Building a Viral Beauty Brand from Scratch | Aimee Connolly , Founder of Sculpted by Aimee

0:00Welcome back to Wish I Knew, the podcast where we explore the lessons, pivots and defining moments that shape our lives and careers. My guest today is Aimee Connolly. She's a makeup artist, entrepreneur and founder of the global beauty brand Sculpted by Aimee. What started at a makeup counter when she was just 16 has become one of the most respected beauty brands in the UK and Ireland, built on self-belief, authenticity and a love for helping people feel confident in their own skin. We talked about what it really takes to build something from scratch, the courage to back yourself at 23, and how to stay grounded while scaling a global business.

0:35So with that, let's dive in.

0:45Amy Connolly, thank you so much for joining us on Wish I Knew. Thanks so much for having me. Now you have gone from working on makeup counters to building and scaling a global beauty brand. What do you think your younger self would think about where you are today?

1:01Aimee Connolly:Oh, I have never been asked that question. I would like to think that my younger self is really happy because I think instinctively I always knew deep inside that I wanted to work for myself. and why waste time after uni going into any other corporation and why not just throw myself into it. So that little bit of naivety, secret confidence, quiet ego, whatever it was, that kind of pushed me forward has come to fruition. Obviously, there's still loads yet to go. So I would like to think that they are very excited and relieved that it's worked out and it is working out. I would also like to think that they understand the hard work that's gone into it.

1:46Aimee Connolly:And I think I was never afraid of that. I was always a teenager that, like you said, working on counter from a young age, it was part I needed to go earn my own money and also part I really enjoy the independence. So I'd be really proud that they see that hard work has kind of gone into building something big and hopefully going to get bigger. Absolutely. And where do you think that came from? Did you have any early influences that kind of sparked that in you or do you think it's something you were just born with? um I think definitely it's just me my mom so we're in a really small family unit and she is one of I think the biggest role models of showing that you can pivot at any time and and really go for something never takes no for an answer so I think inherently that influence definitely rubbed off on me and that just ultimate like yes you can do attitude and she has always told me that even if she probably felt at times I couldn't um but I do also think that that entrepreneurial old dean does kind of live within you and I think it's not something that I've often thought about unless I'm pressed in interviews to be like but where like where was it living in you and then when I think back to you know I was like the kid he used to make lemonade and sell it in the garden where go collect flowers and make a potion or you know and they're just kind of funny examples before I actually started into the business world myself but I do think there was always a seed in me that It was like, how can I make a business out of this?

3:13Aimee Connolly:Yeah. Or how can I go for it? And then obviously studying business kind of gave me that final leap of faith. Of course. And do you think there was a particular job or profession that you really wanted to do when you were older? Yeah. So actually, if you would ask me as like a 12 year old, I would have said I wanted to be a waitress. So I love dealing with people, love the whole serving element. I used to try and serve the wine at the table with my family when I was out for dinner and like embarrass the life out of them all. if you'd asked me when I was 14 I would have said a teacher so the lovely kind of full circle moment for me is that I had the makeup academy before I found it sculpted the brand and that was really pivotal for me not just to kind of really understand okay I'm hearing the same concerns the whole time so I can really create a solution-based brand for this but actually it was allowing me to scratch that itch of wanting to be a teacher and although it wasn't for for kids it was for adults who kind of want to learn makeup for themselves um but that really inspired the education which is still very much at the core of what we do as a brand absolutely and your first job in behind the beauty counters was it benefit yes yeah that was my work experience for two weeks wow and then so you went on to work there at 16 right were you studying at the same time no so I still in school at this time so I had like the coolest part-time job ever for all my friends you know sometimes you work in like a newsagents or something where I was like I'm going on to a beauty counter and this is amazing and I had not studied beauty but I loved it and I loved dealing with customers so my two weeks work experience with benefit was really funny because I naturally was only there for two weeks so I remember my manager saying before she went on her break now don't touch anyone's face because you're not insured to do so so if you just stand here and if someone comes up and they need help you can help them sure as hell she went off on her break two minutes later Sandra sit down in the chair then I'll try this mascara on you because I was like so excited by life so I think I managed to kind of prove myself in terms of sales over those two weeks and then they offered me a job across the way with Urban Decay and I rushed there for three years every Saturday Sunday.

