Episode 120: Make your voice heard with LipRevolt – with Courtney Stewart

Courtney Stewart is the Founder and CEO of LipRevolt, a cosmetics brand specializing in lipstick that promotes social activism. Through LipRevolt, Courtney aims to inspire people to fight for what they believe in and to speak up for others. LipRevolt donates 15 percent of its net profits to organizations that support women’s rights, civil rights, and LGBTQ rights. Courtney started her career in public service after receiving her BA in Political Science from Spelman College and MS in Terrorism and Homeland Security Policy from American University.

Content Warning: This episode contains mentions of sexual assault and abuse, and an incident of racism and violence.

During this episode, you will hear Courtney talk about:

• How her personal experiences, the #metoo movement and the importance of using your voice inspired the creation of LipRevolt
• Why she decided to support nonprofits with her own business’ profits
• How she learned to run a beauty business as a newcomer to the beauty industry
• Her future plans for LipRevolt, and why the month of March is significant to her

Find out more about LipRevolt on LipRevolt.com, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. If there is a nonprofit that you want to see LipRevolt support, you can message your recommendation to the Instagram account.

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The episode transcript is below.

Carolyn Kiel: Today on Beyond 6 Seconds…

Courtney Stewart: I’ve always loved lipstick and makeup and just, you know, wanting to feel empowered silently. I’ve always been able to walk into a room and have my lipstick and it’s almost like a silent protest.

Carolyn Kiel: Welcome to Beyond 6 Seconds, the podcast that goes beyond the 6-second first impression to share the extraordinary stories and achievements of everyday people. I’m your host, Carolyn Kiel.

Now you can see the video of this interview, and many of my other recent interviews, on the Beyond 6 Seconds YouTube channel. Just go to YouTube and search for Beyond 6 Seconds. And while you’re there, please click the red Subscribe button under the video. Thanks so much!

Before we begin this episode, I want to give you a quick heads-up about some of the content. This episode mentions a few topics that some listeners may find distressing – specifically, sexual assault & abuse, and an incident of racism and violence. If those are difficult topics for you, please use your discretion when listening to this episode.

I am thrilled to be here with today’s guest, Courtney Stewart. Courtney is the founder and CEO of LipRevolt, a cosmetic brand specializing in lipstick that promotes social activism. Through LipRevolt, Courtney aims to inspire people to fight for what they believe in and to speak up for others.

LipRevolt donates 15% of its net profits to organizations that support women’s rights, civil rights, and LGBTQ rights. Courtney started her career in public service after receiving her BA in Political Science from Spelman College and her MS in Terrorism and Homeland Security Policy from American University.

Courtney, welcome to the podcast.

Courtney Stewart: Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. I’m really excited to have you here today and to learn more about LipRevolt. So to start off, how did you get the inspiration to start LipRevolt?

Courtney Stewart: You know, it’s, it’s funny because it is a combination of my life story, events that were going on in 2018.

And then I also saw a need. For my career. So the first thing I really, I would be remiss if I don’t say who I am and, and what makes me me. So my name is Courtney, as you stated, I am a former foster child. I am a sexual assault and abuse survivor. I am an intersectional feminist, and I am really, really.

How can I put this? I am really passionate about fighting for equality and making sure that marginalized people are getting what they deserve. So that’s one part of it. The other part is. I’ve always loved lipstick. I’ve had a love for lipstick and makeup and just, you know, wanting to feel empowered silently.

I’ve always been able to walk into a room and have my lipstick and it’s almost like a silent protest. And then the other part of that is that, you know, in 2018, when I initially thought about starting this, I remember seeing a lot of different stories. Stories from women about their me too stories.

And because I have my own, me too story, I want it to really do something that would impact their lives and make sure people know that it’s okay to tell their stories and that you are not what happened to you. Because for a long time, you know, I was ashamed of what I went through. I didn’t want to tell anyone, you know, that I was a foster child.

I didn’t want to tell anyone that I was assaulted or abused. It was almost like something that shouldn’t be spoken about. But I think in today’s world, you know, we have voices and it’s important to use them. And when I saw that happening, I was like, wow, like I really need to do something about this. You know?

it, it really, it got to me and I remember watching the news and taking off my lipstick after, and I was like, this is how I’m going to do it. This is it. This is the way I’m going to do it. I started LipRevolt. And since then, you know, it’s been a journey it’s been a journey.

