‘Belle Collective’ Star Stormi Steele Built Canvas Beauty Brand Into A Multimillion-Dollar Empire Through Reinvention And Live Selling

In its first month, Canvas Beauty generated roughly $50,000 in sales

The Founder’s Origins: From Survival Mode to Beauty School

For Canvas Beauty Brand founder and “Belle Collective: Birmingham” star Stormi Steele, success didn’t begin with a viral TikTok Live or a reality television camera crew. It started in survival mode.

Long before she became one of the most recognizable entrepreneurs in beauty and social commerce, Steele was a depressed college student in Mississippi trying to force herself into a life that never felt like her own. She was just 24 credit hours shy of graduating with an art degree when she realized she couldn’t continue down a path that left her emotionally hollow.

“I was thinking about committing suicide, to be honest,” Steele told BLACK ENTERPRISE. “I just got to the point where I was like, I gotta fight. I gotta do something.”

That fight eventually led her to beauty school, then to Huntsville, Alabama, where she rebuilt her life one client at a time. Armed with a thrift-store outfit, a portfolio of hairstyles, and relentless hustle, Steele began building a clientele through Facebook messages and word-of-mouth referrals.

“I befriended every female that popped up on Facebook from Huntsville, and I put my flyer in their inbox,” she said.

Within months, she was working 12- to 14-hour days as a stylist. But the real entrepreneurial breakthrough came after she left a commission-based salon and opened her own small studio for $800 a month.

“That’s when I first had that real entrepreneurial understanding,” Steele said. “‘Oh wow, Stormi, you can have ideas and invest in them.’”

The Product Innovation: Addressing Traction Alopecia

While specializing in wigs and extensions, Steele noticed that many of her clients were quietly struggling with traction alopecia and hair thinning. Determined to help, she began researching ingredients and experimenting with formulations in her kitchen after dreaming about components like cayenne pepper and black tea.

The result became Canvas Blossom Serum, the product that launched Canvas Beauty Brand.

Steele initially sold just over 100 bottles on Facebook in 2015. They sold out the same night.

Still, she hesitated to leave hairstyling behind completely until a traumatic incident in 2016 changed everything. After a woman pulled a gun on her at the salon, Steele said her anxiety became overwhelming.

“I was having panic attacks going to the salon,” she recalled.

Scaling the E-Commerce Empire

A 2018 trip to New York City became the catalyst for her next leap. Inspired by the energy and ambition of the city skyline, Steele returned home, canceled months of salon appointments, built her own website from scratch, and committed fully to e-commerce.

The gamble paid off immediately.

In its first month, Canvas Beauty generated roughly $50,000 in sales. Within a year, the company had surpassed $1 million. By 2020, the business had reportedly generated more than $20 million in sales.

Pivoting Through Crisis and TikTok Shop Dominance

But Steele’s story wasn’t a straight climb upward.

In 2022, she learned her company had been hit with a devastating financial crisis after a former CFO allegedly secured unauthorized funding deals that left the business exposed to millions in repayment obligations.

“I was sitting there at zero,” Steele said.

Rather than folding, Steele pivoted again. She launched a new entity, stabilized her website operations, and began rebuilding the business almost in real time.

That reinvention coincided with another major shift: the expansion of Canvas Beauty beyond haircare into body and skincare products, including the now-viral Body Glaze collection.

Then came TikTok Shop.

Steele quickly recognized the platform’s potential and leaned fully into livestream selling, where her transparency and storytelling resonated with audiences. She openly shared her financial struggles, rebuilding journey, and entrepreneurial lessons while demonstrating products live.

The strategy transformed the business.

One of her earliest TikTok live events generated $150,000 in sales in just two hours. Later, Steele became part of TikTok Shop history after generating more than $1 million in a single livestream over roughly four-and-a-half hours, helping establish a blueprint for modern live selling in beauty.

Strategic Media Presence and Future Vision

Today, Steele says live commerce is reshaping retail entirely.

“Live selling is going to change and reshape how we consume and understand e-commerce,” she said. “It’s just getting started.”

That entrepreneurial instinct also shaped Steele’s return to television through Belle Collective. After previously walking away from ensemble reality TV, Steele said she initially had no desire to reenter that space.

What changed was leverage.

Rather than simply appearing on camera, Steele negotiated a producer role for herself through Kingdom Reign Entertainment, giving her greater ownership of how her story and business were portrayed.

“One thing, you know, to be a producer, to be able to control my Stormi,” Steele explained.

That distinction mattered after earlier experiences where she felt major business milestones were overlooked in favor of interpersonal drama.

Now, Steele views television as another visibility tool, but only when paired with strategy.

“I know how to compound visibility into results,” she said.

That philosophy extends to her partnership with La La Anthony, which Steele says worked because it felt authentic rather than transactional.

“She cared about my Stormi,” Steele said. “That was unique.”

Despite her growing national visibility, Steele has remained rooted in Alabama, where she lives on equestrian property outside Huntsville. For the Mississippi native, building wealth in the South wasn’t a compromise. It was the dream.

“I just wanted peace,” she said.