September 29, 2025 • 23 mins
History is written in lipstick, not ink! This week we chat to Mecca's Chief Purpose Officer, Lisa Keenan, about the groundbreaking MECCA Archive, a tribute to the women, products, and defining moments that have shaped beauty culture since the year 2000.
This archive isn't just about products; it's a living record of beauty's culture and its power of storytelling. We explore the most significant shifts of the last 25 years: the rise of wellness culture, the emergence of "skintelligence," and the no-makeup makeup phenomenon. Lisa shares the feminist framework behind the MECCA Archive, exploring why lipstick is a symbol of freedom and how social media helped consumers rewrite the beauty rulebook (and gave staff the courage to name the famous NARS blush!). Plus, she shares her personal routine and details on Mecca's exclusive archive collections.
PRODUCTS MENTIONED:
- Dr. Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Universal Daily Peel $36 - $264
- MECCA COSMETICA To Save Face SPF50+ Superscreen $22 - 80
- NARS Blush 4.8g $62
- Mecca Max Eye Pencil $16
- Charlotte Tilbury Lip Gloss $54
- Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Push Up Lashes Mascara $50
- By Terry Ombre Blackstar $65
- Sol de Janeiro Perfume Mist $43
- Tower 28 $28
- Drunk Elephant
- Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat Radiant $80
- Westman Atelier Face Trace Contour Stick $83
- Westman Atelier Vital Skincare Complexion Drops $117
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CREDITS:
Hosts: Kelly
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
You're listening to a MoMA Mia podcast. Mama Mia acknowledges
the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast
is recorded on Makeup is My Therapy.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I'm obsessed and I don't even feel guilty about it.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I'm Keller McCarran and welcome to the formula today. You're
in for a little history lesson, but a really fun one.
We are talking all things beauty, history and Hall of
Fame with none other than Lisa Keenan from Mecca to
give us all of the insider goss about this incredible
new initiative that they have started.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You are such beautiful skill, but how okay?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
So Lisa, I was reading through the press release yesterday
and I was like, these are epic. Why was it
time for beauty to finally have its own hall of fame,
a living record of its culture.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
We have been on a journey really for twenty eight
years about making beauty something more than products and services
and transactions, but really kind of bringing it to the
fore as something that is a profoundly important way for
women to show what's important to them, to reflect the
world around them, and that's what beauty has always been.
(01:29):
But if you go into most art galleries or libraries
or museums around the world, it doesn't really have its
own place, and less one percent of record history is
about women, and yet here we are with this incredibly
powerful vehicle for female storytelling and recognition and a record
of beauty as culture. We thought it was about time
(01:51):
that we put that into place, and you're right, it has.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Been an extraordinarily large undertaking.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
I don't think we quite realized what it would be, but
it has also just been magnificent. I feel like I
have personally learned so much about even just the last
one hundred and twenty five years of beauty in Australia
and the journey of women. And I think, well, for us,
we want this to feel not like a museum, but
like a more curated, beauty focused version of Wikipedia. You
(02:21):
want it to be something that is genuinely contributed to
by our community. So the archive is intended. It started
as a digital digital first, but over time it will
absolutely grow into physical expressions and we're really excited about,
you know, what the future might hold.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
You're so right that we just don't have that much
of a place in place, you know, the art gallery
and that sort of thing. And I'm sitting here thinking
about it. Why can't a lipstick, the very first lipstick
be in an art gallery, bloke, and before blokes will
be Oh, you know, it's so silly. Oh, it's just
(02:58):
so frivolous. You've got swords. Swords are silly, Yes, exactly
Why do we have swords and guns in like a
bit of chain, but we don't have something that has
made so many women and men around the world so
happy or being such a big part of their life
(03:19):
for so many years.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
You think about and there are some stories like this
on the archive, and one of my favorites is about
post World War two. They went into a concentration camp
and it was bergen Belsen. They went into this concentration
camp and found that women were wearing red lipstick. Prisoners
of war were wearing red lipstick, and it was just
this spirit of sort of this symbol of freedom and
(03:44):
expression that they hadn't lost themselves even in all of
that horror. And I just think it's it is such
an important tool. And you know, the tools of beauty
are the tools of women. You know, they're not swords
and they're not shields, but they're really important.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
And they're just as powerful because they make us feel
a certain way that really was quite like it makes
me a little bit teary thinking about that.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I know, it's beautiful, it is beautiful.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
The sense of the chapters are really important because it
will give the community a theme to work towards. So
this year we celebrated twenty first Century Girl, which was
the sort of look back at how beauty has changed
and how women have changed over the last twenty five
years of this century and some of the kind of
defining shifts that have really shown up in beauty. And
(04:31):
it's been super to see how our teams and our
customers are kind of getting behind this with nostalgia and
you know, the reflection of or where were you when
you know, social media came out because before then we
used to get beauty tips and advice, as you will
remember from magazines and you know, beauty editors, and then
(04:52):
now it's just this incredible environment where we share via
our bathrooms and trends go viral in a nanosecond and
it's totally democratized and it's completely changed. So influence has
completely changed.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
And anyone can have influencer an impact on industry. Yeah, yeah,
your title Chief Purpose Officer is also so indicative of
