Hi, I am Renae Moomjian (co-founder) of NipLips™. Our mission is to enhance your authentic beauty by combing nature’s cues (your nipples) with technology (an app) in a cosmetic line that is good for you, our environment and our communities.
My career for close to 30 years has been in med-tech. Most people ask what's the correlation between what you've been doing and a lipstick company; it turns out there are many! With NipLips™ I incorporated the discipline from tech and my passion for the environment & healthy living into a company that uses an App to help match you to lip products that are 100% vegan, cruelty-free, Clean Beauty.
Mother & Daughter Collaboration
Most people ask, why your nipple color? I asked myself the same thing when my daughter Helena (co-founder) said "hey mom, did you know that your perfect lipstick shade is your nipple color?" as I drove her home from school last year. She had just read it Uncle John's bathroom reader. Of course, curiosity quickly got the best of me and upon returning home, we stood in front of the mirror, examining our bodies and the contents of my makeup drawer, trying to find a link between the two (which come to find out is much easier said than done.) We couldn’t find a shade that matched so we snapped pictures of ourselves and headed to Walgreens. With phone in hand and discreetly taking peeks at the screen we loaded our cart with $110 dollars of lipstick. When we got home, we found our perfect match and one shade darker and LOVED them!
Helena and I created NipLips™ because finding a lipstick shade that makes you feel and look authentically beautiful should not be this hard (or expensive)!
What we need and what you get!
We need to raise $50,000 US dollars. This money will be used to complete formulation on our NipPerfect™ customized lipsticks (it’s very challenging to make vegan, toxic-free, synthetic-chemical free beauty products that have a reasonable shelf-life). We also need to complete the Android version of our App (Apple version is complete and in the store) & exhibit at the upcoming IBE (indie beauty expo) in LA this January to get the word out about our products and mission.
We’d love for you to join this cheeky and unique journey. Here’s what we’re offering:
$30.00 One Desert Matte Collection lipstick (use the Apple version of the App to find your closest match), includes taxes and shipping
$30.00 One customized NipLip™ balm Choose your scent, additive and name it! (use the Apple version of the App to customize the features)
$60.00 One NipPerfect™ Choose your favorite color scan, scent, additive and name. (use the Apple version of the App to customize the features),includes taxes and shipping
$500.00 Help name our Marine Gloss Botanical lip glosses We'd love for you to be a part of our team and get creative with us on this journey!
$1,000.00 Create your own unique lipstick or gloss and make it a part of one of our permanent collections! You'll pick the scent, additive and name it. Here's your chance to make a mark in the beauty world!
$5,000.00 One NipPerfect™ and dinner with co-founder Renae in Los Angeles.
If we don’t reach our goal, we will still honor our product commitments to you.
So why is this campaign important?
Live Empowered
As a female executive in male-dominated med-tech, I often struggle to be taken seriously. Creating NipLips™ is helping me find my authentic voice. I want to empower you to look within, rather than the chatter of the media or outside world, to find your authentic, beautiful self and to learn to speak from that place.
Treat Yourself Well
Did you know that the average women consumes 6 lbs. of lipstick over the course of her lifetime! You definitely want to be careful with what you put on your lips! That’s why our products are 100% vegan, cruelty-free, Clean Beauty. They are free of parabens, phthalates, DEHP, SLS, petrolatum, talc, synthetic fragrance or colorants, or silicones and made with as many organic ingredients as possible.
I spend a lot of time working on technologies for sick people so am passionate about taking care of my health. Also, I lost an aunt, who in many ways was like a mother to me, to breast cancer which many people believe is in part caused by exposure to toxic ingredients in our environment, including cosmetics. That's why we are committed to providing you true clean beauty, toxic chemical free lip products.
Protect our Amazing Planet
I love to run in the desert and scuba dive in the ocean so am seeing first-hand the effects of climate change. It's heartbreaking.
That’s why we work hard to give you sustainable packaging. For example, our Desert Matte lipsticks are packaged in bamboo, our business cards are made from recycled cotton t-shirts and our packaging is recycled and minimized as much as possible.
If you believe in these things too, I invite you to join our growing NipLips™ community where we embrace diversity, speak authentically, care for ourselves, each other and our environment. Plus, who doesn’t think it’s “cheeky” to scan your nipple and create or be matched to an off the shelf customized lip shade!
So what’s our track record and why are we qualified?
I have close to 30 years developing & commercializing medical technologies as well as leading med-tech companies. My business partner Roger Vogel (CFO and CTO) has 35 years experience developing technology and leading technology companies as CEO. Our manufacturer, based in Tucson, is a highly regarded clean beauty company that private labels as well as sells their own line of skin care and cosmetic products.
I recognize that we don’t have expertise in the cosmetic world, so we have surrounded ourselves with beauty experts from around the US to help guide our commercial strategy, public relations, branding and product development.
Risks & Challenges
Our biggest challenge right now is creating the NipPerfect™ customized formulations that closely match your nipple color, are shelf-life stable with all the varying essential oils and additives & can be consistently reproduced in a high-volume manufacturing environment. This type of formulating requires us to mix and match all possible combinations, have our NipLips™ community test and put them through accelerated aging processes.
We refuse to use synthetic preservatives or any synthetic chemicals and we refuse to test on animals so it makes it really challenging to formulate products that have an acceptable shelf-life. For example, it has taken us 9 months of testing and multiple formulations for our glosses to ensure they'll last in your purse for a year, or more.
The other challenge we have is finding sustainable packaging. It's easy and cheap to pop a lipstick or gloss in a plastic container. Much harder to find attractive sustainable packaging with bamboo, glass and other recycled materials.
To overcome these challenges, we are working closely with our manufacturer whose CEO is a clean beauty chemist and expert in taking unique, clean, vegan formulas from small batches to large scale manufacturing.
Others way you can help
There are lots of ways to contribute, including spreading the word about NipLips™. We’d love for you to follow us on Instagram and Facebook @niplipsbeauty, tell everyone you know about our company and embrace being beautifully, authentically you!
And of course, use the IndieGoGo tools available to you!
