How the founder of Artemes Lashes turned her false eyelash addiction into a beauty success story
IT’S a simple idea, but Jackie Lee knew that she wasn’t alone with her little beauty addiction. Now she’s turned it into a buzzing Aussie success story.
WHEN Jackie Lee, the founder of false eyelash brand Artemes Lashes, tells people what she does for a living, not everyone is particularly impressed.
But Ms Lee, a 36-year-old former solicitor, has fought hard to have her beauty business taken seriously.
The mother of four — Ms Lee’s children are aged 12, 11, 7 and 12 months — quit her job and started Artemes Lashes in 2016 so she could spend more time with her family.
“In the beginning, people would ask me ‘So what are you doing these days?’ and when I’d tell them they’d say ‘Oh, so you’re just doing lashes?’. I said ‘Yes, I’m running a lashes business’,” Ms Lee told news.com.au this week at Sephora’s Exclusive Brands Showcase, where Artemes was celebrating securing its sought-after Sephora contract.
“Now we’re in Sephora they’ve all gone quiet,” Ms Lee said of her critics.
The idea for the brand came about from Ms Lee’s own personal addiction to long lashes. She had semi permanent lash extensions for years but overuse caused all of her own lashes to fall out.
She started using fake lashes instead, but was dissatisfied with the poor quality of plastic disposable lashes.
“I’m not from the beauty industry and I didn’t have a clue. But I heard about fake eyelashes made minks and soft silks that were sold overseas and I thought ‘why don’t we have that in Australia?’ I sourced the materials and it just came from there,” she said.
“Our lashes are made from responsibly sourced fur, hand collected during the minks natural shedding cycles. There is no unnatural handling or treatment of the minks at any time. Every lash is individually handcrafted taking up 3 days to create. This ensures the quality, durability and longevity of the lashes. I really didn’t like the way most of the other lashes would be thrown away after 1 or 2 uses.”
Artemes lashes cost between $29 and $40 for a set and can be used between 15 and 20 times.
“It works out much better,” Ms Lee said. “A lot of people are used to having cheaper disposable lashes and they baulk at spending $40 on a lash, but it’s actually cheaper per wear.”
Some of Ms Lee’s first clients were celebrities and the positive publicity sent sales soaring. Within a year of launching the business was turning over a profit.
“[Modern Family actress] Sarah Hyland was the first one to wear them and then [singer] Rita Ora and then Kourtney Kardashian and Nicki Minaj. It was like ‘Oh OK, this is going somewhere’. We just grew from there,” she said.
“When I first started out, I packed all the orders myself at home. I would hand pack every box. So when I saw the lashes on a celebrity I would think ‘Oh, I packed the box that went to them’, which was pretty cool.”
Now, Ms Lee’s next goal is to see her lashes in “all Sephora stores around the world”, and to get some sleep.
“If you email me, you’ll get a reply at the most ridiculous times, most likely 3am. I generally catch up on work and emails late at night when the kids are asleep,” she said.
“People are always asking when I sleep, but I hardly do. It’s my passion so staying up to work doesn’t feel like a chore. All mothers have an amazing way of making things work, you manage, make time and just soldier on.”