a shift in the industry, So could you explain what
that role entails and why having a purpose is so
important for a beauty Brandlack Mecca.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
My role is to make sure that as we go
about our business, we are doing so with a really
clear focus on empowering and elevating women and girls and
pushing for gender equality and using beauty as that force
for change. And you can see this in the way
that beauty has changed over the last one hundred and
(05:48):
twenty five years, where it is so much more democratic,
it is so much more inclusive. There's no sort of
fixed standard of what beauty is. It is all about
an individual's sense of looking, feeling, and being their best
and that's been at the heart of Mecca since the
very very beginning. And so we have pulled together a
campaign that is in stores and online at the moment,
(06:11):
which is celebrating the last twenty five years of beauty
and these for these sort of significant shifts, these four
significant shifts that we've been working with, and you know,
it's an amazing curation of some of the best products
that represent those shifts that we've worked with our brands
to bring to life.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
And you know, it's things like the you know.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Nadasm blush, which is such an icon and you know,
back when it was launched, our teams couldn't even.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Say the word. They were too embarrassed.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
But you know, and then other things like Dennis Gross,
you know, the original pioneer of cosmeceuticals that made that
accessible to people in their bathrooms, didn't have to go
to a sellon for it. So it's a really beautiful
way of bringing the campaign and bringing this storytelling and
this deeper meaning behind the brands, the products, what actually
(06:59):
inspired those brand founders to create the products in the
first place, bringing that to our customers in a really
meaningful way. And every one of them comes with our Inauguralaine,
which is basically a fecal expression of some of the
contributions we've got from the archive, and it's you know,
everything from amazing archival photography from fronts one now it's
(07:20):
to contributions from police Lonan who was one of the
creative director of Goop, Jennifer Aniston.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
There's some incredible storytelling in there.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
They look incredible. I've got to decide which one I
want to purchase because they just look so lovely.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I have tips, I have.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
So the archive is a major collaboration with many cultural voices.
How did you approach deciding which stories to tell first?
Was there a friendly debate, for example, which was more
definity of the JHD Straight Now or the Matt Liquid Lipstick.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yes, we're all sitting around a table like debating.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Look, you know we didn't lead with the products to
start with. We led with Every archive needs a framework,
it needs a compass. And we've worked with a cultural
archivist who has a really deep grounding in gender equality,
and she's created a sort of feminist framework that looks
at which entry should be included, how the story should
(08:23):
be told, and it really seeks to make sure that
all of the voices that have historically been left out
of Beauty and by that I mean often indigenous voices,
the voices of migrant women, certainly in Australia and New Zealand,
you know, working women. Some of these voices just haven't
really been recorded.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And even in the.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Last twenty five years, if you think about how much
of our time has been spent online in algorithm driven
in moments where the feed just vanishes overnight, nothing's been captured.
And so what we sort of set out to do
is to create a framework whereby we can not only
invite our community to contribute, but we could do so
in a way that was making sure that when we
are creating it, we're doing so really intentionally and making
(09:05):
space for those voices that haven't always been represented.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
So that was for step number one.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
And once we had that in place, we were then
able to say, okay, well, who is in our community.
We have a you know, incredible seven and a half
thousand team members, we have more than two hundred brand founders,
and we have this incredible ecosystem of people who have
a real perspective on beauty, whether they are involved in
(09:32):
the industry or whether they are authors like and the
funder who has a really profound, sort of lived experience
of beauty and has written a most extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Essay for us.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
So all of these parts of the meccaverse have been
part of coming together to create the stories of the archive.
And it will grow, It will grow over time, and
it will sort of keep living, breathing, you know, like
Wikipedia does. I yess with this community contribution, and.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
I really want to see in the Burke Street flagship store.
It'd be cool to have like an actual museum section
where we've got the original of some of the Archive products.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
It would be fine, I mean yes, to watch this
face absolutely on the on the cards.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Okay, very exciting. The latest Archive focuses on the last
twenty five years, diving straight into the rise of wellness,
which is obviously boomed. How has that cultural shift completely
changed what we now expect from all of the products
(10:37):
that we use on our faces or bodies really everywhere.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
I think I think women have, you know, and people
have realized that beauty starts from inside, and it starts
with a feeling, and it starts with a sense of
well being, and you know, like looking your best comes
from feeling your best. And I think the wellness phenomenon
is not going anywhere because that is you know, that
is exactly what that speaks to, which is gut health
(11:03):
and sleep and the microbiome and hormonal health and stress
and all of those things show up on your skin
and in your body. And I think over the last
twenty five years, we've certainly seen people looking not just
at what they're putting on their skin, and certainly the
demand for more transparency and clean ingredients and sustainability, etc.
