Laura Hunter went from losing everything to becoming one of the greatest innovators in the lash and cosmetic market with Magnetic Eyeliner. The moment Laura saw her face on the World News as the Reporter behind the Pizzagate Scandal, her life quickly fell apart. Her identity was stolen and in weeks she became one of America’s most famous “reporters”. She lost everything, her dignity, her job, her relationships, and even her name. She was falsely accused and plastered all over America. Join Tanya Memme as she talks to Laura about her incredible comeback story. Learn how she took major companies to trial and won. Discover what it was like living with constant fear and misinformation. Find out how she found her new beginning by inventing “Magnetic Eyeliner”. Listen to her story on how she became a celebrated entrepreneur and an inspiration for women.

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Watch the episode here

 

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Bouncing Back From Pizzagate To Become A Multimillionaire Entrepreneur With Laura Hunter

This is probably going to be one of my favorite episodes and for many reasons, this is going to be a riveting one. This story is unbelievable. I have Laura Hunter, who’s the CEO and creator of the magnetic eyeliner and lash liner. She is an inventor. You are such an inspiration for women in general. Your story is phenomenal. I want to thank you so much for coming to my show.

Thank you.

She was also Ms. World 2016, which is how we connected because we both spoke at The Global Beauty Awards at their Thrive event hosted by Tori Kruse. That’s where I met Laura. When I heard her story on stage and I heard people asking questions, I was like, “She has got to be on my show.” We’re going to get right into this. I’m going to read you a little bit about Laura so that you get what I’m about to say and what we’re about to talk about.

Laura Hunter is the inventor of magnetic eyeliner. Her magnetic eyeliner and lash system disrupted the lash and cosmetics markets by making it dramatically easier for people to apply and wear false eyelashes. I have been purchasing Laura’s products way before I met her. She does make the best magnetic liner and lashes. She founded LashLiner, Inc. in 2018 to bring her patent-pending invention to the market and in June 2019, launched Tori Belle Cosmetics.

Since that time, Hunter has launched numerous additional innovations and inventions in the cosmetics industry. She grew the company to $50 million in revenue in the first fiscal year and over $80 million in total revenue. “Tori Belle Cosmetics is expanding globally. Innovation is driving growth in the global economy.” This is an article that was written about you and it blew me away. What was the award that you won for best invention or inventor?

I got the Business Intelligence Group award. They call it the big award, for Inventor of the National Venture of the Year and I was named SUCCESS Magazine’s award winner. I was 1 of the 50 award winners for their most influential women in America. I was like, “This can’t be real.” I thought it was a mistake. I was very confused.

It’s not a mistake and you so deserve it. You’ve won numerous awards. They go on and on. It’s unbelievable. The story of how you got here is what I am crazy about. If you guys remember back in the day, there was an article that came out that Laura was attached to but had nothing to do with her. This was the other article that I found on you, “The Conservative Daily Review website identified blogger Laura Hunter as an anti-immigration, right-wing blogger who supports President Donald Trump and lives with her dog in Tennessee but all fake news, according to the lawsuit filed. Hunter is an actor, model and photographer living in Seattle who was crowned Ms. World 2016.” This article came out where you got caught up in one of America’s biggest political scandals.

This all had to do with the scandal surrounding Pizzagate. Whether you believe it or not believe, we’re not going to get into that. We’re just going to talk about what happened to Laura. Tell me what was it like before all of this news came out about you that you had no idea that any of this was about to happen? What was your life like at that moment? What was going on in your life and where were you at?

It was good. I had been divorced for a couple of years by then. I met my husband, Bob. We were happy. I was in the process of buying a commercial building and remodeling it. It was a great project. My photography business was good. I’m a pageant photographer, also for models and actors. The girls that were competing in the pictures and the pageants were winning. It was good.

Everything is going well and you had won the pageant a few years even before that.

No. It was one year before. I was still coming up with that title. I had taken over the pageant after my reign. I was the director then. That was fun and exciting.

What happened? What was that day like when you found out that your name, face and identity were attached to this crazy scandal?

A couple of months before, I noticed that I didn’t have as many customers. It was in the summer and that’s my less busy season. I thought maybe it was bigger this year. I didn’t know and then I had fewer customers. I felt people weren’t talking to me. I didn’t feel like I was connected as much and I didn’t know why. I started worrying about it but there wasn’t much I could do. I remember saying to Bob, “I don’t understand what’s happening.”

I’d call people and say, “Do you want to set up a shoot?” They are like, “No, we’re fine.” I didn’t know. Somebody sent me a Reddit clip in my email that said, “Is this you?” That’s how I found out that. I said, “That’s my picture and name but that’s not me.” That’s how I found out what was happening. I can still feel it. It gives me goosebumps. It was that feeling where you get hot and cold at the same time and your stomach sinks.

Tell me who started this so that everybody knows what scandal we’re talking about and what this fake news is.

