I was a part-time make-up artist for Mac through university, and when I graduated in 2007, social media was in its infancy. As a graduate I could upskill most executives when it came to Facebook, so became the second hire in the global digital marketing team for the Estée Lauder Companies. 

I got to go around telling all its big brands that they needed a Facebook page, and then community-managed a few of them myself. I noticed how the consumer suddenly had a voice and wanted to know exactly what was in the formulas they were using – when the whole ‘clean beauty’ thing took off, I was there to see it unfold.

Having moved to L’Oréal, during my second maternity leave climate change and plastic pollution were hot topics and I was at home hearing all about it on the news. When I returned to work, I realised how much single-use plastic we had on our shelves. I went back a different person: far more concerned about the planet I was passing on to my kids.

So, why lipstick? It’s the impulse beauty buy people seem to collect. It’s also the only category we wear on our mouths every day, so I wanted to make the cleanest lipstick, using the purest vegan ingredients I could find, such as organic plant butters and oils, and candelilla wax instead of beeswax.