(11:25):
Has massively grown, but also what they're putting inside themselves.
So yeah, I think that's been a massive shift.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
When we're putting all of these lotions and potions on ourselves,
it's all well and good, what something's going promising that
it's going to do. But if we're not well and
we've got things that are going on negatively on the inside,
then it's always going to show up. And no matter
what lotions and potions we're putting on ourselves, it's not
going to be able to mask anything. Might still make
us feel a little bit better, but it's like putting
(11:57):
a band aid on.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
You know, you see the rise of bathhouses and you
know cold plunging and all of those things are rituals,
and putting a lotion on is as much about a
ritual of self care and you know, even just that
human touch that is part of feeling good and then
ultimately looking good.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
It is, it's self care. It also spotlights the archive.
It also spotlights the no makeup makeup look which we
are seeing. I mean, I thought of that had sort
of peaked a couple of years ago. But this year,
just looking at different red carpets, it's still sort of
having its moment and having a bit of a resurgence.
What does that say about our culture when we do
(12:39):
we use so many products in the pursuit of looking
like we're not using any products at all.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
I know, it's a really interesting one.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
We've called this one, you know, when we thought about
the sort of edit and the curation around this, we've
actually called it radiance because I think there's two parts
to it. One is the genuinely, you know, Alicia Keys,
Pamela Anderson, bare faced just reclaiming the beauty that they
are and not feeling any need to just leading with
(13:07):
their skin, which is so.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Beautiful and so empowered.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
And then the other one is this you know, no
makeup makeup where you actually which is kind of challenging,
where you want to look like you're not wearing anything,
but you're actually wearing a lot.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
And that's really that is a that is a really interesting.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
One, and I think that all of that is about
the skin as canvas and making sure that you're glowing
that glowy skin. First thing is coming out, and then
there's the other element of it, of the sort of
radiance phenomenon, which is, you know, back to people like
Johnny Davey with euphoria and all of the duel the
(13:46):
be juzzling and eyegems and you know, amazing sort of
sparkles and stuff. So I think radiance has got It's
had a lot of dimensions in the last twenty five years,
some more complicated, but I think ultimately it's about women
stepping into you know, who they are and perhaps being
a bit unapologetic about that and not needing to feel
(14:09):
like they have to have particular, you know, huge amounts
of color to be able to express who they are.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
And I guess it's worth noting that part of radiance
is that even the incredible women that are walking a
red carpet bare faced, they are leading with incredible skin
that is clearly really well cared for, because it'd be
very it'd be fine, but they're not walking up, they're
(14:37):
not walking on the red carpet with like dryve flakey bits, and.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
They've taken care of their skin exactly. And I think
that and so they're all connected. You know, that goes
back to the well being thing. You know, your only
your skin is only going to look as good as
you feel on the inside, as you know, the good
night's sleep and the healthy diet and lots of water
and all of that stuff, and also really good skin
and suncare routine.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Obviously we're obsessed with some care, so loads of SPS.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Was actually quite funny because my skin is in pretty
good niket moment. But I was getting a facial last week,
and I'm very good at masking how dry my skin
is with skin flooding and then beautiful like glowy products
when I'm doing my makeup. So at first she was like, oh,
your skin's in great neck and then she sort of
takes all my makeup and skin care. Often she goes,
(15:28):
are you are you drinking water? And I said yeah.
She goes, Okay, how much? And I said, oh a lot.
She goes, all right, well, are you eating fruits and
vegetables every day?
