Life in Charms with Jamie Genevieve

0:01I'm Anushka Dukas and I've been designing jewell for 30 years and collecting charms for as long as I can remember. In this podcast, I will be asking a series of extraordinary women to tell me their life story in charms. Welcome to my life in charms. My guest today is a beauty maker who's done something rather clever. She's taken serious skill in artistry and made it feel effortless, fun and for everyone. With over 2 million followers, she's built a global community through her artistry, warmth and humour, known not just for the looks that she creates but for the way she makes her audience feel, confident and creative.

0:42She started on the beauty counter of a Glasgow department store and by her late 20s had launched her own brand from her kitchen table. That brand has since grown into a global player all whilst staying true to her Scottish roots. For her makeup isn't about hiding it's about showing up. Whether you've got five minutes or an hour, whether you're going for barely there or full glam it's all about joy and confidence so welcome Jamie Genevieve founder of V to my life in chance thank you so much for having me I'm honestly I'm kind of beside myself I can't stop we've been trying to do this for ages I know we really have yeah so anyway it's absolutely fantastic to uh to have you here I'm delighted gorgeous very honored to be here absolutely gorgeous um so I'm going to start with um with your first charm so your first charm is I mean you you said uh that you wanted something that was basically reminding you of sitting in the car in the back seat of your parents car watching your mum apply makeup um so for me uh you know it's all about it's got to be about lipstick you're probably talking about something different but I think it's lipstick wasn't it I think lipstick's just the most iconic symbol of makeup isn't it it's all things feminine all things isn't it absolutely and I think what I really what I love about the fact that it's a lipstick is I can see my mum using her lipstick on her like on her mouth but then also patting on her cheeks and it was very kind of it was quite scrappy you know getting ready every day in a car mirror which is so that's what a lot of people do a lot of people don't have the luxury of time in the morning sitting at a vanity so watching my my mum so was that on the way to school it was it was on the way I just think it was on the way anywhere I remember walking to school so maybe not at school but but if we were going out for the day or if we were going to visit someone she would always go with her little bag and it was like it was a modest little bag of makeup um I think sometimes people ask me you know if I've loved makeup my entire life yeah and that part of it yes but it wasn't um it wasn't like an abundance it wasn't like a huge collection of the poshest things and then less is more less is more and also just making it work with what you have so I've designed this lipstick um I exactly as your packaging yeah it's um it's yellow gold got black diamonds around the uh around the case um and the gold exactly as you'd expect the collar of the lipstick it's it turns and the lipstick will go up and down that's so cool um and I've kind of used kind of kind of a combination of dark red um uh rubies um to to to emulate the lipstick so so it's kind of micro pavé so lots of tiny little set diamonds rubies sorry um and as I tell you as I say it'll turn and it would on the collar i know you've got veve written on on the stick of your lipstick but on the collar be lovely to have engraved yeah so now i love the fact that you've got veve on the on the actual lipstick i know it's fun isn't it all these little details that's unusual isn't it basically it's it's done in industry for sure um but there's something that just adds an element you know it feels very luxurious and very yeah i love it absolutely yeah it's amazing it's so it's so cool to see the the packaging oh and jewelry it's mad it's great i feel like for me jewelry is such a huge love of mine as well so this is just like a dream oh yeah i remember like i really remember these bronzer pearls as well um that were like she had them for a long time so that's in a kind of pot with those those ball the kind of little ball pearls is that what you mean exactly yeah yeah and they had a really distinct smell it was that kind of powdery that kind of powdery smell and messy as anything and then one of the products that I really remember would have been lip liner so that would be before the lipstick but she would take so long while the car was moving doing it little bit by bit and it would be tiny little sketches and I remember as an adult doing her makeup that precision and that kind of perfectionism she would then turn to me when I was doing her makeup she'd be like this bit and I'd be like oh come on mum Even now?

5:13Even now. I did her eye makeup for my wedding. She did the rest because she knows what she likes. But I did her eye makeup for my wedding and I was really nervous. You were really nervous? I was nervous. Oh my goodness. So how do you think that made you feel as a child? I think I think when you're a kid maybe especially a daughter when my mum was doing great I was almost like I'm doing great you know seeing her and it's the transformation for sure even though it was five products and it was easy the way that she went in that car when she started to do her make up versus how she would carry herself when she would leave you could almost see it was like putting herself together confidence Confidence.

6:04Confidence. Yeah. I think it's almost like a uniform. I think it just, yeah, it's that confidence. It's the confidence. And you can tell in someone's posture and the way that they walk and the way that they, I think it's a little bit of time for yourself, even though it's in the front seat of a car, you know. It's so weird, isn't it? Because actually when, you know, I'm always in that tearing hurry, so it's get on fast as fast. But if I go out and I don't have any makeup, I'm definitely really conscious that I don't have any makeup. Do you ever, I want to know about you, do you ever not wear makeup?

6:44Yeah, I do. Actually, I do quite a lot. And I wonder whether there's something deep in my brain that, you know, I know I can do my makeup and I know I can be a certain way. Which means it's like, oh, it doesn't really matter if I don't do it today because I know that that's also me. so I do no makeup quite but no makeup no makeup skincare always right and there's actually one of the products that I gave you today the little pot the moisturiser Super Skin Nova is what I gave you that something like that by itself just to give my skin a radiance quite like brushing through my eyebrows in a lip balm oh hang on so you do do those things those things yes I don't think I think I would always do something but it might not be outwardly makeup And out of interest, was that true before you started with it?

