Fit Check, Food Check: Shan Berries on Pink Outfits and Patacones

Shan Berries honors her Ecuadorian heritage at every turn. She’s spent over 10 years hosting TV and radio shows in her native Bay Area, and currently hosts on Mix 106.5 San Jose. Off-air, Shan is a mother of two children — and of a multimillion-dollar cosmetics brand, Shades By Shan. She cofounded Shades By Shan with her sister, Erika, in 2018. Since then, its 40-shade foundation range has become the top seller in its category at JCPenney. The brand has also donated over $100,000 to single parents in need through The Mamaberries Foundation, which the sisters created to honor their mother. This month, Inc. named Shades By Shan one of the 5,000 fastest-growing private businesses in the United States. 

On a trip to New York, Shan joined us for cafecito at Zaruma Gold, an Ecuadorian shop just past the Brooklyn Bridge. She schooled us on Ecuadorian delicacies (if you find yourself at Zaruma, order your coffee with cacao), talked personal style, and offered advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. Read on to discover how she took Shades By Shan from her mom’s garage to big-box retailers, how fashion can be a business strategy, and what sets patacones and tostones apart.

Fit Check: How has your style evolved since founding Shades By Shan?

I own a lot of pink now [laughs]. Our brand is pink and black. We need to stand out — in a room full of people, we’re always colorblocking. We need to be loud, we need to be obnoxious, and we need to be seen. We always try to come color-coordinated and a representar the brand, because when people love your outfit, they’re like, “Who are you?” That strikes up a conversation. That’s what it’s all about. You have to get noticed, especially when Shades By Shan is the underdog. How are people going to decipher us from the top dogs? 

Food Check: What’s your favorite Ecuadorian dish?

Hands down, patacones. They’re like tostones, but my mom always puts cheese on them. I don’t know if that’s a thing, or if it’s just my mom. That was the first dish my mom ever taught me to make as a kid. I remember, it was fifth grade and we all had to prepare a dish for the class, so my mom taught me to make patacones. All the kids were like, “What is that?” I had to teach them about my heritage. When they tried it, they were like, “Oh my gosh, this is so bomb.” And it’s a process to make patacones. It takes a really long time. My mom even had the roca to aplastar los patacones. It’s a whole process, but I’m so blessed that that was the first thing she taught me to cook.

What’s your favorite Shades By Shan product right now? 

Our mascara is the best on the market. I said it, you can come for me. It took us even longer to formulate than our foundation and concealer, because mascara is incredibly complicated. It has to be lengthening, it can’t be crusty, there can’t be fallout. Every product that you see, we create it in the country that formulates it best. For mascara, Italy is where it’s at. We infused ours with a plant called the resurrection plant, which lengthens your lashes over time. 

For you, what’s been the most gratifying part of the MamaBerries Foundation?

Looking back and seeing the hundreds of families we’ve helped with financial assistance. We had a woman who came to the United States on asylum, and she landed in Miami thinking someone from her family would pick her up. She was nine months pregnant, and no one showed up for her. She was roaming the streets of Miami and ended up finding a church called Monjitas, where made empanadas to sell on the street. From there, she gathered enough money to get a room for her and her baby. Her immigration lawyer actually nominated her on our website.

We awarded her $2,500. JCPenney doubled that and offered her a job at the store, and to pay for her daycare. She was able to buy a car so she could take her baby to daycare. That’s the kind of magic we do at Shades By Shan.

What’s next for Shades By Shan?

I hope we can lock in our next retailer, that we can keep growing in that way. Our biggest dream is to become a household name and be a global brand. We’re a proven success story, and it would be silly for other retailers not to jump on the train, especially since we’re also helping single parents in need. What other brands are doing that? There’s so little Latina representation on shelves. Not only do I think I can do this — I think I can do it better.

What advice would you give aspiring Latina entrepreneurs?

At the end of the day, strangers might be more supportive than some of your own friends. We look back at our first lip kit like, what were we thinking? But guess what? People just want to support. If you have an idea, go to city hall. Register for your business license. Look on Rocket Lawyer. Trademark your name.Trust me, we’ve made plenty of mistakes. You just have to troubleshoot and move on.

La cosa es empezar. Don’t overthink it. My sister always told me, if you’re not afraid of your first launch, you launched too late.