© Nisha Kutty
Beauty
What goes into the making of a cult-favourite product? These beauty inventors have the answers
It is fair to say that the beauty biz is kind of a big deal—modest estimates place the global industry at $532 billion. However, the power brokers of the industry aren’t just the multi-national conglomerates—it is the everyday beauty enthusiasts who keep the wheels spinning. You’ll find them hunched over sinks and vanity shelves, constantly scouting out newer ways to get things done and fresher ways to express themselves. And it comes as little surprise that some of the biggest innovations of the past two decades weren’t born in sterile labs, but in the hands of these enthusiasts. From the hand-cut sponges that were rechristened as foundation blenders to the magnetic lashes developed in the shower, here’s your ringside to how some of the most successful beauty innovations happened.
It would be impossible today to peek into a makeup artist’s kit without catching a teardrop-shaped sponge (or three) stashed within. Makeup artist Rea Ann Silva holds credit for the cult-like success of the Beauty Blender, an elliptical tool that she created by cutting off chunks from conventional sponges by hand to achieve the optimal shape for blending foundation.
The tale dates back to the year 2000 when Silva was working on Girlfriends, among the first TV shows of its time to be shot in HD. Since it was impossible to bring the airbrush kit to the sets, she worked on cutting off the edges of standard triangular sponges to create an edgeless blender for quick touch-ups. The easy-to-use, portable sponges became an overnight success, and Silva’s team had to make new ones every day as they kept being pocketed by the people on the set. She reminisced in a video interview, “It was like they sprouted legs and walked off the set, and I realised that people were stealing them. And that was when I realised I have a business opportunity here.” The Beauty Blender has since found a fan in celebrities of Kim Kardashian and Meghan Markle’s calibre and spawned a million-dollar company with an estimated number of seventeen sponges sold every minute across the world.
Taking off makeup with just water might sound like the ultimate dream when you’re rooting around for cotton pads and solutions at ungodly hours of the night. The Original MakeUp Eraser, founded by Elexsis McCarthy, holds credit for doing just that by offering an antibacterial polyester cloth that can be used with water as a sustainable alternative to disposable wipes.
McCarthy’s eureka moment was five years in the making, as she found herself using different sections of a pool robe she’d been gifted to remove her makeup every night. Upon realising that she hadn’t purchased a single makeup removal product in years, she extended her hypothesis to friends and family. The consensus was unanimous: the fabric served as a miracle worker for removing makeup without inviting any chemicals or oils to the party. While earlier versions were hand-sewn by her grandmother, she eventually evolved to a premium polyester blend with millions of hair-like fibres that suck up the makeup from the skin.
If you’ve ever laboured through hours of detangling knots at bedtime, you’ll want to make room on your vanity shelf for hairstylist Shaun Pulfrey’s brainchild—a handleless brush that detangles wet or dry hair quickly and efficiently. Having entered the world of hairdressing at the age of 16, he developed his own technique of detangling knots by alternatively tapping the hair with a brush and a comb. When he couldn’t find anything on the market that could work as efficiently, he developed his own prototype with teeth that flex when run through the hair and then return to their original position—thereby negating the tugging and breakage generally associated with detangling.
After self-financing the idea, he showcased the product on Dragon’s Den—UK’s take on Shark Tank—where it was rejected and dubbed as a ‘hair-brained idea’. Not to be deterred, he began pitching to salon hairdressers who would then educate their clients about its virtues. The word of mouth quickly spread among hairstylists, and it reached the hands of Victoria Beckham who became one of the brand’s first celebrity patrons. She is said to always carry one in her bag, and it has also found a fan in Emma Watson, Salma Hayek and Jennifer Lopez—the latter used it on her tresses before stepping onstage at the Super Bowl halftime show earlier this year.
As anyone who has ever glued on false lashes can attest, it is an exercise in patience and precision. If you generally find yourself running behind the clock, Katy Stoka’s magnetic lash extensions have got your back. The founder of One Two Lash describes her lightbulb moment as her ‘shower story’. She says, “I was in the shower on a Saturday night before going to dinner and thought to myself, ‘Do I have enough time to glue on my lashes?’ And then I thought to myself that lashes should be more like an accessory, like a ring or a watch that you can take on and off. Why should one have to semi-permanently attach them to your eyelids?”
The inspiration for non-adhesive lashes struck then. “The concept is a strip on top and a strip below that ‘sandwich’ your natural lashes through micro-magnetic strength. At the end of the night, you come home and remove the lashes in two seconds without the mess and discomfort of dried glue,” she explains. Today, her handcrafted offering has been the recipient of multiple awards and even spawned an industry of knock-offs. She says, “Our customers were people just like me—looking for an at-home, no-mess solution."
As an interior design graduate turned entrepreneur, Iris Smit is making her mark in the beauty business in more ways than one. The elevator pitch for her ground-breaking product is as simple as it is effective: an eyeliner with a felt tip at one end and a winged stamp at the other that helps create the perfect winged eye.
Her nifty beauty hack quickly attracted the attention of the bigwigs in the biz, and the Perth native even scored a $300,000 offer on Shark Tank. The 23-year-old reminisced on the show, “Every single morning it was the same old story, battling it out in the bathroom trying to get my wings to at least look like sisters, let alone twins. It got to the point where I thought, surely there’s an easier solution? At the time I was actually studying interior architecture. Having that design background, I thought, well how about I come up with my own design solution?” The product clocked in over $8,000 in sales within the span of 24 hours and, after witnessing the meteoric rise in demand, she ultimately decided to turn down the offer and make it on her own.
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