22
How did MdM Flow start? Tell us the story. When I was in college I was obsessed with science and art; I studied biology and chemistry and also art and design. Even though art and design were always what I loved the most, I thought I was I was going to use the science to build a stable career and then art was just going to become a hobby. One day I was looking at a Benefit Cosmetics Makeup counter and I stopped short. They started to do my makeup for me, and I was like,“ I can’ t afford anything”. [ laughs ] So the lady said,“ If you can’ t afford anything, are you looking for a job?”, I was like“ Ok, yeah, I am looking for a job!”. And that’ s literally how I got my first job in makeup. They were quite a young company back then, so the training was in the head offices, but now they are so big they probably would never do that.
And it made me think: this is what I want to do, I want to be in this industry. But at the same time, I still wanted to do something scientific because it’ s something that I’ m naturally good at. I just started searching on YouTube and I came across a video of students from the Cosmetic Science Degree at the London College of Fashion. I thought it was incredible because I never saw makeup being made before. Straight away I knew that was what I wanted to study. It was quite last minute when I decided that, so I emailed them and they said that there were only a few more places and I could come down for an interview. I really went for that interview thinking this is the industry I want to work in but I also want to start a business.
When you work in retail, as much as you love it, there are always things that you would do differently, and you are constantly developing as you see things. That was how I was. So I got on to the degree and from the first day I thought,“ this is so hard, this is the hardest thing I have done in my life and I am definitely not going to start a business”. [ laughs ] I decided to get more work experience and by the time it came to final year I was thinking about all the places where I didn’ t want to work, so I needed to figure out where can I actually work. As part of my dissertation, I handmade lipsticks, and as I was making them, people on the course would take them as samples and they would ask why I didn’ t sell them. And that’ s when the idea of starting my own business actually came. Everyone else was applying for graduate rolls and there was nothing that actually excited me. That was a horrible experience for me because I just thought I would go to an interview and lie to someone and tell them I really wanted to work for a company, but there was no company I actually wanted to work for. And that was genuinely how I felt, so I felt I was just going to create the company that should exist.
Working in luxury beauty retailers while learning how to formulate beauty products on your course really helped you find your own career path. How did that experience help to shape Mdm Flow? FA: From my experience in retail, I had so many issues with the products, the way they are developed, the way they look on different skin tones, the way they don’ t show up on darker skin tones, colours are not available, the quantity of the colours isn’ t great … And being in a degree and in an environment where I was constantly learning about the development process and being told how products should be made and then seeing that products in the market weren’ t being made that way, I just thought it wasn’ t right and I wanted to fix it. For me lipstick was a key thing, because women have issues with lipsticks but, when they do, they internalize it. If a woman uses a lipstick and the colour doesn’ t look great on her she thinks‘ oh, it doesn’ t suit me, it’ s me, I have issues with me!” and they don’ t think about the product. Without actually thinking, a product should be available to me that isn’ t drying, or all these other things that especially younger woman internalize. They try a product and if it doesn’ t suit them the way it suits a person of a paler complexion or a person of a different aesthetic, they internalize it.
It can be exactly the same issue with clothes … Exactly! [ If something doesn’ t fit ]“ It’ s me”. No, it’ s not, their sizing is all wrong and they are not thinking about you the way they should be. My brand is really loud, really audacious, inspired by hip hop- and not just hip hop, but street culture- because I think that in street culture people take things that were not made for them and they make it part of their identities. For me, hip hop is the best example of that because here are kids of lower income backgrounds, a lot of them suddenly are getting money, and they are spending it on high end garments and they aspire to this lifestyle that wasn’ t made specifically for them. Nobody makes a Gucci jumper thinking some poor kid from Brooklyn is going to aspire to buy that [ laughs ]. Maybe they do now, but at the beginning and at the inception of the movement that wasn’ t the thought process behind it. For me, I think people get into fashion, beauty and