Beauty Industry Outlier.
Just like Rihanna revolutionized lingerie in the fashion world with her Savage X Fenty line, which celebrated not only a diverse range of women and body types, a whole new wave within the beauty industry is redefining the meaning of beauty. Ask Heather Fink, founder of The Sexiest Beauty, how to be beautiful or sexy, and her response will be: “You already are.”
“Sexy is a state of mind and actions,” Fink says.
Which is exactly how I feel about beauty. It’s not necessarily about clothes or makeup. Nor is it gender or race specific. It’s simply being true to yourself. Speaking your truth. “We embrace the unconventional, daringly, uniquely beautiful,” Heather explains. “Sexy is doing things your own way.”
I first came across The Sexiest beauty at a video shoot. I didn’t have any of my own lipstick, so tried one the filmmaker had on hand. We were going for a Gong Li shot because she’s an idol of mine, and the lipstick worked beautifully without drying my lips.
I contacted Fink to find out more and she explained with advancements in science and technology and partnering with the best beauty labs, she was also able to achieve a formula for a Mattesheen S-proof liquid lipstick that is emollient and not drying. “I’m in my 50s and it’s the first of its kind I’ve ever personally worn!” she admits.
This peeked my interest. I’ve been adverse to lipstick my entire life. Until now, I never found one—in fact I’ve never even found a lip balm—that resolves dry lips. I tried the Mattesheen S-proof liquid, and was pleasantly surprised that my lips remained moisturized. And it looked great, too. I reached out to Fink to learn more about her, and learned that, like many of us, she has experienced difficult periods in her life. After working for 25 years in corporate beauty companies, she got laid off due to the economy. She searched 8-10 hours a day for more than a year, but wasn’t able to find anything.
“I decided to just do what I know, what I love, what I feel passionate about,” she says. She started her own beauty line focusing on a different kind of beauty.
“Beauty means being free to express yourself in an authentic way and being true to yourself,” she says. “There’s beauty in diversity, unconventionality, and ‘imperfection,’ which to me, is ‘perfect.’ Beauty is always interesting, maybe extravagant, maybe simple, but never boring. As my idol Marilyn Monroe said, ‘Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring’.” Fink has made it her mission to create a brand that makes you feel confident and empowered to be the best you can be. “My job is to bring the power and pleasure of this tool to others,” she says. “To realize, feel, and embrace that YOU are the sexiest beauty.”
Fink started a #SpeakYourSexy campaign, featuring a strong, beautiful human as a brand ambassador each month to express authentic and empowering aspects of what they felt passionately about. which is truly beautiful because ambassadors get to choose a “giveback,” or cause, that would be the beneficiary of a portion of the sales during that period. Organizations that have benefited include Dress For Success, NWLC (Natl Women's Law Center), NAESV (Natl Alliance to End Sexual Violence) and breast cancer organization Beautiful Self. Giving continues to be part of The Sexiest Beauty’s mission, and more recently, Fink donated xx beauty packs to healthcare workers on the front line fighting COVID-19.
“We are people-positive,” Fink declares. “We are also sex-positive, body-positive, beauty-positive for all races, all ages, all genders, all countries of origin, all sexual orientations.”
You are human. You are beautiful.
Speak your truth, and as Fink would say, “live life to its sexiest!”
The Sexiest Beauty has invited me to be part of this campaign, which is truly beautiful, I think, because my #SpeakYourSexy giveback is Prison Writes, which brings writing into prisons and helps those who have been incarcerated to build their writing skills and tell their stories. Many of you know I teach in this program. It has been a precious gift. Working with individuals who may not have had a fair representation and didn’t get a fair shake. Their lives—and their families lives— get destroyed, often due to a drug-related, as opposed to a crime-related offenses. The Sexiest Beauty purchases through this blog will get a 20% discount off the order, and on top of that, 10% of the order will be donated to Prison Writes. Both of these will be ongoing indefinitely. Now, that’s beautiful.
Find The Sexiest Beauty at www.thesexiestbeauty.com
For purchases, use discount code BEAUTY