5:15Aimee Connolly:That is the coolest job while you're at school mine was in a hairdresser's actually. Equally cool. I mean it sounds cool but it was very it was not glamorous at all you're washing people's hair and you're sweeping the drawers yeah it was literally like the stereotype but it's funny how those jobs do teach you so much later on in life as well and my mom would even remark or even my family that that part-time job that I had not only was the fundamental okay I'm obsessed with beauty I love customers I love the people connection it was so good for my confidence like I wouldn't say that I was like a hugely you know like really really shy kid but I definitely was an ultra confident and I remember my first day on the counter they were like okay go traffic stop and I was like what does traffic stop mean and essentially it's like go harass that poor woman who's shopping lingerie to get her to come try a mascara and I think I'll never forget going up to that first customer I think she felt so bad for me because all that came out of my mouth was like gibberish because I was so nervous and she was like okay I'll come over to the counter but actually the more you have to work on that the more you have to be able to speak to customers learn about them make them feel at ease you know you're part therapist part makeup artist uh it did so much good for my confidence wow i didn't i've never heard of traffic stopping well it is a life lesson yeah and you know what actually so much good comes from it but it is so intense it's basically like go out and create the sale yourself while i've been waiting for a footfall to come in so like i said that poor woman is shopping in shoes and i'm like hi there why do you look at those winter boots have you ever thought about our black mascara before they're like wow it's especially at 16 that must be such a confident well either it could go either way I suppose it could either shatter your confidence or completely make it right I know and thankfully it definitely helped don't get me wrong you have some some conversations with humans when when they're feeling certain ways on a day that maybe you don't want to be bothered that it does set you back a little bit but that's just life and that is dealing with different personalities and I think that um starting out in sales actually builds so much resilience for business I started my career in sales as well and more in like recruitment and yeah corporate um corporate roles but I felt like that helped you know that hot that um phrase that everyone says um every no is one step closer to a yes yeah and I feel like having that earlier on in your career in your life actually builds so much resilience for later on right would you say the same in terms of sculpted and where you are now absolutely I think anything like that is so important to just even like confidence build in your own self where whether you're going to start a business yourself you're going for a promotion in another role you're taking on a project like there's ownership and like you said resilience that has to come with that so I think sales in particular is is one of the easiest ways to get knocked down and then to have to pick yourself back up and go again exactly and like even at the start of the brand like you know and even still to this day you don't get a load of yeses you know the yes is the really uncommon one after all the no's but I think the important thing is not to not to give up once you do get a no I think it's really important to to remind people of that as well because so many people will see you now and I think the first thing I said to you was oh my god you're everywhere yeah um which is true and sculpted is by is everywhere as well but I think um people don't see that journey that you've taken to get there right and so how many years ago did you start sculpted now I started eight years ago wow okay yeah so it's it's been a long journey and like I said still still a long way to go and even like you know it's not just something at the beginning where you have some no's and and you try again like it's an it's an always on along the process because what's really funny what's been so interesting to learn as I've scaled the business and I'm scaling the business like everywhere is a starting point and everywhere is a growth point so if you even think geographically you'll have some markets that you're more aware in that you are more mature in that you have a sense of comfort in and there'll be some that will strip you right back to your bare beginnings because you're starting at the beginning there so you're always kind of um trying to manage like a new born baby and a little grown child I say this not having either but assuming that that's kind of what it feels like and it's just very very different stages and so with that comes very different real challenges and what inspired you to start the brand in the first place um so I mentioned I loved beauty I definitely fell in love with that on calendars I loved formulas I loved consistencies I loved dealing with people actually that was one of my biggest kind of epiphany moments of like oh my god I definitely feed off the energy of people I get such a buzz or a high when I realize I've solved a problem for them or given them something or tried something on that made them feel amazing and albeit in the fluffier side of the world like beauty really has the power to give someone that pep on their step and so loved all that had the academy before the brand and I think the education was like the tipping point for me of like okay what would I want my brand to be and ultimately it's built around simplicity or those like multitasking double-ended heroes that do two and one for you to get you out that door that bit quicker or to take away some of that fuss that is overwhelming people and that was really kind of the center point of why I wanted to start so kind of coupling everything together from finishing my degree watching my peers around me go into different graduate programs and having this inherent sense of I don't really want to work for anyone else why would I loving beauty and wanting to extend and what I built in it over that six years and then mixing in education at the heart so I decided perfect I'll start a brand wow that is incredible and that takes so much confidence yeah 20 23 23 confidence or naivety I'm not sure which one bit of both yeah but it paid off in the end and what inspired the name sculpted so I was I was doing like a lot of my regular clientele for events and be it shoots or bridal in particular that was my main area and I was working as like a flat-out makeup artist before the brand and one thing and that was coming up time and time again was people would say to me oh I could tell that you had done her makeup by the way her her skin and cheeks were because I was obsessed with sculpting and I was obsessed with how simple it could be and just how elevated it made the look feel once your skin is great you could nearly wear nothing else and everything would be would be still perfect um so that really started to ring home to where people kept commenting on ah I could tell that that was your style wow and so kind of taking into consideration how I wanted to kind of double up on certain things and maybe bring more of an easier kit to the fore because like one of the biggest things that was happening is someone will come into me on counter in mac at the time and they would say hi ab i'm looking for a powder and slight exaggeration but i'd be like no problem we have 67 options what one would you like and you could just see them be like so overwhelmed so that was really the task of like okay let's let's break this down and make it easy so the first product was a sculpting kit that had a powder bronzer a cream highlight which is quite an undiscovered formula and texture at the time that I was obsessed with because of its age transiency.

12:38Aimee Connolly:Yeah. And a powder highlighter. And the whole goal was you can use this kit on your cheeks and your eyes and have that kind of monochromatic feel to your look. Not only is it nice tones that are complementary, it's just making it easy. And there was a double-ended brush that launched with it to fit right into the placement of the cheek to make it that quick and easy. So that was kind of where the name came from because it was commenting on a signature style of mine, really embodying it in the product. but also for me sculpting presented so much more than the actual sculpt of the cheek I'm more of like you can do it your way to feel good your way so sculpting yourself can be kind of how Emily wants to do it how Amy wants to do it where you feel like the best version of you yes and you actually still feel like you which is really important and I feel like you're really like to think of that concept eight nine years ago is really actually quite ahead of its time right and even some of the products that you've got now in the sense of um some of them being uh very similar to k-beauty you know k-beauty trends have you always kind of intentionally thought about what's coming next and what can i do to be like lead you know sort of leading or forward thinking yeah i think i think i've always had a really intense curiosity and in formulas and i think that definitely propelled me forward to go find answers beyond what was just available there I think also given my kind of obsession with skin for me everything started at that base so going and actually seeking out South Korea as an innovator and a formula with me from the very beginning was my actual intention because I knew for me they were the mecca when it came to skincare innovation um but I think also outside of like a really intense curiosity from the beginning and still to this day and it's something that you know we speak about a lot of the team like let's be honest we're in such a busy market like it is so busy so saturated at the same time there's room for everyone so it's great but I really try and press myself on what is the sculpted originality about this idea so you can be inspired by something where it's like what makes it sculpted what's a sculpted way how are we differentiating to be sure that when someone looks at it they can tell that that's sculpted and that takes a bit of discipline and I think at the beginning I probably didn't have as well formed a thought as that it was more just like how am I making this my own yeah and then hops on a plane to Seoul in South Korea to meet with our lab which are now our key um formulator still to this day you know eight or nine years later was there a real um turning point where you felt like wow this is going to be something really big yeah I'll never forget um so there's two things the first product I ever produced in Korea was Beauty Base which was and like you referenced there slightly ahead of its time in that it was mixing SPF and glow and a moisturizing element together and but we managed to break through quite like a white blocky finish and feeling to it and I'd actually tried to formulate that in Ireland for about eight months before that and South Korea within three weeks on our third sample had nearly you know full full goal achieved and beauty base was a turning point in the sense that it really decided of the direction that I was going on was where I wanted to stay and that was that fusion of skin meets makeup skincare at the fore South Korea as a really trusted credible source of manufacturing so that was really clear for me and at the time not many around me in terms of similar peers were doing the same so it was more common maybe to see people operate in eyeshadow palettes or contour palettes etc which is great and there's nothing against those products but it was just quite a nice decider that my differentiation was there yeah the real uh turning point at the early stages was our first foundation that we launched called second skin and I will never forget this so I launched that as essentially my third product and I was so excited I knew as a makeup artist that foundation was the element or the foundation excuse the pun of everything my obsession with skin my signature style yada yada yada it was all built up it was ready to rock this was a mineral base it was great for skin conditions it had spf 50 you know all those kind of things it was so thought through and considered and i was really excited and i'll never forget saying to the buyer and our foundation's coming and all of a sudden her face dropped and i was like are you not excited and she was like listen i think you're too young to bring a foundation out it's a really loyal product.

