Everyone who knows me knows that I just can’t help myself when it comes to entrepreneurial pursuits. I’ve worked for myself most of my life and have founded a couple of ad agencies, a guerrilla media company and a couple of other advertising related startups.

Then a few years ago I spent 2 1/2 years working for someone else as their global Marketing Director. Fun, but I found I don’t play well with others when it comes to taking direction.

So, I’ve spent most of my working life building brands and I’ve always had a desire to one day launch my own consumer brand.

Which lipsticks are your best sellers from the collection?

Why Lipstick?

One was the realisation that in all the time lipstick has been gracing the lips of women all over the world, not one cosmetics company had created a comprehensive range of the one shade every woman wears or wants to wear. Red lipstick. The second was that I came to know the Burlesque world and the major local and international performers very well, via a girlfriend. The result was a combination of the two and the creation of Red Burlesque.

In mid 2013 I launched the brand with 18 shades and every shade having been hand-picked and named after 18 of the most renowned, talented and beautiful Burlesque performers from all over the world. The brand now has 21 shades with more to come.

Which lipstick shades out from the five I’m reviewing would you say best suits my personality?

You’re definitely a Michelle L’amour.

Finding the correct red can sometimes be hard for a girl, do you have any tips?

There are two main factors that will determine your perfect red: skin tone and skin colour.

To work out your skin tone, look at the veins in your arms in a natural light. If they’re green, your warm. If they’re blue, you’re cool.

• Warm tones rock orangey reds, warm reds, tomato reds, brown based reds, golden reds, tawny reds.
• Cool tones rock pink tones of red, berry reds, blackberry reds, brick reds, blue tones of red, plum tones.
• As far as skin colour goes, fair skin loves pink reds and light corals.
• Medium skin tones can go a touch darker and look amazing in reds with tones of rose, mauve, berry and burgundy.
• Dark skin can go in one of two directions depending on the skin tone. Cool tones love deep plum reds and chocolate reds. Warm tones look amazing in orange reds, warm reds and tomato reds.

The difficulty many women have with finding their perfect reds is why we created the Red Lipstick App. If your readers want to know what suits them best, they can download it from the iTunes store. It’ll tell them exactly which Red Burlesque shades are their perfect reds and they can take a selfie with the app and it will show them how they look in each shade. Oh, and it’s free!

What are your top five beauty tips for women?

1. Less is more. If you want to really rock a bold red lipstick, hold back on everything else, especially around the eyes. Mascara, eyeliner, lippy, done! 

   Then again, if you want to hold back on the lipstick and go for a lighter shade (why on earth, I have no idea!) then go right ahead. I still believe less is more when it comes to everything else.
2. For women who aren’t blessed with full lips, you can make them look fuller by applying a lip liner and apply it just outside your natural lip line – did I tell you we have a lip liner to match every Red Burlesque shade? 
3. Speaking of lip liner, you can also make your lipstick last ages between re-application by using it all over your lips instead of just the outline.
4. As you age, you should go for creamier lipstick formulations. Unfortunately mattes and glosses will generally become your enemy!
5. And my all time favourite: If you think it looks wrong, you’re probably right

Where do you see the future of RED Burlesque?

The next stage in our growth is getting more stockists on board, especially here in Australia, USA, UK, Canada, Italy and France. We want to avoid department stores and mass beauty chains, but Sephora and Mecca could suit our distribution strategy quite well -Sephora and Mecca, are you listening?

We’ll continue to grow the range of lipsticks. Maybe by one a year. Which means the liners will expand to suit new shades as well.

I’ve always had a thing for lips and eyes – especially long lashes – so mascara and lash extending mascara could well be on the cards. Watch this space!