By Anna Griffin, Editor in Chief
A Hollywood actress with considerable credits under her belt, which include Days of Our Lives, Melrose Place, Entourage, playing Roxie Hart in Chicago on Broadway, and later adding TV personality to her repertoire with Celebrity Apprentice, Dancing With the Stars, and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Lisa Rinna is a modern, American icon of entertainment. A four-time Emmy nominee for hosting Soap Talk and a New York Times bestselling author with her own fashion line sold on QVC, Rinna is known as much for her lips as she is her body of work as she now expands into the lifestyle sector with Rinna Beauty. Her first offering is unsurprisingly for lips with a selection of lipsticks, glosses, pencils, and her Icon Collection Lip Kits all in her signature nude shades, and with fun names such as Birthday Suit, Legends Only, and No Apologies. What is surprising is that her products are 100% vegan, sulphate, paraben, and phthalate-free, and PETA certified cruelty-free.
Additionally, Rinna Beauty has partnered with The Trevor Project, a non-profit that is the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning) young people, which Rinna explains, “When the time came to choose a partner for Rinna Beauty, the Trevor Project was just a no brainer. I am able to support mental health for young people and the LGBTQ community all at once. It just feels right.” We sat down with Rinna via Zoom to hear more about her latest endeavor, as she now lets her lips do the talking through Rinna Beauty.
Coco Eco:
I am thrilled to be here and congratulations on Rinna Beauty. What a great accomplishment.
Lisa Rinna:
Thank you so much.
CE:
Obviously you're an esteemed actress with a great number of credits under your belt, plus the Housewives. What was your inspiration to get into the beauty industry?
LR:
Well gosh, you know it's been a long time coming. I've wanted to do a lip line for probably 10-15 years because I'm the lip pioneer. My lips have had a career of their own, and it started a very long time ago when I was 24. So I have wanted to do this for a very long time and it was just something that didn’t happen, and I kept getting close to making a deal and then it would fall through. I would not give up and I would get close to making another deal and it would fall through, and that happened about five times. I'm very tenacious and don't give up very easily, so even though I started my fashion line at QVC, I always thought someday I'm going to do this beauty line. I'm just not going to give up and that day finally came, so it was just about having enough tenacity not to give up.
CE:
Wonderful I love that that's a really good message of inspiration for all girls out there right now. What was your inspiration for the palette because it's a really beautiful color scheme?
LR:
Thank you. You know it's what I wear so I wanted to be as authentic as possible and give you what I love, so it took me a very long time to come up with these colors. Now they're all very similar, but yet they work on everybody and it's what I love. For so long people would say “What color are you wearing? What is that lipstick? What is that lip gloss?” I just went off of my hero brands that I love to create these colors.
CE:
And the names. How did you come up with the saucey titles?
LR:
The names are really fun and it really came off of my time spent on the Housewives and my Instagram, and just all the craziness and all the things that I do and all the memes that come up and whatnot. We just used those names and it was very easy to name the products actually.
CE:
I love that. Now obviously you've been very hands-on. Why was it important for you that your products were clean, so paraben, sulfate and phthalate-free?
LR:
It's also cruelty-free, which is all very important for me when I'm buying a product because I want it as clean as possible. I don't want it tested on animals so you know, you’ve got to walk your walk and talk your talk so it had to be that. I spent a long time on the formulations because
I like a certain lipstick and the way it feels and I like a certain lip gloss and the way it feels, so I took a long time in making this what I love so that I could authentically bring it to you.
CE:
I was going to get to the cruelty-free part and the fact that you're PETA-certified cruelty free.
LR:
How about that?
CE:
It’s a huge accomplishment! Congratulations!
LR:
Thank you.
CE:
That must have taken some time to achieve that. That's not an overnight process, right?
LR:
It's important you know, and you can achieve whatever you want in this life. You just have to stay true to yourself and if you do that you can sleep at night, and you can give the world a really product that you're proud of. I think it's just all about timing, and take the time to make it right and we did that here.
CE:
I really love that you've gone the extra mile. We're obviously eco, but not every brand is doing what you've done, so I'm a huge fan of your new line.
LR:
Thank you.
CE:
I want to know what's next. What comes after the lips? The eyes?
LR:
Well, more lips and then we'll go into eyes. We'll go right into eyes because I've been known for my lips and my eyes, and so I think you do that and then we'll go into everything. We have the idea for Rinna Beauty is a lifestyle brand. I don't necessarily call it a beauty brand. I call it a lifestyle brand because it's about a lifestyle, and the inside of who you are and the outside. It's not just about beauty so to speak - it's about an entire way that you live your life.
CE:
I love that. Now one thing I have to ask is skin care. You've got fabulous skin. Can we expect some skincare sometime soon?
LR:
I hope so. Yes I mean we have a long term plan. Obviously I've used everything known to man and so I’m very into skincare. I've had
problem skin my entire life so I've tried everything and I use everything, so yes skin care and hair care.
CE:
One more quick question if it's okay? Because not using animal products or products that are not tested on animals is so important to you, what inspired you in your life to want to make cruelty-free? What inspired you to care about cruelty-free products?
LR:
Because I love animals. I love animals. I love animals.
Photos Courtesy of Rinna Beauty.
Watch the interview below:
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