Season 1
A bit about Viola, our founder
Meet Viola Levy, the founder of Smart Beauty Creative. She shares her journey into the beauty industry, her passion for it, and what inspired her to establish her agency. Having worked in the beauty industry for over 15 years, Viola is an award-winning journalist, copywriter and brand consultant. As an established writer, Viola has contributed to all sectors of the beauty world, with articles appearing in Vogue, Glamour, The Evening Standard, and Refinery29. In addition she has written copy for several major beauty brands and retailers, including Aromatherapy Associates, 111SKIN, Cult Beauty, Boots, By Terry, and Superdrug, and in 2019, she won a Fragrance Foundation Jasmine Award for Best Short Piece and was shortlisted for Best Social Engagement. More recently, she has crafted global trend reports for a major forecasting agency, focusing on how consumer needs and habits have changed since the global pandemic. From her experience as a beauty editor, Viola has interviewed numerous icons, from Elle Macpherson, to Millie Kendall O.B.E, Cult Beauty founder Alexia Inge and WAH Nails and Beautystack founder Sharmadean Reid. She understands not just the beauty world but the value of a personal brand, and how many female founders are expected to be brand ambassadors, not just the brains behind the scenes. Which is why she set up Smart Beauty Creative to champion female founders and tell their stories, helping to position them as the future icons of the beauty industry. To learn more about what Viola and her team do, visit smartbeautycreative.com or follow us on Instagram @smartbeautycreative
Viola chatted to Jasmine Wicks-Stevens, Founder of PR and Branding Agency The Known Community as well as Faace Skincare. Jasmine is kind of like the Da Vinci (or the JLo) of the beauty world in the sense that she doesn’t limit herself to one pursuit – with her PR hat on, Jasmine has repped the world's most prestigious beauty brands for the past 15 years. And if that weren't enough, she launched Faace skincare – in lockdown no less – which she describes as a "no BS, faff-free, ethical skincare collection" currently stopped in 23 countries and retailers like Harrods and Look Fantastic. She recently graced our screens on Dragon's Den, where she secured investment totalling £60,000 from Touker Souleyman, Peter Jones and Steven Bartlett. She’s also mum of two small boys – and if that weren't enough, she has launched the Substack newsletter "Failings of a Female Founder." We chat about how she juggles all of that and how building a great brand doesn't automatically mean you have a great business. femalefounder.substack.com wearefaace.com known-community.com
Nestled in Mayfair’s Royal Arcade, the Ormonde Jayne boutique offers some of the most unique concoctions on the planet, with ingredients sourced from all around the globe, worlds away from the many typical bland commercial scents on the market. Its founder Linda Pilkington creates perfumes which echo an era of bygone glamour when perfumes actually were perfumes, designed to be worn with a cocktail dress and many glittering jewels, as one sashays off out into the evening.They are also stocked in London’s top department stores such as Selfridges and Harrods and she has previously collaborated with the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Knightsbridge. Ormonde Woman is probably her best-seller, with enveloping notes of black hemlock, underscored with rich jasmine and violet. But Tiare is my personal favourite – with its sparkling citrus and exotic floral notes and a name that sounds like ‘tiara’ – and to be honest when you spray it on, it does feel like you’re wearing one. As the company founder and perfumer (a rare combination) Linda is memorable, punchy and charismatic as the perfumes she creates. When lockdown hit, she instantly pivoted to online, hosting scent discovering sessions remotely with clients from all over the globe. The brand has gone from strength to strength, with many new and exciting scents added to the Ormonde Jayne cannon, as well as a personalisation service, which allows customers to dial up the intensity of their chosen fragrance should they so wish. But it’s the fact many of her staff – together with her lovely PR Sara – have stayed with her for years is a testament to how lovely she is. We chat about how Ormonde Jayne grew out of her obsession with 'unusual' scents and why budget will never stop her from striving for perfection, whether it's creating the most exquisite perfume bottles, or finding the most rare and exotic ingredients the natural world has to offer. ormondejayne.com *** Social media: @violalevy @smartbeautycreative Check out our work: smartbeautycreative.com Thoughts/feedback: hello@smartbeautycreative.com
Sarah McCartney started out in business at age 7, in her words “buying wooden beads, making them into things and selling them on to my friends.” That is until her horrified mother found out and swiftly put a stop to it. Fortunately this didn’t dampen Sarah's entrepreneurial spirit, and after stints writing for The Guardian, and LUSH (where she was editor of ‘The LUSH Times’), it was writing a novel about a problem-solving perfumer which led her on the path to actual perfumery. She set up 4160Tuesdays in 2010 – its name is taken from the number of Tuesdays we should expect to see if we live to see 80, stressing the importance of making the most of every day.The cheery offbeat branding of 4160 Tuesdays is everywhere you look not least in the perfumes themselves with names like “The Sexiest Scent on the Planet Ever”, “ Damn Rebel Bitches” and “Tarts Knicker Drawer.” Growing up in Tyneside, Sarah’s dry northern wit and straightforward approach makes the world of perfume far less intimidating than its normal shiny department store dwellings. She is also co-author of The Perfume Companion - The Definitive Guide to Choosing Your Next Scent, that she wrote with perfume writer Samantha Scriven. Last year, the book was a finalist in the UK Fragrance Foundation Jasmine Awards.Sarah is described by fragrance writer and expert Lizzie Ostrom as a “punk perfumer” (although she describes herself as more of a "folk perfumer") and she can be credited as one of the brands successfully combining fragrance with tongue-in-cheek British humour – even if this doesn't always translate elsewhere! We talk about her career journey, what she learned from Mark Constantine at LUSH and the challenges of building an indie perfume brand "using her own voice". 4160tuesdays.com *** Social media: @violalevy @smartbeautycreative Check out our work: smartbeautycreative.com Thoughts/feedback: hello@smartbeautycreative.com
Fragrance maven Olivia Da Costa is yet another colourful addition to the wonderful world of British perfumery. She is the founder of luxury scent brand Olfactive O, where each perfume pays tribute to a fragrance family, from floral to woody, to fruity to gourmand. The latter was nominated for a prestigious Fragrance Foundation award, and the range is stocked in Les Senteurs - one of London’s poshest perfume boutiques.It will also soon be making its television debut on QVC, with Olivia gracing our screens as a guest presenter following in the footsteps of Joan Rivers and Martha Stewart.Olfactive O perfumes are designed to be warm and inclusive, reflecting Olivia’s modern orthodox Jewish upbringing, where food was a big part of family life. In previous interviews she has said “There's so much synergy between perfume and food, and probably a lot of my cultural heritage has subconsciously seeped into the perfumes I create!” And as someone who has tried more perfumes than I’ve had hot dinners, I can totally attest to that. We chat about how she developed her business and her brand, making mistakes with big agencies, our mutual obsession with the film 'Joy' with Jennifer Lawrence and what it takes to get a brand on QVC. olfactiveo.com *** Social media: @violalevy @smartbeautycreative Check out our work: smartbeautycreative.com Thoughts/feedback: hello@smartbeautycreative.com