7:34Yes, but you know, I always just loved it so much that I really enjoyed that part of my day. I didn't find it a chore. I got really excited to do it. And for a long time, I would do kind of crazy things. You know, I would do a lot of makeup and I'd try new things and it was quite, it's quite out there. Now I've got definitely my go-to face that I can do with actually five products, which is quite nice. That is quite nice. It reminds me of my mum. Yeah. and I've got that and Romy you know my daughter she watches me do that um and she loves to watch and she loves to help of course she does yeah she loves to help she's very sweet you do I mean I think I'm right in saying you do a lot for in terms of your samples and things for the local community in terms of leading is that right we do we do a lot of um it's just coming back to the confidence thing because i think it's so important and i i've read that you really reach out to those communities we really care we donate product and there's actually there's tons going on at the moment because there's always more to do um there's initiatives initiatives that are amazing um that are about women that are out of work getting into work and getting like you know the interview process and um about getting them clothes that they feel confident but also a little bit of makeup can do a huge amount a huge amount um especially i think the ripple effect of what makeup can give is just massive that kind of knows no bounds i know the way that i carry myself again like um when i'm when i'm put together and you just never know what the knock-on effect is going to be of that who you're going to meet or how you're going to be able to speak or um how you feel about yourself how your kids see you feeling about yourself yes it's massive so I think long gone are the days of you know feeling like beauty is a fickle thing or a silly kind of frivolous thing.

9:22No but when you were growing up what did was it is that what you felt that that at school or the people around you felt that beauty was a frivolous thing? I think maybe it was the marketing at the time that's what I really remember and it was like the the kind of legacy brands of women that all look pretty similar and you know products back then as well makeup was it was almost like face paint there was no real ingredients in there to really enrich the skin whereas everything nowadays it's really important that it's got skincare benefits to it because you're wearing it on your face all day all day absolutely i think um the consumer has never been more uh clued up as well they know what they want and they actually they look for brands that they can identify with but also believe in but also like the story so um I think that when I was growing up it was maybe a place to play and have fun but it was almost like a but it wasn't a career no I didn't think so I didn't think so I don't I not not in the way that it is now at all but no I'm kind of I go because interesting you were talking about confidence and helping you know young women in in trying to get a job it said because I did a lot work with the king's trust which is a lot about giving confidence to young people um but um and one of and in fact one of the courses that they i don't know what they still do but they used to do was getting into beauty and teaching young young women how to uh to do exactly what you're doing how to how to do put makeup on etc to so a that they could have a career in it and and whilst they're caring etc etc but also um giving them that that confidence but it's just interesting whether at school if you'd said I want to go into beauty whether they would have thought you were nuts maybe I remember there was beauty classes when I was in high school but it was more about like uh maybe brows and lashes and waxing and things like that I am I always knew I wanted to do something in art but art is quite an isolated thing to me when I think about art I I think about it being quite like, you know, the self work.

11:33It's not very collaborative. Maybe that's just the way that I like to do it. But when makeup is so different because you are with someone and you're actually in really close proximity to someone. So I really thrive on that. See the one-on-one, you know, hour spent where we can just talk about anything. It's the same as a hairdresser. You go and you chat to your hairdresser and sometimes you don't want to talk. So it's quite quiet. And that's lovely. yeah yeah exactly yeah so sometimes it's quite quiet but then sometimes you know you just have something to share or you have questions to ask and um that experience and that uh that time spent i loved it and the one-on-one i really loved i got really energized by that actually oh god do you so at what point did you think this is going to be my thing honestly i think i thought this is going to be my thing like four times when I worked on counter I loved it so much and I started gaining a bit of an audience on social media so people would come and find me and I was making but hang on a minute yeah because when did you work on counter because that wasn't your first job though was it no no my first job I worked in a kid's soft play when I was 14 right and I would be at the front of these like three-year-olds of birthday parties making them all do the head shoulders knees and toes um and serving toasties and chips uh but I always wanted to work i really liked working i really liked being i guess it's that self-sufficient and so yeah i wasn't that grown up i remember my first paycheck went on a nintendo oh that's been normal it was great yeah but you know i had a funny story attached to that as well because i saved up for over like five weeks or something bought that um and then i i dropped it down the toilet i was in the bag i was i was only 14 i dropped it in the toilet i remember i went downstairs i just said dad i just got this and i just dropped it to the toilet and you know what he did he took me in the car and he went and bought me another one oh so it's like the perfect balance of work hard for what you want yeah but i like had this accident and he was like okay no but you've kind of so that so you deserved it yeah yeah and i like i really i really remember that and there's a couple of times that my dad's kind of stepped in like that but i am i went from soft play to working in retail to working in lush and i just kind of had like different jobs on the way through but I started working on counter when I went to makeup college which was when I was like 18 and a half.

13:58Right. 18 and a half, it stands out to me because it was like... Yeah, that's very precise. Yeah, it is precise but I'm pretty sure that's exactly why. I found makeup almost by accident. So I was in college doing an art course and I ended up doing makeup because someone needed help for makeup to be on a model for their unit or whatever but I was just doing it and I just find my flow there's an amazing book I talk about all the time called Ekigai have you read it no it's beautiful Ekigai it's a Japanese word but it's the most beautiful book and it's all about when you do what you love and you find your flow everything just becomes easy even though it's hard you know you're working hard but it just becomes easy but when I read that book I just really that kept on coming into my mind when I found makeup that's how it felt things didn't feel sticky anymore and I felt like I just kind of found what I wanted to do so I'm quite I was quite impulsive and I went um I got into college the makeup I worked on counter and I worked on counter for four years um and that's I thought I felt really happy there in a department store in a department store I felt really happy I was like I'm making all my targets I love my customers I have fun doing this and then I had an opportunity to to go freelance which is way more lucrative for for a makeup artist for sure yeah um but I was terrified to do it i was like oh no but i'm comfortable here and that's the kind of key thing that stands out to me when i get comfy it's like no i quite like it here i can just want to stay here and then um i kind of need a little nudge maybe from the people around me but then i need to build myself up and i need to make the decision myself because it's stubborn yeah no no i get that so i that's only child too oh yeah yeah totally so i am i made the decision to go freelance and then it was the best decision ever and I had all this freedom and I never worked so hard in my life and then um the same thing happened I could be freelance where I felt really comfortable and really happy or I could leave doing that and focus on the digital side of everything so the exact same year are we now then I think I was maybe 22 so okay so 2015 16 um because you're what 32 i'm 32 yeah so yeah 10 years ago yeah just just as it was i guess yeah which is nuts because it was early it was early on in the kind of digital space and how that was all working i remember i had an instagram account pretty early and i was just posting my makeup because i loved it and the fact that people that i didn't directly know were finding me and saying oh my god i love this can you teach me how to do this and i was like yeah of course i can so it just felt like another way to serve my customer that experience that i loved so much on counter that one-on-one and I keep on doing this because it's almost like there was a bit of hand holding and whenever I would I remember doing makeup on someone and they just said it's really lovely but you always put your hand on my shoulder and I really like it so I would be doing makeup but I'd have a hand on the shoulder as well.

