CODE Beautiful Blog

Since the beginning, we have always set out to do things differently. Our concept came from a simple (but infuriating) frustration with products that over-promised and under-delivered, as well as with this ever-present message that women need to look and act a certain way to be beautiful; we went to work creating a cosmetics brand that didn’t fall short. 

We found ourselves wondering, “Why should a person need to buy 3 products instead of one? Why are we being told we need all of these things to be beautiful? And actually, why should we have to spend our time thinking about it when we have other things to focus on?”

Instead of us trying to sell products by telling women they need them in order to fit a specific idea of what’s beautiful, we decided to do things the other way around, only creating products that we and our customers actually wanted. 

By simply asking, listening to the feedback and then committing to creating high quality products; we have taken a very, “you tell us, we won’t tell you” approach to building the company. 

We create standout beauty products that do what they are supposed to do and more. No trends, no nonsense; just the products you’ve asked for, upgraded both in the way they are produced and the way that they perform to enhance the way women (and men) naturally look and feel. 

This is very much a reflection of our personal values and attitudes towards the world; it’s all about saying no to convention for convention’s sake and empowering women to live by their own code. 

Being a brand that’s meaningfully led by customer feedback has taken us down some unexpected paths. Shaping far more than which products we create, it has also impacted the way our products are produced and packaged. 

From reaching out into the world for feedback and talking to people, it became increasingly apparent that it was incredibly important for a product to be 100% Vegan and cruelty-free. 

We’re the first to admit, we’re far from Vegan ourselves—  animal lovers to be sure, but definitely not adhering to a plant based diet or lifestyle. But CODE Beautiful is about much more than the preferences of ourselves —central to values of women coming together to inspire each other and exchange thoughts on the things that are important to them.  Though perhaps not part of the original plan, we were indeed inspired by our customers and got to work on ensuring our products were all PETA certified earlier in the year. If asked now— we would never consider operating in any other way. 

A few months ago, we reached out to our customers again to ask for feedback on our packaging and again were prompted to make some changes. In response, we have significantly reduced the amount of packaging we use for our products and shifted to 100% recyclable boxes. Not only that, but we are also in the process of replacing all of the plastic in our warehouses so that the boxes used for shipping are also recyclable. We expect to have completed this transition by the end of the year! 

Now on the lookout for additional ways to improve our sustainability efforts, CODE Beautiful is fully committed to being an environmentally friendly brand. More than simply giving people what they want, this shift is an example of what can happen when companies create a meaningful dialogue with the people that use their products. We hope that by creating a conversation and a community around women who are living by their own personal codes, we will be able to turn CODE Beautiful into a brand that positively contributes to the world in a myriad of ways extending far beyond cosmetics.   

Thanks for reading,

Sarah and Emma x   

Ok. Thinning lashes—not ideal. We hear it all the time from our customers; thin, short and sparse lashes are a massive concern for so many of you out there. The good news is, there are a number of steps you can take to combat the issue that don’t involve falsies or extensions. As is so often the case, a little understanding goes a long way. Let’s look at what causes thinning eye lashes and what you can do about it.

Why do Lashes Thin?

Lashes often thin as a result of the natural ageing process. As we get older, the skin loses its ability to retain moisture which in turn leads to hormonal imbalances. When this happens, follicle stimulation reduces, resulting in slower hair growth—including the eye lashes. Other contributing factors include; thyroid imbalances, eye infections, vitamin deficiencies and just general wear and tear due to poor cosmetic habits and rubbing your eyes. By identifying the underlying cause(s), it’s much easier to take the steps to protect and thicken your eye lashes and get them growing again.

What can I do?

1.) Eat well

Nourish your skin, hair and lashes from the inside out. Eating a diet rich in vitamins and minerals will help stimulate lash growth from the inside out. Food rich in iron and omegas will give your eye lashes (and hair) a boost. Also, vitamins B, C and H will do wonders to repair and protect your follicles.

2.) Sure Up your Makeup Habits

You’ve probably heard this before—but, do not sleep with your make up on! Invest in a gentle makeup remover that nourishes and moisturises the skin and gently cleanse your face morning and night, taking care never to pull or tug on your lashes. Speaking of tugging— take care when using eye lash curlers  or anything that might disrupt the follicles. Equally as important, make sure you replace your mascara every three-six months to avoid bacteria from building up in the bottle.

3.) Use a Lash Conditioner

In the same way that you condition your hair, your lashes can also benefit from being conditioned. This in turn will make them stronger and less likely to flake. CODE FFL (Forget Fake Lashes) is packed with conditioning ingredients to support the lash growth process. By wearing it every day, you will notice your lashes in better condition, and it will encourage the lash regeneration process. Within 4-6 weeks your lashes will be in much better condition.

