Royal flush

Few things can take a woman's look from low-key to luxurious like bold red lips. And few people know that better than Poppy King.

"Nothing can transform your look like a slick of lipstick and now more than ever, there is a need for the dignity and elegance of past eras with all this horrible reality TV everywhere," says the founder of Lipstick Queen, which has launched at Joyce Beauty.

King's self-described obsession with lip products started during her childhood in Melbourne, Australia. "Ever since I was a little girl, I thought lipstick was the most glamorous thing in the entire world," she says. "In my teens, one of my favourite time-wasting habits was watching TV. I loved MTV and old Hollywood movies.

"One of the reasons I loved these movies was the women - now theirs was glamour I could relate to. The pale skin, the old-fashioned finger waves, the smoky eyes and the deep, deep matte lipstick. In my last year of high school, I finally became conscious of my desire to emulate this Hollywood look."

Six months after graduation, King launched her own cosmetics brand. She started with seven shades of matte lipstick named after the seven deadly sins, and went on to offer a variety of lipsticks and glosses.

After a stint with a major cosmetics company in New York, King branched out again and launched Lipstick Queen in 2007. The line now includes lipsticks, lip glosses, lip liners and even a matte gloss called Oxymoron.