More than lip service

With evidence mounting on some of the health dangers of household chemicals – and the experience of starting a natural beauty range, Skinfood, already under her belt – 2010 seemed the right time for Karen Murrell to launch a range of entirely natural lipsticks.

“Women ingest a lot of lipstick,” states the 39-year-old from Te Awamutu bluntly. “We eat it, so why would you not use something that was natural?

“If you look into toxicology, they are finding lipstick broken down in the stomach. Personally I want it to be natural if I know I’m going to ingest it.”

Karen’s philosophy is to only use natural ingredients and extracts – but it’s also a core value of her business that natural products have to perform as well or better than regular brands. So when Karen identified lipsticks two years ago as a growing market – she compares lipstick to flowers, inexpensive feel-good products that do well when times are tough – she started on design and development with an eye always to performance.

“My first element of design was touch – it had to glide on,” says Karen. “The next one was smell – it had to smell great.” And durability on the lips, and long-lasting colour, rounded out the range.

The completed product is a “vegetarian lipstick” – they use no animal products or testing, being based on carnauba wax – with avocado oil, cinnamon and evening primrose oil all playing a role too.

“The technology in the natural sphere has become so much more advanced,” says Karen. “You can now make a natural product that is as good if not better than a mainstream product”.

Fantastic ‘plastic’

The next step was to address the issue of packaging. Looking at the boxes for the Karen Murrell range, you wouldn’t pick it as a particularly eco-minded product – yet Karen has gone to great lengths to ensure her lipstick doesn’t take anything away from Mother Earth, as she puts it.

Each box is made from recyclable card made from New Zealand-source pulp, and printed with soya-based ink, and even the hard ‘plastic’ canister housing the lipstick is biodegradable. Karen had them manufactured from polylactic acid, a kind of resin derived from corn starch which breaks down into harmless lactic acid; buried or composted, the canisters return to the earth within 100 days.

With all that effort gone into eco-friendly (and people-friendly) design you might expect the product to be priced high. However Karen has shied away from the boutique pricing that so many natural brands aim for, and instead has positioned her lipsticks as “an everyday commodity” selling for $29.99 each.

Another factor in her favour is that supermarkets tend to stock the product amongst mainstream brands, rather than away with the natural ranges.

Karen says that shows how receptive Kiwis are to natural products and reports the range is selling well. To date it’s stocked in 300 stores in New Zealand plus 100 in Australia, with turnover doubling every couple of months as the brand gains traction.

“I feel really confident,” reflects Karen. “We’re growing really nicely”.

The essence of a green brand – Karen Murrell lipsticks

• No mineral oils, parabens or preservatives
• No animal content (many regular lipsticks contain animal fat)
• Recyclable packaging
• Compostable ‘plastic’ canister

What our office testers say

“I love the Cordovan Natural lipstick – the effect is matt-looking yet the colour has a lustrous depth to it. It stays on well, without looking caked-on or sliding off, and leaves lips feeling lovely and moisturised.”

“Really like the colour – it lasts and does not bleed. Liked how it felt straight after I applied it but then after a while just a tad dry on the lips – would purchase.”

“The colour was a winner and made my lips pop. I usually shy away from make-up generally but felt comfortable wearing this.”

“As a lip gloss kind of girl I was a bit cautious about trying out a matt lipstick, however I am now converted. I love the colours, love that they stay on forever, love that they are 100 per cent natural including the packaging, love that the taste isn’t overpowering, love that the texture is nice and smooth and don’t even mind that they aren’t glossy.”

Find out more about the Karen Murrell range at www.karenmurrell.com.