Our very first product and still one of our bestsellers, CODE VLM is a true hero.  

We’re convinced that once you’ve tried it, you’ll be able to throw away all the mascaras you currently have in your makeup bag and just use this one, for any occasion, day and night, rain or shine.  

Sounds too good to be true? We’re here to help... we often get asked questions about our volumising, lengthening mascara because people just can’t believe how good it is, so we’ve popped answers to 5 of the most common questions we get asked below.   

What makes CODE VLM different... why is it the perfect mascara for all looks?  

It’s the combination of the brush and the formula, we spent a long time developing both of these things to make sure we had the perfect product.  

The brush is very sturdy and has different size bristles. The bristles are spaced out to get in between each and every lash to distribute the product where you need it at the base of the lash... we are always getting compliments from professional makeup artists about the brush!  

As well as the formula and brush, we also have a bit of a secret technique. Using the ‘Roots, Wriggle, Roll’ technique means you can get some serious length and curl to your lashes without ever needing to use curlers.  

Roots: Pop the brush on to your lashes as close to the root as you can. 
Wriggle: Give the brush a good wriggle back and forth, this will make sure even the tiniest of lashes are covered. 
Roll: Gently twist the brush from root to tip. 

Will CODE VLM irritate my eyes?  

Not at all. Even the most sensitive of eyes can use both CODE VLM and CODE FFL. In fact, our founder, Sarah has very sensitive, watery eyes herself so she knew how important it was to create a product that would be suitable for sensitive eyes and contact lens wearers.  

One of the things we did to make sure CODE VLM doesn’t irritate your eyes is add a sealing agent into the formula to make sure your lashes and the teeny tiny fibres stay in place all day long meaning no irritation and no fall out... a win win.   

The formula feels really dry compared to other mascaras I have used, is it meant to be like this?  

Yes, definitely the formula is meant to look like this. Most ‘wet’ mascaras that you may have used in the past often have too much product on the brush which leads to clumps or your lashes dropping half way through the day... not a good look for anyone we must say.  

We spent a long time developing the wiper inside our mascara tube to make sure you get the perfect amount of product on the brush every time. This means no clumps, no smudges and no flakes. 🙌🏽🙌🏽 

Do you make CODE VLM in brown?  

No we don’t, but we have found that lots of people that previously used to use brown mascara (including our own family!), now wear CODE VLM as it is designed to get blacker the more you apply it.  

What we mean by this is if you just apply one coat lightly, it gives you the perfect alternative to brown. But if you prefer a darker shade, you can just keep topping it up until your desired look and it won’t clump. 

Something else that we’ve discovered from chatting to our customers, is that some really fair people use CODE FFL on its own as a mascara as it has a light brown colour!    

Is CODE VLM waterproof?  

It’s water-resistant rather than waterproof. This means that you can have a good cry or laugh and it doesn’t smudge... but we wouldn’t recommend diving in a pool 😉.  

We didn’t create a waterproof formula as this makes the formula very heavy and causes lashes to droop throughout the day, whereas with CODE VLM it’s a buildable formula so the lashes stay put all day and you can build for more volume to take you from day to night.  

Many of our customers (including our founder) have sensitive eyes and love using our mascara, along with bridal makeup artists all over the world!  

We hope you love CODE VLM as much as we do, don’t forget to let us know your thoughts and share your pics in the comments below. 😘 

Our customers are the original inspiration behind our product development, we thought you may be a little excited to know that a lovely 'celeb ' has followed in your footsteps by wearing our products, she's chic and understated...The lovely Pippa Middleton has been spotted wearing CODE VLM during her shoot for Waitrose. 😱😱 

Yep, you heard it here first... even royals wear CODE Beautiful mascara! 😂 

Here is a sneak peek from the shoot...  

We have the super talented makeup artist, Eloise Parker to thank for introducing Pippa to our mascara, she did her makeup for the shoot and we think she looks naturally glowing!  

We always say CODE Beautiful is a bit like discovering the undiscovered... our inner circle of loyal customers were the first to discover us but it’s amazing to see the other celebs that have followed suit...

Giovanna Fletcher wearing CODE VLM (volumising, lengthening mascara). Makeup by Eloise Parker.

Mollie King wearing CODE SSL (soft smooth lip liner) on ITV This Morning. Makeup by Celena Hancock. 

Michelle Keegan wearing CODE VLM (volumising, lengthening mascara) at her Lipsy launch. Makeup by Emily Clarkson. 

Mel B wearing CODE VLM (volumising, lengthening mascara). Makeup by Celena Hancock. 

So again, a massive thank you to Eloise and all the other amazing and talented makeup artists who have introduced our products to celebs all over the world... we are forever grateful! 😍  

We’re going to start posting little monthly updates of what we’ve been up to each month and some behind the scenes access of what really goes on at CODE Beautiful and what we’ve been chatting about! So here’s the first one, our July round up.  

