As environmentally unfriendly as it may be I have to admit to being a bit of a sucker for pretty packaging. Regardless of their cosmetic merits, I love Paul & Joe’s adorable floral boxes, and drool over YSL’s luxe gold tubes. So when I spotted B Never Too Busy to be Beautiful‘s glamorously packaged products, I had to find out more about the brand.

Not only are B’s cosmetics aesthetically pleasing, they’re not tested on animals, and they’re vegan too. Which is not surprising when you consider that B is sister company to purveyors of ethically and ecologically-friendly lotions and potions, Lush. When I looked at B’s website and found out that they offer a cocktail and makeover service in their stores, I realised that I might have possibly found my perfect beauty brand!  So I tracked down the creator of B Never Too Busy to be Beautiful’s makeup line, Rowena Bird, and asked her all about the fabulous brand and as they put it “ethical beauty that doesn’t scrimp on glamour”.

How was B Never Too Busy to be Beautiful created?

It all started with Mark (Constantine, CEO of Lush) wanting to develop a collection of fragrances, but we thought that this might get a bit lost in Lush. I told him that I would like to create a makeup range and he said “Yeah, alright then”. The brand name came from a little 1950s booklet of adverts and articles I had called “Be Never Too Busy to be Beautiful”.

How did you became involved with Lush and consequently with B?

I trained as a beauty therapist thirty years ago now, and Mark and I have been working together for 28 of those! I had come down to Bournemouth in my college summer holidays and worked as a chambermaid. I always thought that when I grew up I would live by the seaside, so when I had finished studying and spotted an advert for a beauty therapist in Poole, I jumped at the chance. I came down for the interview with Mark and that was that!

When we opened Bodkins in America, we had a consultant who had worked with Miners cosmetics and Mary Quant. I’m a complete makeup addict, as well as a beauty therapist and he taught me how to mix colours. At that time no one was really doing that. Since then the cosmetics creation has been dormant and we’ve never wanted to sell make-up in Lush, so when then opportunity came up to create a beauty brand I was delighted.

How did the idea of vegan makeup come about?

Well sometimes I’m vegan, sometimes I’m not. I call myself veganish! I’m not totally vegan, but I realised that there was no reason why the makeup couldn’t be vegan. Cosmetics don’t really need non-vegan ingredients such as beeswax, honey or lanolin. There isn’t much that stops makeup from being vegan; it’s a pretty straight forward process and it’s a shame that more people don’t do it.

Where do you source the ingredients for the B products?

We are governed by the fact that we won’t buy from people who test on animals.  The oils and the waxes in the products are the same ones that we use in Lush, so they’re natural, organic and fairly traded. They just really lovely ingredients that we can put the pigments into.

Why do you think so many companies are still testing on animals?

Its all to do with safety data; if a product has a negative effect, then companies can state that it didnt have the same effect on rabbits or guinea pigs that it was tested on. There is no need for animal testing in the industry. These are often modern, chemical ingredients and we dont really know what the long term effects will be on your skin. There’s no real need to use them, it’s all to do with marketing claims. We know for a fact that our ingredients have no harmful long term effects on the skin.

Where does the gorgeous B packaging come from?

Although very minimal packaging is used in Lush, that wouldn’t really be possible with cosmetics. Because packaging is necessary I thought that we should embrace this and make it really beautiful so that it would look lovely on people’s dressing tables. Wherever possible we use fairly traded or recyclable packaging and we offer refills. At the moment any of the eyeshadows, powders and blushers can be refilled and hopefully we’ll start to offer the same thing with the lipsticks soon. And when you buy the products, it helps out the ladies in India or Morocco who make the packaging. It’s environmentally friendly and socially aware – not as a sales point, but because we want to, it’s important to us.

How are new products and colours created?

I am always working away on ideas in the lab. We get involved with London Fashion Week, so we see what colours are coming out and try and second guess what people will want to wear. There are opportunities for people in the B shops to come down and work with me – the makeup artists and people on the shop floor come and spend time in the lab. It’s fun and it’s great for everyone to get involved. They’re in the shop all of the time and hear what customers are coming in looking for. We do look at trends, but we look to the high street more than the catwalk as that’s where our customer base is. We take the trends and put a twist on them to make them B.

How are the perfumes created?

Mark and Simon (heir apparent at the B parfumerie) create the perfumes with the finest essential oils. This is perfume as it used to be made using extracts and absolutes. Science means that synthetic fragrances can be created chemically and they’re cheaper but not as exquisite or beautiful. The B perfumes are packaged in semi-handmade bottles in France, made by a family who have been creating perfume bottles for generations.

I love the B shop interiors! How did you come up with that concept?

I had a auntie who had the most amazing dressing table and I loved playing with all of her lotions and potions. We wanted the shop to feel like that. The first displays we had really confused the customers and they thought that they could buy the shop fittings! Then we came up with the concept of making the displays look like compacts which is much neater and more commercial, but still very fun.

If I love the shop interiors and the products, I simply adore the cocktail bar idea. How did that idea come about?

Charlotte, our head makeup artist, spotted the blow-dry bar in Topshop where you could choose your hairstyle from a number of set blow-dries and thought that the same idea would be great for makeup. You can go into the B store and choose one of six looks (including The Bellini; a first date look with soft colours, The Cosmopolitan; a sexy glamorous look with sparkles, or our favourite, Between The Sheets; Brigitte Bardot-esque) and we tailor it to you. Each makeover is accompanied by a scrumptious cocktail!

What are your best-selling products?

Everyone loves the cream eyeshadows as they’re really pigmented and bright. You can use them as an eyeliner or as an eyeshadow and they set well, and give you intense colour and shine. Personally I love the Beijing lipcream which come in a pretty heart-shaped pot. I have one of those on my dressing table.

People rave about the big sparkly pots and the sparkly brushes too. We also have some gorgeous gift boxes which are based on a Victorian idea. People used to collect birthday cards and stitch them together to make keepsake boxes. We print our own cards and have them made up in India.

What’s next for B?

B has a store in Austria as well as three in Japan. Now that we have our flagship store on Oxford Street, people are telling us more and more how much they like the brand, so we’d like to open more shops.

We have more fragrances coming soon – Simon’s working on them. There will be new colours and we plan to give more advice to people about the cosmetics. I want B to appeal to people who dont normally wear makeup. People are frightened of it and think that if they put it on wrong it will make them look silly. I’m trying to make the makeup more wearable and put an explanation behind it so that people feel comfortable. Greta Garbo once said “there are no ugly women, only lazy ones”. It’s such a lovely quote as makeup gives you confidence, it makes you look glam and gives you the confidence to go out and do things. For most of us, a little bit of lipstick goes a long way. People should be able to feel beautiful.

www.bnevertoobusytobebeautiful.co.uk/

Follow B on Twitter @bnever

B Shops

London – Covent Garden

Unit 13, The Piazza

Covent Garden

WC2E 8RB

London – Oxford Street

332 Oxford Street

London

W1C 1JF

Poole

29 High Street

Poole

BH15 1AB

Leeds

21 Commercial Street

Leeds

LS1 6A

Vienna

Rotenturmstrasse 14

1010 Wien

Austria