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Because we need to be eating our water as well.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
So it was just so clear that I wasn't even
though I was masking it so well. Once she took
everything off, she was like, oh, you are not taking
good care of yourself because your skin is screaming for hydration.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Well, you would never tell, and I must say ever
since I discovered Gucci Westman skin drops, I have never
looked back.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Honestly, that is just a miracle. That is a mask
for us dry golies. It's perfect.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Yeah, It's like the modern version of tusche Clar. It's
just incredible.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Oh my goodness, it's so good. I'm obsessed with like
every single product they do. Social media has definitely we've
sort of touched on this earlier, completely rewritten the beauty
rule book. So how did you approach capturing the incredible
speed and creative energy of YouTube and TikTok and Instagram
and all of the social media for the archive.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
It is such an interesting shift.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
And you know, again, as with most things in culture,
there's the light and then there's the shadow. And social
media has not been overwhelmingly positive. But the one thing
that has been extraordinary about it is that it has
brought a sense of agency and a sense of belonging
and voice to so many people. And you think about
(16:55):
the number of content creators, the number of trends that
have just gone viral from a bathroom and products like
Solder Genero, like Tower twenty eight, drunk Elephant that have
literally taken off because they tapped into a zeitgeist. They
tapped into a feeling that people wanted and that was
shared literally person to person across the world. And so
(17:18):
that virality and that sense of influence being not top
down but side by side, and trends being determined by
us as consumers of beauty rather than by some sort
of powers that be. That was kind of what we
wanted to showcase and shine a light on. And so
the edits, the story of sharing we've called it is
(17:39):
really around those products and those brands that did tap
into something that was just the lightning rod of where
the community was at that moment in time. And it
is brands like Sol and Tower who just brought something
fresh and something new and something that appealed to a
generation that was growing up online.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
When you look at.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
The four pillars so wellness, skin, intelligence, natural makeup, and
social media, what's the big picture story they tell about
our culture's evolution for the past twenty twenty five years.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I think the real story is that beauty is always changing,
it's always evolving, and it evolves with us, and it's
a mirror of what's going on in the lives of
women and in the lives of our culture around us,
which is why we think beauty is such a It
is this powerful form of culture. It's just like art
and music and literature in the sense that it is
a storytelling vehicle. And you can see how the shape
(18:35):
shifting of the last twenty five years through those trends
and through the Mecca Archive, which is the sort of
curated edit of There are more than thirty one brands
and products in that edit, but that's sort of the
journey of the last twenty five years and some of
the innovation and the creation and the storytelling that has
gone on through that process. And one of the things
(18:57):
that we really wanted to do with this archive, and
specifically by aligning it to International Day of the Girl,
which is on the eleventh of October annually, is to
first of all, really profoundly recognize that in an environment
where no country in the world has achieved gender equality,
one day year is not going to cover it. We
actually just we need to be spending more time on
(19:18):
this as a society. And secondly, we really wanted girls
to be able to see the journey of beauty and
see themselves as agents and co authors of what happens next.
So it's kind of an invitation to say, you know,
this is always evolving, it's always changing. We write this story,
(19:39):
everybody gets to write this story, and we really want
you to be part of it. And so what I'm
really excited to see is what happens in beauty and
through beauty over the next twenty five years.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
I think the key thing that just really stood out
to me with storytelling when I think about spotting a
lipstick on a billboard before two thousand compared to now,
the main thing that sort of carried the entire way
through and that's just gotten stronger and stronger in what
people want is that storytelling, connection, authenticity. They don't want
(20:12):
some picture perfect face tuned image blown up. They want
to see what's that lipstick really look like on a
person and what's the story? Like where is she going?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:24):
How long did it last for?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Like?
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Just that's what's I think you really nailed that with
the storytelling.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
And I think it is true. You know, women's history
gets written in lipstick, not an ink.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
My favorite.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
You are a mecha insider as someone that has access
to all of the wonderful things there can we please
finish with a little glimpse into your personal routine. What
are some of your favorite products now?
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Well, definitely doctor Dennis Gross daily Peel.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
I love that. I think that's just so good.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
I rediscovered that not long ago. I hid them from
myself because I was like, I don't want to have
to buy anymore. And then I found them, so I
forgot about them. Then I found them, I was like,
oh my goodness, that's why I hit them.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
They're so good. They're beautiful.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Definitely Mecha to save face sunscreen every day, Gucci Westman,
you know skin drops.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Love those.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Probably a Mecha Max eye pencil. I love all of
the colors. I just love how easy it is. And
then Charlotte Tilbury lip gloss. Oh and Charlotte till Repillow
Talk mascara. That's rather you know, can't live without.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Oh yeah, beautiful.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
And what's one product that you don't think gets enough attention?
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Oh so I think by Terry. This is Enbread Blackstar.
It is the original smoky eye. It is the absolute
easiest way to get a smoky eye if ever you
wanted one.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
That's great.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
She was an amazing makeup artist from the seventies and eighties.
She actually she invented Tosha for ysel. Yeah, and now
she's got her own range. She's extraordinary and that is
just an iconic product.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
That's a great little history tidbit. Well, thank you so much.
You've given us so much insight, and I think that
everyone that's listened is going to jump online and have
a look at or head into their local mecha and
have a look at the archive and pick their favorite,
maybe pop it on their Christmas wish list.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
It would be an amazing Christmas gift actually, because it's
a collectible.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Exactly about it as collectible.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
And I saw that with one of them, there's only
five hundred made.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
That's right, that's the Mecha archive, the Time Capsule, which
is really our kind of ode to the last twenty
five years of beauty, and there are only five hundred,
so all super limited edition and just really really beautiful products,
you know, tremendous value. This has been a real true
collaboration with our brand. So they're extraordinary value and they're
(23:05):
just beautiful.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Which would be your pick out of all of them?
