CLEAN beauty is all the rage now, as more and more people become aware of the harmful effects that artificial ingredients and fragrances can have on the skin. Here in Malaysia, there is a growing community of conscious consumers looking for the right products, and one homegrown brand has made a mission out of offering clean and sustainable products, while also focusing on attractive packaging.
Lips Carpenter is a clean, sustainable and customisable beauty brand founded in Kuala Lumpur by sisters Yifon Law, 30, and Yi-Xian Law, 28. Since 2018, the brand has made a name for itself thanks to its high quality lip and face products.
In a telephone interview with theSun, Yifon spoke about what inspired them to start the company.
“My sister and I founded the brand back in 2018,” she explained. “[At the time] I had been an actuary for close to seven years, but I had always wanted to start a business because I wanted to do something that would have an impact on the community.
“As for my sister, she has a Masters in Music, [and] she’s always been the DIY person, the aesthetic person. So that’s how we both came together, me with my corporate and financial background and her with her aesthetic and DIY background.”
The reason why they chose to go into cosmetics was simple. “It’s something that we use daily, and something that we love,” she said.
“The reason why we chose to focus on clean ingredients was because as a family, we are very health-conscious and were focusing on the types of things that we eat and the types of things that we put on ourselves.”
Currently, the sisters run the business with two part-timers who help them with their operations.
Yifon explained that are two lines of Lip Carpenter products – ready made, and customised. Ready made products consist of lip balms, lipsticks and face cleansers in attractive, eco-friendly packaging that can be refilled, while the customised products come in elaborate casings that allow for name engraving.
“So far, the feedback from customers has been great, especially with regards to the focus on clean ingredients and sustainability. As for the customised products, people are always super excited to see the different casings that we have, and they love the formulations of our lip products which are quite different from other big commercial brands, as they are more creamy.”
She added: “Before we launched the brand, we spent a lot of time on R&D, learning all the formulations and studying different ingredients, and how they come together.”
One key aspect of their business, which they handle in-house, is the customisation.
“Customisation takes a lot of effort, because every single product is only crafted after the customer has put in their own design, and with the name engraving, everything is done [individually].
“We serve a huge gift industry as well, so when it comes to packaging, it takes a lot of effort from us, but we really want to make it a really good product that people are happy to receive.”
Currently Lip Carpenter’s best-selling products are the customised lipsticks, and lip balms. However, the brand has plans to move into skin care, and already has two unique Rose Series face products in powder form – a face mask and face cleanser.
“[Skincare] is something that we definitely want to focus on more down the line,” Yifon said. “And with the pandemic, we noticed that people are focusing more on self-care and skincare, so there was definitely a slight change, in terms of products that we had in our pipeline.”
As for what the future holds for Lip Carpenter, Yifon said: “We do have a product coming up in two to three months. It’s a three-in-one cleansing oil that will be a makeup remover, facial massage oil and a first face cleanser [when doing double cleansing]. This product will be a link between our cosmetics line and our skin care line.”