17:10Aimee Connolly:I think you are jumping ahead before you can run. And to be totally honest, a foundation can either make or break your brand. Wow. And I worry for you. I was like about to burst into tears. I've invested so much of my money at this stage into this product. You know, we're still a really young brand. It is in production while I'm speaking to this human in South Korea and I'm looking at her going, oh my God, maybe she's right. Maybe I am over my head maybe I am in La La Land and I was like okay well you know fingers crossed it'll be okay and I'll be here soon and she was very kind but she was stern and she was tough and I bawled my eyes out leaving because I was like oh my god what am I gonna do anyway fast forward a incredibly challenging production time and I'd probably need a whole a whole day to just go through that it launched and it was amazing and it sold out and we put so much effort into shade matching how to find your shade you know having virtual try-ons I trying to be at the fore of that and that was back in end of 2019 wow so it was really early and that still today is like in the top two or three products of the entire brand um so it definitely clarified for me that we should go against the norm and you know go into a category that yeah it was tough but we knew that we were tougher and we could do it and not just stay on the kind of status quo of others but it was terrifying mine, but it was definitely a turning point.

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20:12Aimee Connolly:off your first month I hope you love it just as much as I do it's so interesting because I think other people's opinions when you have a business especially in a sector where you obviously knew the field from being a practitioner yeah but perhaps didn't know what it was like to launch a foundation for example yeah how did you almost like cut out the noise because I feel like when you launch a business everyone has an opinion and I'm sure that wasn't the only opinion that you had to cut out so how did you go about like staying true to your own beliefs, sticking to your, you know, your guns, knowing exactly what it is that you were set out to do and almost ignoring, well, not ignoring, but, you know, sort of canceling out those opinions.

21:00Aimee Connolly:So I think at the time, I think this is still something that I credit like daily, but I think I have a very strong gut. I will feel so much emotion in my stomach at all times. So, you know, it's not the most proofed point in the world, but particularly in those early stages my gut really led me through so much of like if something feels off it's probably off if your gut's not there yet it's because you're not there yet if your gut's strong you should stay with it so actually like really listening to myself now in the business one of our values and it's actually something that I've trademarked that I always talk about is data gut so it's the blend of the information and data that we're sitting on but also not forgetting your instinct as a brand guardian or champion whatever place they're working within the business that you bring that to the fore because not everything has a very clear cut metric that you can chop up and say this is the KPI and this is the return exactly our marketing director also refers to our return on vibes so that we actually measure it that way as well um but yeah so I think nowadays it's a bit more official into that blend of data gut but definitely at the beginning and and still for me personally in terms of how I operate my gut is such a really like important signal for me that's so interesting because i feel like that self-awareness and that sort of resilience must like be so difficult to build yeah but i suppose it's something that you've had throughout right and you still waver like it's still okay to have days where you're like i just can't decide but actually what i've learned is when you can't decide it's because you are not clear yet yeah so you need to go seek more information or you need to chat to more people or you need to get back into it again before you make a rash decision.

22:43And when you're having those moments, who's your like go-to person that you would call?

22:47Aimee Connolly:Do you know, I think I'm really lucky to have a lot of different people. I wouldn't say I've had a very clear like mentor, although it actually is something I put on my own wishlist for 2025 this year and somehow just falls down to the bottom of my own to-do list because there is so much other things to do, which is not good. But I'm very lucky to have met amazing business people along the way who, you know, depending on the subject can be a great mentor voice in that regard so through different like I said networks or or groups or just different kind of founders that I've met I'm really lucky to have a really rich whatsapp list that I can be like hey can I grab you for five minutes or can we meet for coffee and then you know yourself and being in the industry like that coffee could actually save you six months of work yes because there's a true don't do this or make sure you do this or let me loop you in with this person I think that is what mentorship is.

23:36I mean, mentorship's a funny one because I think people will almost envisage that it's something really structured. And it definitely can be that, you know, you sit for a coffee with someone once a month. I've tried to do that in the sort of corporate world. and I find that actually after a few sort of sessions you actually kind of run out of things to talk about because often you just need to go with one single thing or a couple of things that maybe you want to check in with someone about but I feel like this approach of okay who have I got in my little black book that I can just quickly ping um and quickly ask this very specific question that I know they're going to be able to help with is in a you know it's a form of mentorship right Right.

24:21Aimee Connolly:And I also think at first, I think you're dead right. But I also think it's really important to note that at the pace that a scale up grows, what one mentor may be able to offer you in that six months, you could be at a whole different stage six months later where you need to kick into another gear. So there's like a coaching element probably to that mentoring that I would like for myself just to have someone to have that trust to go all this on my shoulders. Can I talk it through? And then there's some specific kind of topic points that, like you said, there's like a person who's best positioned for that.