The Conservative Daily Review and Posts were two websites but they were identical. They both had Facebook pages and other social media but those were the big four. They were a company out of Las Vegas that didn’t care about politics. They were just making money on clickbait. They found that political clickbait, especially during that election was very valuable.

The most threatening behavior mostly comes from the internet rather than in person. Click To Tweet

For whatever reason, they decided that I was going to be their Editor-in-Chief. They use both my pictures and name. 1 of the 2 most famous stories that came out of that was in the Conservative Daily Post. It was called Pizzagate or cosmic pizza. There was an article that said that the Democrats led by Hillary Clinton were having an underage sex ring in the basement of a pizza parlor.

The man had some mental issues but he was very incensed. He had little girls. He was going to fix it himself. He drove from Philadelphia or somewhere and went in there with a gun. He looked around, couldn’t find anything and found a locked door. He couldn’t get in. He started shooting at the door. He was arrested and everything they got.

After that, if you’ve heard of QAnon, maybe about one year later, Q started posting about the same story but then adding a satanic element to it. What made QAnon takeoff was that same story but added even more fake news to it. Both the shooting in a pizzeria and QAnon as a group being formed have related directly to me as an editor, that I was the one that wrote that story that started all of that, the shooting that started QAnon. That was all attributed to me and I did.

They said that you started QAnon. I didn’t know about that. There was talk about some brutal things going on in this pizza parlor with the children.

It was selling people and children for illicit purposes. None of it happened. That was fake news. It is made up of somebody that this company hired.

This hit national news. I remember seeing it and reading about it. It hit not only on social media, I’m talking like news on television. They took your name and your photo. Did they take your phone number, email and all that? Did they ever display any of that?

They made up fakes. People thought they were conversing with me but somebody else was answering them. They also did live videos where you’d see my picture in the corner and hear a voice, “This is Laura Hunter. I’m live,” but the camera was outward facing. People believed that they were seeing me live, which led to their belief that I was a real person because in their minds they had seen a video of me. They didn’t realize they hadn’t. It was a trick of the imagination.

Between the videos, two websites and all the Facebook posts, it got everywhere very fast and worldwide very quickly. I didn’t even know it was attributed to me for quite a bit. I watched it on the news and thought, “What is wrong with those people?” If I had seen my name, I would’ve lost it. I never saw my name but other people had. That’s how I got contacted but no one would talk to me about it. No one say anything because they thought I was a lunatic. They thought I was a crazy fake news lunatic who lost it and went all crazy fake news. They didn’t want anything to do with me. They didn’t say anything. They just left.

How many reports did you supposedly edit, put together and launch out there from this fake news that was not you who did it?

It would be impossible for me to do what they said I did, even if I wanted to. Over the course of the website, probably 1.5 years, there was an average of 88 articles attributed to me per day.

What was this year like for you?

It was horrible. I had tried to rebuild my business and I couldn’t because how do you convince people? I tried to get it taken down. It took 7 or 9 months to get it to even stop. Facebook wouldn’t take it down. No one would take it down.

Did you call the police? Did you go to the FBI? Who did you go to?

Everybody and I finally had to get a lawyer because without suing them, there was no possible way but lawsuits cost $100,000. I was like, “There’s no way I finally found a good lawyer who was interested in the case for his reasons.” He found it interesting. It is something public. Marc Randazza was my very good lawyer. He is well-known and does all the CNN videos because he represents the adult industry, things like adult stores and movies.

He was like, “This is a very interesting thing because this isn’t identity theft.” This is what he called theft personage. They’re not stealing my identity like a cyber crime or something. They’re pretending to be me. They’re impersonating me. That’s different. It becomes a first amendment issue, which I didn’t know about. He’s a first amendment lawyer. It comes down to freedom of speech, “Can they do that? Are you free to do that?” “No.” That was the fight and we won. Thank God he took it on contingency because there’s no possible way. It would still all be there. I could never have defended myself.

 

For over a year, you are trying desperately to get help and have this stop. Articles are coming out left and right. You can’t stop it. Facebook won’t take it down. It’s all over Instagram. Nobody would take it down. They wouldn’t listen to you even though you’re like, “This is me.” What was it like when you were out in public?

It was odd. People started to recognize me. I had fans.

From one photo or did they have a variety of photos?

They only have one photo. They just kept getting the same photo over and over again. Interestingly, people who I knew that saw me were weird to me but people who aren’t into that or don’t read it didn’t know who I was. That part wasn’t as bad as far as walking around in public. The only people who knew who I was are people who read those things and they were fans. They’d be like, “High five. I know you.” At first, I was like, “What?” I did commercials and things like that. I was like, “They must have seen that casino commercial or something I was on,” then I realized that’s not why they were high-fiving me.