Carolyn Kiel: That’s incredible. Yeah. It’s interesting to hear the connection between lipstick and you mentioned basically having a voice and helping to empower others to use their voices. The connection with your lips and, and using your lips for that is, is really, really powerful.

Courtney Stewart: Yeah. I also, you know, I’ve worked in public service, for me it feels like a long time, but for others in public service, it probably wouldn’t be that long. I noticed that there’s never excess amounts of money at nonprofits. They could always use more. And the type of money I’m talking about because I’m typically looking at money that is super regulated. You know, they’re told exactly how they need to spend it, what they can and can’t do with it. They need money that if someone needs the bus ticket to go and get therapy, they can use it for that. If they need, you know, bus fare to, I don’t know, somewhere else or rent money for a domestic violence survivor or something of the sorts. I felt compelled to give them that, which is why we actually give money to different charitable organizations.

Carolyn Kiel: So I’d love to learn about the connection with that. So with, we stated earlier, you get 15% of your net profits to nonprofits within your community. So tell me a little bit about what that looks like, like how you choose the nonprofits and how, how you share that.

Courtney Stewart: Certainly certainly. So like you said, we get 15% of our net profits to nonprofits that support women’s rights, civil rights and LGBTQ rights. Every month I look through a long list of different nonprofits that I’ve heard about, haven’t heard about, and really just ones that I feel very connected to. Those are the ones that I tend to support. I know one for instance is the New Georgia Project. And that one, I heard about that through my, one of our cousins, my fiance’s cousin. He is actually in prison currently because of an incident where he was ran off the road. The people in the car were calling him racial slurs and, you know, really making him feel uncomfortable and afraid for his life. And I knew this and I know him as a person and he’s the one who would usually, you know, make the red velvet cake at Thanksgiving and, you know, he’s, he’s just very gentle.

And so when I heard about it, I was in awe. And then when I heard the rest of the story, it made me want to cry because, in this case, he actually fired his registered firearm at the car that was attacking them and it actually killed someone in the car, unfortunately. And although he was fighting for his life and in any other, you know, situation that this would occur, this would be a stand your ground case, but because of the color of his skin, it isn’t working like that. So he’s been denied bail. He hasn’t been given many resources at all, and honestly, we just want him to come home. So the New Georgia Project has been very helpful.

Carolyn Kiel: Do they support people who are, you know, in situations like your cousin’s in terms of legal support?

Courtney Stewart: They do, they support that, but they’re also very big on voting and different, different things that affect black people in Georgia.

Carolyn Kiel: So that’s powerful. So you’ve created a brand and a business that, you know, not only is empowering in the type of product that it sells, but also as you said, the money is really the critical importance and that’s a big piece of making social change and change in the world is funding and money.

Courtney Stewart: Exactly.

Carolyn Kiel: That’s a big part of it too as well. That’s, that’s really, really powerful.

Courtney Stewart: Thank you. I’m doing the best I can.

Carolyn Kiel: Well, it’s wonderful. And you just launched, I mean, we’re recording in, I guess it’s towards the end of October, and you just launched about a month and a half or two months ago.

Courtney Stewart: Yes, I launched on August 26th, which is Women’s Equality Day. Yes. Very excited about it. I want to say that the launch was huge in my eyes. It was huge, but I got a lot of support. I got a lot of support that day and that month. And. All I can say is it is amazing to see people wanting to not only get their lipstick, because that is a perk, but to help other people, you know, I have a, an Instagram account and I constantly get DMs about, people just applauding me for my efforts and saying, wow, they love this idea. This is great. You know, more people should be giving. You know, funds from their business to support causes like this.

Carolyn Kiel: Well, absolutely. So, you know, you had talked about really loving lipstick and feeling very passionate about how it helps give people a voice and make women feel powerful. But, I, if I understand correctly, is this pretty much your first business venture into the beauty industry is with this? How did you learn how to start a business manufacturing and selling lipstick?

Courtney Stewart: Honestly, it is one of the hardest things. It is so hard. I know when I first started back in 2018, I initially thought I had found a manufacturer for the lipstick. And unfortunately I lost like three or four grand trying to start it. the business, they just, you know, the samples were great. I loved them.

