The sisters behind the “Mean Girls” makeup started out in their garage
We all know “Mean Girls” is basically an American pop culture classic, but who would have ever thought to turn the inspo from the movie into a makeup collection?
Well, these two sisters quit their jobs to start a dope beauty accessory line inspired by the movie, known as Spectrum Collections. We sat down with them to learn about how their beauty brand came to be, their love for makeup and all things beauty, and the infamous Burn Book.
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In your own words, what would you two describe your career as and how did you get there?
We are both fashion and beauty lovers. We worked as freelancers for a few years for fashion companies before deciding that we wanted to work for ourselves and create our own unique product. We’re really passionate about branding, and our brand really reflects us, which is why it’s easy to keep it consistent and unique.
We’re also creative thinkers, so coming up with new products is a pleasure rather than a job. I’m [Sophie] also a professional photographer, and Hannah is a graphic designer and videographer, so building the brand from scratch was part of the process of getting it to where it is now. Since we both did the visuals ourselves, we created something completely fresh and we’re thankfully everyone seems to love it.
What peaked your interest in makeup brushes and accessories?
Since we both love fashion and beauty, we wanted to create a business that combined both interests. Makeup brushes at the time when we were first starting were really just function over design, and beauty accessories/storage were quite boring and understated.
We wanted to re-create them in a fun way which reflects our own style and taste. We also love that makeup brushes and beauty products as a category are really accessible for everyone, and that the beauty industry as a whole is becoming much more inclusive.
What was your brands initial social media strategy that created buzz for Spectrum?
We would try and take lovely pictures and post them on our instagram initially, then we began sharing customer pics and tagging them and thanking them for their purchase, this encouraged others to purchase as the gratification you get with buying online isn’t always there with other brands, we really worked so hard to say thank you to every customer. We also found that by making our product as Instagrammable as possible and put some thought into the packaging it would be something our customers would naturally want to share.
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Where did the idea for the “Burn Book” collection followed by an entire Mean Girls collab? Legally how did that even happen?
We love the film and it’s so on brand for us, we were just watching it and thought what an amazing idea it would be to create a “brush book” that looked just like the Burn Book. But, after designing it, it was so similar to the iconic film version we emailed Paramount to pitch the idea for an official collaboration and they loved it. The rest is history.
What void do you feel you’re fulfilling in the beauty industry?
Spectrum is a really fun and colorful brand, which at the time of launching was a new take for the make-up brush world. We are also really passionate about being cruelty-free and a sustainable brand with our packaging. We are now featured in over 400 stores and all packaging is reusable and made from biodegradable plastic.
We try and be as transparent as we can, and we also take on lots of ideas that customers and followers send to us over social media, we really listen to what our customers want and cater to that, as a small company with no investors we can be really reactive and stay relevant easily.
Tell us about a stressful time your business experienced and how did you both overcome it?
We had a warehouse fire in August 2017 which wiped out all our stock, on the Friday we had 25,000 boxes delivered ready for delivery and by Sunday it was all ashes. It was devastating. However, things can always be worse and luckily no-one was hurt so you have to be positive and look forward. We had to go out of stock for a month but we have so many supportive and loyal fans, everyone’s comments and messages of support really did uplift us and keep us going.
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What’s next for your brand and how do you plan on becoming a bigger name in America?
We have a really exciting collaboration launching end of May as well as a lot of new products this year. We have a big customer base in America so I think we will look to visit the states to be able to meet some press and influencers who have supported us and continue to grow in that avenue.
What do you want your supporters to take from this interview?
We just want everyone to know that we feel really lucky to have such an amazing brand, but it didn’t come out of nowhere, and it certainly wasn’t handed to us on a plate. We work really hard every day to push the brand forward and we think that if budding entrepreneurs want to create an amazing brand for themselves, we’re living evidence that anyone can do it with the right product and lots of hard work.
