Do you remember the first lipstick you made? What colour was it? FA: I think it was my red one, Supreme. It was the pigment that I mostly liked. When I first started, I wasn’ t thinking about developing a collection, even though I felt I wanted to start a business, it was emotional— these are the colours I like and the colours I am going to work with for my studies.
Your lipsticks are made to be suitable on every skin colour. How is that possible? People ask me how do I choose the right lipstick, but something being suitable for you doesn’ t mean you’ ll necessary like it. I am sure there are things that you wear or the way you do your hair that other people think looks amazing and you don’ t like it. Because not everything is you. For me, the important thing is about having the option. People with darker skin tones sometimes pick up dark lipsticks, they try it on and it looks grey. If a product looks red on a stick it should not look grey on your skin, it should look red. That might not be the perfect red for you, but the way it comes up and shows up on somebody else is the way it should show up on you. Even though it is suitable for anyone, if you don’ t like a specific colour or any of the colours, that’ s fine, because that might not be your taste. But at the end of the day if you do turn around and want to try something new or different, you know that there is a brand that you can come to, and with a quality that is going to look good on you.
How do you formulate your products? It is a lot about colour. The way I formulate is more based on solving problems that my costumers face. People want lipsticks that have amazing colours but they have problems with the dryness, the quality or the staying power. For me the key thing is colour and that is the reason why I did it, but once I realized that people had other issues I built those quality insurances into my products. Now I have a product that is going to be nourishing on the skin, that isn’ t going to dry up, that is going to stay all day, but at the same time, has the colour that you want.
The brand has hip-hop as its heart. How does the rhythm flow between the music and the products? It’ s a weird thing. I don’ t always promote the fact that it is hip hop inspired in interviews because I want it to be so embedded in the way that we operate, in the way we represent ourselves and in our imagery, so that when people see my product they think it’ s cool but they don’ t know why that is. We present a bold, audacious look but it is still very serious and heavy because I think that self-confidence and self-empowerment is very serious and heavy. Even though people try to make beauty a trivial thing, I think if something is a part of you and is a part of how you present yourself, it is very serious and very personal. I think that our messaging and branding and the way we present ourselves we want it to be fun and to be cool. But then to the woman that buy our products and put them on every day, I want them to know that this is not something that is going to let you down, it’ s going to be something that is functional and suitable for however you want to use it. Literally, every day, like music on the radio. I sometimes feel that alternative lifestyles, or anything alternative, can be pigeonholed as being bad or different as opposed to being good for its uniqueness. A lot of people ask me,“ Why are you inspired by hip hop if they are so many bad elements to it?”. But there are so many bad elements to everything. We are just choosing to buy into the aesthetic and the creative side because that is a very strong element. I think a lot of it stems from ignorance, if people maybe don’ t enjoy hip hop music, they only see the negative representation of it. There is so much that exists in the world that is inspired by music and pop culture: the way we dress, the things we listen to, the way we communicate. A lot of it is inspired by the things that we take in, and I think that if it is something that is not personal to people they just reject it.
What is it about the 90’ s era that is so inspiring to you? I am massively inspired by Kelis in the 90’ s, she was so badass. There are a lot of things in her music, or on the way she styled herself, that I personally relate to. Growing up, I never really looked at standard celebrity culture, and I say this because now music is a huge part of celebrity culture, but growing up being beautiful in mainstream media was very Hollywood and glamorous, and the people in glossy magazines were just a certain aesthetic, and I never wanted to be like that. I wanted to be like Kelis, like Alicia Keys with her braids and singing deep soulful songs. Creating outfits like Destiny’ s Child and all that. Now society is a lot more accepting of these alternative ways of presenting yourself, but growing up it was almost like you can’ t have a serious job in the City and dress like Kelis. Obviously not everything is always functional- you don’ t want to go into an office in a belly top [ laughs ]- but if I am
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