We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rachel Clinesmith. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rachel below.

Rachel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What can you share with us about the story behind how you found your key vendors?

I started researching and learning about cosmetic formulation and the regulation (or often lack thereof in the beauty industry) when I was in high school. When I was pregnant with my first son, I decided to start my own makeup line and at first we were doing everything by hand out of our kitchen. Eventually as we expanded and grew, we turned to overseas manufacturing and then U.S. Manufacturing for our makeup. It was very difficult to find reliable manufacturers who would actually follow through on the quality they promised or timeframes they promised, even if we ordered samples first. Ultimately it was this lack of infrastructure that led me to shutting down my first brand. I took a step back, completely reverse engineered how I grew my first brand and started Vampyre Cosmetics by doing private label for other indie brands and wholesale exclusively. I used this B2b method to test new manufacturers and built up our capabilities before going direct to consumer. After we finally had several reliable manufacturers and got our costs down, we chose to hire 3plg. A women owned logistics/shipping/warhouse company in New Jersey to start handling all of our fulfillment. It’s very important for us to do business ethically and to support other women owned businesses whenever possible. We made sure that we had that in place before really hitting the gas pedal on marketing direct to consumers so we could scale. We have also partnered with many licensors to reach a wider audience and create products that are more recognizable for our customers since we are a smaller consumer brand. Starting out with a Vampire Vineyards license for our wine bottle shaped lipsticks, eventually then our Emily the Strange and Vincent Price licenses. Now, in 2023 we are launching licensed collections with SILENT HILL by Konami and Alice Cooper.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Rachel, C.E.O. & Founder of Vampyre Cosmetics LLC. Our cosmetics went live on and HotTopic.com in 2022 and have been selling out very quickly! Our products are also sold in over 120 independent stores around the world. We are proudly women owned, disabled owned and LGBT+ owned. Our products are vegan, cruelty free and talc free. They are also super long lasting as they were specifically formulated for stage and screen. We have licensed collections with Emily the Strange & Vincent Price and our Winchester Mystery House, Amy Brown Fairies, Silent Hill (by Konami) & Alice Cooper! licensed collections will launch in 2023!

A little blurb about how we “do” cosmetics:

We strive to be a “beauty disruptor”, renouncing social constructs of beauty and replacing them with individual ones.

We believe no one should have to choose between unique, inspired packaging and high quality, ethical cosmetics, so we are committed to being all in one.

We believe gender is a construct and has no place in our business. We refuse to gender our products because they are for everyone.

We want to help those who use our products to feel empowered enough to show up in their skin however they wish.

We also believe vegan, cruelty and talc free should be the baseline for cosmetics, not something to brag about.

We believe beauty is in everyone. We simply provide tools as an option for the expression of it.

Our “mini-manifesto” is found on the backs of all new palettes and boxes:

Makeup is Magickal.
Steeped in academia and dark lore, we create products for the people mainstream brands leave behind.

We believe you should be able to express yourself as you wish.

Vampyre Cosmetics gives you the tools to define your aesthetic and begin your makeup adventure.

About our owners: New Orleans Native, Rachel Clinesmith aka SWAMP WITCH /Swampophile on Social Media is the Editor in Chief of Vampyre Magazine and Co-Owner & Founder of Vampyre Cosmetics LLC. Actually Autistic & ADHD, makeup has been a special interest since she was 13. She has been designing custom cosmetics products for a number of other independent brands and celebrities since 2011. She created Vampyre Cosmetics LLC for the niches mainstream brands leave behind. Her experience working with the music, pinup, burlesque, and horror communities/industries has given her first-hand knowledge of the needs of these subcultures
&Karen Holton Is an artist, entrepreneur and San Francisco Bay Area native. In 2021 she left a rewarding, yet creatively stifling, 15 year career in healthcare due to complications with Lyme disease. She spent the next year educating herself and honing multiple creative skills at a maker space. She’s built up her home “mad scientist lab” which now consists of a laser cutter, resin printer, vacuum chamber and Nomad 3 desktop CNC router. In 2022 she partnered with Rachel and now focuses her expertise on consulting, creative collaboration, and innovative solutions in product design, marketing and branding.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I started out focusing on Private Label and wholesale orders to build up our manufacturing processes and nail down our product line. Then after securing several licenses, my friend Karen came on as investor in Summer of 2022. Then our publicist Lisa joined on as an investor after working with us for almost a year when we obtained licenses with Konami and Alice Cooper. We are women owned and wanted to stay that way. Credit is a special interest of Karen’s so she has worked to built up our business credit.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

We don’t have a huge social media presence yet, 32k on Facebook, almost 6k on Instagram and 1300 on TikTok but we’ve built them up mostly organically. We try to create content that is authentic and mostly use content that is created for us by smaller influencers and customers. Our message of inclusivity and shunning standards of beauty is clearly resonating though and we are finding our people slowly but surely.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.vampyrecosmetics.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/vampyrecosmetics
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VAMPYRECOSMETICS
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/10684826/admin/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@VAMPYRECOSMETICS

Image Credits
Main image is An Ethereal Fire Photography (Chris Koeppen), photo of myself and Karen solely is Aries Nola Photography