Beauty brand that ‘gives a damn’ a hit with makeup fans
Buying a mascara could help restore someone’s sight. Adding a lipstick could help get another into a job.
Kiwi makeup brand and social enterprise Indigo & Iris is on a mission to prove it is possible to ‘‘do good’’ and run a profitable company together. So far, fans of the socially-conscious brand are right behind the initiative. Since launching, Christchurch-based Hannah Duder and her business partner, Bonnie Howland, have helped restore sight to 300 people in the Pacific through sales of their mascara but Duder doesn’t want customers to see their purchase as a one-off charitable donation.
She says the products are well-rated in their own right and said ‘‘the donation should be the cherry on top, just a nice extra’’.
Indigo & Iris raised more than $12,000 in just over 24 hours after launching the Kickstarter campaign for its Levitate mascara. The campaign closed with nearly $130,000 contributed, with 50 per cent of the profits donated to The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ, which helps fix preventable blindness in the
Pacific. Duder’s goal was to move to a full-range, high-quality makeup brand with the profits from each product linked with a different charity. The brainchild of Howland, the business was born after she volunteered in Vanuatu and wanted to align her ethics with consumerism.
Bulk purchasing the Italianmade mascara was too expensive for the ‘‘swipe first and pay later’’ approach so the pair launched the Kickstarter, asking customers to pre-order their makeup to help Indigo & Iris build up enough capital to buy it.
The products are also sold in eight stores nationwide and online. Half of the profits from their next products – four lipsticks – will be donated to Dress for Success, a company giving women support, professional attire and the tools to thrive in the workplace. Dress for Success Christchurch manager Ginny Rhodes said women supporting women ‘‘makes such a positive difference’’. Nearly 200 people had already committed to their lipstick on PledgeMe, raising just shy of $20,000, in 10 days. It needs to hit the $58,000 minimum target by November 3 for the project to go ahead. ‘‘I want to prove it is possible, that you can run a profitable business that does well and makes money and do good for the world by supporting things that will make it a better place,’’ Duder said.