16:50Total rare shorts it's interesting. Yeah and it was really beautiful and I just loved it and I still love it today you know we've got our shop the big full circle moment we've got our shop opening Glasgow at the moment and it's just the same thing it's just that I feel the exact same but then I have to remind myself that this is what I've made so is it just open the shop we've done a pop-up for five years um no four years sorry yeah and now it's open we've done four months this year which is the longest we've ever done um but having our own space is really important because it's like it's like coming into our world like I said it's like the world building and it's creating a space that I wish I'd had when I loved makeup and I was younger or I hear it from our customers all the time of all ages that they wish that they they wish that they had a place that felt like that that was so reassuring and calm but still cool yeah and it still worked and the products felt great but there was um i got a message the other day and it's like the customer loved it so much they just wanted to go in and be like can you just help me out i just want to sit here and i want to talk about it and we'll go through everything and she said there was no snobbery and there was no um that's so yeah it's beautiful that's so wonderful because that's such a hard thing to achieve even I mean you can imagine it's really hard to achieve in the jewellery of course in the jewellery shop where everything has to be under glass but even in makeup because it's always I always think it's quite threatening to go to something and say can you help me yeah because I'm either thinking they want to go sell me a whole load of product I don't necessarily want you want but it is quite kind of I think it's quite kind of threatening I agree I think even down to like when you go in our shop there's textures like the rugs on the floor feel homey, they're not clinical and the lighting, I'm kind of nuts about lighting no big lights ever, don't like big light so we've got good lighting for seeing makeup but it doesn't need to be fluorescence which makes you look dreadful yeah, scents as well you know it was strange working on scents for the brand I because it's always in my house the smells it just reminds me of home so when I walk into the shop I'm always like oh it smells at home that's so environments everything but it's quite interesting though that you kind of felt the need you'll feel the need to have a physical presence when you built your brand entirely digitally haven't you really I think digital it gave us the the reach which is really cool and I think that part of having the store that I find exciting because of social media, it's not just limited to the customers that can visit right there and then if we're sharing it on social that gives the customer that finds us online a sense of who we are in real life as well.

19:40It's also the crossover is massive now you can kind of get that retail experience online and makeup is so tactile because of videos and the way that you can showcase products online, you almost bridge that gap. You're very lucky. How could I do that in jewellery? Maybe I need to. You're doing the most amazing job. I think the storytelling's fantastic. I think showing that there is a real heart in it and I just love, I think it's brilliant. Well, you're very kind. It's very hard to do because when you look at my jewellery, you know, it moves and it does different things and it's not as static as it might appear, yeah but it's so hard to do that does it on the websites yeah almost it's a whole different world anyway maybe I need a bit of a master class from you so this charm is a camper van um and I well I really really love the idea of a miniature camper van where it's it's a kind of three dimensional but it's absolutely miniature the wheels all turn the doors open I haven't quite worked out how the roof can come up so that you could quite work that out yeah but it could be a locket I guess um oh wow but um I well now you've told me that was white I I had actually put it kind of in white gold so that the roof the windows the doors would all the door frames would all be in white gold um and the actual main body I had put in orange sapphires because in my head those camper vans orange or red yeah but actually it'd be nice with diamonds all around it if it was white it would be absolutely gorgeous um and the wheels um and all the little details are kind of black blackened gold so black rhodium um and they all spin and then there's quartz kind of clear quartz in all the windows um and and the number plate i thought it'd be really fun to have the number plate with whatever it was or even with your initials on it yeah but what and and at the front you look at it at the front uh i don't i mean it's a v in my case it was a vw was it a vw camper van so i think we'd have to put the logo there uh exactly as the vw logo appears and then the headlights i think we'd absolutely have to put little citrine headlights to make it uh to make it feel really really gorgeous um but um I just think it'll be it'll be so sweet and you'll be able to play with it you'll be able to push it I'd have to I'd have I think I'd have to share that one with Romy yeah so that's amazing the camper van I talk about that all the time it's such an important it was so important and it was like I really remember the same feeling of being in the back of the van with my mum and dad up front and I think it must have been we did it we did it twice actually we went traveling in that camper van and the feeling of lying on this upholstered bed that I think it's illegal now to actually sit in the back of a van I think it probably is like strapped in like but at the time but at the time it was it was fine and my mum reupholstered it herself with this like a fuzzy cozy fabric and remember I just I love summer clothes because of that trip and I remember just lying there with either my book or I loved games I loved playing my like my little game boy and things but whenever I'd look out the window it would just be mountains and lakes and sunshine and we'd stop off on the way and I felt I think that for me it was that feeling of someone had put the effort into giving me that experience I was always really conscious of that like I felt so looked after and and it was it's like it's the best best memory for me but do you in terms of kind of you know you were playing on your playing on your game boy and reading your books and stuff but was that a moment for kind of daydreaming and or not really totally i think i actually still read this kind of similar books now but i've always read books that are like another world like a lot of fantasy and a lot of like completely like world building's amazing and actually when i think about it now building a brand's kind of like world building in itself right world building is that a game though as well no actually yeah yeah it is and a lot of the games i would play would be other worlds as well so it was just um i think it made me maybe it's slightly delusional in a good way that that's actually not that far away so you can actually kind of create whatever it is that you want i i really um and i think maybe there was something to do with you know all those things together feeling like you're in a bit of a different world and it was quite magical all the places that we would travel to.