24:54Yeah. And help you along the way. I love that. And so you've bootstrapped the business, right? The entire time.

25:00Aimee Connolly:Yeah. How have you found that? Yeah. Like, to be honest, it's like I always laugh. My birthday is on Christmas Eve. people are always like oh my god what's it like having your birthday on christmas eve and i'm like well i kind of don't know any difference so you know i haven't been able to compare to a birthday in june because i don't celebrate then um and similar to kind of uh bootstrapping and not taking on investment for the business it's kind of all we know i think there's no right or wrong when it comes to this and kind of what you choose for your business we stay very open-minded around the level of global ambition we have and kind of what that might require you know so so who knows what will happen in the future but to this day I think it's been a really strong strategy for us I think it's allowed me to really find my feet as CEO kind of growing the team around me and it's caused us to be really disciplined because you know if you don't have cash in the bank then the business can't keep going so yeah I think there's been loads of good that's come from it and then you know if you're to write a pros and cons list you know you could say some opportunities around what you learn from those that come into the business and kind of put a bit of manners or a bit of structure on us and kind of take it to the next level potentially but also who knows what's in our future yeah and I suppose it's a really smart way to like you say sort of instruct that self-discipline yeah in a big way and I think I've seen people do the other way where they're taking investment from the get-go and it can really over complicate things from the beginning even with other people's voices so like you say your your gut instinct and you're feeling that's been guiding and directing you.

26:32Yeah, in a positive direction. Molding it for the last eight years. Yeah, exactly. That might have been a bit diluted if you did take an investment from the get-go. Yeah, true.

26:40Aimee Connolly:I've never thought of it like that. And how did you go about actually launching? Because I'm thinking if someone's listening to this and they're thinking, I'd love to start a beauty brand, but I have no idea where to start. What would you say is kind of the top, I don't know, the key three things that someone needs to do to begin with? Okay, so before I get to practically speaking, I would say you need to be really clear on what your why is. So being aware of the competitor set, being aware of what makes you different, being aware of potential similarities. And imagine the situation, I always put it back to basics.

27:17Aimee Connolly:You're going into a buyer's meeting. The first question they're going to ask you is what brand am I taking off the shelf to make space for yours and why would I do that? So you have to be so clear on like, what is your unique proposition? Who are you serving? What's it going to look like? What's it going to do? What's the end goal? Just have all that wrapped up. Be really passionate, I suppose, at what you're trying to do. No one's going to sell better than you will if you've actually put in the hard graft. And also be really aware of where your strengths are and where you're not strong. So for example, if you are all about the brand, the positioning, the product, the formula, amazing double down on those if you cannot read a p &l make sure you have financial support because in as much as it won't be your priority in those few initial moments if you don't have cash in the bank or you don't have a way to make money from this you won't sustain a business so i think that's really important and often one that gets overlooked because people just go all in on like like what i did i'm obsessed with formula i'm going to go to a factory that's great and it will carry you so far but you do need the supporting act elsewhere as well and sometimes that can just be friends and family if that's what what your approach needs to be at the start and then very practically speaking the first acts that I did so I had my kind of summary on a page of exactly what I wanted the product to be like I wouldn't say I was elegant at the time saying oh I want simplicity at the center but it was like my educator was just coming through me so I had the how-to booklet inside the pack and all those touch points were kind of coming to life naturally I googled European manufacturers so I knew from a regulatory point of view that I wanted to stay within Europe that was my very first factory before South Korea and I googled a freight company that could take my product here and basically schooled myself on customs pretended like I was calling from another business I'm like hi there I'm just wondering if said shipment was landing in this port how long would it take me to get it from here and I also got a storage unit so there's loads of like I think whenever you're facing a big project and this is whatever it might be in life whether it's in work whether you're you know going for something huge whether it's in personal life where you're starting a business there's so many steps that you can be like whoa I'm so overwhelmed so what I always do is I'll write down 10 steps 10 steps at a time that you can actually physically tick off as you do it so Google European manufacturers tick go on to in my case which is hilarious to even share this fonts101.com and look at logo formats there was no brand partner in with me at the start and I would definitely go back and do that differently but I think when you break it down to steps and you're ticking off all of a sudden it doesn't seem as scary and you're on to the next level and the next level yes um but I think know your why know your strengths and your weaknesses and make sure your passion is fueled are three of the kind of zoomed out most important things that I I would say.

30:06Hi, my loves. Just a quick pause to say if you're enjoying Wish I Knew, please, please, please hit the subscribe button and leave a quick rating or review. It really makes such a difference to the show and helps us to keep bringing you amazing guests and stories. Now, let's get back to the episode. That's incredibly helpful. That's so funny about the

30:26Aimee Connolly:phrase shipping. Oh, no. Oh, phrase shipping. Another thing I used to do as well. It'll be really hard I found at the start because I was like the brand personality going in to sell to buyers so like you wanted to keep that relationship and make the charm you know like hey we've got sculpted it's gonna be great and then I would have to chase for payment and I'd be like oh that's so hard I think also there's something in females and particularly young females are what I was at the time backing themselves to chase for the payment when you're trying to be the friendly person so I used to find that really hard so I used to pretend to be Anne in accounts so I would be sitting on my bed after college being like hi guys um just emailing on amy's behalf just chasing x payment for said invoice thank you so much and in accounts and didn't exist and could get it done and did they was were they more receptive always wow always do you know what that's actually quite a common tactic that people use so i've heard people do like pas or assistants i remember once my friend and I wanted to get into a party and we weren't on the list.

