Latest / Skin Anarchy / Molly Hart, Founder of HIGHR Collective

Transcript

Molly Hart, Founder of HIGHR Collective · Skin Anarchy

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hi guys, and welcome back to Skincare Anarchy.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is your host, Ekina, and I have a fabulous guest today.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm super excited because thanks to her, I found a lipstick in almost every color I ever wanted.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, um, without further ado, I want to introduce you guys to Molly Hart, who is the founder of Higher Collective.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the show, Molly.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited that you're here.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's my pleasure.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I would love it if you could get us started by, you know, talking about the line and actually first your background and how you got into beauty.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to learn that first.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, of course.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I have been in beauty for since I was 18 years old, um, my entire career.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: I actually started as a makeup artist for Mac behind the counter when I was a teenager.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I worked as a part-time artist when I was at university.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so so pretty yeah, my entire career has been beauty.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I really I started there and then after I graduated, I went into the business side of the beauty industry in New York and I worked my way up.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um I've seen this industry through a lot of different lenses on my way, um, you know, kind of working up through um the corporate ladder.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I when I left um to found hire, I was head of digital transformation for the biggest beauty conglomerate in the world.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I've had a really long career.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I started, yeah, behind a counter with a brush belt on.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's so cool.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think humble beginnings are always the best, right?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really cool that you started and you know built your way up.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want to talk about how you, you know, kind of developed this brand.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Was this something that was always like in your mind and you were kind of collecting the pieces as you were going through your career, or how did this come about?
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so hire is really it's really the culmination of like a lot of different experiences I've had at beauty.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so that first job after after I graduated, um, I was an assistant on a new team for the Estee Lauder companies called Digital Marketing.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: And it was 2007, um, way at the beginning of digital.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: And my boss and I got got to go up to all of these big heritage brands like Clinique and Joe Malone and LaMaire and Lauder and tell them why they needed a Facebook page.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um so we launched the first um social media presences in the beauty industry back then.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then I got to community manage.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I've been talking to beauty customers my entire career.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and hire really has come from that experience because I've learned so much just talking to women about, you know, what they're looking for, any questions that they have about products, what they're interested in, any concerns that they have.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I have like 15 years of just straight like talking to customers.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I just that really started my my research into clean beauty, like way before clean beauty was ever like a thing or like a marketing opportunity, or it before it was like a a big segment.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: I know, yeah.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it was because I was community managing um a Facebook page, um, and this brand supported breast cancer research and questioned the question that I had to answer every single day on this Facebook page was how can you guys support breast cancer research when you have you're using ingredients that are linked to breast cancer?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Wow, uh um, I was literally like 22 just out of college.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: I thought I had like the best job in the world.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um until then.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like and I got to see the exchange between like I take these questions every day, and like you'd have to go to PR, and then like you'd have to go and find try and find an answer for customers with product development, and I got to see like the exchange between all of those different departments.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I just realized that there was something really funny going on.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then at the same time, I was working on another brand because I was working across the portfolio.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: I was working on another brand and they were launching an organics collection, and I was like, yes, like this is where it's at, like this is what we should be doing, guys.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: And then that collection, it launched and it crashed and it failed because they put it in like the ugliest packaging, it was like green and it like it smelled weird, yeah.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's the worst.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so but the product was good though, and it was just badly like packaged.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they didn't market it very well.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um but that's when I realized that there's like a huge miss here.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: There, there's you know, customers are gonna get more informed and they're gonna have more um concerns, and lo and behold, like clean beauty became a huge thing years later.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um but in makeup, I didn't find anything, any options in the industry that still had like the sexiness of you know, a luxury traditional makeup brand.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: And then it got really personal for me when I was pregnant and breastfeeding while working in the beauty industry.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: I was trying to like be super um like on it and have like a clean swap for everything.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I I again like I I just I'm such a makeup person and I couldn't find like makeup that I was excited about.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, sure.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's the worst.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: I had that same like my whole childhood and teenage years, everything was like that for me too.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so that's when I decided.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: I really when I was on maternity leave, I started putting together my business plan.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um and um after I had my second child is when I decided that I wasn't gonna leave my kids at home anymore to go and work for companies who I didn't believe were putting anything good into the world.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um and that I wanted to be contributing to something positive.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: And so I quit my job.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: Here we are.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, no, I mean, I love that you're you're saying that because I think at one point in all of our careers, regardless of what industry we're in, we really have to, you know, kind of like look inwards and real, you know, rethink like what are we doing and do we believe in it?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I love that you're you're saying that, you know, on air because there's a lot of people out there that are like, you know, I don't want to leave my job, it's stable.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: I get that, but it's like, I mean, you have to really find meaning in your professional sound.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: Totally.