Destiny Jones has one ultimate accessory: lip gloss. It’s not your everyday glamazon type of infatuation. She stockpiles it, repeatedly reapplying in the name of beauty. Now the 20-year-old daughter of one of hip-hop’s greatest has launched her own line of shimmering lip colors.
It wasn’t something she decided on a whim. The seed of entrepreneurship was planted by her father, Nas, from childhood. As a girl, Jones recalls him telling her she’d one day be a businesswoman. “He would always tell me that,” Jones says, “even when I was really, really young.”
Although she admits she didn’t always know what he meant about product lines and businesses, she understood the message. Jones says she regarded it as, “OK, I can do both. I can live my dreams and I can be a business woman and that can be a part of my dream.”
But why lip gloss? Other than her habitual application, Jones says, “I’ve always loved makeup ever since I was a little kid playing in my mom’s makeup box.” And although she accumulated an extensive collection, she’d yet to find that perfect color and texture. By creating her own gloss line she was able to create a collection of shades that are neither pasty or sticky — her biggest pet peeves — and which she believes are flattering for all skin tones.
From concept to buyer sample the process took two years, most of which was spent deciding on the dopest name. “I didn’t really take it seriously until I finally settled on the name for it,” says Jones. “From there I just ran with it, and it started to pick up pretty quick.”
The brand’s name, Lipmatic, pays homage to her father’s debut album, Illmatic. And it came to her in a brainstorming session with friends. “When I said it everybody got excited ’cause it just sounded good,” says Jones. “It rolled off the tongue and it just made sense marketing wise.”
It also got her dad excited.
Jones says the personal and creative connection led Nas to think of it as more than just his daughter’s foray into cosmetics. He connected Jones with her business partner, Kiran Goraya, the creative director of his clothing line, HSTRY.
Jones says neither she or Goraya knew much about lip gloss at the outset, but through research and product development they’ve both learned much about a competitive beauty industry.
“It’s just great to see how far we’ve come with it because I think at first we were both a little bit lost with how we were going to do this,” says Jones.
Lipmatic debuted in a big way, with support from Nas’s Instagram post, a distribution deal with streetwear retailer Karmaloop and the accidentally strategic timing of Illmatic‘s 20th anniversary.
The collection features four shades, each a play on track titles from Nas’s iconic album — Goraya’s idea to capitalize on the plan to target the rapper’s fan base.
Lipmatic is certified organic, opening it to a market of natural product junkies, though that wasn’t the intent.
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