I didn’t know what to say because if I say, “That’s fake,” they got mad at me. I didn’t want to agree with it either though because I don’t want to act like that was right. I didn’t know what to do. People who were incensed by it, instead of calling me, took to the internet more like death threats, “You should die. Commit suicide. You’re a horrible person.” The most threatening behavior was mostly over the internet whereas the uncomfortable, strange behavior was more in person.

Do they steal your phone number and start texting you as well and saying horrible things to you by text?

No, but they would try to get to me through Facebook messenger calls. Nobody got my phone number, luckily but there are several other ways that you can call somebody on their phone without having their phone number through different social media. I would get those kinds of things. Mostly though it was more of the internet-based things like Messenger. I get messages there a lot.

If you are someone who has their information out there, it’s all over the place, your phone number and address, which it is for many people because they’re not paying attention to it, how do you get that removed?

It is hard. We had to hire a forensics agency at the expense of the people when we won the lawsuit. They were forced to hire a forensics agency to find everything they could find that had my name and based on it and had it removed from those servers with a court order.

Paint a picture of what your life was like at that point when you’re suing these people. How bad did it get for you?

It was bad. I was scared all the time. I was scared somebody was going to come to shoot me because of the whole Pizzagate thing or people would recognize me one way or the other. I didn’t want to go out in public. I remember not sleeping because I didn’t know what to do. I was super frustrated and scared. I was worried about my kids. When people found out, they’d show up at my building or my house after work and there’d be a satellite ban. It was awful. I got no sleep. I probably looked terrible. In court, one of the things they tried to say was, “She doesn’t look good anymore so it’s not hurting her.” That’s not going to work.

What about financially, how did this cripple you to get to the point where you had to start over again?

It was almost crippling. I still had the building that I was remodeling. I got some rent. My boyfriend at the time, who is now my husband, was there. I went from having a comfortable middle-class lifestyle to, “I can’t buy that. We can’t go to a movie.” Being poor. Most of us know what that feels like. We’ve been young. It sucks. It’s hard when you have to tell your kids, “Mommy can’t buy you that thing that you need. You can’t get the fancy calculator for Math.” Giving up everything extra is hard.

You are a mom at this point.

I’m a single mom so that was very difficult.

If you want to remove all your information online, you would need to hire a forensics agency to find and remove everything. Click To Tweet

What was that towards your kids?

There were threats in general like, “You should die.” Nobody ever said, “I’m going to kill your daughter,” but I felt they were in danger because you don’t know if some crazy person is going to come into the house with a gun and start shooting us all or stab us.

How did you deal with the stress like that? Did you stay in a lot? When you went out, did you ever have threats right in front of your face?

I stayed in a lot. I was depressed. I had a lot of meltdowns. I cried a ton like sobbing for Bob. I stayed in bed a lot and then get up. It was hard to function. It probably took a couple of months. I didn’t even go into the building that I needed to be at to pay the bills. I couldn’t do it. I was too scared all the time, both for my safety and also for my future. I was overwhelmed with feeling bad to the point where I had to go to a doctor and get medication.

I do remember that time when article after article came out. I can’t believe you were attached to the entire Pizzagate situation, even though I think about it. At the time, you were re-designing a building as well. What was that for?

It was an investment.

You had money and were investing it.

I invested all my money into that building and cleared out my 401(k) to buy it and remodel it because it had so much sweat equity potential. I had to do that to survive. It was hard to even do that but I had a couple of tenants by then. At least we didn’t lose the building and not pay the rent while I was going through the court case.

Your self-identity must have been ripped from underneath your feet.

No one thought I was a different person. It was very difficult but even when people found out that person wasn’t real, I got many threats like, “How dare you, malign Laura Hunter,” as if she was real and they didn’t believe me. It was weird. You’d realize I’m me. They admit it. They had to come clean and apologies. The apologies have made people matter that I had manipulated them with some legal scheming.

Even after you won the court.

It still didn’t. The people who were my fans turned and those are crazy people.

Did your social media blow up? I heard you got over one million views or likes.

My social media did blow up for a little bit. I got rid of almost everybody on it after that because I didn’t know who these people were and what they want. I started over because I had a good social media presence that was real before that.

Why do you want to do videos and say, “This isn’t me. My identity was stolen?”

 

I did it on my social media and everywhere. I posted banners that said, “I’m the real Laura Hunter,” on everything I could find. They had to post apologies on their sites that were prevalent for 90 days. I tried everything. I was on probably fifteen news shows, everything from Inside Edition.

I heard all about Pizzagate but I did not hear about you winning this case and that it wasn’t real.

The first part was like, “Interesting.” In the second part, people were like, “No one cares. All the drama was done,” for them but not for me.

Did they have to come out and admit, “Pizzagate is not real and this is all fake news?”

No. They counter-sued me for slander saying that the stories were true but we had tons of proof that they weren’t true. Let’s start with the fact that I didn’t write them. That wasn’t true. You stick my name on it.

I do believe that you were very close to uncovering the truth as well.

