August 2025 Haircare & Skincare Grant Awarded to Beauty Bar Academy

Video Transcript

Marcia: Today, we’re speaking with Camila Mello of Beauty Bar Academy, who is our business-specific grant winner for August. The business category for August was hair and skin care. I’m Marcia Layton Turner, an advisory board member who has the great pleasure of chatting with our winners.

Camila, how about telling everyone about your business? Why and how did you start it?

Camila: I’m all about beauty. I own the Beauty Bar. I am originally from Brazil, migrated to America when I was just six years old. Even then, I had a vision. I always knew, even as a little girl, that beauty was where I was going to be. I  went through the hardships of becoming legal in the country and creating opportunities for myself, and decided to start where typically everybody does, in beauty school. I always knew college wasn’t for me. Beauty was my passion. And once I aligned myself with all the certificates that I needed to get, I saw my vision, and I made it all happen.

I opened up the Beauty Bar first. This is my first location. In six months, I outgrew the space and opened up my academy about a year later. Today, I own a service that focuses on natural beauty from head to toe. We are a micro-pigmentation artist, or semi-permanent makeup, tattooing, whatever you want to call it. Then, eventually, I got into an academy. I teach and certify people globally.

And then I have a lifestyle company that I co-own with my partner, Raymond, and that focuses on wellness and bringing natural beauty and an integrative, holistic approach to wellbeing, connecting the two together. With that, we’ve created a world of inner and outer beauty and are educating our clients on the importance of awareness in an integrative way. So that’s the story of Beauty Bar. In total, it has three elements. 

Marcia: As you were starting your first business, were there any resources that you turned to that ended up being essential to your success?

Camila: I’ve always functioned very well looking for mentorship; people that I look up to and who inspired me to be the best at what I do. So, when I was 14, I used to watch this TV show called “10 Years Younger,” and it was about transformations. It was on TLC. The last part of that show was Damone Roberts, who talked about the importance of crafting brows and shaping the face and framing it. And he kind of stuck with me throughout my journey of getting into beauty school.

So fast forward, 10 years later, after I got certified, I decided to reach out to him and ask for a job for free. And he had a location in Beverly Hills and New York. I happened to be closer to New York, and I said, “You’ve inspired me to be where I am now, and I want to be mentored by you.” I ended up getting the job for a fee, not for free, after I shared my story.

I think after that experience and that vision that I made it happen, life kind of just unfolded [once I was clear about where I wanted to go.] Then, once I opened up this first location and realized the beauty industry coming from Brazil and seeing what’s available globally, I said, “Now, it’s time to travel.” I needed to know how to service every skin color, every ethnicity, that was going to allow me to keep that natural beauty aesthetic, which is what we follow. It’s feeling your best in your most natural element with natural beauty. We don’t want to change anything per se. Even though we’re doing art, we want to make sure that you are comfortable in your own skin.

I started to travel the world, 100 times certified by now, globally. I’ve won awards for best in the world, best artists in the world. There are competitions everywhere for you to compete that get a collective of artists together. And they’re the ones who have inspired me to learn so many different methods of application and art to bring back home. So, it’s always been mentorship, education, and then communities like this. I lead a women’s community that focuses on beauty, that focuses on financial freedom. Constantly surrounding myself with people who have a purpose, who know their purpose, and who know how to help me elevate, get to the next level, so those are the three things.

Marcia: Amazing. What kind of marketing has worked best for you?

Camila: Well, for me, initially, I think has always been what inspired me, the storytelling aspect of my business, the transformation, what we do, and showing how we can really change someone’s life by giving them a set of brows that maybe they lost due to cancer or alopecia, or a burn victim, or whatever it may be. We’ve dealt with everything. So, definitely storytelling.

Social media, in today’s world, you cannot live without. It is our storefront. Some people initially want to go there. I participate in a lot of events, retreats, and collaborations that align with each part and each brand of the business. So if I’m focusing on lifestyle that has to do with wellness, I make sure that I put myself in wellness retreats. And I’m always talking, speaking about the brand and what we’re doing and how we’re making these transformations.

And then just growing communities, growing events, town events, getting my word out there, and making sure that I take on invitations, even if it isn’t aligned with my business, to go to different parties and events, because I know there’s always something that I can fulfill within one part of the Beauty Bar brand. So that’s what’s worked for me.

Marcia: What’s one way that we can support you and help your business?

Camila: Share my story, my mission, the transformations, and try my products. I’m also a formulator of 100% plant-based products. So, I work with a lot of beeswax, and I source my beeswax because I’m a crazy bee lady when it comes to creating these products. We create skincare for skin and not necessarily for age. So we’re always trying to simplify the beauty industry. That’s my mission here.

My mission is to simplify. Less is more when it comes to beauty. So, share my story, connect me with more women, connect with like-minded business entrepreneurs and opportunities, so we can grow as a community. Because, you know, we can have the drive, we can have all of this, but we’re more powerful in community than we are single. So that’s how you guys can help. And you’ve helped already by giving me this opportunity. Thank you.

Marcia: What’s one social media account we can suggest people visit?

Camila: So @beautybarcm is my service account, and from there, you will find all my other ones. But @beautybarcm is a good go-to.