Charlotte Tilbury wanted to be a make-up artist at the age of 13.
Charlotte Tilbury
The 42-year-old, who founded her own make-up line Charlotte Tilbury Beauty in 2013, has admitted she saw the "massive white space" in the industry for her beauty brand when she was a teenager, and has since dreamt of a future where she could advise women on the best cosmetic products for their complexion.
Speaking to Stylist about the inspiration behind her 24 years at the helm of the beauty sphere, the red headed icon said: "I remember being at school when I was 13 and thinking 'Wouldn't it be amazing if I could open a make-up shop - a place where you could go in and be told what colours suited you, which would make your eyes sparkle, or what lipstick would suit your colouring.'
"Since then I've had women coming to me after seeing the covers I've done for Vogue or Vanity Fair, or campaigns for Louis Vuitton or Gucci and saying, 'Oh my god, I love those colours that you used on that model.' And I just saw a massive white space in the marketplace."
Charlotte - who was raised in Ibiza and moved to London to attend Boarding School at 13-years-old - has revealed growing up in an artistic atmosphere "naturally" rubbed off on her.
She explained: "My father's an artist, I come from a very artistic background and so I have an eye for colour and shape that comes to me naturally. Working with the laboratory and speaking their language is second nature to me. And I think I'm a natural marketer. I understand really weirdly, the flow of traffic [in a store] so when I'm designing a counter ... I understand the flow of whether women turn right or left. Where they will purchase, where there are sweet spots. I just understand that viscerally, and I understand how to turn a light bulb on in someone's head.
"Having worked with some of the biggest laboratories and brands in the world, I knew that whatever I did had to be a revolution in make-up."