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I think for me, it was like especially like after I had kids, I like I just stopped drinking the Kool-Aid.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like companies, like I I just, I don't know, I just I wasn't a like a believer anymore.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um I just, you know, I felt like I knew too much and I had had different priorities in my life.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I was just looking for something else.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: But when you were pregnant, I want to ask you, what were some of the ingredients that you were like really like staying away from?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like, can you give us some examples of things you were like, uh yeah, no, I'm never putting that on my body, like, you know, like that kind of thing?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um things that I was hyper aware of um were ingredients like phenoxyethanol, it's um it's a preservative.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's like it's most products that use phenoxy ethanol use it in like the tiniest amounts, but like it's only safe at 1%.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: And if you're using like a 15-step skincare routine, all with phenoxy ethanol, like it adds up.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that can cause like some damage.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and especially with kids too.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_02: I think I think it's banned actually in Japan, but it's it's allowed everywhere else, which doesn't make any sense to me.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think like research is geospecific.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um no, it's not.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: I had no idea it was banned in like one country and everywhere else is okay with it.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: That's weird.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then also in makeup, I was trying not to use anything that had um polyethylene in it, which is literally plastic.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um once you start actually looking at lipstick formulas, you realize that you're that everything has has liquid plastic melted into its formula.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't know, I just I wasn't down with that.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know that.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's funny to bring that up because I know a while ago, and this is by no means a gossip channel for everyone listening, but I know when Jacqueline Hill came out with all her lipsticks, you know, some of the scrutiny and some of the things that were coming out was the plastic thing.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, that's just one example, but like plastic being in lipsticks was like, you know, becoming this like topic to talk about.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm glad that you're mentioning that because I don't think most consumers knew that.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, hell, I didn't know that, you know, my whole life that plastic was in lipsticks, makeup and stuff I'm putting on my face.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I think with higher, like we we try and like bring some more consumer awareness to it because like when you talk about sustainability, a lot of times companies just talk about how your product is packaged.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: And we take it a a lot further than that, and we make sure like our formula is plant-based, no microplastics blended in, no silicone.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um and we extend it all the way through the supply chain.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, like it's I I feel like makeup's been like opaquely formulated and like women don't really understand like what's in these um products.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I find like the lip category is really invasive because we wear it on our mouth every day.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um that's like the that was like the one category that I thought that um that needed a change.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I totally get you, and I actually want to dive deeper into um your formulation because it's absolutely gorgeous.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, these are like I have no hesitation in saying these are my favorite lipsticks of all time.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: I have used them every day since I got them.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm genuinely, everyone listening out there, I'm not a makeup person.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like if anyone knows me, like I never have makeup on.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm always like I'm a skincare person.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: So like I rarely put on a lip.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and when I do, it's like it has to be perfect.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, it's been so easy to grab your products and just put them on and know that this is something I love.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's flattering, it's it's muted enough to where I can feel comfortable going into a hospital setting, you know what I mean?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Some more professional, like it's just perfect.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want to talk about how you got this formula down so well because it's creamy and it goes on well and it stays on.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: So it's huge.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: I I love it.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to talk more about that.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, it's so it's it's a custom formula, which um uh it took a while to develop.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I kind of went into it.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: I so I'm not a chemist.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um I've been like in marketing my whole life.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I knew I knew I had a rough idea of like what uh what the concept would be.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um then I partnered with a chemist to help bring bring it to life.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I wanted it to be based on organic butters and oils because I I I wanted to see what we could achieve by going like the cleanest route possible.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um so we used a blend of oils and butters and waxes.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I knew that we wanted to be vegan as well.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: So um we cut out beeswax, um, but we wanted to be clean.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: So we also cut out synthetic beeswax, which can be made um from petrochemicals.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it's difficult to be clean and vegan at the same time.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's interesting.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's really interesting that you bring that up because I know a lot of people can confuse the two.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like I feel like when they say clean, they're like, oh, it's vegan.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, uh yeah, no, probably not.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: I see a lot, yeah, a lot of times it'll be like we're vegan with like a um uh like a plant emoji.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, yeah, no.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, so we we started with just using organic butters and oils to see what we could get to.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um I love that.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it it shows though, you know, in the formula as a consumer.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like I can say, like, you know, it doesn't dry my lips out.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: I actually have it on right now.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like I have your lipstick on right now and like touching my lips.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, yeah, feel smooth, feels great, hydrated.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, whatever you you know used and how your formulation worked, it works.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's beautiful.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I want to talk more about the mirror because the mirror is my favorite.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: For everyone listening out there, um, each lipstick comes with this beautiful packaging, obviously, but also when you open it, there's like a little mirror in there, a rectangular mirror, and you can use it to put on your lipstick.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I felt like when I first saw this, I was like, this is such a classic design.