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Well, I really love the story of Knowing, which is
around skintelligence and ingredient intelligence and it's all really high
performance skincare, and it's all the sort of products and
brands that I love for really glowy skin, but they're
all fantastic.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Thank you so much. Well, that's it for today. Thanks
so much for listening to you, beauty. Make sure you're
following us on Instagram and TikTok, and you can watch
this and more episodes on our amazing YouTube channel. Get
over there, like and subscribe for now, Thanks for joining me,
and chat to you next time. Bye,
You're listening to a MoMA Mia podcast. Mama Mia acknowledges
the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast
is recorded on Makeup is My Therapy.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I'm obsessed and I don't even feel guilty about it.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I'm Keller McCarran and welcome to the formula today. You're
in for a little history lesson, but a really fun one.
We are talking all things beauty, history and Hall of
Fame with none other than Lisa Keenan from Mecca to
give us all of the insider goss about this incredible
new initiative that they have started.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You are such beautiful skill, but how okay?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
So Lisa, I was reading through the press release yesterday
and I was like, these are epic. Why was it
time for beauty to finally have its own hall of fame,
a living record of its culture.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
We have been on a journey really for twenty eight
years about making beauty something more than products and services
and transactions, but really kind of bringing it to the
fore as something that is a profoundly important way for
women to show what's important to them, to reflect the
world around them, and that's what beauty has always been.
(01:29):
But if you go into most art galleries or libraries
or museums around the world, it doesn't really have its
own place, and less one percent of record history is
about women, and yet here we are with this incredibly
powerful vehicle for female storytelling and recognition and a record
of beauty as culture. We thought it was about time
(01:51):
that we put that into place, and you're right, it has.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Been an extraordinarily large undertaking.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
I don't think we quite realized what it would be, but
it has also just been magnificent. I feel like I
have personally learned so much about even just the last
one hundred and twenty five years of beauty in Australia
and the journey of women. And I think, well, for us,
we want this to feel not like a museum, but
like a more curated, beauty focused version of Wikipedia. You
(02:21):
want it to be something that is genuinely contributed to
by our community. So the archive is intended. It started
as a digital digital first, but over time it will
absolutely grow into physical expressions and we're really excited about,
you know, what the future might hold.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
You're so right that we just don't have that much
of a place in place, you know, the art gallery
and that sort of thing. And I'm sitting here thinking
about it. Why can't a lipstick, the very first lipstick
be in an art gallery, bloke, and before blokes will
be Oh, you know, it's so silly. Oh, it's just
(02:58):
so frivolous. You've got swords. Swords are silly, Yes, exactly
Why do we have swords and guns in like a
bit of chain, but we don't have something that has
made so many women and men around the world so
happy or being such a big part of their life
(03:19):
for so many years.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
You think about and there are some stories like this
on the archive, and one of my favorites is about
post World War two. They went into a concentration camp
and it was bergen Belsen. They went into this concentration
camp and found that women were wearing red lipstick. Prisoners
of war were wearing red lipstick, and it was just
this spirit of sort of this symbol of freedom and
(03:44):
expression that they hadn't lost themselves even in all of
that horror. And I just think it's it is such
an important tool. And you know, the tools of beauty
are the tools of women. You know, they're not swords
and they're not shields, but they're really important.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
And they're just as powerful because they make us feel
a certain way that really was quite like it makes
me a little bit teary thinking about that.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I know, it's beautiful, it is beautiful.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
The sense of the chapters are really important because it
will give the community a theme to work towards. So
this year we celebrated twenty first Century Girl, which was
the sort of look back at how beauty has changed
and how women have changed over the last twenty five
years of this century and some of the kind of
defining shifts that have really shown up in beauty. And
(04:31):
it's been super to see how our teams and our
customers are kind of getting behind this with nostalgia and
you know, the reflection of or where were you when
you know, social media came out because before then we
used to get beauty tips and advice, as you will
remember from magazines and you know, beauty editors, and then
(04:52):
now it's just this incredible environment where we share via
our bathrooms and trends go viral in a nanosecond and
it's totally democratized and it's completely changed. So influence has
completely changed.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
And anyone can have influencer an impact on industry. Yeah, yeah,
your title Chief Purpose Officer is also so indicative of
a shift in the industry, So could you explain what
that role entails and why having a purpose is so
important for a beauty Brandlack Mecca.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
My role is to make sure that as we go
about our business, we are doing so with a really
clear focus on empowering and elevating women and girls and
pushing for gender equality and using beauty as that force
for change. And you can see this in the way
that beauty has changed over the last one hundred and
(05:48):
