Sun Devil aims to inspire women with her beauty brand

Nicole Ruiz followed her passion for entrepreneurship during the summer, right in the thick of the pandemic, when she lost her job and decided to take matters into her own hands. 

Ruiz, who is from Phoenix, says she was inspired to start a business after she saw other small businesses succeeding. 

“I have also always been a huge advocate for women entrepreneurs, small businesses and Latina business owners, and starting a business was my way of becoming a part of this community,” she said. “Since starting my business, I have become friends with numerous small business owners and even collaborated with them on giveaways or special projects for our Instagrams.”

Nicole Ruiz, student and entrepreneur, started her own business, Beauty Bound Lashes.

Ruiz, an 18-year-old business entrepreneurship major in her first year at ASU, founded Beauty Bound Lashes, where she sells beautiful eyelash extensions, to try to uplift women and inspire them to follow their dreams and never give up, even when times get tough. 

“I started this business with the intent of uplifting women who have gone through a significant life struggle. In my experience, women often lose their ability to love themselves the same after going through a difficult time in their life,” she said. “What better way to help women feel beautiful again than makeup? For me, popping on some eyelashes immediately boosts my confidence, and I am ready to conquer the world.”

Beauty Bound Lashes is completely owned and managed by Ruiz. She does all of the packaging, ordering, shipping and managing, and along with selling eyelash extensions, Ruiz also decided to incorporate a section on her website to really put her mission of helping women feel beautiful and empowered again into action. 

This section of her website is called Butterfly Stories, and anyone can submit anonymous stories of how they overcame a life struggle and emerged from it a better person. 

“I wanted to create a space within my business that would allow women to share their stories and support one another,” she said. “Around the world, butterflies are seen as a symbol of change, hope and life. We often hear of butterflies symbolizing people who have endured life struggles and emerged as a better person. Butterfly Stories is meant to create an uplifting community where everyone can share what they are going through, and hopefully they find out that they are not alone in this.”

Ruiz had some experience in leadership even before starting at Arizona State University. She attended the Cesar Chavez Leadership Institute through Access ASU, when she was in high school.

My favorite memory from this program was the annual tradition where the boys sing to the girls and hand them a flower. Before this, the girls were under the impression that we were in trouble, so when it turned out to be a prank, I was upset at first but I loved the gesture from the boys. Unlike other programs, CCLI felt like a family, and I am so grateful to have made so many friends and connections,” she said. 

Ruiz says that the Cesar Chavez Leadership Institute strengthened her leadership skills through the various workshops they attended and through the connections she made. 

“I met so many people who had a different leadership style than me, and that was the best part. I also became more active in civic engagement now because of CCLI. Because of CCLI, I became more passionate about the education system, specifically in regards to undocumented students and foster youth,” she said.

Ruiz, alongside two other peers, created and hosted a three-day, two-night entrepreneurship camp called Foster Our Future in collaboration with Tonto Creek Campgrounds. They created this camp to teach entrepreneurship to foster youth who didn't even know what the word meant. 

“After the camp, they all left inspired to do better and explore their future possibilities,” she said. 

As for the future, Ruiz said that she wants to grow her business and reach more women to inspire. She has also recently been considering opening up a social media marketing business to help local small businesses manage their social media accounts to increase engagement and followers. 

“Since I have experience managing social media accounts for organizations in the past, I feel this is an amazing venture opportunity for a college student who needs flexibility in their schedule,” she said.

Take it from Ruiz, if you have a dream, a passion and a goal you want to achieve, there’s no time like the present to take those first steps. If you’d like to check out her beauty brand, visit Beauty Bound Lashes.