When Gerard Cosmetics President/CEO Jennifer Gerard first decided to start her own business in 2010, she never imagined where it would take her over the next eight years.

Originally a mobile teeth whitening service called Whitening Lightning, Gerard would travel to people’s homes and offices — and even parks, parking lots and shopping malls — to whiten her clients’ teeth on the spot.

“At the end of the first year, we decided to take the products online,” Gerard recalled. “We started creating makeup products, and within a short period of time, the makeup products had garnered a lot of attention, and that was how Gerard Cosmetics was born, was just to give the makeup products their own brand.”

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Looking back on her journey with the company, Gerard noted that her original goal was simply to do something that made her happy, not necessarily to reach the levels of success Gerard Cosmetics has achieved.

“I never wanted to own my own business; I never really thought I could,” she said. “I really just wanted to choose the people that I would be around and the environments that I was in, and I thought that if I started my own business, that I could do that. I really wasn’t focused on making huge success with the company or anything like that — I just wanted to be happy.”

But as she networked within the Santa Clarita Valley and beyond, Gerard found support she had never imagined possible, allowing Gerard Cosmetics to continue to grow with each passing year.

Today, Gerard Cosmetics ships nationwide and even internationally, and has a heavy social media presence with followers around the world.

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“It’s amazing to me that 1.8 million people follow what we do (and) our brand has been seen hundreds of millions of times on YouTube,” Gerard said. “I know a lot of my friends use our brand, and people in the community have supported the brand over the years, but when I meet people from around the world who know my brand and they don’t know me, it feels so weird to me.”

She continued, “My reaction (to new followers) is always to follow them on Instagram right away and get to know them, just to try to bring people into the family, and I think that’s another thing that I’m really proud of, is the way that we treat our customers.”

To shop Gerard Cosmetics, or for more information about the company and its products, click here.