twenty five years, where it is so much more democratic,
it is so much more inclusive. There's no sort of
fixed standard of what beauty is. It is all about
an individual's sense of looking, feeling, and being their best
and that's been at the heart of Mecca since the
very very beginning. And so we have pulled together a
campaign that is in stores and online at the moment,
(06:11):
which is celebrating the last twenty five years of beauty
and these for these sort of significant shifts, these four
significant shifts that we've been working with, and you know,
it's an amazing curation of some of the best products
that represent those shifts that we've worked with our brands
to bring to life.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
And you know, it's things like the you know.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Nadasm blush, which is such an icon and you know,
back when it was launched, our teams couldn't even.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Say the word. They were too embarrassed.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
But you know, and then other things like Dennis Gross,
you know, the original pioneer of cosmeceuticals that made that
accessible to people in their bathrooms, didn't have to go
to a sellon for it. So it's a really beautiful
way of bringing the campaign and bringing this storytelling and
this deeper meaning behind the brands, the products, what actually
(06:59):
inspired those brand founders to create the products in the
first place, bringing that to our customers in a really
meaningful way. And every one of them comes with our Inauguralaine,
which is basically a fecal expression of some of the
contributions we've got from the archive, and it's you know,
everything from amazing archival photography from fronts one now it's
(07:20):
to contributions from police Lonan who was one of the
creative director of Goop, Jennifer Aniston.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
There's some incredible storytelling in there.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
They look incredible. I've got to decide which one I
want to purchase because they just look so lovely.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I have tips, I have.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
So the archive is a major collaboration with many cultural voices.
How did you approach deciding which stories to tell first?
Was there a friendly debate, for example, which was more
definity of the JHD Straight Now or the Matt Liquid Lipstick.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yes, we're all sitting around a table like debating.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Look, you know we didn't lead with the products to
start with. We led with Every archive needs a framework,
it needs a compass. And we've worked with a cultural
archivist who has a really deep grounding in gender equality,
and she's created a sort of feminist framework that looks
at which entry should be included, how the story should
(08:23):
be told, and it really seeks to make sure that
all of the voices that have historically been left out
of Beauty and by that I mean often indigenous voices,
the voices of migrant women, certainly in Australia and New Zealand,
you know, working women. Some of these voices just haven't
really been recorded.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And even in the.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Last twenty five years, if you think about how much
of our time has been spent online in algorithm driven
in moments where the feed just vanishes overnight, nothing's been captured.
And so what we sort of set out to do
is to create a framework whereby we can not only
invite our community to contribute, but we could do so
in a way that was making sure that when we
are creating it, we're doing so really intentionally and making
(09:05):
space for those voices that haven't always been represented.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
So that was for step number one.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
And once we had that in place, we were then
able to say, okay, well, who is in our community.
We have a you know, incredible seven and a half
thousand team members, we have more than two hundred brand founders,
and we have this incredible ecosystem of people who have
a real perspective on beauty, whether they are involved in
(09:32):
the industry or whether they are authors like and the
funder who has a really profound, sort of lived experience
of beauty and has written a most extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Essay for us.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
So all of these parts of the meccaverse have been
part of coming together to create the stories of the archive.
And it will grow, It will grow over time, and
it will sort of keep living, breathing, you know, like
Wikipedia does. I yess with this community contribution, and.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
I really want to see in the Burke Street flagship store.
It'd be cool to have like an actual museum section
where we've got the original of some of the Archive products.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
It would be fine, I mean yes, to watch this
face absolutely on the on the cards.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Okay, very exciting. The latest Archive focuses on the last
twenty five years, diving straight into the rise of wellness,
which is obviously boomed. How has that cultural shift completely
changed what we now expect from all of the products
(10:37):
that we use on our faces or bodies really everywhere.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
I think I think women have, you know, and people
have realized that beauty starts from inside, and it starts
with a feeling, and it starts with a sense of
well being, and you know, like looking your best comes
from feeling your best. And I think the wellness phenomenon
is not going anywhere because that is you know, that
is exactly what that speaks to, which is gut health
(11:03):
and sleep and the microbiome and hormonal health and stress
and all of those things show up on your skin
and in your body. And I think over the last
twenty five years, we've certainly seen people looking not just
at what they're putting on their skin, and certainly the
demand for more transparency and clean ingredients and sustainability, etc.
(11:25):
Has massively grown, but also what they're putting inside themselves.