24:19Was it in England? Scotland? Scotland, always lived in Scotland but what really stands out to me is whenever we travelled I think travel has always been hugely important to me because the site kind of changes and the nuance between people when you travel. Yeah but when you go back to that were you traveling in Scotland or all over Europe or in this camper van where were you going? We did we did quite a lot of camping and traveling in Scotland but the trips that stand out to me we went around Europe yeah twice for three weeks so it would be like our big summer holiday yeah and we would stay in this camper van and I it was um I can't remember exactly I think it was a T1 which means that the roof would go up and I would sleep in oh I know what those are yeah you sleep in the room I was sleeping the roof that was my that was my bed and um in the summer actually it was absolutely roasting hot but I there was something about as well getting out the camper fun and just being in nature and even I just remember running around barefoot all the time which as an adult I now understand is actually hugely important we should all we should all be doing that yeah every morning in the in the wet grass yeah absolutely so the next charm um is an olive branch and immediately you saw that you were like oh I love that but I think you know the olive the olive is it's got as i said you know it's got so much kind of meaning you know whether it's friendship victory peace i don't even know that yeah no did you not know that abundance you know love that all of that kind of life's richness like i will see abundance as that you know if you think about olives and making your oil anyway so i absolutely love the olive branch yeah um And we've got actually, I've done a kind of almond and similar because I love that.

26:04But I've designed this so you've got to imagine that it's a piece of the branch that's come off. And it's yellow gold. All the leaves are articulated. So the leaves come off the main kind of tiny branch, really. But they're all textured exactly as you'd expect them. But actually, olive leaves are rather lovely in that they're not very textured, but they're veined. You can see. And so each one articulates independently. And most importantly, I put three Baroque pearls. So, you know, in terms of representing the olives, because, again, I think that's femininity. And there's something just gorgeous about that.

26:49and actually if we were going to make this charm it would be really lovely to engrave your wedding day on the back I think it would be lovely but can you tell me about why I mean I know I've done a lot because you refer to it a lot in what you told me yeah so yeah talk to me about talk to me about your wedding day and oh it was just gorgeous it was just a dream And actually, the process, I remember it being quite relaxed. Maybe it's because I was quite relaxed. There were certain details that I was like, hmm, that's okay. And we had a planner that was amazing. But we got married in Tuscany and we actually chose that location without even having visited yet, which was new.

