Hey Bestie, Step into Gooey Labs

meet your new favorite small makeup brand

When I first came across Gooey Labs, I was mindlessly scrolling through Instagram stories and landed on a friend’s story. She and and her friend were backlit and smiling while holding up brightly-colored popsicle-shaped lip glosses and simply captioned her post, “Gooey-sponsored night.” 

After some light social media investigating, I found out that Gooey was a small business started by “two University of Southern California besties.” One of the besties behind the brand is recent USC graduate, Gabby Trinh-Williams. Having launched less than a year ago, Gooey has already amassed over 3,000 followers across its Instagram and Tiktok. It’s launched multiple products from glosses to eyeshadow palettes and blushes, all with cute packaging.

Ivy: How did Gooey get started and come to be?

Gabby: Gooey started off as a “bestie endeavor” as I like to say. It began with one of my best friends, Kyana. We wanted a fun way to pass time and make some pocket change. We both love makeup (in particular a solid gloss) so we thought why not launch our very own lipgloss line for funsies!

The idea came to us in June and by October we had launched our first line. Kyana is a pre-med baddie, so pretty soon she had to step back, and it basically became my own company.

What challenges did you expect and encounter when Gooey first started? Did you have any initial fears?

One hundred percent. My biggest fear was not having the money for it because of the college grind. It’s been a challenge. Even now, there are still days when I’m like “Oh my god, I’m so red,” but it’s okay.

How did you come up with the name Gooey and what about the recent change from Glossies to Labs?

We really could not figure out a name for our company, which [at the time] really was just a lipgloss company. We asked around for names from our friends. We needed something short and spicy, so they offered “gooey.” It just rolls off the tongue, so we went with it and called our company Gooey Glossies!

The [original] name doesn’t work anymore because now I sell more than glosses. I needed to think of a cute, easy name. And where is makeup created? In a lab, so I thought why not go with Gooey Labs? 

So the company name was a crowd-sourced effort, what about the branding decisions?

A lot of Gooey is just the things I like to see myself. I love color, especially bright colors. People gravitate toward bright things and Instagram is already so saturated with the makeup industry. I knew that my posts, reels, and everything I do really have to pop so that people can be drawn to them. I use a lot of saturated color palettes in my products and try to do fun things. 

Gooey speaks to its audience in a fun way. How did you decide on that?

Gooey is run by a younger girl and has a younger audience, so I wanted to talk to people like how I would my close friends, like they’re my besties. It’s really important to develop that rapport with your customers, so I decided, “let me just talk to them like how I would talk to anyone else.” 

Did you know from the beginning that Gooey’s brand expansion strategy would rely prominently on social media?

Yes, as a small business, social media is one of the best ways to bring attention to the company and brand! It’s actually really hard for me because I’m not a social media person, whatsoever. I only started posting on my social media probably about a year and a half ago. It’s been a big learning experience for me, and it’s taken over my life. I went from not being on social media to being on it constantly. If a post didn’t receive that many likes, people didn’t like it, and I need to change and adapt. That’s been hard and I imagine as Gooey continues to grow, it’ll only get harder. But I’m excited to see it grow more!

Talk to me about the product launches. Where do you get your ideas for a product from?

I get inspiration from a lot of really random things. 

For a product I’m launching in a couple of months, I was inspired by the Chick-Fil-A billboards. This kinda weird palette coming out is based on a [hypothetical] restaurant run by chickens, but they sell something called “wonder chicken,” which is 100% beef. A lot of people think it’s kind of dark and wonder if people will like it. But I like it.

If you’re pouring so much of your time and energy into something, it’s important to like the things that you’re doing. In terms of the shade names, where do you get your inspiration from?

It goes off the cover art. For example, my Red Envelope palette was Asian and Lunar New Year inspired. Therefore, of course, I wanted the shades to represent that part of my culture and the things that I love about that in general in the celebration of Têt. 
A lot of those names are things that I see every new year like lanterns and fireworks. Then there’s also the folklore that goes into it. One of the shades is named Nian which is also the name of the monster of which the New Year [festivities] are inspired. I try to reflect what the cover art shows in the naming of the shades in each palette.

But let’s talk about the pots. How and why did you choose unique shapes like hearts and popsicles?  

I created the Toxic collection with Kyana and we thought it would be fun and “quirky” to create a collection based on toxic things we or our friends have encountered in romantic and platonic relationships. We found that the heart tubes matched the collection the best it is based on emotion and matters of the heart! I liked the juxtaposition between having a cute little heart tube and glosses inspired by things one would usually associate with heartbreak. 

As for Flower Pop, the point of the collection was to create a lipgloss that was meant to be nourishing and refreshing to the lips! I really wanted my packaging to represent that aspect and so I gravitated towards something that I found quite refreshing…popsicles! As for why I chose flowers, I gravitated towards something that refreshes my mental health! One of my favorite things to do when stressed or in my downtime is to go out and be amongst flowers. I think I’ve been to every botanical garden in SoCal now! Flower Pop is really a testament to me taking my own experiences and favorite things and kind of mashing them together to create a product!

I purchased the Flower Pop collection and love the way the glosses feel. How do you get the formulations to be just right? 

I do a lot of the mixing of the glosses myself. It’s a bit messy, but it’s fun, and I like to control what goes into the gloss. I buy a set lip gloss base from manufacturers and then I’ll put in different oils. I put a lot of things in that help nourish the lips. A bulk of it was me doing research to find out what the best oils for your lips are and what feels the best, so it’s been a lot of trial and error. I’m still trying to perfect it. I’m not sure if I’m happy with it yet, but we’re still growing so we’ll see. [The formula] might change in the future.

