Last Saturday, Canvas Beauty founder Stormi Steele sat behind a bright pink table full of her haircare and beauty products for more than five hours, phone camera and lights pointing at her. The TikTok livestream she was creating became a hit -- in fact, Steele claims it made her the first person to hit $1 million in sales during a single TikTok livestream . More than 20,000 people purchased items from the Huntsville, Alabama-based business during Steele's livestream this past weekend, according to a post on Steele's personal Instagram account.
Steele believes it is her authenticity that has driven her popularity among consumers. "By the time you hit 'CEO status,' you're supposed to look a certain way. You're supposed to maneuver a certain way, you're supposed to have people on your team, have assistants -- and it's like, a lot of people who are just starting aren't there yet," Steele says.
"So when I got on TikTok, they was able to see something that was successful, yet something that was still very close to home." From the beginning, social media has been big for Steele's business. She launched Canvas Beauty in 2018 and sold more than one million units in its first year, according to AFROTECH .
And in 2019, Steele says, Canvas Beauty's hair blossom serum went viral on Facebook. But according to Steele, that sudden surge in demand was a blessing and a curse. Canvas Beauty did $20 million in business in 2020, she says, but "because I was so green and I didn't know anything, by.
