An interview with Poppy King

Earlier this week I was invited to QVC to interview Poppy King – founder of Lipstick Queen.

I tweeted that I was meeting Poppy and asked if anyone had any questions for her – and you did!

First up – some q’s from readers…

‘Do you plan to do any more collaborations similar to the one you did with No.7?’

No, I’m focusing on Lipstick Queen – my baby – for the foreseeable future.

‘How do you take care of your lips? Scrubs? Balms?’

To be completely honest my lips hold up very well – I use my own range and it does just fine! If I DO need help – say when I’ve been travelling, I use a spare toothbrush to massage them and follow up with my moisturiser.’

‘And if you do prep your lips, do you plan to release your own lipcare line? Poppy Perfection sounds good!’ (questions posed by @RedButtonGirl)

Watch this space! My top tips for good lips are:

  • a good lipstick shouldn’t ruin your lips!
  • do NOT lick your lips – even though its very tempting – its the absolute worst thing for them..


‘What was the first lip colour you experimented with?’

Red! Biba red. When I was 7 years old my Mum brought it back from the UK.


‘Which milestone are you most proud of in your career?’ (questions by @amandabellmua)

It’s not so much a milestone, but every time a real woman pulls one of my lipsticks out of her bag – that does it for me.

‘Any advice on how to organise, balance or budget a busy lifestyle?’ (question by @computergirl200)

Yes! Drop any notion of perfection. Prioritise! (great advice!!!)

I asked Poppy for her Top 3 tips on getting ahead in the beauty industry – from any perspective.

  1. Work on a beauty counter for at least 6 months. People generally don’t like it when I say this but until you have a real handle on the general public you won’t understand their needs.
  2. It’s like long-distance running. It can take a long, long, time to get known and be trusted.
  3. Never, ever assume that marketing is more important than a fantastic product. A brilliant product is far more important and will win in the end!

You can meet Poppy in person this Saturday in Selfridges Oxford Street where she will be giving lip readings and talking to her customers between 12 and 4pm. Go have your lips read – its fascinating. She nailed my personality with 2 sentences.

Poppy King’s Lipstick Queen is available in SpaceNK, Cult Beauty, QVC and Selfridges.

Thank you to Poppy, her team and QVC.