And then they sent me the final product and I couldn’t use any of it, any of it because it wasn’t stable. there was like a clear liquid on top of all of the lipsticks, and then I could never contact them after they never got back to me. So I just, you know, I think. With every step I’ve gone, I’ve had a few mistakes and that’s just one of them that I’ve had to deal with.

But I think I have gotten in the swing of things for the most part. And I definitely vet all of my manufacturers much more than I did in the beginning because of that reason.

Carolyn Kiel: I mean, it’s the things that you have to learn from. And sometimes you have to go through the experience to get an idea of the types of obstacles that you’ll hit. Wow.

Courtney Stewart: But, you know, other things were not as difficult. You know, when I was designing the boxes, it was easy for me to, find designers. It was easy for me to find and sample different box prototypes and really, you know, make it my own, which is what I feel like I did.

Carolyn Kiel: So I know, I think you mentioned, was it 2018 that you started working on this?

Yes. Okay. So yeah, a little less than two years to kind of bring it to fruition. Oh, that’s wonderful. And obviously it’s your first venture, so you bootstrapped a lot of the…

Courtney Stewart: Yeah. I did it. Yep.

Carolyn Kiel: Wonderful. And yeah. Were there any other sort of major challenges that you encountered?

Courtney Stewart: I think just everything being a learning process, you know, I didn’t know where to go for many things.

I didn’t necessarily know where to look for manufacturers. They didn’t know necessarily where to look for people to create the boxes or how to run an Instagram or Twitter or any of the social media sites. I really just had to develop it from the ground up. And I knew what I wanted the brand to say. And from that, I was able to put all of the rest of the pieces together because I saw in my brain what I wanted. So yeah.

Carolyn Kiel: Were there any resources that you found in terms of helping you learn about things or was it trial and error? A little bit of both?

Courtney Stewart: For the most part, it was trial and error, but towards the end, I actually, there is a group on Facebook that I connected with and I went through a lot with that manufacturer.

And so I was just looking for help from anywhere, honestly. And so she, I met with her, we did like a one hour session and she talked about finding manufacturers and testing different products and getting your formula just right. And I was able to do that.

Carolyn Kiel: Right. Oh, that’s great. Yeah. A lot of support online is wonderful. So let’s see. So LipRevolt launched towards the end of August. It’s been a couple of weeks at the time that we’re recording this. What kind of feedback or comments have you received from customers or people who have bought and tried the LipRevolt lipstick?

Courtney Stewart: So many people love it. I have a huge selection to me for a first launch. We carry bold colors like I’m wearing now. Actually I have two colors on right now. I have insurgent and I have dissident on right now. Dissident is the black and you can see a little hint of purple in the center and that’s the insurgent. And so people love the formula. It’s moisturizing for your lips, which is super important for me.

Because my lips normally get chapped, but it’s also matte. So if you’re, you know, drinking water or coffee or any of the, like, you’ll be fine. It’s not going to get on your cup. If you want to kiss someone. You’re good. Won’t get on them. It’s a great formula. It doesn’t leave your lips feeling dry. I mean, the color payoff is great.

And overall it’s a high-end luxury product at an affordable cost that makes a difference in people’s lives.

Carolyn Kiel: Wonderful. And how did you pick which colors to launch with?

Courtney Stewart: So it was really important for me to choose bold colors that look great on all complexions, and I’ve always found it hard for me to select bold colors without looking like a clown.

And so I tested and tested, and I knew that for me, purples pinks, reds, different colors looked great on me and with some of the undertones in lipstick, you won’t even need a lip liner, like I’m not wearing a lip liner or anything with lipstick. And that was one of the goals that I had. But I also wanted colors that kind of match the names that I had for them.

So when I think of a dissident, I think of black. Like just, you know, a true black color. And when I think of an insurgent, I think of, you know, a deep purple. So I kind of, I, I did a mixture of looking at the names I knew I wanted and also the colors that looked great on all complexions and I match them. I actually did a survey to some of my friends and coworkers. And, just to, just to see if the names fit with the colors like they did for me and, and surprisingly, they did.

Carolyn Kiel: Very cool. Okay. So you’ve got, you know, you’ve got the bold colors, but you have names of you’ve named the colors in ways that kind of match up with, with the type of color that it is.

