A Cindy Gallop Lipstick? Hell Yes.

By MakeLoveNotPorn Founder + CEO Cindy Gallop.

Back on July 15 of this year, Ranee Soundara tweeted the following:

I spotted it, and thought, now THERE’s an idea.

I especially thought that because over the years, many women have told me they regularly ask themselves WWCGD, “What Would Cindy Gallop Do?”. They wish they could have me on their shoulder whispering inspiration into their ear in tough meetings; they wish they could put on some of my confidence. A Cindy Gallop red lipstick seemed the perfect way for women to put on something of me every day, and go forth into the daily battle feeling empowered and confident.

I’m not in a position to fund and produce my own cosmetics — so I decided I needed to find a female founder with a beauty brand and an existing lipstick in my preferred orangey-red shade, that could be re-branded and re-packaged as the Cindy Gallop Lipstick. I put the call out to my women’s networks, including Dee Poku’s TheWieSuite, and WieSuiter Asmau Ahmed introduced me to the perfect partner!

Female-founded: check.

Black female-founded: check.

Founded to empower women as more than just a cosmetics brand: check.

Brilliant brand name: check.

Perfect shade: check.

Perfect shade original name: check.

Willingness to partner: check.

I’m thrilled to partner with the brilliant Aishetu Dozie, founder of Bossy Beauty, to launch today the Cindy Gallop Lipstick! Appropriately, the orangey-red Bossy shade I love was originally called Unstoppable 😊 Put it on and you’re unstoppable: armed for that investor pitch/salary negotiation/big presentation — or, of course, that hot date 😊

I’m especially thrilled because as far as I’m concerned, Aisha is a fantastic example of the future of the beauty industry through the Black female lens. She is a staggeringly impressive businesswoman, whose switch to becoming a beauty entrepreneur was driven by her desire to create a beauty line that empowers women through inner-driven beauty. As the Bossy Beauty website tells us:

‘Aisha moved to California, took a one year sabbatical, and came across a singular insight that legacy beauty companies were product-driven only and they only cared about how women looked. Aisha dreamed of creating a beloved brand that cared about how women felt starting from the inside and then moving outward. She thought it appeared to be a subtle difference but it made all the difference in the world to ambitious women whose ambitions could be ignited by their beauty provider.

AISHA OFTEN SAYS THAT BOSSY COSMETICS IS A WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT AND MISSION-DRIVEN BUSINESS THAT MASQUERADES AS A BEAUTY COMPANY AND WE THINK IT’S THE PERFECT WAY TO DESCRIBE THE BRAND.’

I’m also pleased about our partnership because, as my Twitter followers can tell you, every year I engage in what has become an annual ritual: I live-tweet my reading of the Vogue magazine September issue. I share my observations on every ad, article, fashion editorial. One of the things I regularly have to call out is the lack of older women in both ads and editorial, and the lack of real-world older women as models and role models. So I’m thrilled to be part of expanding the world of beauty to include an older woman — I’m 61; an older woman of color — I’m half-Chinese; and an older woman entrepreneur, versus the tiny number of older models, actresses and celebrities the fashion and beauty world is willing to feature as a micro-attempt at appearing not to be ageist.

I would love you to buy my lipstick (and other BossyBeauty products while you’re at it) — whether you’re female, male, trans, non-binary: together, we’re Unstoppable!

While you’re at it, why not start a subscription to Cindy’s start up MakeLoveNotPorn? MakeLoveNotPorn is Pro-sex. Pro-Porn. Pro-knowing the difference. Support women-founded businesses — and experience the joy of watching #realworldsex for yourself!

You can follow Cindy and MakeLoveNotPorn on Twitter @cindygallop @makelovenotporn and on Instagram @cindygallop @makelovenotporn. Follow Aishetu Dozie and BossyBeauty on Twitter @theaishetu @bossybeautyinc and on Instagram @aishetu @bossylipstick