31:27And so she said, I'll pretend to be Julia from Who's Your Assistant. And I was like, where is Julia? She just came off the cuff. I was like, Julia's definitely existed prior to me. Anyway, we didn't even need her in the end. We just walked up to the door and let us in. But Julia was ready to rock. She was ready to come out. And honestly, like a lot of people say that just having that different persona or voice other than your own it really helps in those in those moments and maybe that is more of a female thing yeah but it's really interesting it most likely probably is but it

32:00Aimee Connolly:definitely was was a tool or an asset and it helped me a lot in those early days when I was trying to wear so many hats and do all the roles and then keep relationships going yeah and what was your first hire my first hire was essentially like an account manager so it very much crossed a lot of paths between um invoice tracing general kind of buyer queries follow-up and product to a certain extent coming in but I was very much over the kind of the marketing product sourcing factory liaisons um see I was kind of split but it was it was a quite a generic role that had to be able to do a lot of things you know and that's that's tough for some people like only only a few of us are equipped to be able to do that I think and what was it that sort of sparked that higher like did you feel at the time this is absolutely like was your gut telling you this is the right thing to do or were you a little bit like oh maybe I should yeah I was definitely it took me a while before I kind of went all in on a first hire because it is scary you know it's your first I suppose permanent overhead outside of your stock cost which you can kind of measure out and say okay that's coming in that's going to sell that's going to come back in and I just felt that because I was omnichannel from the start so I'd retail and online the volume of emails and queries was getting to a level where okay for me to be able to give them the right experience I needed to have more support and because I was already into like my second order of stock and I was you know trying to forecast ahead because they were asking me questions I'm like and what's your Christmas 20 you know two years time and I'd be like oh yeah I need to think about that I didn't know that I had to think about that yeah so I was kind of learning on the job so yeah it was definitely the right time and then my second hire after that and is a woman called Carol who is actually now my commercial director she's been with me five years so she will five and a half at this stage so she has seen inordinate change across the business but knows it probably better than myself sometimes because she's been there since the beginning I think it just goes to show that those extra sort of pairs of hands at the beginning are what help you to be able to kind of focus on the areas that are most important for you to be across yeah um how did you actually manage all of those things in one go like before you hired someone because I'm just thinking if you're answering emails you're also in socials you're also doing products like were you just working around the clock or I was I think I'm always someone who's worked a lot though like even say taking my part-time job for example and I was still studying in school like I would be someone who would do my part-time job on a Saturday and Sunday because I could not have the independence and I would know that I had a two hour lunch break and that was my study break so if I didn't do it then I wouldn't get it done so I was always someone who like my life is like a Tetris building block game of like okay one in then the next one and I thrive on that and I loved it so I definitely worked a lot of the time and many many lists I am someone who will love a handwritten list yes slowly merging a little bit to digital so I don't have to rewrite everything because there's so many at the moment yeah and but I love nothing more than getting it down so I was actually I found one of my old diaries and when we were moving out of my family home a couple of years ago and it was so interesting reading back because it was like go to post office to post e-com orders ring customs company under this prefix to inquire about ship you know it was just like the variety that was on that list was fascinating yeah and sometimes because you've been through it and it's all happened so fast it's kind of like a bit of a blur that until you're asked in this situation to think back you're like I don't know it just kind of happened yeah do they just kind of I'm right here to tell that story like it's incredible and so everything that you've built has really been based on community right I suppose totally like such you've also got like a real cult fan community yeah they're amazing that just love your brand and love you how did you go about building that was that did the community come before the brand you know associated to your makeup work or was it more after the brand launch I think it was a bit of both I think the one thing I'll say about community is it was never an intended goal and I mean that in the nicest way I think this is the best ways in which community actually happens it was just this integral part of me that I always had a really loyal client base before the brand who you know although they weren't in their hundreds of thousands they were a very loyal base in the area that I was launching who were very supportive and obviously had tried and tested my makeup style also believed to a certain element in terms of what I was bringing out and that grew literally hand in hand with the brand's growth because the community not only were people who were there who were bought in who were encouraging and supportive they were my focus group and still are to this day you know so you'll hear straight away if they want to change things if they want to ask them if they want to request something and then they become your champions who tell their friends and family so I think community these days in particular because everyone wants a community sometimes the word can be thrown about a little bit and I'm like you're much better off to just be acting on it rather than talking a lot about your community and it has to be a two-way communication and I think I was always very clear from the start that I would seek feedback from these people and also take their feedback in whatever that was like in terms of activities in terms of product in terms of getting together and we've had our sculpted committees since day one that are now our kind of bigger beauty club collective so yeah it's just been literally living through me since the beginning and I think like you said bringing people from your community closer into the brand has inevitably built deeper loyalty I'm assuming and a better relationship with them so that you understand what they need and they're able to kind of voice that and feel like they're part of the brand as well yeah and I feel like that's something that not all brands can do and so many brands especially on the marketing side always there is so much talk around communities how do you build a community how do you um establish in a relationship especially for bigger brands a lot of them still haven't got it quite right yeah whereas I feel like because you've been able to build this from scratch from day one and like you say very unintentionally yeah it's not forced i also think it's where kind of niche indie brands like ourselves are winning because we have humans at the center and the core and ultimately what your community boils down to is like i said a two-way communication where people feel seen and heard and if you are a big multinational multinational company it's it's hard to put a person at the core of that to try and build this community so i think that's where we and many others around us are actually having such an opportunity to to get ahead because we're not constrained by red tape and chains of command and it's just living it's just vicariously through us all and and these people are coming on the journey and they can see that you know i suppose actually as you were talking just then that also links back to your early days of being on the beauty counter and dealing with people yeah right because you're dealing with the community yeah and making people feel good about themselves but now you're the like face of the brand in the center of it so I can see how that kind of really links through and even I remember um I bumped into one of my previous managers from Urban Decay like a year or two ago and she reminded me that when I was working there on a Saturday and Sunday so you know loved my part-time job came in full of energy got the busier days on counter was thriving with all the customers around me and she reminded me that I used to like play them to do events and to go the extra mile in the weekends.

