One of my favourite experiences as an indie beauty brand founder in the early days of growing our brand is participating in the Renegade Craft Fairs. I absolutely loved interacting in person with customers, teaching them how to apply our cream blush and highlighter to create a super easy minimalist makeup looks, letting them touch and feel the product and answering their questions about Minori and beauty in general.
The most recent Renegade Craft Fair we attended took place in Spring 2023 in San Francisco, which holds special significance for us as a locally-based brand. The event was an absolute thrill as we had the opportunity to meet numerous customers from the area. It was heartwarming to witness how our message of "Makeup for people who don't wear makeup" deeply resonated with the laid-back and natural beauty-oriented crowd in our local community.
My first ever Renegade experience was the Chicago one in September 2022. This was my first time ever visiting Chicago and first time travelling to do a craft fair which involved quite a bit of coordination to ship inventory and supplies from one coast to another! I was super proud of my set up. It was simple yet still very on brand and fit nicely next to my booth neighbor which was an awesome candle brand. We got lucky with amazing weather Day 1, but not to much on Day 2 which ended up being torrential rains. Our tent completely broke down and thankfully another vendor generously took me into their tent on the second day. I was so impressed with the resilience of Chicago residents, who still came out to support the craft makers and small brands like ours even in terrible weather. I absolutely loved my first Renegade experience and was stoked to get ready for the next one!
My next stop was in LA in November. I absolutely loved the venue of this craft fair - The Historic State Park. We were blessed by super warm and sunny LA weather. My friend and makeup artist Emily Dimant helped me the entire weekend. We felt on top of the world, selling so much Minori products and making so many new happy Minori customers!
Hope to see you at our next Renegade!!
- Anastasia