Starting today: Times For Her
Alana puts brakes on career in the fast lane to create new beauty range
A SWITCH from a career in professional racing car driving to a life of creating beauty products would seem a stark contrast for some.
But, for Alana Taylor, it was the next logical step.
The 22-year-old grew up with a love of art, which carried on throughout her time at secondary school, but after entering the world of racing at just 14, she knew she had to make a choice.
The Glasgow-based entrepreneur decided to give up her dream of going to art school and stick it out with the sport, travelling across the globe as she competed for titles up until her 18th birthday but she always kept a hold of her creative side.
“I would find ways to incorporate my passion for art,” she told the Evening Times.
“I would design my own helmets and try to keep my passion alive as much as I could.”
It wasn’t until she celebrated her milestone birthday she knew she was ready to make a change.
She said: “I went into retail with my mum and dad.
“Through doing that, seeing all the different parts of the industry and the products and how people create them, it got me interested in it.
“I got really into the idea of developing products and I was lucky I had the help from my mum to do it.”
Alana, who grew up in Coatbridge, began to combine her passion for art with her love of all things beauty.
She decided she wanted to create an entirely bespoke beauty brand which every man and woman in Glasgow would turn to.
“Think Amazon for beauty products,” she said.
But, it wasn’t an easy process for the then teenager. She explained: “I started with a simple idea of handwash and then I would pore over the name, the packaging, the product itself and then, only when I was happy with that I would move on to the next step.
“It all took about four years. Then I brought out my full range and it developed into other products, from hair care to bath essentials.
“Initially, I wanted to get into retail and have the products in stores but the past couple of years have been quite difficult for retail with the amount of shops closing so it seemed everything would be going online. That’s when I decided to launch my own website.”
With the help of her family, Alana launched Wash Me, Style Me around one year ago.
It sells her entire range of products, from that very first handwash to her newly launched fragrance Pain in the Sass. And, she can’t believe just how far it has gone.
“The past few months have been crazy, it’s been great,” she added.
“We’ve had a lot of orders, much more than I was expecting, with people from places like Sweden looking to buy our products. I was completely shocked.
“Every product I’ve tried to come up with something different and tried to make it affordable for young people, like myself, I think that’s really
important. Hopefully, if we stick with that, we’ll keep growing.”
Having accomplished so much at such a young age, Alana rarely finds the time to stop for breath but she made sure to enjoy her celebrityfilled launch night for the unique new perfume.
Pain in the Sass comes in the shape of a wine glass, filled with a red lipstick to mimic the colour of the popular tipple.
Alana hopes even those who may not be fans of its fruity scent will keep hold of the bottle as a dressing table decoration.
She explained: “I couldn’t believe the launch night. It was amazing.
“I was totally surprised and really nervous because there were people from the likes of Glow and Evening Times columnist Bev Lyons.
“It’s one of those bottles that even if you don’t love it, or you just wear it on a special occasion, you can have it out and it’ll be a nice decoration, which is what I do with all my bottles.”
Alana, who subleased the Pain in the Sass brand – which retails for £19.99 – to partner up with her Wash Me, Style Me, is hopeful other women will now follow in her footsteps of pursuing the dreams they’ve quietly held onto for years. “You’ve got to go for it,” she said. “Anything can be your inspiration. The branding for Pain in the Sass came from the film Absolutely Fabulous, which I just thought summed up the characters really well and it was really fun and sophisticated.
“If you can take something you enjoy and turn it into a passion, you really need to try.”
The mogul-in-the-making now hopes to continue expanding her brand in a bid to create a one stop shop for beauty lovers.
She said: “I want it to be the go to place.
“Ideally, we’ll partner with other name brands so even if you don’t want Wash Me, Style Me, you know you can find what you want on our site – that’s the dream.”