39:34Aimee Connolly:I'd say they were like, would this 16 year old just chill and be grateful that she's like working and just leave us all to do our work. And we used to have a lot of makeovers that would come in quite regularly. Now, I mean, I have to apologize to how some of them left that counter at the start because I'd say it was questionable. But anyway, we had great chats and we loved it. But I used to encourage us all to keep client cards so we could remember, OK, Emily's coming in for her 30th birthday and she wore this look and these are the products she got and don't forget she said she's going on holidays so that when emily came back in i'd be like how was your holiday and how was that foundation and so i had all these like flash cards that were written out by all my regulars and then i'd be trying to get them to do events and stuff so it's such a random memory but one that i was so passionate about at the time and i didn't even sit there with an agenda to say this is going to equal more return on sales and that's going to equal community it was just a why wouldn't we offer this experience for the customer do you know so yeah hopefully that's continued to kind of thrive and that's incredible and do you think that that came from like putting yourself in the customer's shoes i think so they want yeah definitely because it is true it's when people remember something about you you're instantly um you're instantly just drawn into that yeah brand and you're more like there's probably statistics around it like you're more likely to purchase or something but it is such a true point I actually had that experience the other day I met this really lovely girl and I bought some things and we chatted for ages and I'd only gone out for a coffee and because I live quite near to the king's road so okay I end up it happens quite a lot where I go for a coffee and then I just end up stumbling in somewhere what's the shop and I really impulse buyed um buyed bought these um these gorgeous jeans but they they weren't quite right so I took them back yesterday day and she was in there again and she said oh my god hi so nice to see you again how was your week how was this how was that and I was just like oh my god I love being here I just want to hang out here exactly yeah and that is where you feel connected you feel seen and heard and you feel like their values really align with yours or whatever it might be be it kind of cultural fit and that's where the magic happens I think when you said there you know do you think it's from thinking about yourself in the customer's shoes I think instinctively I do think that way and one of the biggest things I would press the team on and that we would kind of talk about together before we launch something is what's our community going to ask or what are they asking what are the questions we're going to respond to with x or y z content do you know because that's yeah it's just so important if I haven't said that already yeah well I suppose through social right so answering people's questions before they yeah yeah okay that's trying to anticipate them yeah And that comes back to the education for us.

42:16Aimee Connolly:So if we're making it so easy, we're making it so easy by trying to give you all the tools to be able to instinctively know, cool, that's for me. This is how I use it. I'm going to feel great. It's fascinating as well because so many people don't know the basics when it comes to skincare and beauty and makeup. I didn't really get into it until like a couple of years ago. I was very like blessed. My mom's got amazing skin. your skin is to die for i'm i need to tell it's genes genetics thank you i'm blushing now um no i've been i've been in awe of your skin this whole episode um but i didn't really know anything and you know my mom didn't really teach me anything she was very you're probably gonna eek at this but like makeup wipes would just oh my mom was the same oh really okay that makes me feel better yeah and um and I was using makeup wipes forever until the past few years and then I don't even know what sparked it sort of in me I just really maybe it was just getting older and starting to realize maybe I should take better care of my skin and investing into right the right products but the amount of research that you have to do I mean thankfully now we have AI yeah I've been which doesn't replace a person I know yeah but I've been doing so much research on you know for this skin type what what should I get do and what should my routine be and and there's like 10 different products before I've even left the house or even started to put my makeup on and it is a whirlwind it is I think I think we're living in a world where it's kind of twofold there are some people who still surprise me and we'll get a dm saying can you show us how to apply foundation and you're like oh okay so we need to stop assuming that everyone's at a certain level Yeah.

44:04Aimee Connolly:And then you've got some who are so educated from just absorbing, absorbing, absorbing that they are nearly asking me such intricate ingredient questions that I'm like, wow, that's something I would ask the lab. And now a consumer is asking that to to a brand. So I think there's just so much online. And with that, be it whether you feel educated from it or you feel overwhelmed from it, there is a need to just take the full side of it a little bit. And I think that's ultimately where we try and approach things of like, okay, it doesn't have to be that complicated. Yes. A couple of products, a couple of minutes, you're going to feel great.

44:40Aimee Connolly:Your skin's going to be better off, whatever it might be. Here's how we break it down. Simplify, simplify. Exactly. And that's what you were sort of made for, right? That's what we try to do. Yeah. And so you've now launched, you've got physical stores. I know you've got Carnaby. We do. We have four flagship stores, yeah. Wow. And so when did you launch your first physical store? September 2022 we launched our flagship in Graphite Street in Dublin yeah that was our first one wow yeah and how do you find both the online and offline presence and I suppose the community aspect of both yeah to be honest like we've been on each other since the start so we've always had both channels working in tandem together and I actually think that's one of our biggest magic points is that 360 brand journey for the customer so if you've got somebody who wants to discover online and purchase in store be the tactile person in store and then come back online we kind of offer both um flagships like i said we've got four doors they're a very considered like hub for sculptors on as a halo effect on top of our amazing retail partner so the goal is not to be on every corner street it's to have a very considered destination to go to for makeup lesson or make over discover the full sculpted lineup um and quite you know special for me in terms of my heritage as a makeup artist so kind of coming that full 360 moment feels quite lovely um but i think in terms of offline and online i think there's more and more change happening now as the world is expanding that they are blurring the lines even more so um so i think there's pressure on brands to really make the experience like so amazing between the two so that when you have a customer going at different touch points they don't feel any different although there are differences to each channel and benefits um but i think that they will always be a really important part of how we grow so regardless of what geography we go into although you may start with one lever before you pull the second we always feel that online and offline are two really critical points for us i think that it from a customer perspective especially when you're looking at products like foundations just to be able to go and speak to someone yeah it makes a world of a difference right and actually try the products and i'm assuming your in-store staff are just as wonderful as you were they are they're great so we get the loveliest feedback about them i think that was really important to me opening the stores as well outside of you know the services and kind of being able to discover every product in the lineup under one roof it was like removing any predatory nature from it in terms of intense selling so making someone like you said you went back into return in your jeans and you were like I just want to hang out here because it's so nice that is some of the best feedback we get from people where they're like I went in and she was so lovely and there was no pressure and I ended up buying all these things because actually she was so lovely or maybe I didn't buy and I'm going to come back another day but you know I always say to the team when they join us on day one the customer satisfaction is so much more important to me than the sale which sounds so counterintuitive to wanting to grow a brand and of course you have to make sales but I'm like we will get them at another time it's okay so give them the sample or sit them down and talk them through it and make them feel really seen in that journey is really important because that's how we stand out I love that it's so true it is so true if someone makes you feel really good and they don't put pressure on you yeah and you have a great experience then you're more likely to go back to that brand and I actually used to work at Amazon and there was a big sort of Jeff Bezos philosophy around customer obsession.

