The Interview —

Samantha Lim, Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer at Hipdot Cosmetics

I was thinking about the current state of beauty and had a lot of questions: makeup isn’t expensive to make, why is it so expensive to buy? If global manufacturers and labs have figured out how to make products cruelty-free and clean, why aren’t all products like that? Why is there so much plastic being used when cardboard will do just fine? Makeup is such a powerful tool to inspire confidence, and if you feel confident about yourself, you can conquer the world. Those are all the ideas behind our Hipdot products, and if we can make a tiny dent in bringing joy and creativity to the world, then we’ve done our job. 

I wish I had a superpower in being able to accurately predict how much inventory to buy. There’s nothing like the panic of thinking you ordered way too much or way too little, with no way of knowing until you go on sale. 

Creating things that make other people smile.

It’s ok to fail, you only need to win one time. 

Well, I’m the co-founder of a startup, so every day is different and every day can have the highest high and the lowest low. I can be meeting with Cardi B or taking out the office trash—in fact, both could happen in the same day! We recently closed a huge celebrity partnership deal, and on that very same day we also realized we ordered a children’s size desk chair from IKEA. I joke that we shoot content in Dumpster Studio, because we built a mini natural light set up behind our office…next to the dumpster. But the content we shoot there is Instagram gold, and the blue shine from the dumpster actually gives you a pretty good lighting bounce!

But seriously, because we just launched (7 weeks ago!) every minute of the day is spent dedicated to the brand. Meeting with influencers and press, optimizing the website, concepting creative for social media, social ads, recruiting new hires for our team (DM me!), meeting with agents and managers about our next partnership or next brand we’re building. 

CBD. I know, not technically a beauty product (although I keep seeing new CBD beauty lines popping up!). A few drops under your tongue every morning and you’ll cruise through your day without a care in the world. 

How dare you.

…just kidding. I wear the Perfect Face Palette every single day, it gives you that super natural glow that makes people think you really have your shit together. 

Layer and blend your makeup on a little at a time. It gives it a more airbrushed look and lets the product seep into your skin so you’re wearing the makeup, the makeup isn’t wearing you. 

Makeup is meditation to me, so it’s a part of my daily routine. The whole process of experimenting, blending, trying out a new trick is all so therapeutic. 

We are launching our first collaboration palette with queer artist Hey Rooney. It’s a rainbow glitter palette called “Legendary” in honor of World Pride. Many hands in the community have had input on the creative, and the proceeds are going to the Anti-Violence Project. We’re so excited to be able to celebrate world pride and give back to a community we love.