By: ’Moelo Motsiri
MASERU
Mosa Masithela, a 21-year-old third year student at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology (LUCT), has made a bold move of starting her own make-up hub.
Her business, Fresh and Glams, offers personalised professional makeup services for various occasions like weddings, parties, photoshoots, to mention few.
Inspired by Kissed by T’soany and Beauty by Muzi, Mosa boldly stepped into the beauty industry back in 2021 while still in high school.
“I liked make-up from a young age. From the time I was in Grade 5, I would watch my aunt doing her make-up and I would say to myself, one day I want to do my own that is where I started practicing how to apply it,” she said.
The brand Smart Glams, Mosa says, represents the quality service she gives to her customers as well as the fresh look they get after her service.
“I wanted a very simple, unique name that resembles the kind of work I offer, which is the fresh look that makes clients look glamorous,” she said.
With her years of experience in the industry, Mosa shared the challenges in her beauty business. She revealed that her business has its best and lowest seasons.
She said usually in winter, clients are very few but eventually numbers recover in summer, as it is a season for more business in general.
Mosa also said there is stiff competition because the beauty industry is saturated with talented individuals, therefore it becomes hard if one lacks skills to match.
The other challenge is the diverse client expectations. Different clients have different expectations on how they want their makeup and that becomes a challenge.
Price negotiations can also be a challenge since some clients are on budget or have the limited funds but still want their make-up to be done by her. “Therefore, I have no choice but to give them discount or packages that will suit their needs and budget,” she said.
Mosa noticed that the beauty industry needs a creative person who can quickly come up with effective solutions.
“To solve the problem of competition, I advertise on social media for marketing and capitalise on influencers to receive clients and I sometimes sponsor events to gain recognition. To meet clients’ expectations, I offer consultancy and allow them to provide their make-up aspirations in order to know exactly what they want,” she said.
Despite those challenges, Mosa said her business is doing so well that she cannot believe it. She noted that she gets so many customers with the references from other makeup artists, word of mouth from her client’s, relatives and people who know her.
She said that one of her biggest achievements is the chance of providing her services to the celebrities such as Nomaswati Let’solo, Lintle Ramatla, and Puleng Phoofolo.
Mosa added that she got the opportunity to do make-up for foreign celebrities when they come for events in Lesotho. These include Innocent Sadiki from Skeem Saam, Thembi Senaba from Spirit of Praise, Siyakha Khitha from Joyous Celebration and Katleho Seobi, another SA gospel artiste.
Mosa also said that she got a lot of positive feedback from her clients and that makes her happy knowing that she gives people the service they want.
“When I see my clients happy, I become happy, motivated and encouraged too and that helps me to enhance my skills and do better,” she said.
She expressed gratitude on the success of her business. “I am very grateful for my business success. I am able to take care of myself, affording my needs and saving my parent the trouble of providing for me,” she said.
Mosa advised all make-up artistes and budding entrepreneurs to embrace their passion and creativity. “Invest time in honing your skills through practice and education, don’t hesitate to network with other people with skills as it can open doors for big opportunities. Work more on the customer’s satisfaction,” she said.