27:32But we went over and looked at venues and we found just the perfect one. And our wedding was small. It was 60 people, but it was three nights. and it was um it wasn't like over the top indulgent extravagant it was very us and it was very home so we had like a pizza party and there was just all these garlics and tomatoes hanging off the ceiling and it was just it was just beautiful but the olive trees i remember you know every time we're in italy which we're lucky enough to have gone quite a lot because it's just our favorite place first place we took romeo and holiday and things and um the olive trees and I think maybe it's the olive oil you know it reminds me of cooking it reminds me of growing up there's just there's so much that that's tied into this one little symbol and then um the fact that Jack got me an olive tree for our one year anniversary and um that tree's been like kind of through a journey you know there was a time it didn't look very good it was quite cold outside and I just never thought we could bring it bring it inside and I I really love my plants you know the plants in our house are looked after we've got these huge monsteras and birds of paradise and things I really love them but we brought the tree inside and it's like a weeping olive tree so it's all kind of messy and wild but it's growing all these brand new leaves and it's it's at the bottom of our bed so we've got our bed and then it's in the window in our bedroom but it's just every day I just love it and I look at it and I think I'm really proud of it and maybe I'm really kind of like the journey of the tree I'm really proud of the journey of us so before just tell me a bit about before you got married so yeah so how long have you known each other and you know tell me a bit about where you were in your life when you well a how long how did you meet this is what I the first time I met Jack I was 15 um I know so I was super young um and that's just the first time that clap dies on him I didn't really even speak to him but I really feel him about like straight away yeah love at first sight yeah kind yeah yeah and I was just a bit like oh my god he's the most beautiful boy I've ever seen in my life and then and we we took that trip to Paris hence the Eiffel Tower Tattoo but um we took that trip to Paris we ended up um becoming together getting together boyfriend girlfriend friend um we um we ended up moving in together a few years later um and it was a really it was a really fun story that I'm sure he won't mind me sharing but I am I remember I got a got a flat the cheapest flat ever um my mortgage was 220 pound a month oh my god if only it was great but remember I felt proud of myself and I was showing up and I did the work and I did a good job and then I was going home and when I got home to the flat Jack was in the in the house and he said you want to see a surprise and I was like yeah go for it I need I remember he'd ran me a bath and I was like that's really lovely and then he opened the wardrobe and he went surprise and all his stuff was just in the wardrobe it was like I've moved it and then he gives me you know a fistful of cash for half the month's rent and bills and everything like that and then that was just it and I remember thinking I love the boy oh my god that is so romantic but it's for me I think some people that would that story would send them running but for me it was like the dream because I was like he's so chosen to be here with me and this is so nice and it was a conversation but I felt very cool about it because I was like yeah maybe one day and then he appeared I was like this is perfect oh my god that is so romantic yeah absolutely wonderful but so so then anyway you you in the meantime i'm trying to get my head around that as the the genesis the ideas for the where are we in that so that not there yet presumably you're actually you're in about 2017 18 something like that early it's early on i always wanted my own brand from working on counter so that um that was always a dream but i was just always really good at pushing it down and being like that's not for me though you know i just had it in my head that I'm not um I didn't go to uni I didn't have any kind of business acumen I didn't know yeah you do absolutely none of that you think I can't what absolute spirit crushers like it's and I just think I convinced myself that I'm from a small town in Scotland it's not for me you know that's for people that already know what they're doing or they've got people that can help them get there or you know I didn't have anyone in my life that could help with that side of things when it came to confidence and thinking um you know thinking I could really do anything I definitely got that from my from my parents and my mum in particular um but I just yeah I just kept on kind of like squashing that dream down and then it wasn't until I was working you know I was working really hard it was an amazing job it's an easy job but any job you can work hard at any job so I was working really hard um I'm making a digital career you know as an influencer in the social media space and I've always been quite frugal so I was just saving as much as I could yeah and then I got you know when it started to get to the point where I was like oh my god maybe I could actually fund this that maybe I could actually if I put my head down and I always had these ideas um and there's certain parts of my job that I think quite easy like product I think quite easy it's quite intuitive and you know like I can tell by feeling something if it's going to work or not and then we can tweak it to make it brilliant and I think I started just kind of slowly building myself up internally to be like you can do this you can do this and my audiences actually started asking as well they were like you would make such a great brand because they knew me for only talking about the products I thought were so good and I also would say you know I would never focus too much on the stuff I didn't like but I would explain what kind of things I didn't like and why and you know my audience would be like oh my god me too me too so that constant conversation with my audience online all that time on counter which i worked it out and it's thousands and thousands of faces thousands and thousands of conversations and people that uh really energized me made you know made me excited about the industry but also what product could be and what a brand could be so i just had i had all this going on in my head i was you know really starting to think about saving as much money as i could um and then one day I just decided no I'm going to start working on it I'm going to start working on it today because it's going to take time and if I keep on putting it off you know I may as well try now yeah um so I did and I and I hired you know my friend we started working together really early on and that's quite brave you hired somebody you could afford to hire somebody at that point yeah so it was a bit I suppose because I had one business already that was doing that you know it was good that was the makeup and doing that yeah that was earning money doing that yeah but But I also just, yeah, and she was fresh out of uni.

34:28And Charlotte, you know, she just, we kind of had worked together a little bit already on like little projects, but I was like, I really want to do this with you. And we got on, you know, she's one of my best friends, but we got on really well. And there was like such a mutual respect for what each other did. And she just knew what I meant. And she's different to you. So you're the creative? So she's actually creative too. Okay. but she interprets my vision and makes it something that you can see concrete visual yeah yeah and also she um you know her role is amazing she's grown within the business so much that she's got her own team and she's on mat leave just now but hopefully hopefully when she comes back um but we um yeah i was just ready and i got to the point where you know the name's hilarious because veve is just jamie jenna veve it's still the second part of my middle name but it took me ages but it also means something doesn't it it means joy of life yeah which is gorgeous you absolutely are that person it's so wonderful i keep on i say to my mom and dad i say to my mom and dad all the time i'm like thank you so much for my name for my name for my name yeah and um anyway so you came up with a name but i understand that now yeah the first collection we launched was super you know it was selfish for me and my community because we like this stuff and we wanted this yeah um and I got to the point where we were you know figuring out all the the parts that I didn't understand I I didn't want to be the CEO I was quite comfortable not being the CEO because I think I saw early on it's just not where I'm strong it's not where I want to pretend as well I don't want to have to pretend every day that I know more than I do yeah um learning is the best always learning in every aspect of my life so you know there's so there's so much that the team teach me every day but I've got an amazing CEO that worked with me from before the brand launched so it was you know a wee bit into the process of coming up with everything and what I wanted it to be that I realized I needed a CEO.

36:23Can we just just pause one second I want to know so so actually when you hired Charlotte how much money did he did you have but did it start, did you need to start a business? I think... Approximately? Well, actually, how much would I have needed to start the business? Because of the minimum order quantities. Yeah, because I'm imagining it. I had so many waiting. So this is the thing. I thought I had enough money. I didn't. So I had to get investment. So I had enough money to maybe buy the smallest amount of product possible. But we're talking 10 grand, 50 grand? No, it was a quarter. I've never said this before, but it was a quarter of a million pounds.

37:07Oh, OK. So we're talking a lot. It was a lot. It was a lot. And it was... But that's so extraordinary that you were able to do that. Crazy. Having worked all of that time. It freaked me out. It really freaked me out. It really freaked me out. No, it really freaked me out because I was like, I actually don't know what I'm doing. And I just, I knew. And actually, that was all my money. And I just squirreled it away. And I'd figured it all out. I used to do this on counter as well on Sundays when it was quiet I would sit and do all my life admin when I was waiting between customers and I would sort out all my money I'm a Virgo moon so I'm very like this and I would sort out my life and then at the end I'd be like I'm done I can do this so the the core of a million I still put all my money in it is absolutely extraordinary that you were able to do that and save that whilst you're working that is utterly extraordinary it's crazy and it's the industry that I was in is it was it's a crazy industry and I and I and I loved it so much and I couldn't believe it was my job because I was getting to talk about the products that I loved anyway like it was just a bit of a dream situation to be honest and you know I know that there's a I can see an aeroplane on there you know I got to travel so much and it was my dream um hold on yeah so so hold on a minute so so you're all over the world on a plane going to going for brand launches etc etc whilst Veve in the meantime is just beginning its little cooking yeah yeah yeah you've met Jack at this point Jack's yes we've been together for quite a while at that point actually we're um we got married in 2019 uh in the July right and then Covid hit in March 2020 and then we launched the brand in November 2020 during Covid.

