She's theBalm
Above:
Marissa Shipman,
Founder & CEO of theBalm
Wanna hear one of my
all-time favorite stories? Cool, here goes:
Once upon a time, in the very late 90's, a beautiful
twentysomething girl from Connecticut was going
through a typical quarter-life crisis. She had just
graduated college with a degree in theatre, wasn't
sure what she wanted career-wise and landed a few
great jobs that didn't really suit her. Then, a bad
breakup with a bf was added into the mix. OY. So she
did what any normal girl would do in her sitch—she
packed up her shiz and moved to Cali.
Wait, it gets better...
One morning in 2000, a few days after having a casual talk with a family friend about the cosmetics industry, our girl woke up and decided she wanted to start her own makeup company.
So she did.
She ordered 11 books from Amazon about how to mix your own makeup, and starting whipping up random stuff in her kitchen until she mastered a lip formula: Shea Butter, Beeswax and Castor Oil. "This is the BOMB!" she said to herself, with really, really full lips. And that's how she got the name of her cosmetics line, theBalm.
Ok, I made up that last sentence. I know it's not funny...
but it's how I like to picture the scene in my head.
Our heroine's name is Marissa Shipman, and she rocks. I met her (and her makeup... and her really cute puppy) in 2003, when she was all about "Plumping your Pucker" and theBalm was all lip stuff. I remember how impressed I was with her glosses. They have these delicious 'you-want-to-eat-it-but-you-can't-cause-its-makeup' scents— and feel cool/tingly instead of offensive/scary like some plumping products. Bonus: they totally work. My favorite flavor is "Water My Melon," which all my friends used to steal from me until I forced them to get their own.
theBalm plump
your pucker lipgloss in water my melon, $14,
thebalm.com
Today, theBalm is in 2,000 stores in the U.S.,
Canada, Australia and the Philippines, in Sephora, select
boutiques and spas. They've come a long way since
their gloss-only days, and have added lip liner,
eye shadow, blush and more to their repertoire.
You should totally check out their cool website. Tell Marissa I
said hi, please.