So yeah, I think that's been a massive shift.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
When we're putting all of these lotions and potions on ourselves,
it's all well and good, what something's going promising that
it's going to do. But if we're not well and
we've got things that are going on negatively on the inside,
then it's always going to show up. And no matter
what lotions and potions we're putting on ourselves, it's not
going to be able to mask anything. Might still make
us feel a little bit better, but it's like putting
(11:57):
a band aid on.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
You know, you see the rise of bathhouses and you
know cold plunging and all of those things are rituals,
and putting a lotion on is as much about a
ritual of self care and you know, even just that
human touch that is part of feeling good and then
ultimately looking good.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
It is, it's self care. It also spotlights the archive.
It also spotlights the no makeup makeup look which we
are seeing. I mean, I thought of that had sort
of peaked a couple of years ago. But this year,
just looking at different red carpets, it's still sort of
having its moment and having a bit of a resurgence.
What does that say about our culture when we do
(12:39):
we use so many products in the pursuit of looking
like we're not using any products at all.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
I know, it's a really interesting one.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
We've called this one, you know, when we thought about
the sort of edit and the curation around this, we've
actually called it radiance because I think there's two parts
to it. One is the genuinely, you know, Alicia Keys,
Pamela Anderson, bare faced just reclaiming the beauty that they
are and not feeling any need to just leading with
(13:07):
their skin, which is so.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Beautiful and so empowered.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
And then the other one is this you know, no
makeup makeup where you actually which is kind of challenging,
where you want to look like you're not wearing anything,
but you're actually wearing a lot.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
And that's really that is a that is a really interesting.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
One, and I think that all of that is about
the skin as canvas and making sure that you're glowing
that glowy skin. First thing is coming out, and then
there's the other element of it, of the sort of
radiance phenomenon, which is, you know, back to people like
Johnny Davey with euphoria and all of the duel the
(13:46):
be juzzling and eyegems and you know, amazing sort of
sparkles and stuff. So I think radiance has got It's
had a lot of dimensions in the last twenty five years,
some more complicated, but I think ultimately it's about women
stepping into you know, who they are and perhaps being
a bit unapologetic about that and not needing to feel
(14:09):
like they have to have particular, you know, huge amounts
of color to be able to express who they are.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
And I guess it's worth noting that part of radiance
is that even the incredible women that are walking a
red carpet bare faced, they are leading with incredible skin
that is clearly really well cared for, because it'd be
very it'd be fine, but they're not walking up, they're
(14:37):
not walking on the red carpet with like dryve flakey bits, and.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
They've taken care of their skin exactly. And I think
that and so they're all connected. You know, that goes
back to the well being thing. You know, your only
your skin is only going to look as good as
you feel on the inside, as you know, the good
night's sleep and the healthy diet and lots of water
and all of that stuff, and also really good skin
and suncare routine.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Obviously we're obsessed with some care, so loads of SPS.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Was actually quite funny because my skin is in pretty
good niket moment. But I was getting a facial last week,
and I'm very good at masking how dry my skin
is with skin flooding and then beautiful like glowy products
when I'm doing my makeup. So at first she was like, oh,
your skin's in great neck and then she sort of
takes all my makeup and skin care. Often she goes,
(15:28):
are you are you drinking water? And I said yeah.
She goes, Okay, how much? And I said, oh a lot.
She goes, all right, well, are you eating fruits and
vegetables every day?
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Because we need to be eating our water as well.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
So it was just so clear that I wasn't even
though I was masking it so well. Once she took
everything off, she was like, oh, you are not taking
good care of yourself because your skin is screaming for hydration.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Well, you would never tell, and I must say ever
since I discovered Gucci Westman skin drops, I have never
looked back.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Honestly, that is just a miracle. That is a mask
for us dry golies. It's perfect.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Yeah, It's like the modern version of tusche Clar. It's
just incredible.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Oh my goodness, it's so good. I'm obsessed with like
every single product they do. Social media has definitely we've
sort of touched on this earlier, completely rewritten the beauty
rule book. So how did you approach capturing the incredible
speed and creative energy of YouTube and TikTok and Instagram
and all of the social media for the archive.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
It is such an interesting shift.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
And you know, again, as with most things in culture,
there's the light and then there's the shadow. And social
media has not been overwhelmingly positive. But the one thing
that has been extraordinary about it is that it has
brought a sense of agency and a sense of belonging
and voice to so many people. And you think about
(16:55):
the number of content creators, the number of trends that
have just gone viral from a bathroom and products like
Solder Genero, like Tower twenty eight, drunk Elephant that have
literally taken off because they tapped into a zeitgeist. They
tapped into a feeling that people wanted and that was
shared literally person to person across the world. And so
(17:18):
that virality and that sense of influence being not top
down but side by side, and trends being determined by
us as consumers of beauty rather than by some sort
of powers that be. That was kind of what we
wanted to showcase and shine a light on. And so
the edits, the story of sharing we've called it is
(17:39):
really around those products and those brands that did tap
into something that was just the lightning rod of where
the community was at that moment in time. And it
is brands like Sol and Tower who just brought something
fresh and something new and something that appealed to a
generation that was growing up online.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
When you look at.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
The four pillars so wellness, skin, intelligence, natural makeup, and
social media, what's the big picture story they tell about
our culture's evolution for the past twenty twenty five years.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I think the real story is that beauty is always changing,
it's always evolving, and it evolves with us, and it's
a mirror of what's going on in the lives of
women and in the lives of our culture around us,
which is why we think beauty is such a It
is this powerful form of culture. It's just like art
and music and literature in the sense that it is
a storytelling vehicle. And you can see how the shape
(18:35):
shifting of the last twenty five years through those trends
and through the Mecca Archive, which is the sort of
curated edit of There are more than thirty one brands
and products in that edit, but that's sort of the
journey of the last twenty five years and some of
the innovation and the creation and the storytelling that has
gone on through that process. And one of the things
(18:57):
that we really wanted to do with this archive, and
specifically by aligning it to International Day of the Girl,
which is on the eleventh of October annually, is to
first of all, really profoundly recognize that in an environment
where no country in the world has achieved gender equality,
one day year is not going to cover it. We
actually just we need to be spending more time on
(19:18):
this as a society. And secondly, we really wanted girls
to be able to see the journey of beauty and
see themselves as agents and co authors of what happens next.
