Iredale Mineral Cosmetics celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. One of the originals in the mineral make-up category, the brand is now available in over 40 countries around the world, sold both to professionals and through retail outlets. The company’s British born founder, Jane Iredale, reminisces with Cosmetic News Weekly about the brand’s origins and talks about her plans going forward.
How did you get started?I came from London to New York in 1972 on an adventure and ended up as a casting director for film and television before getting into production. It was clear that make-up was playing havoc on professional skin. I’ve always been interested in what we put into our bodies and I started thinking about make-up that is good for your skin. I found a chemist that could make a loose mineral powder that was foundation, sunscreen, powder and no talc or fillers. Something that would give a lot of coverage without harming the skin and would calm down inflamed skin. People break out a lot from make-up.
Once you had the product, how did you get the word out?I spent a year not knowing what to do with it. I literally went door to door to spas and salons in Manhattan. It was very difficult, but then I got lucky. I sent a sample to someone at The Oaks spa in Ojai and a client there was the wife of a plastic surgeon who was the ‘laser guru’, and he started using it on clients who had just had laser resurfacing. It really took off from there.
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