Resilience in Beauty: Meet the Founder of Michigan’s First Beauty Mall

Nationally, only 3% of children who have been in foster care graduate from a postsecondary educational institution. Despite those odds, Detroit resident Katrina Belin, 39, not only graduated from college but is also a CEO — of Michigan’s first beauty mall. She credits much of her success to her former foster mother, Ruthie Davis.

“I didn’t know there was a fashion industry that existed … until I got into the foster care system with her,” Belin says. “She was really that person that bridged that gap and introduced me to the actual industry.”

The Pink Diamond Beauty Mall officially opened on the Avenue of Fashion in March with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, revealing a two-story pink building at Livernois and Seven Mile that offers an all-in-one beauty and health experience.

The mall has 12 different beauty and health categories to choose from, like nails, hair care, and skin care, with many services offered, including acrylic manicures, lace frontal installs, an acne facial treatment, a Swedish massage, and even Reiki “energy healing.” There’s also a space for shopping for local designer clothes, a beauty supply store, and a small café.

Belin says “this fashionista started” while living in a foster home. Her foster mother, who passed away in 2007, “saw something” in her and offered encouragement and financial support for her to pursue a career in fashion at 15 years old.

“What she ended up doing,” Belin says, “was taking her checks that she received from the state for taking care of me and enrolling me into John Casablancas modeling school.”

Prior to meeting her foster mother, Belin — whose birth mother was murdered when she was 3 years old — was “shipped around” to live with different family members and friends and eventually to different group homes. She ended up in foster care at age 14 and stayed until 17.

In 2010, Belin graduated from Oakland Community College with a nursing degree, and afterward, she held several jobs within the health care system. She also modeled on the side and learned how to design clothes, eventually creating a jeans line that became so popular that several customers asked why she didn’t have her own store. So, in 2011, she opened Pink Diamond Couture at Seven Mile and Greenfield and ran that business until it closed in 2015.

Two years later, while driving down the boutique-lined Livernois, a 9,000-square-foot fire-damaged, run-down building with diamond motifs caught her eye. She says that the night before, she had woken up at 3 a.m. and been given the words “beauty mall” from God.

“I didn’t understand it then,” Belin says, but when she saw the size of the building, she knew then that this was where she would create the Pink Diamond Beauty Mall.

“The building was going into foreclosure, … so I went on a hunt to find out who owned the building, because it didn’t even have an address,” Belin says. After she did that, she started off with a land contract that allowed her to purchase the building over time. While working as a medical instructor at Oak Park Alternative Education Center , Belin funneled her paychecks into paying off what she owed on the building and renovations, including floor, window, and drywall repair and electrical work.

In 2018, Belin stopped working as a medical instructor and opened the mall at 25% capacity, offering services for nails, hair, makeup, and lashes. After opening, she used her own funds to build out a beauty supply store within the mall, which offers products from Detroit companies. She also had wiring, plumbing, and other renovations done for the café.

To renovate the rest of the mall and get it fully functional, Belin applied for a grant from Motor City Match — a program that provides funding to start new businesses and expand others in metro Detroit — in 2021 and 2022. She was approved and was awarded $55,000 in 2023. The money went toward installing a new roof, creating the building’s signs, painting the interior and exterior, installing new flooring, and purchasing kitchen appliances for the café. And in August, she paid off her land contract.

Belin says she has created a space where women can feel special and have their needs met. “Being a foster child and just being in the system, … they don’t tend to care too much about your hygiene, your hair — you know, things of that nature,” Belin says. “I wanted to have something right here in the community where … if you’re going through different life stressors or trauma or anything, you’d be able to have a place to come and receive great treatment and just kind of get back to you.”

This story originally appeared in the July 2024 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Our digital edition will be available on July 8.

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