BUSINESS: FEMALE FOUNDERS

Female Founders

Stacey Hollands, the founder of Lust Minerals, transitioned from her role as a dermal therapist into entrepreneurship with a poignant realisation after the loss of her father at a young age. Stacey identified a gap in the market where quality mineral makeup was often expensive and inaccessible, prompting her to embark on a journey to offer affordable yet high-performing mineral products to a wider audience.

-By Michelle Ruzzene

WHEN/WHAT WAS YOUR ‘LIGHTBULB’ MOMENT TO CREATE LUST MINERALS?

Before launching Lust Minerals, I was working as a dermal therapist. It was a time when I had just lost my dad at a young age, and it really made me realise that life is short and there are no second chances, so I think it inspired me to think bigger. When I was growing up, I’d suffered breakouts which, as a teenage girl, made me very self-conscious. Being in the industry, I found so many women were just like me and coming into the salon asking for my help with their skin. A lot of them were using conventional makeup products which was often only worsening the problem. While there were plenty of natural-based products out there, few married ‘clean and ‘high-performance’ to deliver real results. At the time, I noticed that many of the mineral foundations in the market seemed expensive. I remember thinking ‘Why should mineral makeup only be accessible for those who could afford to pay $90 for a foundation?’ I wanted to fix that.

HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE BRAND’S DNA?

I aimed to craft effective products with clean, potent ingredients, and that vision is embodied in our brand name, Lust Minerals. Initially, I noticed that many mineral makeup products lacked concentrated minerals and were diluted with fillers. To address this, I dedicated two years to collaborating with a product developer, investing $10,000 of my savings to create our initial samples.

After extensive testing and feedback from friends, family, and clients, we finalised our formulations, ensuring our products met strict guidelines including vegan, crueltyfree, and high-performance criteria. Today, our Lust Minerals range remains Australian-made, free from harmful chemicals and parabens, and designed for sensitive and acne-prone skin.

WHAT BUSINESS CHALLENGES DID YOU OVERCOME WHEN STARTING OUT?

I’ve always looked at challenges as an opportunity to learn and grow — but there were definitely a few moments of self-doubt when I first started out. When Lust Minerals launched, I was wearing all the hats and running every single aspect of the business. I was doing this all whilst I was also working as a beauty therapist and being a mum. I was also up against some big, well-known brands and at times felt like a small fish in a big sea. However, at the same time, this just motivated me to want to work harder to succeed. I invested heavily in mentorship to expand my mindset as both a CEO and a leader to ensure that I show up in the business everyday with consistency, discipline, and confidence to drive the brand to success. I knew we were onto something when we started receiving feedback from customers and seeing their amazing results. Our best-selling product is our Pro Finish Liquid Foundation — we sell one every 2 minutes. We have nearly 5,000 reviews on our site where customers tell us what they think and leave a picture. It really motivates me to keep giving that customer great options which will have a positive, healthy, and visible impact on skin.

HOW MANY PRODUCTS ARE IN THE RANGE TODAY?

Since our initial run of four products back in 2014, our range has significantly grown, and we now have approximately 290 SKUs across the makeup, skin and body range today. We currently have six Australian manufacturers for different product lines across our range, to whom I have a close relationship with. It was important to me that they aligned with my values, and the values of the brand. This year is going to be our biggest and best yet. We are really focusing on our plans to refine our existing product portfolio even further and expand into international markets to share our message of clean beauty with the world. As a brand, we are continuing to heavily invest in developing new products, and reformulating existing products to ensure we are pioneering the most effective clean beauty products on the market.

HOW DO YOU COMPETE WITH THE BIG, MULTINATIONAL BEAUTY BRANDS?

In the beginning I started in the B2B salon market as this was an industry, I was very familiar with. Then we started to notice the emergence of ecommerce late 2018 and knew that we needed to continue to expand to achieve our vision. Investing in influencer marketing and using social media as a tool super charged our growth. After years of preparation, in 2021 and 2022, Lust Minerals underwent a vibrant rebranding initiative, as I wanted to depart from the typical plain and neutral colour schemes commonly associated with mineral beauty brands. My goal from the beginning was to ensure that anyone who made the switch to clean beauty, didn’t have to sacrifice aesthetics.

YOU’RE ON TRACK TO HIT 10+ MILLION BY THE END OF FY2023WHAT ARE SOME SECRETS TO YOUR BRAND’S SUCCESS?

When I reflect on where we started nine years ago, it was myself running the business as a “side gig” while I saw clients for skin treatments during the day, with the product stocked in a linen cupboard in my home. Today, we’ve moved into two different warehouses, a beautiful Lust-pink office and more than 20 staff members who are on this journey with me. It’s grown in ways that I never even dreamed of.

TELL US ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY.

We are continuing to evolve as a brand to ensure we are always prioritising environmental sustainability and ethical sourcing practices. Earlier this year we partnered with TerraCycle and One Tree Planted as part of our new sustainability program. Through the partnership with TerraCycle customers are encouraged to return five, used full sized Lust Minerals products to us to recycle and in return, we gift customers a free Lust Minerals product as an incentive to encourage them to participate. Customers are also encouraged to recycle other brands’ beauty products, and for every 10 products that they recycle, we offer a $30 Lust Minerals Voucher. These used, empty products are collected through a Zero Waste Box and are then sent back to TerraCycle for them to sort and process into raw materials that can be reused, instead of being sent to landfill.

Stacey’s Top 5 business tips

1. Understand your community. You need to be able to understand what they want and what they need and what their pain points are. You, as a brand, can then develop products to solve their problems.

2. Get clear on your purpose, and what your point of difference is as a brand and lead with integrity.

3. Honesty and integrity. Stay true to who you are as a brand, and your values – dare to be different.

4. Keep your finger on the pulse with industry trends and always think ahead – otherwise you may fall behind.

5. Feedback is an opportunity to learn and grow, and to do better.