38:56Okay so let's talk about that because that is extraordinary. So that brings me really neatly onto your next charm which is an aeroplane. So this is a absolutely as perfect as a replica as I can get of a jumbo because I think you've said you've been on a plane to Japan and actually it was quite an important moment. Yeah. But it's yellow gold that all the windows just one little diamond um and where on on the wings where the where the propellers are because just some upside down diamonds because I like the idea that the propellers will spin um and uh and I just like the idea of the light um so tell me why travel has been so important in your life I just I think from our conversation that we've just had and we talk about time alone there's something about being on a plane that makes me really happy even when I'm with my with other people or with my husband or even with my daughter that there's something about being so high up and away from everything that it feels like real time alone to me and that's where I start to daydream but thank god I mean so now you're not tuning into the wi-fi that they now have because because all of that no it's not the same and then I sometimes I lie and I say it's not working it's not working no it's it's a time um of of so much reflection for me and there's something as well one of my favorite sites is out an airplane window and see the kind of sunsets and the sunrises i've seen i've been so lucky to see the places that i've seen and travel the places that i have um it's just there's there's so much that comes out of a flight for me and i love the idea i love a long flight so getting on and thinking right okay i've got 11 hours and i've been very lucky as well to sit in nice seats on a plane which absolutely ruins you it helps um but i'll be really i'll like i'll i'll have like a movie i'll watch a movie but then i'll get my notebook out or my journal and i'll start writing and there's so much so many good things happen to me on planes when it comes to the ideas that i have or decisions that i make or the you know just the trip that we're going on and i remember that japan the trip to japan in particular it After we got married, I knew Viva was coming.

41:17I just felt like I was on the precipice of everything I've ever wanted. And then COVID hit. And actually, I still got everything I ever wanted, which is very, very lucky. But I... COVID probably really helped you. COVID was just wild. That happened in March. And we were meant to launch that April. And then because of a few reasons, we pushed it back to November. And I can't imagine doing it another way now. because everyone was on their phones and I lived on live. Like I would go on live every day and do my makeup and just chat because, again, I really love people and talking and connections. So it was kind of perfect.

41:57It's kind of interesting because, of course, COVID, ironically, must have been the one time where people were absolutely on their phones and also on Zoom calls all day. So they had to look great. Staring at themselves more than ever, probably. Yeah, it's a bit like jewellery. jewelry they say that um earrings and necklaces when yeah that's hilarious yeah because they were probably looking it was interesting it is it's fascinating i can't really imagine being any other way now but there's the travel that's something actually during covid that i missed so much i was i was so i get so much inspiration from travel and there's like there's eyeshadows that i've made that are inspired by colors i saw in italy that i took pictures of and took away and sent to the lab.

42:43And there's just a lot comes from me from seeing the world. And I remember this quote and it like made me feel very focused, but it also broke my heart at the same time. And it's when you have kids, the world's only as big as you show them. And I was like, that is a really beautiful. It's powerful, right? So it took me, you know, I'm so guilty of getting into the routine and it's like, we do this, then we do that, then we do that. it made me actually do the hard thing and think you know where can we go and what and it's not it's not about going on holiday all the time it's just about like what would be something that she will so enjoy and it's like being in the middle of a forest even if the weather's a bit crap you know so that those are life experiences that shape you yeah i really remember playing hide and seek with my mom and dad in the botanic gardens in edinburgh yeah and it wasn't even the fact we're in edinburgh or there was cool hedge mazes it's because they were playing with me that reminds me So I quite like those reminders.

43:40So the plane actually really reminds me of that quote, which I love. I love that quote. You mentioned journaling. You're a big journaler. Have you always done that? No, not at all. So is that come, because they say that journaling is very good for stress and anxiety and all of those things. Does that come from any of that? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think so. I think um there there was two huge shifts in me two big I think it's like growth growth periods for me and it was when we launched Fave and then when I became a mum and I think that it's it's such an opportunity to really look at yourself and be you know who do I want to be as a founder and then actually on a bigger scale it's like who do I want to be as a mum raising raising a raising a child and journaling for me is such a great it's really great for stress it's really great to clear my head so as soon as I start feeling like some things are swimming around I'll get a notebook and pen and it's quite important that it's pen and paper okay and I hadn't written physically down for a really long time so I was a bit like I really enjoy it and there's loads of different fun kind of exercises you can do it I sound like a teacher sound like no i'm not i didn't do any of this so i'm absolutely fascinated go on so what do you do so there's one exercise that i love that i would encourage anyone to try and it's writing to a letter to yourself from your future so almost like where you are what is it you really want and where do you want to be and you really write about the five senses so you think about what you can see with your eyes what you can feel on your body what are you wearing what can you smell and how how do you feel and you go into huge amounts of detail um and be really clear about what you want and how that feeling is you know it's like your dream basically but you can start to feel it in your body and see when you can start to feel it in your body that's like you're like energetically i think the way of you saying right i'm ready for that to happen for me and it's a great thing to read out loud to yourself it feels ridiculous and especially if you're anything like me i felt a bit shy i was like i don't want to read it out loud it's crazy just to yourself no not really just speak it out loud and then if you actually if you're if you've got someone that would love to hear it then absolutely read it out loud to them but just read it before you go to bed as well and then see if that's the last thing that you put in your brain before you go to sleep your rem sleep is your process are you religious about it do you do it every day no not every day when you've got something to say when i've got something to say or when i'm really clear i think that that's something that I used to want so many things for myself and my family I wasn't super clear about it but I've learned that see if you're not really clear the universe doesn't really know what to do with you and it's like you don't know what you want I can't give you any of this so I just really like it it's a bit magic I think I've heard a lot of people saying that they do a lot of journaling if someone found my journal I'd honestly be absolutely beside myself would you yes yes that's so interesting i i would just want to ask you something totally not about that but but it is about that actually because if people are listening um you know i've read that you absolutely uphold the the idea that you might be an influencer or but but you are you have got this enormous following how do you did you did you read that in that BBC article yeah i think it is oh my goodness that article haunts me actually i never said that okay i never said that because i'm like that how's that no i don't applaud it at all i think um i think what there there's a bit of a divide on um someone said a professional recommender i really like that professional recommender um influencer turned into a dirty word because there was a huge breadth of person that could be an influencer and it could you know not always for the right reasons or the right things um no i'm actually i'm really proud of my like digital career being an influencer i had the best time uh when that article came out and it had in quotation marks don't call me an influencer i was like brilliant perfect okay because i because hence my question because i'm like surely your business has been built on no absolutely and i think actually it would be hurtful to the peers and other people in the industry that have made something of themselves.