Before Bob started working with me with LashLiner and Tori Belle, he was a rocket scientist, then he was in software and then competitive intelligence. He’s a computer data guy. This is his thing. He was like, “I’m a computer data and AI expert who did intelligence. I will find them.” He found them. There’s no way we could have found them because $100,000 would have cost me to have the forensics experts come in and find these people. They were hidden very well. When they finally found them, his page had a kitten on it like some of your kitten clickbait pages that they were using for testing.

A website?

No, it was like a Facebook page that they were using for testing. In the code, there was one line where an email address matched one of their websites. He was like, “Got it.” It turned out that this guy, once we found him, had approached me already and tried to get me to sell him my images. I said no.

He wanted to have ahold of your images before he was going to leave the story. He wants it to leak. Is this one person that started all this?

It’s a company. They have a CEO. It wasn’t that many people. They were advertising on Craigslist and the advertisement said, “Fake news writers wanted. Apply here.”

Has Facebook done anything to protect people like you since then?

Yes. They’ve instilled in that but, 1) They don’t allow political much of anything. They’ll flag it and take it down. That’s a big thing. 2) They’re much more likely to take action if you say, “My name or likeness is being used for something political.” They have but it would not be as easy to do it.

People are saying, “That’s a breach of me expressing my political opinions too.” There’s that whole thing where they’re protecting people.

In my opinion, there’s a difference between freedom of speech and freedom of putting your opinion on someone else’s Facebook. They don’t own Facebook. Facebook has the right to say, “I own this. You don’t.” Like your house. People aren’t allowed to come to spray paint on my house, their opinions or put signs in my yard unless I love them too. That’s how I see it. As somebody who has been victimized and people have asked me, “Isn’t it freedom of speech,” I don’t think it is. It’s someone else’s house.

There's a difference between freedom of speech and freedom of putting your opinion on someone else's Facebook. Click To Tweet

How long did this court case go?

Altogether, it took months.

During that time, was it on the news that you had filed this?

There were press releases. It was on the news and channels. I did a lot of interviews when it was filed because it got picked up by Court TV. Once the Court TV picked it up and other people saw the news wire, they were like, “That’s interesting, a beauty queen’s stolen identity, fake news story. That’s weird.”

What was that day like when you found out that you won?

I didn’t understand that I won. What happened was we went to court and it was a motion hearing. We settled after the motion hearing because they lost all their motions where the judge hates you a lot way. I didn’t realize that this was like, “We’re done. They’re going to paint.” Afterwards, Mark was like, “Great.” I was like, “Isn’t this the first part?” He’s like, “We got them. It’s fine.” It took probably another week or so to get through the whole settlement thing and see the money in my account and then I was like, “This is great. It was a huge weight lifted off.” I still didn’t have my business but I felt vindicated and I could rebuild.

With that money, you probably put that all into your building and get yourself back on your feet again. Where did the invention of the magnetic liner come in after this? How did that come about?

Within a month of them settling with me, I had finally pretty much finished the building and got the last tenant. It was 100% occupied. I was very excited. I remember standing in the middle of that saying, “Oh my god.” At that point, once I had all the tenants in, it was all remodeled and worth more, I didn’t have to become a photographer again. I could support myself as a landlord with those twenty units in the building. I was relieved. I was like, “I made it. I got through it.” About two weeks later, the building was condemned. I got a letter. I showed up for work and there was a yellow notice on the door that said, “Condemned.”

It was a stop work order first. I was like, “We’re not doing anything.” None of the remodelings we did was structural. It was all cosmetic. I was like, “What on Earth is this?” I called. As soon as I talked to the guy that was on the sheet, he started yelling, “I know what you did. You’re the problem.” I was like, “You guys give me an award for cleaning up the streets. What are you talking about?” This guy was dead set on coming after me. I said, “Can I at least move this to the side door or something because we have customers? We’re not doing any work and I can prove to you we’re not doing any work.”

I made the massive mistake of letting him come. We weren’t doing any work. What happened was we found out that the previous owner had done a massive amount of structural work. I hadn’t seen the building before so I didn’t know. He did get permits but he never finished the work, closed out the permits or took the work out. I didn’t know anything. We had him signed declarations that there was no unpermitted work done. He lied.

At some point, when is it his fault? When does this become not your fault and his fault because he falsified the papers when you purchase the building?

Never apparently because I couldn’t afford to sue him. I would have to sue him. I tried to save the building and do the work. I talked to him and we agreed on him paying for quite a bit of it. I would do as much as I can. I went through the entire settlement trying to get my building back because that was my livelihood. We ended up fighting for one year. There was no winning. There was nothing I could do ever.

The guy hated me. No matter what I did, he said, “People are going to be out of there sooner, rather than later. You’re done. I’m not working with you.” It is this crazy combination of sexism and ageism. They told me I wasn’t allowed to contact the media. I had learned a lot about the first amendment by then. I’m like, “That’s illegal.” There was nothing I could do. I couldn’t fight anymore. I had nothing left. I had to give up and walk away.

