This profile is part of the Glossy Pop Guide to Influencer-Founded Brands, covering the fashion, beauty and wellness companies started by people who built their careers on social media. More from the series →
When Deepica Mutyala creatively used red lipstick to color-correct her under-eyes in 2015, she brought innovation to the beauty industry. Mutyala’s technique took the beauty world by storm while also highlighting the lack of representation of dark skin tones. Seven years and hundreds of thousands of YouTube subscribers later, she is still creating space in beauty for those who don’t fit traditional standards. Created in 2018, her brand Live Tinted is both a company and a community space built around beauty inclusivity.
Who: Deepica Mutyala (Live Tinted)
What are you known for & how did you get your start?
I started my career on the business side of beauty. I created a YouTube channel hoping to reach other girls like me who wanted to learn and share what products worked for skin tones that fell outside of the “standard” we saw in magazines and commercials. In the second video I made, I shared how I color correct my under eye circles with red lipstick, and it went viral. It was because of this that I was blessed with the opportunity to become a beauty influencer full time.
What’s the brand: Makeup
Find it: Livetinted.com, Ulta.com (and Ulta stores)
Why did you decide to bring a brand into this crowded marketplace?
I first started my beauty brand, Live Tinted, as a community page on Instagram. A year after starting the community, we launched our first product, the Huestick, based on crowd-sourced feedback. While this whole journey may have started with me, it’s grown into something much bigger. I started the Live Tinted brand because I want anyone and everyone who has ever felt left out of the beauty narrative to see themselves represented. I feel fortunate to be building a community and space for people of color to feel seen.
What makes the brand different?
We are working hard behind the scenes not only to fight for more diversity, inclusivity and representation in the industry, deliver more impactful content, spark more provocative dialogue, and continue to shake up beauty standards, but also to develop more important smart and multi-functional products that cater to a wide spectrum of shades.
Fun fact: In October 2021, Live Tinted became the first South Asian-founded beauty brand to launch into Ulta.
Best seller: Huestick
To read the rest of The Glossy Pop guide to influencer-founded brands, click here.
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