Interview: Elizabeth of LYZ Cosmetics and her new collection The Royal Tea Room

About 3 weeks ago I was contacted by Elizabeth, the creator of LYZ Cosmetics. She kindly offered to send me for review her new Spring 2015 collection of glitter polishes titled Royal Tea Room. I was super excited and of course I said YES!

Elizabeth turned out to be a very sweet and friendly person. I thought it would be nice to get to know her better, so I suggested I do a kind of interview with her, and she agreed. Below you can find my questions and her answers, as well some intro pics of the Royal Tea Room collection that was released this March. To start with here is a group pic of the colors:

Royal Tea Room LYZ Cosmetics

And now the interview :)

— Hi Elizabeth! How did you get into nail polish fashion? When did you first launch LYZ Cosmetics?

I guess my passion for nail polish comes from me having a great imagination and not being able to contain it just to a piece of note or a pretty nail swatch. When I was a teen in school, I was obsessed with painting my nails using highlighters and colored pens. Baby pink and lime green were my top choices of color mixes. I was into nail art mostly because we were banned from putting on any cosmetics in a strict disciplinary school. But dotticures were more important to me.
LYZ Cosmetics was launched in winter 2014 in Melbourne, Australia.

— What was the inspiration behind the creation of LYZ Cosmetics?

My love of hand-made design and packaging steered me to start my first enterprise in custom gift polishes. Much of my inspiration seeded from my delicate and subtle fashion sense. Whether I am picking out a dress for work or pleasure, inspiration hits when I least expect it. For sure, the Victorian fashion in Melbourne has influenced greatly on my most recent spring collection (Royal Tea Room Scented Collection), since I have resided there for the past 3 years. It was a major part of the creativity process.
I discovered that desk bound jobs were not suited for me. So I simply followed my heart. I’m creative by nature, guess it was from my dad, and thankfully the online beauty industry provided the chance for hopefuls like myself to be inspired in this way. From then, I literally sleep, eat and breathe polish. From product development & packaging to marketing & visual merchandising, I put my heart and soul into manufacturing each bottle to its perfection, sometimes even dreaming of the next collection in my sleep!

— What was the most challenging part of creating LYZ Cosmetics?

I am doing everything from product design to packing orders on my own as a one-man band. When my first few orders came in just last week from Harlow & Co. (Canada), Lakilak (Russia) and M & M Skin Beauty (Malaysia), I was beside myself! As I had neither a warehouse nor an office, I set up a production line in the family dining room and began packing all the orders with the help of my boyfriend. Of course, receiving those first few orders were a tremendous highlight of my career. Despite the challenge, I was hyped up and ready to get my hands dirty to complete the job well.

— I know girls who started their own businesses in addition to working a full time job. Did you have a job when launching LYZ Cosmetics? If so, how did you manage your time?

I was 23 and in my final year of my university studies while juggling between my passion and schoolwork. On top of that, I was also heavily involved with my school dance club as a committee member. I literally have schedules jam-packed with activities from hour to hour. Therefore, the thing I have learnt is that I must prioritize and keep to it. A crucial survival skill to keep and learn is time management skills. It can be strenuous because there was so much time wrapped up in having so many commitments, however planning ahead made everything a lot smoother.

— Do you remember the very first nail polishes you created? What were the colors and names?

Ooh I had a crush on Punkin Chunkin. It was a luminous orange crème with blue shift and tiny gold glitters. Soon after I released it on my webstore, bottles were running off the shelves!

— A polish always looks more appealing to me if it has a cute name. What do you take into consideration when naming your polishes?

I would think up idioms or phrases that suited the theme of the release. For example, one of the polishes was named “Kiss And Tell” for the recent Valentine’s Day duo collection in February.
At times, they had to do with the color, but as long as they sounded fun, I’m all for it!

— At the moment, your online shop Fairy Bread offers not only LYZ Cosmetics nail polishes, but also nail tools and franken craft supplies. Any advice to those who want to make their own nail polishes at home?

Having a spacious working environment is key, and never be afraid to let your creativity flow. It is a bit of chemistry work and problem solving at first, but it is definitely no rocket science. Always keep trying till you get the formula right! A facemask will also be good for you certainly!

— So you recently released a new line of 6 crelly polishes, titled Royal Tea Room Scented Collection. How would you describe the collection in a few words? – and which one is your favourite?

Coquettish and playful. The names of the polishes say it all.

I’m in awe of Swept Off My Honey’s orange nectar scent. It smells like a complicated love affair; a little sour, yet zesty enough to complete your soul.

— What’s next for Elizabeth – the woman and the brand?

I’m happy to announce that I’m on the way to launching an exciting collection in April! Definitely watch this space!
Not-So-Subtle-Hint: They smell absolutely divine of ylang ylang and ginger majoram!

— Thank you Elizabeth! Good luck with the new collection, I’m looking forward to see its colors!

The Royal Tea Room collection Elizabeth and I were talking about consists of 6 scented nail polishes. For now let me briefly show you the colors, and a tiny bit later I’ll post proper reviews on each of the glitters.

Sour Till You Drop – a girly pink pastel glitter with flowers and stars (pineapple scent):

Sour Till You Drop LYZ Cosmetics

Mind Your Minters – a pastel mint green nail polish with black and red glitter (mint scent):

LYZ Cosmetics Mind Your Minters

Candy Jewels – a soft lilac glitter (lavender scent):

LYZ Cosmetics Candy Jewels

Swept Off My Honey – a quite unusual orange glitter (orange honey scent):

Swept Off My Honey LYZ Cosmetics

Rose Jelly – a vibrant pink jelly based glitter (tea rose scent):

LYZ Cosmetics Rose Jelly

Lady Lime – a green glitter (refreshing lime scent):

LYZ Cosmetics Lady lime

That’s it, 6 amazing polishes in pics, and their swatches are coming soon :) I must say I like all of Elizabeth’s spring-y glitters very muchly, but if I were to pick just one (ok, two!) of them I’d choose Lady Lime and Rose Jelly. I’ve already tried the polishes and I loved how these 2 glitters looked on my nails. It was a super cheerful spring-to-summer manicure!

Thank you for reading and come back soon! xxx

3 Comment

  1. It is nice to read how polishes come to life. Great interview and fantastic polishes!

    1. Mari says: Reply

      Thank you Andrea :) I’m so happy Elizabeth agreed to answer the questions :)

  2. Adi says: Reply

    they look like a box of macarons :))))

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