So it's kind of an invitation to say, you know,
this is always evolving, it's always changing. We write this story,
(19:39):
everybody gets to write this story, and we really want
you to be part of it. And so what I'm
really excited to see is what happens in beauty and
through beauty over the next twenty five years.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
I think the key thing that just really stood out
to me with storytelling when I think about spotting a
lipstick on a billboard before two thousand compared to now,
the main thing that sort of carried the entire way
through and that's just gotten stronger and stronger in what
people want is that storytelling, connection, authenticity. They don't want
(20:12):
some picture perfect face tuned image blown up. They want
to see what's that lipstick really look like on a
person and what's the story? Like where is she going?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:24):
How long did it last for?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Like?
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Just that's what's I think you really nailed that with
the storytelling.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
And I think it is true. You know, women's history
gets written in lipstick, not an ink.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
My favorite.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
You are a mecha insider as someone that has access
to all of the wonderful things there can we please
finish with a little glimpse into your personal routine. What
are some of your favorite products now?
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Well, definitely doctor Dennis Gross daily Peel.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
I love that. I think that's just so good.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
I rediscovered that not long ago. I hid them from
myself because I was like, I don't want to have
to buy anymore. And then I found them, so I
forgot about them. Then I found them, I was like,
oh my goodness, that's why I hit them.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
They're so good. They're beautiful.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Definitely Mecha to save face sunscreen every day, Gucci Westman,
you know skin drops.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Love those.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Probably a Mecha Max eye pencil. I love all of
the colors. I just love how easy it is. And
then Charlotte Tilbury lip gloss. Oh and Charlotte till Repillow
Talk mascara. That's rather you know, can't live without.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Oh yeah, beautiful.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
And what's one product that you don't think gets enough attention?
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Oh so I think by Terry. This is Enbread Blackstar.
It is the original smoky eye. It is the absolute
easiest way to get a smoky eye if ever you
wanted one.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
That's great.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
She was an amazing makeup artist from the seventies and eighties.
She actually she invented Tosha for ysel. Yeah, and now
she's got her own range. She's extraordinary and that is
just an iconic product.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
That's a great little history tidbit. Well, thank you so much.
You've given us so much insight, and I think that
everyone that's listened is going to jump online and have
a look at or head into their local mecha and
have a look at the archive and pick their favorite,
maybe pop it on their Christmas wish list.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
It would be an amazing Christmas gift actually, because it's
a collectible.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Exactly about it as collectible.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
And I saw that with one of them, there's only
five hundred made.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
That's right, that's the Mecha archive, the Time Capsule, which
is really our kind of ode to the last twenty
five years of beauty, and there are only five hundred,
so all super limited edition and just really really beautiful products,
you know, tremendous value. This has been a real true
collaboration with our brand. So they're extraordinary value and they're
(23:05):
just beautiful.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Which would be your pick out of all of them?
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Well, I really love the story of Knowing, which is
around skintelligence and ingredient intelligence and it's all really high
performance skincare, and it's all the sort of products and
brands that I love for really glowy skin, but they're
all fantastic.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Thank you so much. Well, that's it for today. Thanks
so much for listening to you, beauty. Make sure you're
following us on Instagram and TikTok, and you can watch
this and more episodes on our amazing YouTube channel. Get
over there, like and subscribe for now, Thanks for joining me,
and chat to you next time. Bye,
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