When I received my order, I got more than just the products I paid for. You also included stickers and candy. Why did you decide to add goodies to each order?

As a small business, I really value every single order that I get. The small things, like writing my own thank you letter and giving you some extra goodies, like candy, to show my appreciation are so important. People don’t have to buy from me. They could go to Sephora and buy products that have been vetted. The fact that they’re putting their trust in me and spending their hard-earned dime on me, I’m honored. 

I want to thank everyone that supports small businesses because we put in some much work, but we don’t really see a lot of outcome until someone decides to give us a shot.

Out of all the product lines, you’ve launched so far, do you have a favorite?

My favorite is definitely Red Envelope. One thing I want to do more is to incorporate more Asian culture. There’s not a lot of Asian culture within the industry. There are so many beautiful aspects of Asian culture that I feel like we should share with people. 

Red Envelope was my first trial to see how people respond to [Asian-inspired products]. Red envelopes are also one of my favorite things. It holds so much meaning: just giving someone a red envelope wishes them a prosperous new year. I tested out this with my audience to see how they would like it and it’s actually my best-selling product. I was so happy that people are receptive to it.

I love how passionate you are about incorporating your culture into it. I’m Chinese-American and when I saw Red Envelope, I thought it was amazing and unlike any other makeup product I’ve seen. I feel at most makeup companies, the most that we end up getting is limited edition packaging, but it’s exactly the same product. 

When we first started connecting, Asian representation is something that we talked about. What areas do you find are lacking and how do you see yourself contributing to it?

A lot of people tend to clump Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese cultures together and think that’s Asia. That’s not what it is. There are so many distinct aspects of Asian cultures that people forget about. One thing I want to do is to show the breadth of Asian culture. That’s not represented at all in the industry right now. I want to celebrate the diversity of Asian culture and try to represent these cultures. There’s so much more to Asia than one stereotype that the industry has created for us. 

In the future, I have plans for what I want to implement. I’m excited about it. There’s not a lot of culture yet in my business, but soon!

I’m so excited for that! I also wanted to talk about dream products. Is there anything that you haven’t made yet but really want to create?

I absolutely want to put out cream blush! My favorite makeup product is a good cream blush. I think if you wear a good blush, you don't need to do anything else. When your cheeks are glowing, you just feel good. I have to do it one day. It’s just expensive, so I haven’t done it yet.

What is your biggest challenge now? 

The biggest challenge for me is juggling work, school, and creating a sustainable business and content for Gooey. And also balancing my mental health! It’s been really draining to be on Instagram and Tiktok all the time. Before Gooey, I thought “I’m never going to download Tiktok because I don’t want to get sucked into it.” Now because of Gooey, I’ve had to download it and I have been sucked into it. It’s a challenge to take a step back [from social media], but I can’t really take a step back because I have to run my business. I’m still learning to balance it all. 

On weekends though, I do try to take a step back and think, “It’s time for my family and myself. No more Gooey.” There will be days that I don’t post and stay off Instagram.

Has running a business on social media affected how you personally use it? 

I’m shy, especially on social media. It’s one of the main reasons why I didn’t want to start [Gooey] because I was so scared of being on social media and having to be the center of attention in some ways. I’m still overcoming that today. I don’t like being in the videos because I’m shy and I don’t know if people actually want to see me. But I think it’s actually really important; people want to see the face behind the business. 

I’m still working on it, but I’ve gotten a little braver. I’ve started putting my voice in videos. I’ll make cameos every now and then in videos, but it’s a work in progress.

You have ambassadors, called Goo Boos. What was your reasoning behind recruiting them? 

One of the main reasons that I wanted to have Goo Boos was because I wanted to take off some of the pressure of being on screen. For me, it’s hard to film a tutorial for an eyeshadow palette or something of the sort. I really like being in the background, crafting and making makeup. One thing I really wanted to do was recruit Goo Boos to help me show off the products. There’s so much more to them than the pots that they’re in.

What are your goals for Gooey? What does life after graduation look like for you and how does Gooey factor into it? 

Goeey allowed me to recapture parts of myself. Growing up, my family always pushed this idea of “make money first, then after you have that wealth, go ahead and do whatever makes you happy.” I had to put parts of myself away. I had to get that “practical degree” which for me is economics. My love of design doesn’t translate, but Gooey reminded me of it and pulled the passion out.

One thing I don’t want to forget when I go into my career is to still put my all into Gooey. I’m going into insurance and finance full-time so I know it’s going to take up a big chunk of time, but I’m passionate about business. I really hope one day, Gooey will grow into something that I can do full-time.

Do you have any advice for fellow entrepreneurs and people looking to launch their own businesses? 

My advice echoes what I’ve said before and is something that I struggle with: don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. People will obviously love whatever product you have to offer, but what they really love and what I found they gravitate towards is the face and the story behind the idea.

Create that rapport with your customers and the people that support you. The face behind the product is just as important as the product itself. People want someone to root for, and they want to know what the company is all about. They don’t want the brand by itself.

For more Gooey content, head this way →  https://beacons.ai/gooeylabs/ 

Ivy Fan (she/they) is the editor-in-chief of juxtapose magazine. They studied at Boston University (no thanks to The Social Network) and currently lives in a shoebox apartment with her cat. In her free time, she’s probably psychoanalyzing TV show characters and her friends, making yet another Spotify playlist, or buying more houseplants.

Connect with them on Twitter @ivyzfan and Instagram @vee_fan