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Thursday, November 15, 2001

By Corilyn Shropshire, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Nine years ago Roda Ward Carter quit her job and left New York City. She knew she wanted to start a cosmetics company. She didn't have any money. She didn't have much of a plan.

	Roda Ward Carter holds a cosmetics case in her home office in Cranberry. She is president and chief executive officer of Universal Colors cosmetics. (Bill Wade, Post-Gazette)

What she had was confidence. And in the end, that decisive ingredient has led to her success.

In August, the Minority Enterprise Corp. gave Carter its 2001 Pillar Award for "Up and Coming Entrepreneur of the Year."

The 36-year-old former actress, model and corporate executive launched Universal Colors Cosmetics, a skin care and makeup line last year. She developed the company not just out of a self-described "obsession for beauty," but also out of a desire to increase economic independence for African-Americans.

Carter employs 14 sales representatives nationwide who market and sell Universal Colors and pocket 20 to 45 percent of the profits. Using sales associates instead of retailers offers independence, income and a fun career to employees, said Carter: "I'm giving to individuals rather than big companies."

She's quick to add that Universal Colors isn't designed just for African-Americans.

The three-step facial cleaning regimen, moisturizers, lip-color palettes, foundations and skin "problem solvers" were initially marketed within the African-American community but have found customers of every skin tone.

Carter's husband Rodney, also the company's vice president, said Universal Colors was no different from makeup giants such as Estee Lauder that have a primarily Caucasian customer base but sell to everyone. "We happen to be a black-owned company, targeting the African-American community, but used by people of all races."

Roda Ward Carter, president and CEO of Universal Colors, is reflected in the mirror of a cosmetics case and a wall mirror in her home office in Cranberry. (Bill Wade, Post-Gazette)

Ranging from $7.50 for a lipstick refill to $38 for a clay mask made of Dead Sea mud, Universal Colors has tapped a growing but often forgotten market: ethnic skin.

With sleek packaging and clever names such as Azua (a foundation) and Amazing Clear (a skin clarifying gel), Universal Colors caters to a niche of sophisticated urban professionals in search of high-end cosmetics.

In 1992, Carter walked away from her job as vice president of product development at Naomi Sims Beauty Products Ltd. She spent the next eight years studying cosmetology, acting, modeling, developing a business plan for the company, getting married, moving to Florida, moving to Pittsburgh and interviewing cosmetic chemists and manufacturers.

It all culminated last year in Universal Colors' launch on a cruise ship.

For Carter, cultivating relationships with each customer is paramount. She fields customers' questions and skin dilemmas while filling mail and Internet orders from the stock room in her Cranberry basement.

She demands the same of her sales associates. That plus a steady stream of magazine ads, regular attendance at trade shows and word of mouth have increased Universal Colors' sales by 60 percent in the last year, said Rodney Carter.

The company will introduce its "magic mascara" in the spring and is seeking to sell on television shopping channels.

Carter hopes her energy will inspire television shoppers not just to purchase her products but also to sell them. She hopes to show that "there's a cosmetics company that wants to address the diverse spectrum of the world."