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like it brought me back to like all the actresses I loved back in the 50s and 60s, and like, you know what I mean?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like the like the culture of lipstick, you know what I mean?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like that culture of lipstick that's kind of like transitioned through the years.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like it was almost like bringing the ritual back into putting on your lipstick.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: So can you tell us about that and putting in that the that component?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so we did a lot of customer development for hire um ahead of starting.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I found like, like I said, like I learned the most when I just like talk to customers.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so we did a mix of like in-depth interviews, um, online surveys.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: I went and I stood, I'm in London, and I went and I stood in the middle of Covent Garden one day and like grabbed people as they were leaving um different beauty stores, which um I thought was gonna suck.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_02: But then like people are just so excited to talk about beauty.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like they'll chat to strangers on the streets.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um You're telling me I run a podcast.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: I know, yeah.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, like we just we wanted to like pull out little nuggets of um what customers, if they had any pain points around their lipstick products, um, what they wanted, how they used it.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_02: And like when I was even like talking to my friends, I was like, so how do you put your lipstick on?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: They're like, Molly, come on, like you know how lipstick on.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't need me to tell you.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: But that's where we got the idea for the mirror.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um because everyone says, Oh, I like I I put my lipstick on in the morning when I when I'm doing my makeup, or I'll put my lipstick on at work and I'll I'll go to the bathroom, or when I'm out to dinner, I'll like I'll go to the balm, I'll create a like a bathroom break and go and like touch up my makeup.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I was just like, okay, so for like powder or like bronzer or something, like those compacts come with a mirror, so you can always use that, or you or you have to carry that with you to touch your lipstick too.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: So why can't we just design something um that's not like clunky or heavy and still chic, but has a mirror in it, so it makes it easier for the customer.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: And what happened to all the time?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, like back in the day, like I remember my mom using her compact mirror to put on her lipstick.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like, you know, it's not always like moving to the bathroom, it's like having it right there, accessible.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I mean it's interesting.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: We just wanted to make it easier.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: We wanted, we wanted the product to to provide more value to the customer.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I think you definitely did.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, I I really love the mirror because it's like, I mean, it's is it like magnifying?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because when I use it, I'm like, I can see my lips like perfectly.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's like as if that I don't know how you got these dimensions now, but like for everyone listening out there, when you try these lipsticks, like you'll see like the mirror is perfect for like it'll show you just your lips, you know, and you can zoom out and like look at the rest of your face, but your lips like are right there and it's very, very easy to use.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know how much engineering went into this, but you really nailed it.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: That's so good to hear.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're welcome.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I actually I want to talk about um, you know, I want to move on a little bit and talk about the carbon neutral component of your brand because that is very, very interesting, and especially because it's Earth Day today.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to talk about how you accomplish that.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so being carbon neutral, it's it sounds really like intensive and scary for companies to do, but it's actually really simple.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I guess it was easy for us because we started at the beginning.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um so when I was putting together my business plan on maternity leave, um I was literally just like at home breastfeeding and like watching the news.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Writing her business plan.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: And it started off as just like a clean makeup brand with um clean makeup solutions.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I was just watching the news and like it was at a time when like governments weren't making the right decisions on climate change.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I just I I started getting really like I don't know, I wanted to get involved because you know, I want to have a world for my children and my children's children.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so I started, I looked around in beauty and I didn't see anyone tackling climate action or doing anything like that was gonna help.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um a lot of you know, companies work the exact same way, they use the same factories, everything just you know, this industry was created a long time ago and not much has changed.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: And it's a very carbon-intensive industry.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of companies make their products in Asia or in Italy, and then they ship them all over the world.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I just felt like we could do better and like we could take on the challenge of trying to put together a clean supply chain.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um so the chemists that I partnered with worked out of a solar-powered factory.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so that that was a good place to start.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then to extend it, um we had to uh record all of our operational carbon um between us, between our other partners.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so that that required us um tracking all car air travel for our products and for our employees, which is me.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so it was easy, just me.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh freight, facilities, any accommodation, um any manufacturing and warehousing.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um so we recorded all that.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: I partnered with a company called Native Energy, um, and I sent them all of my recordings, and then they tallied it up and then sent me um a cost to offset all of our carbon, our carbon footprints.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then we applied that cost to a gold standard um offsets program.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um so yeah, it's so to date um to produce our first batch of higher lipsticks, we saved and negated a total of 13.1 metric tons of CO2, which equates to 5.8 pounds of carbon per lipstick that's saved.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um so by doing it from the beginning, we're able to pass on um the impact to the customer so they know exactly how much carbon they're saving by buying our lipstick versus literally anyone else's.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: That is phenomenal.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, you know, there's nothing better than a product that works and you feel good about buying it.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, wow, that's really, really impressive.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it's it's um, it just required some diligence of just tracking everything and then just like a little bit of math.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: And there we go.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: So how does that okay?
