Poppy King is well known around the world as the ultimate Lipstick Queen - Je't aime from Gloss inteviewed this amazing entrepreneur...

Check out The Lipstick Queen products here

Want to vamp it up and wear a bit of red lippy - read THIS before you do it to make sure you wear your red lippy the right way!

You started ‘Poppy’ at just 18 years old – how does a young girl build a lipstick empire straight out of school!?
Well, I certainly didn’t come from a business or wealthy background. People always want to know how I did it from such a young age, so my book addresses this question and follows my whole process. Basically, I was disappointed with the texture of lipstick available and the book details step by step how I found manufacturers, arranged finance, approached media – a step by step guide. I use my story as a backdrop to guide the reader as to how they can take a similar approach. First of all I needed to find a factory that made lipsticks, then I found finance and just took it step by step from there. Back then, there wasn’t the internet so I just looked up ‘cosmetic manufacturers’ in the Melbourne Yellow Pages so it was simple, but step by step…

Your new Lipstick Queen range is divided into Saint (sheer) and Sinner (matte) – which women would you choose to be your lipstick icons to model these lipsticks if you could have anyone represent them?
That’s a great question – the sinners first… Medusa, Ava Perron, Heidi Fleiss, Linda Tripp (the ultimate sinner), Christine Keeler (she was the girl at the centre of the Profumo affair), Marianne Faithful, Madonna and Condaleeza Rice.
In the saint category I would choose – Marilyn Monroe, Dorothy Parker (she’s a funny saint, the saint of the modern quip!), Louise Brooks, Cate Blanchett, Ophelia (from Shakespeare) and if he could wear lipstick, Barack Obama.
The biggest sinner in modern history is Linda Tripp.

I love what you have done with the brand image of Lipstick Queen… what influenced the design?
Thank you. It’s very Grimms fairytale meets 70s album cover with architect Frank Lloyd Wright influence.

When you moved on from the demise of Poppy you worked as Creative Director for Prescriptives, what key things did you take from that experience?
My experiences travelling around the United States and doing customer events in department stores and shopping malls meant that I got to meet a very diverse range of women. The key thing I took from that was how much the customers really want something and can identify something authentic in terms of that hunger for an authentic story rather than something manufactured over and over again. This realization led me to a) write my book and b) to start my new brand ‘Lipstick Queen’ because of my fascination with lipstick and my thoughtful approach to it.

Everyone knows the lyric about New York; “If you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere…” – is it hard to make it in New York?
I think it’s much harder to make it in smaller countries, because I think everywhere that has a big population has big opportunities. I disagree with that statement; I think New York is quite an easy place to make it, but a hard place to sustain it. New York is a place where anything is possible and there are loads of opportunities because people are always looking for the next big thing. There’s not a lot of cynicism there – it’s a place that believes anything is possible. New York is like a lovely child that has a short-lived attention span. If you jump up and down and say “Look at me” you’ll get looked at, the trick is keeping that going over long periods of time.

How do you intend to sustain it?
By continuing to offer that authenticity - I believe that to sustain a business it has to truly have merit and authenticity to the customer and that is what they can relate to. New York is expensive and it’s busy and all those things, but it’s got a reputation of being hard and it’s not. New York is soft as a kitten; you just have to know how to tickle it!

How do you describe your Lipstick Queen brand?
I’d like to describe it as fresh, modern and glamorous. ‘Fresh’ meaning that it’s a fresh take because I’m not a makeup artist or a celebrity in my own right, and I am not a bona fide beauty industry person… I have come from this with an outsider’s perspective. ‘Modern’ because it’s very post-feminist – it’s not about any one ideal of womanhood, it’s very diverse in terms of my approach, the look of it and the colours. It’s specialised in that it is just about the lips but diverse in approach. ‘Glamour’ is because it’s about glamour beyond the teenage years. That’s why I put Madonna in the Sinner category, it’s not about what she does or doesn’t do sexually, but the fact she is not ageing gracefully. She used to be a role model for strong women, but now I feel a bit let down by her trying to cling to her youth. I think she should continue singing, but I think it’s about being able to do what you do really well, but appropriately to your age, rather than going back to what you did when you were much younger.

A lot of women seem to be afraid of lipstick – why do you think this is?
I think it comes down to what we’ve just been discussing - women are afraid of lipstick because it is the fascination with the idea of looking pre-twenty is the idea of beauty and the obsession with youth. Men can still recognize a fabulous looking older woman such as Helen Mirren or Paula Ryan, but I think women are more afraid to look their age. I also think it’s a myth that lipstick can make you look older. The more makeup you wear the older you will look, regardless of where on your face it is – minimal makeup works best with lipstick.

Let’s end on a beauty tip - what are your tips for getting lipstick application right?
Well, it’s hard because so many lipsticks out there are really horrible – my tips would be find a lipstick that you really love – in both colour and texture. You shouldn’t need a variety of accoutrement to apply it. If you choose a matt lipstick or a crayon you don’t need pencil to outline or concealer underneath, it will last well. The shinier it is the more high maintenance it is. Another tip is to minimise the eye makeup with lipstick – too many repeating colours and too much makeup looks over the top with lipstick. If you play up your lips go natural with your eyes.