48:02It's a really common thing to talk about within that community, the word influencer and if it's a dirty word. It reminds me a little bit of like Girlboss. There was a huge era of Girlboss, right? And now when you say that out loud, it's a bit like, oh. So I think it's just the same as anything. It kind of goes through a bit of a journey. But I didn't see it with the kind of passion and gumption that the article was doing. Well, I'm glad we cleared that up. No, I'm glad to. I'm glad we cleared that up because it was really, it was surprising to me. I said it off the cuff at the very start as a joke and it ended up the headlight.

48:38OK, well, we've cleared that up. Now, your final charm, I love that. You said the day our daughter, Romy, was born and the eight weeks it came after. That's what you wanted to remember.

48:56so I'm going to just I'm going to describe well I think the best thing is actually for me to just tell to talk about what you've written okay because you know you said Romy's a Taurus so I always see her as the earth beneath my feet I'm a Cancer and Jackson Aries we tell the story that mum is like the ocean Romy's the sandy beach and daddy is the bonfire to keep us warm I just think that was fair it's so lovely so I was like oh my goodness how am I gonna oh look I joked I texted my husband and I was like I'm not gonna be able to come up when we talk about this one um it's I found it I found it really really touching um and I really struggled to work out how I was gonna do it do you want to do it yes when um when i was when i was writing it i think i was actually when i was writing all of it but these are all just such pivotal moments and that to me it really there's something about having roommate and even just that story and the understanding of maybe that's why i love star signs so much because it is a deeper way to try and understand someone yeah and i really like that and a lot of people think it's woo and i totally that that's absolutely fine by me but being able can understand someone and meet them where they're at is such a power yeah because you can like you know i know rome's stubborn so i just don't try it you know i just let her be stubborn it's great i know that i'm emotional hence the crying hence the thing there's no i guess you need it um i'm gonna i'm anyway so i'm gonna try and describe this charm which i found really really hard to how is I going to make these lovely words come to kind of something tangible?

50:42So I've done it because I have a whole spinning series in my channels, which I think you probably know. So the frame is static and the frame is kind of north, south, east, west. So you can see those little diamonds on each of those places. And then inside it's a spinning almost just just a circular, almost like a very soft, very tactile coin. But not engraved, but actually, gosh, I don't even know the word now.