When you say you had nothing left, do you mean financially and emotionally?

All of the things. Unless my children were hurt, I would’ve been dead. I had no money, retirement, building, restaurant or studio, which I had in the building and customers built back up. I had nothing. They were putting articles about what a horrible person I was in the newspaper, that I had this horrible firetrap and the people were all evacuated and that didn’t happen. They weren’t even real. These things didn’t even happen.

 

He’s also saying false things about the building so that the tenants move out. At this point, you can’t win because they are moving out. They’re believing and you can’t go to the news.

I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to fight city hall. You can’t. You will not win. They have an endless supply of lawyers and money. They can go forever. They can break you and that’s what they did.

How long was the battle with the Pizzagate false news situation?

Altogether it was about a year.

That year you go through hell and lose everything. You win that case and finally get a nice chunk of money but all into this building. This happens about a few months after you went in that. You think you’re a breathing room.

Not even a few months but weeks.

The building is being condemned for stuff that the owner before you had done to the building that he didn’t tell you on the document. All your money from the case that you had one prior to that, those are the building. You’re starting at ground zero again. You must be defeated. What is going on in your life then?

I never slept. I sat up all night. I couldn’t sleep because my brain wouldn’t turn off. I was sobbing, crying and a miserable wreck.

You had panic attacks.

Yes, huge panic attacks to the point where I was hyperventilating. It was bad.

You are losing everything. Your building was taken away. You have no money. You were like, “Why is this happening to me?”

My ex-husband decided to sue me because he thought I was rich suddenly. He knew I had gotten a settlement. He tried to take my child support. I’m trying to fight that. I’m like, “Why?” It was awful. During this time, I saw an ad somewhere for Katy Stoka’s invention, which is sandwiching magnetic eyelashes. They snap them onto your lashes. For some unknown manic reason, I suddenly was very excited. Back then, I’m like, “What on Earth was wrong with me?” I was clinically depressed. That’s what was wrong with me.

Especially when I’m depressed, lashes make me feel better.

I was like, “I am going to splurge and spend $17 on these things at Sally’s. I’m going to do it. This is going to be so easy.” Somehow this was a strange rabbit hole that didn’t make sense. In hindsight, somehow that is going to translate into my photography business. It is coming back.

What made you want to go get these magnetic lashes? Did you read about them and you’re like, “I want to try it?” Were you going to an event?

You cannot fight City Hall. You won't win. They have an endless supply of lawyers and money. Click To Tweet

I read about it and for some reason, I thought, “This is going to make lashes so much easier than if I’m the one that uses these, all the customers will come to me.” It doesn’t make sense.

Maybe it’s because you thought you would look that much better.

It’d be so much easier but it wasn’t. It was harder. I was so upset.

Your building’s gone.

I do nothing but cry.

You then go back to photography.

I was trying but I couldn’t get any customers because they thought I was crazy. It was a hot mess. I couldn’t get anybody in the door.

I remember Katy’s article on magnetic lashes. They snapped together. I have a hard time using them but some people swear by them. I could never figure it out.

I drove down to Sally’s and was irrationally excited. It was probably the first time I’d felt good in two years because I was going to buy these lashes. It’s so dumb but for some reason, in my head, it was some weird rush of serotonin or something. I was like, “This’ll bring back my customers. It doesn’t make sense.” To me, it did at that moment.

I went to Sally’s and bought them. I was very excited and sat in my car in the parking lot. I didn’t even move. We pulled the thing down, pulled them out and put one up here and then I brought the other one down here, the one that was up here jumped on the one that was down there. It was like, “Magnet. I have to hold this thing on. I got this.”I put it up and tried to hold it on. I go like this and it flips into my eye.

I tried for another five minutes. By the time I’m done trying, I’m bawling again and angry. I’m mad. I threw them in the box next to the seat. I was like, “If these had magnetic eyeliner, they work.” I stopped. I was like, “Is that a thing?” I check on my phone and I’m like, “Magnetic makeup. That’s not a thing.” Right then, I was like, “I wonder if I could make it.”

I went to the GNC. I typed in DIY eyeliner and found that you could make it with coconut oil, iron oxide, coal or the charcoal that you use to make face masks. I went and bought some charcoal pills that people make face masks out of some coconut oil and a couple of other things right then. It was on the way home. I stopped on the way home with the GNC and bought a couple of things. I knew I needed iron oxide. I’m googling it.

Is iron oxide an iron shaved down to a powder?

Yes. I don’t know why these people even use it but there was a hobby store, where you make model airplanes like a model hobby store. They had iron oxide. I went and bought a big iron oxide from them and probably shouldn’t have been putting it on my face. It wasn’t cosmetic grade. That’s fine. You’ll know why. I took the stuff home and started learning how to make eyeliner. It was a hot mess. I didn’t realize it. It’s a lot harder to make eyeliner the one might think. I have it stay on and dry. It was harder than I thought. Once I figured out how to make eyeliner period, then I started tweaking it to figure out how to get enough iron in it that it would stay.

