Summary: In today’s episode, we’re talking to Poppy King, founder of Lipstick Queen. What some of you might not know though, is that Poppy’s career started long before she started Lipstick Queen. In fact, it kicked off in the ‘80s with the launch of her first line of lipsticks, Poppy. Her fascination with lipstick started when she was just seven years old. Her father died and her reaction was to get dressed up and do her makeup. That, she tells us, is when she first discovered the power of beauty to transform your mood and make you feel better. Her company was turning over $8 million in the first few years and by 1994, sales were up by 1500%. The first set of seven lipsticks came out in 1992 named after the seven deadly sins and Barneys started carrying them at the Madison Avenue store a year later. The brand got a cult following but it never reached its full potential and ended up closing and being sold. Having sold Poppy Industries, at the age of 30, she went to New York and started working for the Estée Lauder group on the Prescriptive brands before leaving to write her book, Lessons of a Lipstick Queen about entrepreneurship and starting her new brand. Forever the disruptor, in this episode Poppy explains how she got started at the tender age of 18 and reveals why she’s chosen to be so open about the fall of her first business. We speak about what she learnt working for Estee Lauder and why she thinks the big beauty brands are getting it wrong. We talk about being fearless and daring to venture where others haven’t and what she’s most proud of.