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I know that you you sent it off to another company, but like in terms of recording um your I guess your carbon footprint, how was how do you record that exactly?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm not I'm gonna start doing it.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, like do you just record like how many like minutes you were in the car?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like what how does that work?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: No, not not not really how many minutes you're in the car.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: You'll say like I'll say, like, oh, I got um, you know, three shipments from my factory.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um it was a flight from Los Angeles to London.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then they like they do the mileage on that, and then they work out the CO2.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: I see.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: I see.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very, very it's an intrinsic process, it's like an innate process in their whole company.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like they they really figure it out on their end.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they figure it out on their end.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: I just fill in the Excel spreadsheet.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing wrong with that, but I love it.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: I love that you were able to introduce this concept because honestly, I never knew I I I don't know much about sustainability and like, you know, like all of those buzzwords right now that are kind of you know everywhere in this industry right now.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really interesting to hear all of the different, I guess.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Avenues that brands can take to really do their part in you know eliminating the waste and eliminating the waste that coming from this this industry.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for sharing that.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: Of course.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: No, I know that I know that you have been ex like you know wildly successful just three months after launch.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, I heard that uh a few celebrities, um, you know, their makeup artists used your lipsticks on them.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, how has that been, that experience?
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's that's huge.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: So yes, so our the first celebrity that wore hire, well that we know of, um, was Eve, the singer Eve.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_02: And it was so crazy because when I was, you know, like a teenager at the Matt counter, Eve was our Viva Glam spokesmodel.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: And like I remember her pictures were up, like the posters were up at my counter.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so having Eve be our first, like our the first celebrity to wear a product was just massive.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, this is insane.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's so surreal, and what an amazing way to like you know introduce it to to women of color, right?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's the biggest thing.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: We yeah, so higher launched is it's a really consolidated concept.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_02: Right now we just have five shades in the market and they're all universal.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I didn't want to put out any shade that wouldn't work um for someone.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like it just felt weird to have products like for one skin tone and not another.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I wanted all five of our our launch shades to be universal.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so it's super easy to shop for everyone.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and this is not like it's not color according to me and what I like.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's color according to, you know, what sells and what works what works for everyone.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it really does.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's what I really wanted to dive into with you was this the shade range because you know, I know that, you know, for me, and I know a lot of women out there, you know, growing up, like going to the drugstores or going to like, you know, big makeup counters.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, finding a lipstick was like a battle.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, okay, how many, you know, like nude lipsticks can I swatch before my lips crack?
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was, it was bad, you know.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I remember when I first tried on your lip, like the first lip color, I was like, this is perfect.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, for you to be able to do that, I mean, I cannot, I cannot state that enough how big of a deal that is for a consumer such as myself, because it holds a very special place in my heart because I really struggled.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I always wanted to be the girl that could wear the red lip or the wear the, you know, the beautiful darker lip.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: But it was just like the the undertones or something was always off, you know.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's really miraculous that you've created this and it works on darker skin tones.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for for saying that.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_02: That that literally like takes me back to like when I was working at the counter and like find like helping someone find um a foundation that matched their skin tone could be like a life-changing moment for someone, or finding that lipstick color that like suited their skin tone.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's like like those moments can be like life-changing for people.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_02: And that's where I like fell in love with this industry.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_02: In terms of developing our shades um to get them to be universal, they're they're more on the on the neutral, not like nude, they're more like uh they're a balance between like cool and warm.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like nothing is too warm, nothing is too cool.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like they're more kind of in the center.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we balance those pigments.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we kept them like our nude is like a mid-tone nude.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then our pink is more muted of a pink.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we have a rose that literally looks so amazing on everyone.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it looks amazing on me too.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_02: I have it on right now.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, no, I mean everything is everything's I'm actually wearing Mercy right now.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's yeah.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: Since we were sharing, but no, I mean that that's that's so interesting because I know you guys have a red too in the line, and that red is freaking phenomenal.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I'm never able to find a red lipstick for myself.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: So tell me about that.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god, yeah.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: So the I'm like I I love red lipstick and like I wanted I wanted a really like poppy red that's um, and they're they're they're both we have two reds, they're both carmine free.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so it was difficult to get these reds to the red that they're at.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um one of them is more of a scarlet red, so it's a little bit deeper, but it has a little bit of terracotta in it, so it's like this cool kind of like 70s style red.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then chiltern.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: Chiltern is our candy red.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_02: And um, we used a um uh an ingredient called dragon's blood.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: Ooh.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: It sounds kind of scary, but it's from a plant, I promise.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: No, for all of us gamer chicks out there.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I played Dungeons and Dragons, you know.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna nerd out right now.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't sound scary to me.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds cool as hell.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's vegan, I swear.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um it comes from a tree, like the dragon's blood tree.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it's this dark red pigments.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_02: And so we used a higher, we use them in, we use it in all of the shades, actually, but we used a higher concentration in our reds um to help make up for the fact that we weren't using caramide.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, chiltern is like it's a bright poppy red, but it has a little, every time I see it on Instagram, I'm like, that's it.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's chiltern.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_02: It has this like extra, like, I don't know, it's just it has this extra fire to it or something.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's instantly recognizable.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: No, I love the I love the colour color bravado because it's such a is that the darker red you were talking about?