It had its set of problems. The iron would pull out of it, come out of it, stick to the magnets and then the whole thing falls off. There are all these different things I had to figure out. I figured, “If I could make it work in my kitchen because it was my kitchen, with real chemistry, I would be able to make it work.” I started working on it. The funny thing is as excited as I was to work on it, I was still clinically depressed. It was like someone died. When you wake up in the morning, for a half second, you forget that somebody died and then you’re like, “It’s still there.” That’s how it was. I’d go to sleep, wake up in the morning and be like, “I have an experiment. I have no life.”

 

You are at your very rock bottom at that moment.

Yes, but I’m still trying to do something. I had to force myself. I’d be like, “I’ll do three tries.” That’s what I tell myself every morning. Sometimes I get more motivated and do more. Other times, I would try three things, go back to bed and stay there most of the day until my children came home. I would act like I was semi-alive and then go back to bed. That’s what I had in me. Eventually, I put the one in my hand and it stuck.

This is your concoction of whatever you find.

It worked and I was like, “Holy crap.”

What were you sticking to it?

The top lash from the ones I hated.

You took the ones without the clickable thing because the lash has magnets on it. You wanted to create the liner that gets it to stick.

I ended up redesigning the lashes themselves after that for a tester. That works. It stuck and it was interesting because it was more than just a light came on. It was like the sunshine. I knew at that second that I would be here soon. Everything changed. It’s like the end of one of those movies where the castle is all covered in darkness and gloom and then the spill is broken like Snow White.

It was the darkest and most bottom-of-the-barrel moment when this happened. Was this how many days after that day that you threw them down in your car at Sally’s?

It took me three months to get it to stick to my hand.

You kept at it. You had a lot of space in between because you were clinically depressed. I understand that. This is the craziest story ever. You finally figured out how to stick. For those of us out there, let’s say we have an invention, what is the first step? What did you do then?

If you want to invent something, you have to train yourself to hear it when you see a problem because it’s all about the problem. If you see a problem and you identify a problem, then you’re halfway to inventing something. The funny thing is we do it every day. Every day, we invent stuff. People don’t even recognize they’re doing it. They sit down and go, “What can I invent?” They go home and say, “This spatula doesn’t work. Too bad it doesn’t have another side on it.” You invented something. They then throw this spatula away, go about their day and go, “What could I invent?” You have to hear yourself say, “If this was blank, it would work better.” You then go look it up. If it doesn’t exist, good job.

I feel like those ideas are hard to find.

They’re not because you do it all the time. You don’t even recognize it. That’s the trick. You’re going to start hearing yourself. You’ll get in your car and be like, “Too bad that mirror doesn’t have a swivel. Do juniors have swivels? That one’s not going to work. What about this?” It’s crazy how many times you’ll find little things.

My boyfriend was freaking out because he was all upset. He can’t put lotion on his back. He’s always like, “Can you come and put lotion on?” He’s a very big skin person. He takes care of his skin. We put suntan lotion on the back, all kinds of stuff.

People invest something new every day, they just don't recognize they're doing it. Click To Tweet

Invent it. Figure out how to make it work. That’s a great invention. Whatever it is that you find yourself constantly going, “It’s such an annoying pen.”

People feel like they can’t get funding.

That is harder. You don’t need funding to start. You don’t have to go to some big factories. Most of the time you can mock something up out of stuff at the dollar tree for the most part. You don’t have to be big immediately. I didn’t. I probably spent $50 on everything and that was it. After that, once you have a prototype, there are a lot of avenues you can take. You can sign up for a service but you have to make sure they’re legitimate to learn how to license your product and idea. There’s one invention that is trustworthy that I would recommend.

There are things like Shark Tank. It’s a great place to go, get experience and see if they’re interested. There’s Kickstarter. Here’s the caveat about Kickstarter. I don’t think people should take new inventions on Kickstarter because we did that. That’s how we financed our first round. We were knocked off before we could even get our first mass-produced shipments.

We were still hand-making and selling when we got knocked off by a company that already made eyeliner and saw the ingredients on the label of the Kickstarter. Some tools sit there every day and they look for that. If you have a legitimate new invention, I would not put it on Kickstarter. If you’re adding a new color or something once your invention has been out a little bit, get Kickstarter. It’s a great place.

Where would you put it so that you can advertise for funding?

In the beginning, for most people, licensing is probably the best bet. It is very hard to create a sales channel or get into stores. Licensing is a great way to do that. The other way is to start local. There are all trade shows for new products. You can take it to these trade shows. Come to the trade shows. There are a lot of them.

You can even take samples of your product.

