Hi guys and welcome back to Adalting. This week I'm joined by Lex.

Hello, hello.

Hello, Lex is the founder of Cult Beauty, which is a co-founder, sorry. Do you want to give us a nice overview of what Cult Beauty is?

Sure. I started Cult Beauty with Jess about 10 years ago and we started it as frustrated consumers, frustrated obsessives about beauty.

And we just found that as consumers we weren't really being catered for. I found that there was being oversold products or...

That was quite intimidated going into department stores and it should be the other way round because it's basically a sweet shop.

Yeah. I mean it should be the most exciting thing ever.

And we just wanted to build a beauty hall of fame that you could shop. So that was the original idea is cult products from all over the world that you could 100% trust with the best that you could possibly find.

And it's so amazing and it has got that cult factor to it because it is different from any other kind of industry as you say, like within the beauty world.

It's not got that kind of very commercialised side to it. It is all about finding the perfect niche for you.

And you're saying that even 10 years ago you felt like that space was somewhere that was very pushy and heavy and how do you think that's changed now with the rise of social media and the way that we buy in Salon?

Oh the consumer has changed completely. We've all become these massive skin intellectuals. When we first were starting cult beauty I was doing all the customer service side of things.

And the sort of questions that you were getting through then people would say, I have dry skin. What kind of moisturiser should I buy?

And now you get people calling up going, so which A.H.A. is in that? And then Della Cases, that glycolic acid.

What's the size of the molecule I kind of need to know? Like how deeply it's going to penetrate my epidermis?

And you're like, I am going to introduce you to the founder and she will be able to take you straight through exactly what she's used in the formulation.

I mean, I've always been a complete beauty nerd and I studied biology at school and I just found it incredibly interesting how skin function worked.

And I always found that there was this big disconnect between what I knew about biology, about biochemistry and what we were being sold in the marketing of the time.

And it was always very much that kind of head-pasting marketing I call it. Don't you worry, you're pretty little bit about the science.

And just buy the nice pretty packaging and keep doing it. Please as much as you fancy.

And I was always asking questions and I said, why does it last all day? Is that a good thing?

Because I mean, that's with the foundations that say last 48 hour foundation, that's basically lacquer.

...