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's our yeah, that's my favorite.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: I wear it like all the time.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's like my like my whole family is like, why are you wearing red lipstick all of a sudden?
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, because I finally found one that I love.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is my favorite red, actually, bravado.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's beautiful.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, bravado is the first shade we did, actually.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow, look at that.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_02: That's pretty cool.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: No, I mean, I think red lipstick is so hard, right?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's it's like for every woman that I've spoken to, any friends, family, like red lipstick is like either you can really rock it or you just completely shy away from it.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: So to open the space up for so many women, I mean, that's huge for the beauty in the beauty industry.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, hats off to you.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: I've been wearing so much red actually, like this past year.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like the less makeup I wear, the more I want to wear just red lipstick.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I hear you.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's like your one statement, like the makeup statement, you know, of your face for the day.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: I totally get it.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I I think like if you can have one thing that makes you feel more beautiful, like that's better than like pounds of makeup.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: You remember the Instagram looks back in the day when everybody had like so much makeup on, it was like, you know, crazy levels of like lipstick and gloss and yeah.
• 29:09
  unknown: Yeah.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_02: So I feel like sorry.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_02: No, I was just gonna say I feel like that heavy Instagram makeup look is like so terrifying now when you see it in real life.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it's always been terrifying, but I'm glad the world is catching up with our opinion.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: But um, I want to talk to you a little bit about what's coming up next for hire because I love the lipsticks, but are you launching losses soon or is anything new coming up?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so we've got some products that are in development right now.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I can't share too much just because they're not finalized.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but they're both in the lip category.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: So we are we're gonna we're gonna kind of stick around to in the lip category um and do some more products so we so we have something for everyone in case someone's not you know a lipstick person.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um we're gonna have something in the care range, yeah for that, which is really exciting.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: That is.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to make a foundation, Molly.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: Seriously.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like at some point in your career, please make a foundation because like if you did this with lipsticks, like I would like die to see what you could come up with the foundations because yeah, like I'm really, really impressed by how well thought out your brand is.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, thank you.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_02: I love foundation.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_02: I I would I would love to do a foundation.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um so yeah, eventually, I think we'll get there eventually.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I hope so.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: And everyone listening out there, I really hope you guys go check out Hire.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: It is like a hundred percent one of my favorites, if not my favorite, like beauty line right now.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: I use it every single day.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not exaggerating.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: The lipsticks are phenomenal, and you know, just hearing the story, it just adds to it.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much, Molly, for your time.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: This has been so fun talking to you.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, thank you so much for having me.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so everyone listening, please leave us some comments, some ratings.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you have any questions for Molly's team, please leave them in the comment section on our Instagram.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: We'll definitely pass them along.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, go check out Hire and you know, let us know what you think.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll be back next time.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Hi guys, this is Ekta again.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: I just wanted to pop in and say I hope you really enjoy this episode.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: And also just to mention that we are so excited about our new sponsorship package, and um, we've been getting an immense response from it.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much to everybody who's responded.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: And also, if you know anybody or if your brand that is looking to sponsor us, please shoot us an email at skincareanarchy at gmail.com.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening to the episode, and I will be back next time.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, so I hope you love that episode.
• 31:52
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• 31:57
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• 32:14
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• 32:31
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• 32:35
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• 32:40
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• 32:51
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• 32:56
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