Stores come to these trade shows every year. There are tons of them. You can pay a couple of hundred bucks for a booth, show your wares and take orders. That’s one of the most major ways. Another interesting way that we found accidentally works well for us was a press release. We did a press release and it was interesting to people’s new invention. We got a lot of orders from that. The website was on it. Also, influencers. Send it to people you know. Tati Westbrook ordered it. We didn’t even know she’d ordered it. She did a review and that gave us a massive spike. That spike got us on ABC news and Good Morning America, which is normally paid-to-play but we got to be there for free. It’s a long process. You have to be willing to work hard every day, go out and pound that pavement. It is doable.

How many years ago was the day that lashes stuck to your hand on the liner?

It’s four years in February 2022. Tori Belle is our full cosmetic line. We decided quickly, “What if somebody made this whole new lash thing that was ten times better?” I like better lashes but then we’re broke. It was hard to get into the cosmetic space and we had customers so better get a whole line going while we could. We launched in the first 18 months about 120 products. I did nothing but design and formulate it. I end up formulating our original formulation. We couldn’t find a lab that would do it for us. I learned chemistry. You learn. Tori Belle is my kids’ names Victory and Isabelle.

I visited Laura’s facility and I was so impressed. I walked in there. Your warehouse alone is mammoth with boxes. There’s one woman I have to share. As we walk around this one corner, we’re looking at all these ceilings, high boxes of boxes and then there’s a forklift in there. Laura says, “I didn’t know we had a forklift.” I was like, “I don’t think of a box that’s 60 feet high way up there.” You have grown this business when I saw it. You’re such an inspiration. I saw where you do all of your social media and filming. That was very cool. I saw your lab where you make this stuff. You got a lot of stuff granted that baby lab.

This is our new holdup sprayed. That’s what we were working on when you were there. We launched it and sold out in under a minute.

What does that product for?

It’s a makeup setting spray. It makes your makeup both waterproof and smudge-proof.

 

I want you to know that these are all your cosmetics.

They look beautiful on you.

I’m going to tell you a little story. I have her lashes here, which I have been ordering for the past few years and I love the box that they come in. There are so many different styles. It’s fun to find out your style. Another thing I wanted to ask for a beauty perspective, if the lashes are too long, how do you cut them properly?

There are magnets and you cut between the magnets. I wear a size 8 in an eyelash so I cut 2 magnets off.

There are sizes.

They’re all about 30 millimeters long. It’s pretty consistent. You’re not going to be more than a one-off. You might be at 1, 2 or 3. That would be somewhat unusual.

When you’re putting on the liner, put on a couple of coats that help to rise.

You can put it in. Pull it straight out and on your eye. You need to put it on your face. We’re not just drawing a line with it. We need to deposit iron. You have to dry it down and create the makeup. I’ve always said to people, “Do not wipe off your brush.”

I don’t know how you come up with the most incredible colors. This is a pallet that you gave me called Flat Earth. I wear this every day. How do you come up with your color palettes? There are so many out there. Many times I’ll buy one and I use two colors thinking of the rest and then you put it off. It doesn’t look as good. This is phenomenal. I use every single color.

They’re super pigmented. They go on the color they are, which is great. One of my goals is to make makeup very multipurpose. Pretty much all of our pallets can do your whole face. If you look in there, if you think about it, that brown can be used on your eyebrows or as eyeliner. The brown and the black can be made in anybody’s color. You’ve got the pinkier color there that you can use as a blush. The purple color can both be a blush or lipstick. They’re all eyeshadows. You’ve got the lighter color, which is an eye shadow but it’s also a great highlight. If you’re going for a matte look, you can do your whole face out of that palette.

I’m going to try that next time. I want to get the black and the blush.

They’re wet dry. You can put water in them and make them into liquid liners or lipstick.

I got to have all these fun things to try out. I also got this beautiful All That Shimmers palette, which I love. I let my daughter experiment with it. She has one as well and she’s loving it. The pink here, she used as a little highlighter. Is this a blush?

That is a bronzer or a foundation depending on your skin color. The color is 165. I invented the perfect contour sponge. You might have one that you stamp the contour on and then blend it out. Our powders are also wet dry and they’re full coverage. You can use that as your contour, depending on your skin color, then you can use whatever lighter color you want as your highlight. You can get a lighter powder or the light color out of the Flat Earth, then blend it up.

I don’t get the black dab and wet that, even though it’s a small pallet.

You don't need funding to start inventing. Most of the time you can mock something up for a dollar. Click To Tweet

You put one drop of water in it if you want to or dip your brush in.

I have a story behind it. I had this color of blush that is discontinued. I got it from Canada. I don’t even know if the company’s around anymore. I would take this little blush thing into every store. I’ve been trying probably for four years looking for the color and I can’t find it. I was always putting something on from pink to orange. I got this color. I wear it as a blush.

I have it on but I have a little pink over it. I have it on and then put a little pink on the balsamic.