48:20Aimee Connolly:Okay. And they do now, but at the beginning they didn't really invest in marketing because they were so obsessive about the customer experience. Yeah. And so their, and I might be misquoting some of this, but essentially their philosophy was make the customer experience as seamless as possible, which is, again, why you have all the, you know, focus on shipping and fast shipping but the website doesn't look great and so their um the way they built their brand was basically making the customer experience really efficient really seamless listening to what the customer wants yeah really obsessing over that and then eventually it grew into kind of marketing and brand but they literally led with that and grew on that from the from the get-go and they weren't wrong there we go let's look at them now look at jeff they've done some good things um and so for you as a like CEO and founder how do you balance the creativity of like your heart and soul being in this business but also being a leader yeah especially at such a young age was that difficult for you yeah I would say it's probably a really timely topic for me right now um I think as this business is growing you know we have over 100 people on the team now everything gets bigger and gets, yeah, it just all gets a bit bigger.

49:43Aimee Connolly:So I think my biggest struggle, struggle, opportunity, challenge, you could probably labour it so many ways, or role, is I am actively CEO. So you are genuinely across all areas, finance, ops, trade, marketing, product, people you know the list goes on but that I am also the present founder online so from an even a calendar point of view that's a challenge because you are trying to do your role as CEO that keeps the business going and you're thinking ahead three years versus also trying to balance the fact that you need to be doing content so if you were to whittle down a very long list of what is the one thing that only Amy can do that no one else on this planet can do that is be Amy so no one can come on camera and pretend to be me so it's actually trying to spend the time so yeah it's it's quite a topical thing right now in terms of trying to find that balance between the two and but I really enjoy it I think I'm someone who needs to scratch both sides of my brain so I really love the being founder energy being with people doing events and I equally love the sitting at my desk getting into files and really tackling questions with the teams and like I love nothing more than a brainstorm session with the team where I'm like give me everything come on let it flow let's go um I could just stay in that for days um and I think I also realized for me to have a balance so for example we went out to Seoul in South Korea we're actually going back there in a couple of weeks we went out in April this year and I was really it was a stressful time in the business and I was like oh I don't know can I be taking a week off to go here not a week off so intense over there but a week out of the business and I was really being hard on myself saying god like you're not operating a ceo by being gone for the week etc etc and then i had this whole moment over there not only firstly is the business fine because i'm still checking in and everyone's you know and doing great i needed it i need that time to be free in the lab with the product and just be able to be creative in that way because let's be honest when you are a ceo i don't love looking at p and l's all the time but you have to do that so there's some parts that you have to do because that's part of the job yeah and there's some parts you get to do that you enjoy and so I actually came home saying it is so important that I continue to go to factories every year because that is a really crucial part of why I started the brand where I feel I come alive and I come home re-energized despite the jet lag and it probably makes you feel like those moments of creativity are much more special right yeah because you get to do the balance and you're not doing it all the time exactly and they feel like a privilege yeah and how do you find um like work travel I mean you you're based in Ireland we're in London now yeah I'm just based somewhere in the air in the middle like do you like thrive on that or do you find it difficult like how do you juggle it all I suppose I think I I've mentioned a few times I definitely thrive on a busy life so I'm okay with that I'm okay at chucking loads of things in sometimes travel can hit you and it can hit you a few days later when you're tired and you know I'm often unpacking a bag and packing a bag but I think my mentality on it is not to give in to that feeling because I think a lot of people say to me like god you must be so tired you're traveling all the time and I'm like no I'm fine and I don't think of it like that because the minute you let your mind go to a place it's really hard and also the way I look at it is we're trying to grow a global brand here there won't be any end to this travel so if anything I'm like no it's great I get to go to London for a few days and I get to go and walk in a park that I don't usually walk in and I'm going to look up shows and I'm going to take my evening out and I'm going to go do something yeah or if I'm going to Seoul I'm going to have an evening where I'm going to go to a great Korean food restaurant that I don't get to go to here and try and make little moments out of it and sometimes I'm feeling myself but sometimes it does work and I just think ultimately it's it's yeah it's how you view it and I'm like I'm really lucky I get to have these experiences yeah I'm also lucky that I have a husband who can come with me from time to time so that definitely makes the juggling of the personal life an easier balance definitely it's all about the positive mindset isn't it totally yeah actually um I saw this lady once said um she didn't believe in jet lag I've heard so many people say this I'm like it's a bit to Lulu because it definitely does exist it's a real thing like your body into australia or somewhere like that but but it's true right like the sooner that you just yep this is what i'm going to do with my day this is such a great positive experience and ultimately this is what your younger self would have dreamed of right exactly yeah now i would love to not believe in jet lag because i have had moments in the factory where my eyelids were like they're shutting closed but i also totally appreciate that mindset of you just get up and get on with it because it is what it is and so reflecting on your journey can you talk about some of your biggest highs and lows so far yeah um some of the highs I think whenever you're in a scaling journey you're very lucky to have a lot of highs um because ultimately every new stage is a bit of a win so some of those highs for us like opening a physical store like I mentioned and one of our flagships there's no feeling like it there's something about the tangible in person with people that's so emotional and i was so emotional those doors and the openings and the crowds outside and that's just so special you know unlocking new retailers in the uk is such a uh like a vote of confidence that you're you're growing and it's all working so they're equally when seeing your product on shelf or seeing a concept that was a lab formula two years ago now become like cream cushion our latest product and actual products on the market and you see the love for it you're like oh this is so worth it so there's loads of little wins and then even some of the basic things like sometimes I have these moments walking into the office and it's busing with people and you're just walking up the steps and it's just a normal day and you have this feeling of like oh my god they're all here for me you know this was an idea that happened at a uni and now is funding all these livelihoods and it's scary but it's it's such a win I think some of the lows um I think at times we've tried to scale too fast beyond where we are and you always have a learning coming out of that so whether it's you know you underestimate a geography size before you get there or you're moving a pace that maybe some things don't end up exactly to the level of detail that I want and so you're actually going back to kind of fix and then you end up taking more time I think sometimes it's just the lack of time where the pace of things can catch you out when you're in a startup and there's just this hunger and ambition to keep going and actually someone said to me recently I spent a week in Harvard and it was such an important line that has stayed with me since and it was like sometimes you have to go slow to go fast and that has probably been my mantra for the last six months and will be into 2026 because we're at a really important time now where you know you're no longer a startup you're in a scale up and to scale up you have to get bigger you have to get bulger you have to put your shoulders out you have to have a team around you have to have processes and structures not where you lose the startup agility but where you just are showing up the right way and with that you need to go slow to then go fast well so yeah i would be lying if i said there wasn't a load of lows there are and sometimes those lows are so low like i spent a day last week basically crying for most of it which is which is unusual you know but then the highs are so high that it's like you know you're just it's infectious yeah so and how do you handle those days