Courtney Stewart: Yes, absolutely. So, like I said before, we have dissident insurgent. Some of our top sellers are rebel, heroine, feminist. We have, we have nine colors that are all named, named after, you know, to me people who are ready to fight for what they believe in.

Carolyn Kiel: Oh, that’s really awesome. Wow. So, yeah, I mean, I, I know it’s still kind of early days for LipRevolt, but what other kind of big goals do you have for LipRevolt either, you know, in the next few months?

Courtney Stewart: I want to expand, I want to expand, I would love to launch another line in March of next year. That is, I don’t want to tell you too much, but, a nude for every color lipstick. I definitely want to launch one of those. It would be my sovereign line because to me, every woman is a queen.

So I would, I would definitely want to launch that. And the reason why I say March is because that’s woman’s history month. Right. So. I have been very intentional with the things that I’ve done for LipRevolt. And I intend to continue that. So any lines that come out in the future, you know, anything else that I do with LipRevolt, it’s going to still be mission-based and it’s still gonna empower the people who are using it.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. That’s wonderful. Yeah. So right now you’re selling online. Are you thinking of expanding into retail locations or still too early to tell?

Courtney Stewart: It’s too early to tell. I don’t see that happening within the next six months only because of everything going on with the pandemic and not being able to really get in contact with some of the stores to do that.

but in the future, absolutely, absolutely. So I’d love to see LipRevolt in Target or Walmart or, you know, Sephora, Ulta.

Carolyn Kiel: yeah, no, that’d be amazing.

Courtney Stewart: Yeah, I’d love that.

Carolyn Kiel: And the way that you’ve, you know, I should say with, with LipRevolt, Obviously, you have the donations or the, of the net profits going to social justice, but it’s also the way that you’ve created it is very in line with your values of, of justice. And so it’s like animal cruelty free.

Courtney Stewart: Yes.

Carolyn Kiel: In terms of labor practices, you avoid using exploitative labor practices. So you really kind of thought about the whole overall.

Courtney Stewart: Exactly. Exactly.

Carolyn Kiel: Very cool. Wow. So then Courtney, how do people get in touch with you if they want to buy some LipRevolt lipstick, or if they just want to learn more about it?

Courtney Stewart: Absolutely. We have a website. It is www.LipRevolt.com. And that is lip, R E V O L T.com. And we also have social media. So it’s @LipRevolt on Instagram and on Twitter and Facebook. And if you send me a message on one of those, I get back very quickly. So, you know, it’s, it’s still me running the social media, so I will definitely get your message and, and answer your question.

Carolyn Kiel: Okay. Wonderful. So I’ll put links to those in the show notes of the podcast so that people can find it easily.

Courtney Stewart: Also, I do want to mention, if anyone wants to, get support from LipRevolt, with, you know, for their nonprofit, just let me know in my direct messages on Instagram or anywhere else. And I will definitely consider them.

Carolyn Kiel: Alright, thank you. That’s wonderful. well, you know, as we close out, is there anything else that you’d like our listeners to know or anything that they can help or support you with?

Courtney Stewart: Yes. So, you know, it’s that time, for voting. I just want to send a message about voting.

It’s super important and I’m not going to say who to vote for, but you know who I’m talking about vote for him and not him. but yeah, I just, I just want to send a message about voting and make sure that you are, you know, really thinking about others when you cast your ballot this year.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, absolutely. And I know if, even if, this episode may air after the elections. So we may not know how it ends, but it’s always, you know, there’s still other votes involved.

Courtney Stewart: Yes, local elections, all of that.

Carolyn Kiel: So it all, it all matters. It all ties together. So, yeah. Please go out and vote. Very good. So, yeah. Courtney, thank you so much for being on my show.

I’m excited to get to talk to you at right at the beginnings of LipRevolt and to see how it grows and how it helps change the world. So thank you so much for doing this for putting together this wonderful business and thanks for being on my show.

Courtney Stewart: No, thank you for having me.

Carolyn Kiel: Thanks for listening to Beyond 6 Seconds. Please help us spread the word about this podcast. Share it with a friend, give us a shout-out on your social media, or write a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast player. You can find all of our episodes on our website and sign up for our free newsletter at www.beyond6seconds.com. Until next time.