51:20but almost kind of embossed out of the metal is the sun on one side of this coin with the sea below and the sun has got a little citrine in it and the rays of the sun you can see there are engraved out um and then there is a little bonfire also all just carved into the into the gold um and the the fire from the bonfire is also just part of the it's it's really a picture so it goes back to your it goes back to your um your art i guess um and then you you can spin it and round the other side is your constant is the constellation that represents uh rome in taurus um so it's very playful and it's very very difficult to describe but i know it'll be beautiful yeah but um it's it's hard to describe yeah um it'll be very tactile so can you just tell me tell me more about this i think um have you ever had anyone cry before yes okay great yes yes i think um for me it's just it goes back to what i was saying understanding people for who they are and kind of loving that i am i think that story i was always i quite like harmony and i quite like balance as well so I think that we all balance each other out even though Romy's just so tiny still but um me and Jack definitely balance each other out I'm a cancer so I'm water and he's Aries so he's fire right and um I think family's just always been so important to me always and I think that so much comes from the home for me a lot of the stories that I've got it's more about feelings that I've had in that moment but I think it's as a person I'm really emotionally in tune and intuitive as well but there's an emotional intelligence that comes with being a makeup artist that makes you a really good one is that because you're close to people too yeah thanks that kind of feeling of getting the vibes from somebody whether they're in they want to talk or they don't want to talk yeah I can almost guess and I can almost um uh when it came to even you mentioned it yourself when you walk into a shop and I used to feel like you're getting hard sold to yeah I could tell pretty quickly if someone was there and they were like I'm here to have fun and I want to buy like a bunch of new makeup and then we'd lean in that direction but I can also tell if someone just wants to be a small part of that brand for that day so yeah maybe not got you know when it comes to business and the commercial side of things you know it's all about it's all about sales and money and actually i believe in the relationship so much that if someone's not got the the money to spend that day then give them a brilliant experience and they'll come back when they do and i'd rather i'd rather that and invest in our customer um and just see that i think maybe that's the difference in our brand as well and and maybe me but the humility that comes through uh because i'm a big bleeding heart i really i care i care about people and i have more fun hearing about what my customers do themselves they're so cool they've all got everyone's got their own huge big lives and i love hearing about what they do and what they care about and they'll tell me you know they it's just the most amazing thing they'll tell me they're going on holiday for the first time themselves that next week and they're coming to treat themselves to some stuff and we'll talk about how that feels and how exciting and you know talk about people's jobs and careers and what they chose to do so many people choose to move country and that's i love that so much so it's so interesting because because that's what we're doing over this we're talking about all of those things and market in in by charm but it's so interesting that you can do you hadn't really thought that you can do that over makeup yeah it's just this connection right it's lovely yeah and I think jewellery for me is a huge one I think we've shared as well that all my Anushka bits that I have so far have been gifts from my husband and they're just such a prize such a prize collection and did he discover it first or did you discover it first I think I found the cans I think it was actually the cherub but what I quite what was quite interesting I was thinking about this I don't think I was recommended it or I saw by someone else I think I found you by myself on on Google it must have been Google like looking for a certain type of thing I think I wanted to that's even more fantastic so we'll do something right the mythology yes absolutely absolutely and I just totally fell in love in the charms and how just how beautiful it was and how crafted oh thank you well you do a great job of modeling love seeing up like that um but just now that you're a mummy and how I mean the balance because you're running a big business um so how and your Jack's involved and actually so how are you managing to balance all of that I am I I have a really amazing support system so both my parents and Jack's parents are are really on hand um Romy loves them both she sees my mum and dad a lot uh Jack and I are really good because of that first eight weeks we had that completely together yeah so we learned how to do everything together so it wasn't like two weeks of paternity and then he goes off to work so eight weeks you both stopped working yeah and then and then we went back but it was almost like we kind of took turns and it just worked really well I crept back into traveling again and I think um the business side of things knowing again having a brilliant team around me I'm not trying to do everything myself I'm not um I understand how a founder uh could feel that way to to be able to get the most merits for what they're doing or to really feel like it's theirs and it's like there's a controlling aspect of wanting to make sure everything is as you would like that when you start giving that away you know I had a question of oh god is it really like mind to celebrate anymore but I think the beautiful thing is it's it's the teams to celebrate and mind to celebrate it's my brand and this is you know everything has come from me and I know that but having a brilliant team that are so much better than me at what they do fly and feel like accomplished in that it just makes me look good as well a hundred percent it's one of the I was I'm often asked that question I think one of the most the biggest learning for me is if you possibly can to employ people who are better than you yeah it makes your life so much easier so much easier so when I think about um when I think about having the time you know I'm really good as well at putting my phone down I'm like I understand that in front of Roamy you know no one no one needs me especially in the morning we get up so early no one I don't need to be on my phone until night I really don't so I it's quality time then and the weekends as well we like dedicate really great quality time with Romy um I think her life's really rich by the village that it is um but mummies are always the favorite I love that I love that idea of the village yeah it's really important it's a very it's a very powerful word that isn't it because there are lots of people that help to yeah to make it all totally happen it makes me think I think often I think about how lucky I am and how lucky Romy is and it makes me think about people that don't have the resources or access and it just it feels like so unfair to me because it makes it just makes everything so easy so it's something that I wish for everyone really great it's been such a joy to finally meet you and honestly I could chat all day long but I'm conscious that you'll be all the time no I just loved it I'm honestly I can't tell you how thrilled I am and I think anyone that knows me already will know how thrilled I am to be here.

59:34Absolutely, now I'm going to make you one of these children I can't believe it. Thank you So I'm like, which one? You know which one? Do you know what? I'm a bit torn I'm torn, I feel like it has I don't think I did a very good job of describing it No, I think it has to be the one that brought out That I couldn't describe it. Yeah but I think it's just too gorgeous I really love them all, I think it's really hard I don't yeah I think it is actually I love Ulf I love I love the VW Camper Van but I wonder whether because it's but I keep on going to these but I think you have do you have other makeup charms um on your website already no do you not oh interesting no we don't because most of the charms um that that i do they've got kind of they've they've kind of represent something of meaning protection or you know something that is kind of because jewelry is a bit like as i was saying about tattoos isn't it kind of it is talismanic and so there hasn't been a real reason for me to do lipstick or yeah what would it be you know i don't know what i do um but i can always make you others by the way i think um am i choosing one now yeah okay okay okay i think i think for me i have to choose the oh god but i really do love the olive tree and everything that stands for i think it is what's the birthstone of uh june um is it pale or I think the hell isn't July.

1:01:14But what we could do with the olive is we could work a way that we can put Jack and Romy into it. Because actually, the three olives themselves, all kind of representative of you three. Yeah. So we could do that. I could find a way. I don't know what the birthstone is for June. I'm sure I should know. I think I've looked this up before. I know that April's a diamond. I know that Horace is maybe green. I feel like May might be green but we could I could definitely what one did you intuitively want to make the most did you have a favourite no because they're all about kind of what they mean to you I love the olive because I think the olive will be I love what it stands for I really love what it stands for I think I think Oh, no, I think I have to pick this one.

1:02:14See that big reaction? The one that made you cry. The one that made me cry. The spinning gloves. And it'll be much more beautiful than the way I described it, by the way. It's really hard to describe. I know, I bet. Okay, well, that. I love it. Yeah, perfect. Oh, how exciting. It's so exciting. I can't believe it. And it's so lovely that you reacted like that. Because for me, that's what... Jewelry's about that, too. Yeah. no I'll always remember it yeah that's a huge thing to remember anyway Jamie thank you brilliant thank you for joining us on my life in charms if today's conversation has inspired you to reflect on your own story begin your life in charms journey at anushka.com or email bespoke at anushka.com and don't forget to follow or subscribe to hear more extraordinary stories told in jewels.