57:28Aimee Connolly:i probably from scaling a team over my 20s i think i am uh so it's on one side i'm a terrible poker player everything i feel is on my face my husband always tell me he's like you can't lie it's just like you everything you feel is there but on the other side I think I'm good at holding things and acting like it's fine for the sake of the team so say last week we got some disappointing news that definitely had me emotional and I went into the office and I was like hi how are you and was like fine and only those that knew would have known and then those that didn't wouldn't have known and I think that probably comes from you know the swan analogy of like everything is fine on top and then underneath the legs are like this going 90 and I think that's that's how I've learned to do things so sometimes I can kind of sit on it and hold it myself yeah what I find the ultimate therapy is actually just getting out for a walk and just getting some air getting out and thinking through things or maybe talking it through my husband and my mom and just like being able to talk it out not that I even need an answer I just need to get it out of my soul and sometimes if I'm holding things for a while one of my most often sentences I'll say to John I have something deep in my soul that I need to tell you but once I tell you then it's out in the open so I have to actually fix it so are you ready for me to tell you and he's like okay I'm like okay so I've been thinking about this for the last few weeks and then I know myself once I voice it you have to take action yeah and you have to fix it it's no longer just sitting down here and it's no longer just with you it's with someone else responsibility right yeah and I feel like there's so much power in just getting it off your chest I mean, I have this in reverse.

59:02My partner's called John as well.

59:03Aimee Connolly:No way! I love it. Whenever you have a John, you always meet so many Johns. You will. And sometimes I'll just need to vent. And then once it's out, I'm like, God, I'm great. And then he's like, oh, God, I feel terrible. You've just projected it all on to him. Yeah, there's definitely a balance. But I think sometimes you just need to get it out and speak it through with someone, right? Agreed. it seems like you've got such a positive and anything is possible attitude that that's probably what carries you through right in the sense of you can overcome anything yeah I think you know that's not to say that you don't have moments of wavering or you don't have moments of tears where you're like oh my god what am I doing am I doing this right am I the right person for this but then ultimately you sleep on you get back up the next day and you're like cool challenge accepted off we go I love that there's actually um there's a clip of Beyonce yeah uh from I don't know what she was doing but something years ago and she says whenever she has a moment or you know something doesn't go her way she gives herself a day and then after that day like you said you get up you get out of bed you move forward and you take action and so me and my friends actually call it a Beyonce day now.

1:00:20Love them. Oh my god I'm so gonna treat myself to a Beyonce day. So if anything you know goes wrong or not how expected you give yourself a Beyonce day. Give yourself a day of cry. Do whatever you need to do and then you wake up next morning. Eat the

1:00:34Aimee Connolly:ice cream. Yes. And then you're honest. Exactly. Love it. Exactly. We're gonna move into quickfire wrap. Okay let's go. So best piece of advice you've ever received. Okay best piece of advice I've ever received I think and we've actually referenced it already this is a really simple one but one that I think has actually been so important to me as I've grown and it comes from my mom and that is go with your gut so I think the importance of that it's just stood to me in so many ways over the business and and over the last few years and I think it's one that I will always pay attention to yeah a lot of people say that your gut never fails you yeah yeah um and no that turned out to be a blessing in disguise oh um one that you can speak about yeah i'm trying to think another turn it to be a blessing in disguise we um we were supposed to on board with a retailer earlier than we actually did and it was really disappointing because it was like a six month delay at the time and i was like oh this is like such a setback you know our forecasts are linked to this um all our plans are enlisted etc etc and it turned out to be a no so in fairness it wasn't a flat out no it was a no until a certain date and actually the way it lined up with that data lined up with a product launch and it was our strongest launch into that store that we've ever had so it turned out that it was definitely better timing and for the right reasons we just couldn't see it six months prior to that well 12 months when we got the news that is incredible yeah i I bet that feeling when you went into store with your new product launch was just the best feeling.

1:02:12You're literally like punching the air being like, yes, dancing around on the street. A book or podcast you recommend to everyone?

1:02:20Aimee Connolly:So we actually have a thing with our leadership team that we've started where we're kind of digesting business specific podcast books or articles and then discuss them on like a quarterly basis. So we started with a classic recently that I'm sure a lot of people will know, but Good to Great by Jim Collins. A really, really good book, particularly for us around leadership. So it was a particularly important topic. I mean, it goes into lots of things, but just in terms of building that kind of legacy brand, which is the journey that we're on. More of a side note in terms of fantasy. So I am very much a thriller reader, but I was an obsessor of Harry Potter as a kid.