Midway through high school, Elsie Tranmer like many young people admired the pin-up girl and pop-culture glamour fashionistas of the day.
After graduating high school, she attended the University of Ottawa majoring in Theatre and enjoyed contributing behind the scenes exploring costuming, makeup and set building.
Now at 25, Elsie has used her artistic flair to create HAIL Cosmetics, a line of lipstick that is handcrafted, 100% cruelty-free and 99% natural and mostly plant-derived.
“I was first inspired to build my makeup company at the beginning of this year when I started looking into animal cruelty practices in cosmetics. I started to research one of my favourite companies and read up on how they conducted their tests. I was pretty sad and disgusted, so I started to research raw materials and how to formulate my own products with ethical testing. I also wanted to make it as natural as possible while still appealing to the vast majority of consumers that were just attracted to the colours and textures,” said Elsie.
And her niche product has plenty of room to succeed in a massive global market.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs estimate that the global beauty industry—consisting of skin care worth $24 billion; make-up, $18 billion; $38 billion of hair-care products; and $15 billion of perfumes—is growing at up to 7% a year.
HAIL currently only offers lipstick but hopes to develop other beauty products in the near future.
“Apart from having a larger line-up of products, colours, and retailers, I envision HAIL as an educator to consumers on the importance of learning about their day to day products. Where are they from, what are they made of, and what are they tested on. We hope to have HAIL products in retailers throughout Canada”, says Elsie.
Currently enrolled in Computer Sciences at Lakehead University – her acquired computer skills have also come in handy for launching her website where you can purchase her products, and on Shopify (her website platform) where products are also available.
You can also find Hail Cosmetics on Facebook and Instagram @hailcosmetics
Elsie is grateful to the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission for their assistance and guidance.
