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Look Fabulous Forever is a pro-age make-up
brand established by Tricia Cusden, who
spotted a gap in the beauty industry market
and used her entrepreneurial skills to set up
her own business.
“In 2013, when I was 65,” Tricia explains,
“I was at an interesting juncture in my life.
My granddaughter India, born in January of
the previous year, had been diagnosed with
a rare chromosomal disorder. Therefore,
throughout 2012 my role was to give both
emotional and practical help to my daughter,
her husband and their two-year-old daughter
Freya. By early 2013, Suzy had hired a
special needs nanny to help with care for the
baby and was back at work part-time.
“After such an exhausting and traumatic
year, I felt in desperate need of a new
challenge. I’ve always been a risk-taker
and quite entrepreneurial. I’ve also always
loved make-up but as I’d got older, I was
increasingly frustrated with the beauty industry
that could only seem to speak to me via the
rhetoric of ‘anti-ageing’. Thus, the idea of Look
Fabulous Forever was born and I shortly began
setting the wheels in motion for the business.
“I’ve always had entrepreneurial flair,
initially setting up and running my own
slimming club from 1974-1986. From 1986-
1996 I worked as a management training
consultant with The MaST Organisation
before setting up my own training
consultancy in 1996. I worked with a variety
of corporate clients including Accenture and
Dixons Group.
“There have been relatively few challenges
since I launched Look Fabulous Forever,
even in the early stages. However, in the first
six months I met a consultant who I used to
write a business plan. I knew in my gut that
she was wrong both for me and the business
and I should have withdrawn at that point.
Unfortunately, I allowed her to sway me to
continue using her services and we had a very
acrimonious parting.
“From the word go, my pro-age ideas for a
make-up range specifically formulated to suit
older skins was met with support and interest
from customers. Many email to say ‘At last!
Someone is acknowledging the needs of
women as they age.’ Many also comment that
this make-up does ‘exactly what it says on the
tin’ – it really does make them look fabulous.
Other feedback that we frequently get is that
our videos are very helpful at showing our
customers how to best apply the make-up and
this has massively increased their confidence.
”I am continually proud that I have
demonstrated the viability of an online make-
up business for older women, but to choose one
moment would have to be appearing on BBC
Breakfast in December 2015. The volume of
Look Fabulous Forever
orders dramatically
increased within minutes
of the programme
airing from an average
of four an hour to four
a minute! Watching
the figures on Google
Analytics was exciting
and terrifying in equal
measure! I thought the
website might crash (it
came close) and I also
thought that we would
run out of stock!
BUSINESS
TIME TO REFLECT
Tricia Cusden
, founder of pro-age make-up brand Look
Fabulous Forever, talks about her business
Looking fabulous
MEET THE
ENTREPRENEUR
TRICIA CUSDEN
FOUNDER, LOOK FABULOUS
FOREVER
Ò
IÕ
d like Look Fabulous Forever
to be known as the premier go-to
makeup brand for older women in
the UK (and ultimately worldwide).
I want to continue to empower this
demographic to show that age is no
barrier to looking and feeling beautiful
and confident!”
www.lookfabulousforever.com“I really enjoy all aspects of this surprising
and exciting business! However, I particularly
enjoy writing my blogs, making the video
tutorials and also appearing on various
platforms to tell the story of the genesis and
phenomenal growth of Look Fabulous Forever.
“Our products are stocked via the Look
Fabulous Forever website, and not via other
retailers. It’s important to me that I have
control over my brand and also that I can
prove that older women do shop online!
Although choosing makeup online can be a
challenge, we’ve put together some guidelines
which we hope make it easier and it hasn’t
been an obstacle in selling our products at all.
We market the products through my YouTube
videos and also via Facebook and Google
ads. I also write a weekly blog and this now
goes out to several thousand newsletter
subscribers. It has been surprising that all of
this works well for our target demographic.
It just goes to show that older women are
engaging with Facebook and YouTube and are
very tech-savvy!”
“I was increasingly frustrated with the beauty industry that could only seem to speak to me via
the rhetoric of ‘anti-ageing’. Thus, the idea of Look Fabulous Forever was born…”