So we’re meant to be in the middle of summer, enjoying holidays and sipping on a G&T in beer gardens after work... but nope, it’s been mostly rain at our Chester office! Obviously, a bit of rain doesn’t stop us though and it’s been a busy month as usual...  

  A pic from when we popped down to London to do some research and check out one of our new retailers.  

What have we been up to? 

This year we’re really focused on being an eco-friendly brand and doing our part for the environment. Last year we were certified by PETA as cruelty-free and vegan which we are really proud of! We want to continue this approach right through to our packaging, so we have been working on reducing the amount of paper wastage, making the packaging recyclable whilst still keeping a luxury and premium feel.  

 We’ve also been featured in Collectible Dry magazine this month thanks to the wonderful makeup artist, Amy Wright. Check out this gorgeous behind the scene shot...

You’ll be excited to know we’ve also been working really hard on new product development and have lots of new products in the pipeline for the next 12 months, so watch this space...  

Office Talk...  
 

So this month we’ve been chatting mainly about James Smith PT we love how straight talking and down to earth he is, if you are up for some no nonsense training and nutrition advice just head over. We are literally obsessed with him! 

As you probably already know, veganism is one of the new talking points in beauty, it’s the hot topic on everyone’s lips.  

The vegan diet has been on the rise over the past couple of years and this has resulted in beauty brands following suit... you can now get pretty much anything in a vegan version!  

We make all our CODE Beautiful products vegan because it’s a no-brainer really... they are friendlier to the earth, they are better for your skin and we don’t believe that any animals should be harmed for the sake of beauty.  

What’s vegan and what’s not can be a really grey area in the beauty industry though, so we’ve put together a little guide to clear some things up! 

What makes a product vegan?  

A product that is vegan doesn’t contain any animal or animal-derived ingredients. This includes honey, lanoil, cholesterol, albumen, carmine, gelatin and many others. If you’re unsure, give the ingredients a scan to see if anything stands out or look for the PETA logo on the packaging, this is a certification that confirms whether or not a product is vegan.  

What makes a product cruelty free? 

Animal testing is another important consideration... just because a brand is cruelty free, doesn’t necessarily make it vegan and vice versa.  

For example, a lot of red lipsticks use crushed beetles and this is how they get that bold red, however as long as the brand isn’t testing the lipstick on animals, they can still be classed as cruelty free... it just doesn’t make sense does it?! 

Animal testing for cosmetics is banned in the UK however the Chinese government conducts animal tests on all cosmetics imported into the country.  

So, this means even if a brand itself does not test on animals, if they are selling their products in China... they cannot be considered cruelty-free.  There are some loop holes to get around this but you should check out the brand in detail. 

We do not sell any of our products into China, they will develop their policy but for now it’s off our radar. 

We’ve been certified by PETA as a cruelty free AND vegan brand so make sure you look out for the PETA logo if you’re unsure on any products you’re thinking of trying out.  

Does it affect the results? 

Replacing your products with vegan alternatives can have a massive impact on overall animal consumption, but we completely understand that you may be worried that the quality might not be as good.  

This definitely isn’t something you need to worry about, you can still get gorgeous packaging and products with amazing ingredients without harming animals. 

All CODE Beautiful products are now 100% vegan and we believe that the ingredients you put on your face really matter which is why we find safe and amazing alternatives whilst keeping the high-quality formula.  

Just over 3 years ago, I had a gorgeous little boy and my whole world got turned upside down ha!  

I had visions of the most beautiful pictures in hospital, I’d have my hair and makeup done, my baby would be wrapped up in a blanket and it would be one to frame for the living room.  

Oh how naïve I was. 🤣 

That day was an insight into how my beauty routine would change forever.  

I used to wear a full face of makeup every single day, no matter what I was doing, you wouldn’t even catch me in Sainsburys without my makeup done. But now, I have a little one that needs attention and my time to get ready in the morning is a lot more hectic.  

In movies, new mums are often shown to be sleep-deprived zombies with crazy wild hair and eyebags the size of small countries... whilst some days people probably think I do look like this (😬), I’ve found that I have to keep some normality to my beauty routine to help me feel like ‘Chloe’ and not just ‘Ezra’s mum’.  

These are a few ways my routine has changed since having a little one.  

I’M QUICKER 

Having a toddler running around wanting to open every tube, bottle and pot in sight forces you to be super speedy. I’ve found that I can make myself presentable in minimal time; meaning when I used to say it took me an hour to get ready in the morning, I was probably spending too much time scrolling through Instagram!  

