Underrated Make Up Brand : INGLOT

The packaging gave it to you straight away right? It's one of the worlds leading manufacturers in colour cosmetics 'INGLOT'. Founded just over 30 years ago by the Inglot family, the company has come from an idea and a dream to a world wide franchise that now caters to over 57 countries.  On the Inglot Ireland website they describe themselves as : 

When Inglot did first arrive in Ireland I didn't know much about it, I googled, I browsed and I liked what I saw but I was a creature of habit. After working in the industry for years you get to know what you like, you find yourself reaching for the same trusted products, effortless blushes and ever lasting moisturisers. Your client trusts you, and in turn you trust your cosmetics. As a make up artist I find it very hard sometimes to build that trust. 

When I want to introduce a new make up brand into my pro kit I always do one thing first : I shop for myself. If I can fall in love with a product so can my clients. If you search through every corner of my bright pink make up kit that I bring to you there is not one product in it that I would not use, trust and love on my own skin. Then one day I was in the Jervis Shopping Centre in Dublin and I was in Boots buying some fake tan when the Inglot stand outside caught my eye. I had a bit of spare cash from some great commission and I decided I'd go and I'd have a look.  Now one of the first thing that turns me off a make up counter is the uniform/general style of the girls working there. That might sound judgemental and it probably is but when I walk into Estee Lauder or Lancome and see the girls in their tight, stuffy uniforms that remind me of my grandmother the first thing I think is 'This is not me'. 

Instead I was approached by a very polite, beautiful girl dressed in head to toe black complimenting the black shiny surroundings of the counter. There were four things I noticed straight away : (1) She had a tattoo on show, (2) She had the darkest plum lipstick that I had ever seen on her lips (3) When she spoke about the products, she referred to HER use of them. HER love of them (4) COLOUR. It probably took me about 2.5 seconds to fall in love with the brand, and that was before I had even been shown a single product. Just like as a 16 year old girl I had fallen in love with M.A.C I yet again found myself taking that trusty leap into the (vibrant) unknown. 

That day I walked away with : lashes, foundation, glitter pigment, gel eyeliner, an eyeshadow pallet and a trust in a company that I knew would only prosper. Sometimes I sit doing a clients make up using an eye liner or a brush and I think - if that girl hadn't approached me the way she did, making me feel so at ease, welcome and inspired by her love for the company I might to this day still not have a single Inglot product in my kit. Don't get me wrong, I got very lucky. Every company has employed girls that have been well, less than what I experienced in Jervis but please don't ever let that put you off. I'm giving you 100% guarantee that anything you pick up in Inglot will soon be a can't live without item. 

So far they had already ticked off a few box's on my check list : 

(1) Great service (polite, friendly, not pushy) 

(2) Originality (fearlessness to be different, not the average standard smokey eye kit)

(3) Affordable (I got scared walking towards the till and ended up walking away smiling) 

(4) Quality (Every box I opened ended up going onto my 'must have' list in my pro kit diary) 

Then when I had fallen in love with the products I went back to what I had already done and decided to look into the company. It may seem like something that isn't that important to most people but I really think that little things like advertising, ethos, standards make or break a company for me. If you are going to be someone like Urban Decay that hit a brain storming idea of using the word 'Naked' one day in the office and then decide to transform that into a ten year long campaign I'm not going to have faith in you, I'm going to have faith in the companies that not only want to inspire us, but inspire themselves as well. 

Big things I fell in love with : 

(*) Their need to stay affordable : one of the first things my client asks when I tell them how much I adore a product is 'Oh god Kelly but if you're using it I don't want to know how much it is do I?'. When it's an Inglot product it's so easy to tell them they won't have to feel guilty walking away from the till. From a company point of view that not only makes them easier to shop in but it makes them attainable to every one. It doesn't single out the teenage girls falling in love with blusher for the first time or the girls trying to balance College with a part time job. It makes it easy for you, me and everyone you know to be an Inglot ambassador. 

(*) The Freedom System : Like MAC with their open pallets one of Inglots big sellers and home products is their 'Freedom System' which gives you the opportunity to create any custom palettes to meet YOUR beauty needs. I personally feel one of the biggest faux pau moves beauty companies make are the 'Benefit' type products that are constant 'glowing eyes kit', 'smokey eye kit', 'I'm controlling everything you do' kit. I'm also going to hit back on 'Naked' etc. I know it's easy, affordable and makes life great for people who don't want to think but what ever happened to FEARLESS CREATIVITY?! Well when 80% of make up companies gave it up, companies like INGLOT took a big slice of it. 

(*) Ethos : Inglot are known in the beauty world for their ethos with in their product development. They are known for their diligence in terms of suppliers, their manufacturing and their ingredients. It's all about ethical, fair, and of course best quality they can attain. They are also known as one of the leading brands that have NO animal testing. *One thing you should be aware of is a lot of companies now claim their for example Lipstick is not tested on animals but what they don't tell you is that the ingredients used to build the lipstick was, please look into this properly and know that it's not always black and white. 

Before this turns into a ten hour long essay I'm going to wrap this up with a really simple ending. Make up, beauty and cosmetics are about finding yourself. Finding your inner beauty, your outer beauty or any other beauty that makes you who you are. As a girl who sometimes likes to think outside the box and always push boundaries I find it hard sometimes to find a brand that does everything for me. Here and there I will find a foundation I like or an eye crayon that suits me. Up until I found INGLOT, M.A.C cosmetics were the only company that I could ever really trust in. Don't get me wrong, I still do but sometimes you need change and if I'm being honest I don't always have the money to buy a €36.00 eye shadow brush. 

When I'm shopping in INGLOT and I'm buying a purple eye shadow and green glitter pigment I don't feel like I'm being contained. I don't feel like I have to fit into the companies 2ft wide box of their ideal customer looks. I feel like I'm free and that's not something that many companies offer me. I feel like I can be any body I dream to be. I can find a pigment, lipstick and a set of lashes to fit with any mood or character I feel like playing that day and for me? That's liberating. It's exciting and it's exactly what every make up brand should be. I feel that enough people haven't found that yet with Inglot because they haven't given them the chance and that's why today I am giving them my 'Most Underrated Make Up Brand' award!