I thought it would mess up our views and that is what brings us business. My mom told me to try it, and if anything happens, shut it down…There were so many people discovering the brand and purchasing products because of TikTok Shop. The idea of a color-morphing lip gloss grasped so many people’s attention.”
BossUp dealt with a major setback when the word “healing” was spelled wrong on its lip oil packaging. Arnold turned the setback into a candid video in July 2023 that generated 20 million views. She says, “Then, I sold out of the lip oil and all I did was share. Because I shared what was happening, people related to the struggles. I’ve learned what hooks people into a video.”
Admitting her human foibles is part of Arnold’s mission at BossUp. She stresses it’s more than a cosmetics brand. “It is a celebration of individuality and empowerment,” she says. “As a Black and Latina-owned and female-founded company, we champion diversity and inclusivity in the beauty industry.”
Arnold doesn’t foresee BossUp being her only brand. “I’m a huge dreamer, and while I want it to be one of the biggest companies in the world, there are so many things I want to do,” she says. “I’m just getting started.”