I’M A PROFESSIONAL MULTI-TASKER 

In my opinion, no one is better at multi-tasking than a mum. There’s known to be days where Ezra has been sitting on my lap eating his cereal while I do my eyebrows... we’ve just got to get on with it. 🤷🏽‍♀️ It’s not always the most relaxing experience but in the early days if I needed to get out the door and the baby needed a feed, we just had to make it work! 

I also LOVE using products that mean I can be doing other things at the same time. Face mask while making dinner? Yes pleaseeee! 🤣 

I CAN STREAMLINE 

This was a big thing for me. My money now tends to be spent in Zara’s kids section rather than on the latest beauty launch. I’ve learnt that I don’t NEED to try every new beauty product out there and my makeup bag has become more like a little kit of essentials. If I'm working from home or not up to much on a weekend, my hair tends to go into a messy bun and I apply a few swipes of CODE VLM to make me look more awake and I’m good to go.   

I APPRECIATE THINGS SO MUCH MORE  

Who knew a hot bath could get me so emotional! In the early days it wasn’t uncommon for me to shed some tears over how excited I was to be alone in a hot bubble bath. After running around with a toddler non-stop, I now appreciate these little moments of ‘me time’ so much more.  

I WORRY LESS  

I used to feel like I had to wear makeup, I had to have a full face on to go to work, I couldn’t be seen in the gym without my whole makeup bag on... heaven forbid I bump into someone! I’ve now learnt that not only does no one in the gym care if I have makeup or not but I also worry less about what people do think... what’s the saying... the people that care don’t matter and the people that matter don’t care.  

Looking pretty means something different to everyone and that’s okay, to me it just means feeling and looking a bit like my old self. My beauty routine may have changed but when I apply my makeup I feel more like myself and not just ‘Ezra’s mum’ and that’s really important to me.  

Chloe x 

Although some of you will already know this, we thought it would be a good idea to share the story of CODE Beautiful for anyone that doesn’t know it, and we thought what better day to share our story than NATIONAL SISTERS DAY!  

CODE Beautiful is now just over 5 years old, where has the time gone?!  

We started the brand together because we couldn’t find the perfect mascara and got fed up of being disappointed seeing all the ads for mascaras and them never living up to the edited images we saw in the press.  

“I’d always wanted a product and this product led to a brand that Em and I worked tirelessly on to create, something that would break the traditional ‘me too’ beauty rules and give us our capsule wardrobe for cosmetics.”  

When it came to choosing a product, we started with makeup by chance really but that’s not to say we won’t go on to create your capsule wardrobe for Jewlery/gym wear/fashion etc. in the future. Mascara was a product in such a competitive market but we didn’t want to be about selling people lots of mascaras for different looks, we wanted a value for money, multifunctional mascara that you could create different looks with depending on how you use it, one for day or night, length and volume, thickness and curl.  

We funded the business ourselves, Em and I already have another business, so we funded using investment from that company as well as personal savings which we had both worked really hard for.  

We originally worked with another lady, a client of ours that is in skincare, but things didn’t work out how we’d have liked but we originally co-funded with her and then bought her out. It’s really tough being in business with friends/clients as it’s hard to all have the same vision and commitment to each other.  

Being sisters is also tough but somehow easier because you know you absolutely have the same vision and commitment to each other!   

When it came to starting up the business, we are incredibly lucky to have a great network and skills between us that was invaluable! A really good friend of ours did our branding and packaging design, another friend did photography and we had friends of friends that were our models for our first shoot!  

Emma built our website and staff from our other business wrote all the copy and put all the plans together for launch. We run the warehouse in-house now but initially we didn’t have the confidence so outsourced this. So, for a startup business we were fortunate enough to be able to use our skills and network to do the majority of the work and this is a big reason we could grow the brand without an investor.  

“No matter how big we get, we always try and think small and focus on value. We spend 80% of our budget and time on new product development and 20% on shouting about it which is why people feel like they are discovering the undiscovered.” 

When it came to coming up with the name, we knew we wanted the brand to be about beauty meaning different things to different people... so we came up with the idea of everyone having their own CODE of being beautiful. We find beauty in all sorts and encourage people to crack their own CODE Beautiful.  

So, we had the name, we had the website (thanks Em!), we had some cool Tokyo chic inspired packaging... we just had to get the products perfect. We spend a long time developing products and we don’t launch them until they are perfect! We are constantly challenging the norm, like our CODE SSL is a true multifunctional product, it is a 3 in 1 lip liner, lipstick and plumper. We try and give our customers the best possible value we can and make their life easier reducing the number of products they have to use... a lot of brands say they do this but then have loads of products so you can see straight through the marketing message.  

We aren’t a big corporate with loads of marketing budget, so we really did rely on social media and friends/family to help spread the word about the brand. Customers that purchased our products loved them and keep coming back and telling their friends which is amazing to see.  

The past 5 years have been amazing and we can't wait to see what the future holds! 

Sarah & Emma x