Profile: Dineh Mohajer

Twenty-something success stories in the cosmetics industry seem to be popping up everywhere lately, providing a little competition to industry biggies like Revlon and Estee Lauder. A prime example is Hard Candy, the nail polish company Dineh Mohajer essentially started in her bathroom. It was the summer of 1995 - Mohajer was taking pre-med classes at USC, and part-timing at the Fred Segal Boutique in Los Angeles. One day she concocted some baby blue polish to match a pair of sandals, and before she knew it, she had created a business. After friends raved over her blue toes, she brought a few samples into work, and her boss ordered 200 bottles at $9 a piece (Segal retailed them for $18). Mohajer borrowed $50,000 from her parents for the venture, and set up shop with big sister, Pooneh and her boyfriend, Ben Einstein. Her first line - all pastels - flew off the shelves. She was written up in magazines, from Vogue and Elle to Seventeen. The latter actually published her home phone number, and Mohajer ended up putting in seven phone lines to field all the orders. Everyone loved the greens, blues and sparkly grays peddled by Mohajer.

By the end of the year, Mohajer was running a successful cosmetics company grossing about $70,000 each month. But there were several setbacks, like finding a bottler. The Mohajer sisters and Dineh's boyfriend were mixing and bottling the polish themselves until the orders got too big and the fumes almost killed them). And then there were the knockoffs - cheaper products in similarly bizarre colors, with names like 'Crazy Candy' and 'Urban Decay'. Even Revlon eventually sauntered onto the bandwagon and tried to imitate the Hard Candy palette with its 'Street Wear' line.

Mohajer has managed to survive right along with her competitors. She had the marketing savvy to know that it was smarter to use only the finest quality ingredients and packaging, to sell her products exclusively in high end-stores. She expanded her line of colors, and coined trendy names for them, like Gold Digger, Pimp, and Trailer Trash. But as the business expanded, she realized that the company needed more direction than she could give it. She eventually hired executive William Botts to be the company's CEO.

Since then, Hard Candy has streamlined its operations, and expanded its product mix. The company has moved beyond nail polish to include Candy Man ('male' polish), lipsticks, eyeliners, and an eyebrow training kit. Will Hard Candy survive the craze for so-called "ugly" colors? Don't bet against the scrappy Mohajer.