It looks great. This color is fabulous for somebody who has all the skin tone, dark hair and eyes. I always put on the wrong color. This is the right color. I want to thank you for that. I love all your products. I discovered your products because my cousin’s niece sells your products. I had people want me to ask you, why did you decide to go with the multilevel marketing type of way?

We have a lot of channels and that’s one of them. We put a single-level affiliate where you get a code and people buy, you make some money and then we have the multi-level. We also have wholesale and distributors. The only thing we don’t do is sell in box stores to avoid channel conflict. There’s one other reason. That reason is why we decided to do the direct sales. I felt like there was so much potential for so much income. If we were in box stores, instead of being in all these smaller places, then what happens is that Ulta, Walmart, Facebook and I get richer. Everybody else is left out.

I had so many people saying to me, “Can I come work for you? How do I work for you? Can I sell it?” I visualized them like cyclones. You’ve got cyclone Target, Walmart, Facebook and me. If I brush that all away, everybody under it would be able to cash in. It’s funny because you can make it rain. It didn’t feel right to not give people the opportunity that I had and instead give that opportunity because there’s a huge opportunity. I was either going to give it to the big box stores or everybody else and I chose everybody.

I like that you did that. There are different ways in which you can get involved in your company. How was that again? What are the differences?

You can be a single-level affiliate, which is you don’t pay anything. You get a code and make a 20% commission on anybody who buys your code. It’s very simple. We have our direct sales, which is the same thing but it’s 25% to start. It goes up to 40% and you can also build a team and make some commissions from the team. We dropped ship everything so there’s no buying stock for your house or anything like that. Not only we don’t want you to be but we will also actively come to find you if we think you’re doing it until you stop.

We don’t want to put anybody in financial peril that costs $9 a month. It’s for your website. You get your website. It’s a nice one. We also have wholesale. If you own a salon, boutique, gym or any small business, then somebody who sells wholesale will come and talk to you and you can sign up as a wholesale distributor or retail distributor through our wholesalers. We have a fundraising department where people can use the products to fundraise. For example, instead of buying candy bars, you would buy lashes and get 50% back from your team.

There were many different ways in which you can get involved.

We also have vendor relationships like Fairs. We have a different sales and marketing plan for people who do those regularly We have eCommerce. You buy it on the internet on third-party sites like Amazon or Carousel. We sell there. There are many opportunities and we don’t do those sales. We have lower affiliates to do them so they make the money off it.

During that time that you were at your rock bottom, you’re sitting there and ripping those lashes off, what is some advice because a lot of people out there are going through that?

All I can tell you is to get up. Get out of bed. Keep going. Keep trying. Force yourself to do as much as you can. If all you can do is 3, do 3. If all you can do is 1, do 1. Do something. If 10 minutes a day of concentrated work towards a goal is a shockingly effective way to get somewhere, you can do it in 10 minutes. It’s crazy. Sit down and do some ten minutes every day. You’re going to be okay.

Something even doing yoga. It doesn’t have to be a new invention. I find that rock bottom people do something with a lot of pressure that they put on themselves. “We got to do this. I got to pay this.” I posted this one thing on social media and I said, “You can also be there for a little bit. When you are there, do something that makes you happy. Go hiking and get out of nature. Whatever that is, do something that makes you feel happy.”

That’s part of getting back up too, getting out into life. You’ve got to get back up. Physically, you need to get off your bed and move around. If you’re at rock bottom, you understand that that’s hard.

Thank you so much for this incredible interview. People walk away with a lot. Your story is incredible. We’re going to talk more about that. We’ll get into more detail. Check out her website. Go to her website. If you want to join as an affiliate, please go to ToriBelleCosmetics.com. You have a beautiful website. Everything she does is beautiful which turns to gold. Thank you so much for being one of my life masters.

Thank you.

 

Important Links

• LashLiner, Inc.
• Tori Belle Cosmetics
• Article – Laura Hunter Wins 2022 BIG Innovation Award
• Kickstarter

 

About Laura Hunter

Laura Hunter is the inventor of magnetic eyeliner. Laura’s magnetic eyeliner and lash system disrupted the lash and cosmetics markets by making it dramatically easier for people to apply and wear false eyelashes. She founded LashLiner, Inc in 2018 to bring her patent-pending invention to market, and in June 2019 launched Tori Belle Cosmetics. She grew the company to $15M in revenue in the first fiscal year (2019) and to over $60M in 2020. Today, Tori Belle Cosmetics is expanding worldwide.

Laura is an accomplished professional photographer, having owned Beyond Photography for over 25 years and was also a highly sought-after makeup artist specializing in pageantry. She was a pageant queen herself, winning numerous national and international pageant titles. In addition to being a published author with articles in numerous publications including Forbes, her work in pageant photography has won countless awards and has also appeared in many magazines. Laura is a successful actress and model and has appeared in TV shows, commercials, and print ads for TLC, The Food Network, and Amazon Prime and in national ad campaigns including Bissel, Microsoft, Avery Labels, Toyota, Disney, and others.

 

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