Female Founder Building A Plastic-Free Beauty Brand

A beauty and fashion photographer for more than two decades, Toler-Phillips had worked with celebs, models, and industry leaders. At heart, she says, she’s been an animal lover and environmentalist who wanted to build a brand that integrated all of these interests.

Last year, she took the leap to start her own company, Cupid and Pysche Beauty, after nearly two years of researching how lip colors could be made using primarily natural ingredients and packaged in paper and more eco-friendly materials, as opposed to plastic tubes.

The brand is also vegan-friendly, forgoing beeswax and other bee-based products. But it’s something that irks Toler-Phillips as she sees larger beauty brands use the term of vegan on products that are laden with chemicals.

As a smaller brand, Toller-Phillips recognizes that it limits her in some capacity. For instance, she would love to have 100 percent ethical sourcing for all her ingredients, and not be dependent entirely on third parties for her raw materials. But as a startup, cost becomes a factor, she says. It is something she’s looking to achieve in the future.

Forbes