Ever since humankind harnessed the power of opposable thumbs, creative types have used their ingenuity to improve their lives, from stitching pelts together to protect themselves from the elements to carving out utensils and wheels.
Without problems waiting for solutions, we might not have evolved beyond living in caves or huts. And if not for a few beauty peeves, Alice Kim might still be toiling away for companies like Aeropostale and Club Monaco, where she worked while living in New York City. Today she lives here in paradise while running her growing empire as founder and president of the international beauty company Elizabeth Mott.
It all started with dissatisfaction with her short, stubby Asian eyelashes. Kim said she went through tube after tube of different mascaras to find one that offered curling and lengthening without smudging or clumping.
Unable to find "the one," she made do by borrowing a trick from makeup artists and launching the Lash Card in 2009. The sanitary shields are placed between lashes and eyelid while applying mascara, preventing smudging while also separating lashes for longer, fuller and more even results.
On the strength of the Lash Card, Kim grew confident that her search for the perfect products would resonate with other women. She moved to Hawaii with her local boyfriend — now husband — Viraphanh Sananikone, who currently puts his Wall Street finance skills to work running the business end of Elizabeth Mott, named for two of Manhattan’s most fashionable streets.
The couple didn’t have to wait long for success after launching their first cosmetic product, It’s So Big mascara ($19.99), in September.
"I always saw girls with beautiful lashes, but I had trouble achieving the same look," Kim said. "In general, lots of women don’t like to wear a lot of makeup, but they do wear mascara because it makes eyes look a little bigger."
She tested dozens of formulas with focus groups across the country as well as a local community of makeup artists. Hawaii proved to be the perfect laboratory because its tropical climate creates the worst conditions for wearing makeup, with beauty complaints ranging from perspiration to dry-looking skin.
"I knew we had a pretty good product," Kim said. "We tested it thoroughly on many different girls."
There was no room for error because the company had partnered with ipsy, an online beauty subscription service (ipsy.com) which delivers new products monthly to its 200,000-plus members.
"It’s a powerful marketing tool for independent beauty brands because it’s very important to get your product in front of customers who have never heard of you," Kim said. "They try it and they buy it. The conversions are very good."
Kim, originally from Los Angeles, attended the Rhode Island School of Design and worked as a jewelry designer for such brands as Forever 21, Macy’s and Claire’s before deciding she wanted to learn the business side of the fashion industry. She went on to study fashion merchandising at Parsons The New School for Design.
Kim believes in the power of sending products to peoples’ homes via subscription services — it’s a viable marketing strategy, giving users the time to thoroughly test products in real scenarios at a fraction of the cost of regular retail shopping. She decided to partner with ipsy, co-founded by YouTube makeup star Michelle Phan, where a $10 monthly fee gets four or five full-size products each month.
"When you think of the old way of buying cosmetics, you might go home and find that only one half of what you buy works and one half doesn’t, and you can’t return used cosmetics so you kind of dealt with it," Kim said.
What’s more, she finds that online fans are willing to do the hard work of helping to sell brands they love.
"Everyone wants to be a celebrity so they make videos that have a huge visual impact," Kim said.
Ipsy fans helped drive sales of It’s So Big on amazon.com, where it’s one of the top-rated mascaras with 4 1/2 stars — higher than such hits as L’Oreal Paris Voluminous Original Mascara and Maybelline Great Lash Waterproof Mascara.
Newer introductions include three Smooth Shadow gel liner pencils ($14.99) in "Raven," "Pearl" and "Penny," which has the sheen of a newly minted copper coin. There are also "pop! goes the shadow" eye shadows ($12.99 each) in "Stars at Night," a shimmery black; "Champagne," a highlighter; and "Antique Brass," a shade to build depth. The creamy, rich formulas have the feel of a luxury brand, and the basic colors are all one needs to enhance features.
"I’ve been in stores where you have endless choices so you end up not knowing what you want," Kim said. "With Elizabeth Mott, I tried to come up with desert island favorites. This is what you want to have with you in any situation."
Admittedly eye-centric because of her own needs, Kim said the next product from Elizabeth Mott, due in a few months, will "have something to do with lips," with more to come in May 2015.
Elizabeth Mott is in more than 100 national and international boutiques, and Kim is aiming to double that number within a year.
"I would love to one day be as big as L’Oreal and Benefit, and we are able to compete online," Kim said. "The future is no longer dominated by just six brands."
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On Oahu, Elizabeth Mott products can be found at Belle Vie in Waikiki, In My Closet at Kahala Mall and Pearlridge, and in spas and salons. The full list of retailers can be found at www.elizabethmott.com.
