First Steps
Behind the counter, Collado has all the ingredients for lipstick at her fingertips.
“There are three different bases,” she explains, that create “a tinted balm like Chapstick with Vitamin E, a traditional lipstick with a cream base, and a matte formula with full color and no shine.”
She leads each client through a series of questions, first honing in on color. Like an artist at work, she places dots of color on the palette—pinks, browns, and yellows in my case—then offers additives such as SPF, moisturizing Vitamin E, a touch of shimmer, a whiff of mint fragrance for a little tingle on the lips. Yes, yes, yes, and yes!
Then she blends, like a pastry chef whipping up the finest buttercream frosting. The first sample color, we both agreed, was a little lighter than the deep red wine we were aiming for. She remedied it with a touch of brown. Another sample on the lips. The third time was the charm—one more drop of yellow resulted in my ideal customized color.
Next, the lipstick needed to take shape. Collado deftly combined the color pigments with beeswax and other ingredients, pressing them into a silver metal lipstick-shaped mold. Within minutes, presto! My custom lipstick popped out of the mold, into a shiny black lipstick case—“Collado” emblazoned in gold.
She promises cosmetics that are customized, but I was also mesmerized. Truth be told, she was too.
“It never gets old,” she says, describing the thrill of opening the mold, seeing that final product, experiencing gasps from her clients.
And that’s just for starters. She also creates customized foundations, concealers, highlighters, and bronzers. For the eyes, there are lash lifts and tints—experienced in big cozy chaise lounges. Currently, she’s offering a customized lipstick and lip gloss experience for $75. She keeps clients’ formulas on file, and all reorders are discounted.
“I love everything makeup,” Collado says. “Three years ago, I decided to open up my own business, and I’m still flabbergasted it worked in little Hanover, PA.”
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Career About-Face
“It’s truly by accident” that Collado discovered her career path. “I actually went to college to become an archaeologist,” she says.
Growing up nearby, she “loved history.” She even went on archaeological digs along the Susquehanna River and completed internships at Harrisburg’s State Museum of Pennsylvania.
“I was pretty much Indiana Jones,” she says. So what happened?Her first semester of college went fine, then in her second semester, one of her archaeology professors burst her bubble by describing typical working conditions.
“She spent four or five months on a dig, and got to shower with running water four or five times. And I said, ‘That’s a big hell no, for me,’” Collado says.
Makeup became her backup. She had just taken a part-time job at Hanover’s brand new Ulta Beauty shop, where she admits she started with zero experience.
“I grew up playing outside in the dirt with two brothers, doing nothing related to makeup. But once I started learning, I fell in love with it,” Collado says.
A trip to New York inspired her to create Collado Cosmetic Lab.
“It was a birthday experience where I got to make my own makeup—products that no one else had,” Collado says. Inspired, “I thought, ‘I should bring this to Hanover.’”
Makeup, Up, Up, and Away
The former archeologist in her provided Collado with the research skills she needed to locate labs where she could source cosmetic ingredients.
Half Puerto Rican, Collado understands the importance of customized products because “every single person is unique, from skin tone to undertone and skin type,” Collado says.
Clients hail from all over the Susquehanna Valley, nearby Baltimore, as well as far-flung places like Montana, Florida, Maine, even India.
“The amount of people who come in my door from all over—I have a hard time wrapping my brain around that—and I’m truly grateful,” Collado says. “I feel like I’ve just started—I blinked, and three years have gone by.”
Collado Cosmetic Lab
9 Carlisle St, Hanover, PA 17331
