The cosmetic management program opened a cosmetic pop-up shop for a limited time to practice the skills they learned from their program.
The pop-up shop in the Longo Faculty of Business was open between March 27 and April 5.
All the products sold at the shop were made by the Canadian makeup brand NudeStix and sold at discount. According to the company’s website, its products are all paraben-free, gluten-free and cruelty-free vegan options.
The shop “definitely helped us with getting our hands kind of in the field, definitely opening the NudeStix pop-up store helps with the retail experience as well, too,” said Abigail Perantal, a student that had the chance to work the shop during its opening day.
“If you’re gonna go out into the world and, for what I’m doing, I’m gonna do this for hard knowledge, so, product knowledge with this was really, really beneficial,” she said.
The shop was run by students in their final semester of the two-year cosmetic management program.
Each student had a different role, including marketing and working as cashiers or sales associates.
Teams of workers alternated with different students working in the shop on different days.
Ramandeep Kaur, one of the students who worked as a sales associate, said working in the shop is something that she sees as beneficial to her future career.
Kaur said the experience of launching a brand would strengthen her resume and enhance her skills which would impress an employer.
She said the college program had been preparing the students for the pop-up opening. The shop allowed everyone to put their skills to the test.
According to the program’s outline that was posted in 2020, a majority of the classes held in the fall were done online except a few classes on campus. This current group of students had more in-person classes that gave them the hands-on experience they needed to run the store.
Jennifer Furtado, one of the students working in the store, said different aspects of each course tied into the shop’s operation.
“We did have some marketing classes so that really helped our marketing team,” she said. “We had a product knowledge class that helped us with product knowledge and our makeup application class helped us figure out makeup application and colour theory to help us find out perfect shades for people and everything.
“So, all of our courses that we did throughout the year have led up to this,” Furtado said.