Meet Sarah Cross, co-founder of the revolutionary mascara brand, CODE Beautiful! In this exclusive interview with Beauty and the Dirt, Sarah shares her motivation behind creating the brand, what makes her mascara so transformative, what her future plans are for the brand, and more! For details about an exclusive campaign to try CODE Beautiful mascara for FREE, click here!
Co-founders Sarah and Kirsti
Beauty and the Dirt: How and why did you come up with the idea to create your own mascara?
Sarah: It kinda went like this…. Two women sat chatting with a glass of wine about makeup and specifically our annoyance with the search for the holy grail of mascara that always ended up in disappointment! So we set out with our wish list to create ONE product that did it all: volume, length, thickness, separation and curl and that lasted all day with no clumps, smudges or flakes but that was super easy to remove with a normal water based cleanser!
We also wanted our mascara to be kind to lashes, making them feel soft and in better condition, so we added vitamins and waxes designed to encourage lash growth and to help care for the lashes. This combined with the fibers that are mixed in with the formulation means you get amazing results with no irritation to sensitive eyes…
We were basically just two normal women fed up with getting excited about a new mascara ad, then buying it and it never living up to its promises or tick all our wish list boxes…
Beauty and the Dirt: How long did it take you to develop CODE Beautiful?
Sarah: It took us two years, working with the best manufacturers – we manufacture in Europe not the far east so we make sure our product is of the highest quality.
Beauty and the Dirt: How is your mascara different than traditional commercial mascaras?
Sarah: It’s just so flexible so it allows women to create the look that they want…. The perfect look for them, whether that be an elegant natural day look or a super dramatic party look. CODE VLM is super buildable; one coat in the morning will give you a natural day look and then come night time just build up layer on layer without the worry of clumping. We have developed a little technique for application, our mascara goes from great to amazing when you use this application technique.
Get the inside scoop on application techniques here.
It’s the roll bit that people forget – it’s not a sweep upwards, it’s a physical twist and roll of the brush. I’ve watched the wow factor on women’s faces when they realise the difference it makes!
Beauty and the Dirt: How did you develop your initial client base and break into the beauty market?
Sarah: We both have other businesses in the beauty / fashion / hair space, so we sent our product to people in the industry we knew to get their feedback and they all loved it, likewise with our retailers and the press coverage we’ve had… we send them product and they try it and love it pretty much every time.
Beauty and the Dirt: What are some of the challenges you’ve faced?
Sarah: Lead time on production and planning for our fast growth is challenging. We sell out on QVC pretty much on every show now…. So we always seem to be on advanced orders, even though we keep doubling our production numbers. We’re a really small team and the business is self financed so we are really flexible and can react quickly to the market place as there is no big corporate structure behind us. This gives us a great advantage, but it’s also difficult as two normal women to compete for things like press coverage when the big brands throw tons of cash at it. We have to be super smart with our spend, and our priorities are manufacturing amazing must have products and coming up with cool campaigns for our consumers.
Beauty and the Dirt: Do you have plans to expand into other cosmetics? What are your future plans for CODE Beautiful?
Sarah: We have some really exciting plans – 2015 will see a few new products and overseas expansion into Europe and the Middle East. We are just on the start of our journey!
Beauty and the Dirt: How has social media helped you reach your audience and build a following?
Sarah: Massively !! Social media, early adopters, Make Up Artists and bloggers have all been key to getting the word out about our brand. We will continue to put effort into working with these people to grow and develop as a brand. We spend a huge amount of time building our networks this way; it’s vital to our success in not only spreading the word but also speaking to the people like us that want something more from products than just churning out another me too product…
Beauty and the Dirt: How have makeup artists responded to CODE Beautiful mascara? Have you spotted CODE Beautiful used by any celebrity makeup artists or on any celebrities?
Sarah: Yes lots and lots, we have massive respect for the Make up Artists out there, and not only do they love our mascara for their clients, but a lot of them use it themselves too. Make up artists that have told us they love our mascara include Mary Greenwell, Alex Jones, Cassie Lomas, Pixi Woo, amongst others.
And as for celebs that have worn it and loved it, Patsy Kensit, Emma Thompson, Rachel Stevens, Myanna Buring, Davina McCall, Little Mix, Kym Marsh and Uma Thurman. Pretty cool hey!
For more information on Sarah and Code Beautiful products, check out their website here!
We met Sarah at the MediaSkin Gifting Lounge.