Welcome back to our FINAL Favourites Feature! The Blog Series where we have spent the past six months delving into the lives and minds of our favourite MUA's, Bloggers and Influencers. We have talked about everything and anything; from family life, make up journeys, mental health and general life in the spotlight.
This will be our last interview for a little while as we have decided to take a little break from our More Than Make Up features. This essential pause gives us time to work on the business, to begin compiling the most incredible content for our future features, and also gives us a minute to breathe, be present in the moment, and to refocus our vision for Charlie Betty Beauty.
However, worry not, we have saved an absolute cracker of a feature for our final edition! We are beyond proud to be sharing with you a special, inspiring and honest interview. Behold the bare, the beautiful, the boss babe herself, Charlotte Miller of Charlie Betty Beauty.
With empowerment being the soul and core focus of her business, Charlie has built a platform and a following of women who feel that their thoughts, feelings, flaws, strengths and absolutely everything in between are seen, heard and acknowledged. With mental health being the backbone of her community, Charlie has consistently shared her personal experiences along with the opportunity for hundreds of women to be apart of something powerful, and she is not planning on stopping anytime soon!
To continue her message of being honest, open and unapologetically herself, she wanted to take this chance to share more about her experiences with mental health, her make up career and personal parts of her life with her fans. So get the kettle on and get comfy, because what you are about to read will give you the inspiration that you didn't even know you needed today!
What is your full name and where are you from?
I’m Charlotte Miller (originally Fuller), I’m from Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
Tell us a little bit about your background and your story..
All honesty, I had a pretty rubbish childhood. My parents separated when I was 3 so I spent my time flitting between both of their houses, there was a lot of toxicity, a lot of trauma during my childhood which continued through to my early twenties, so it just really wasn’t a fun time for me at all.
My constant passions through all of that were music, reading, and art.
I knew what I wanted to do when I left school was beauty therapy, I focused all my energy on getting my qualifications and just trying to make something of myself, I did 2 years of that then went on to study business studies for another 2 years and then I gained extra qualifications in skincare and beauty on top of that.
When did you discover your love for makeup and how did this affect your life?
I must have been about 11 when my dad introduced me to Brave New World by Toyah, that album cover is literally burned into my brain, it was the first time I’d seen make up being used in a way that was an artistic piece rather than a sweep of eyeshadow and a bit of lipstick that I was so used to seeing from the adults around me. I think that image sparked a lot of things in me in terms of how I viewed make up and used it, it was this that made me want to start experimenting with makeup and the artistry and expression behind it, it got me to where I am now!
Was blogging something that you were passionate about from the beginning or did you just fall into it & how did you decide on make up being the main focus of your blog?
I started the Facebook Group during lockdown, it was definitely a mixture of passions as I’ve always wanted to start blogging, but I never really knew how to go about it, so I just put this on back burner to be honest. Once I created the group, I felt like I could write about things to my hearts content, things that I maybe wanted to talk to people about but never really had the confidence to, but because the people in the group were likeminded people and going through the same things as I was, it was easy to just type away. This then built up my confidence to then start writing about the things that I knew about, the beauty and make up side of things, I felt a relief that I could just log onto the group and write.
How did you take the leap to decide to launch your own business?
I’ve always been business minded, since school I knew exactly what I wanted to do and what I needed to get there, but the light went out when I worked my first proper job as a product developer, I was in that job for 7 years, and it really wore me down. One of my colleagues told me that I was destined for more than what I was doing there and I knew it, I was just scared to take the leap back then. That comment always stuck in my head, I didn’t want to be putting all my energy making money for someone else, so when the final straw came, I started my mobile beauty business, it was 2018 and I loved it, I also worked a full time alongside the beauty, which was exhausting, but being out and making people happy made it worth it.
Fast forward to lockdown 2020, I’d started the facebook group, and I had people that had confidence in me, I had time and I was in a good position financially to start work on The Earth Palette, I’d just started to find myself, I needed to get out of the rut I was in and finally do something that I was passionate about. I was in a position where I could find myself, and also help people along the way.
How long does it take you to develop your products?
I wanted to really make sure The Earth Palette was everything I’d dreamed of, everything had to be perfect for me, so from design, to testing, to formulation and production, it took 6 months in total!
Why make up?
I think make up is fascinating, I think sometimes it gets a bad rep, but it is just pure artistry and I think if you let it, it can really change how you view yourself. I just love what it can do!
Have you come across any resistance with your makeup journey, and if so, how have you coped/overcome it?
I’m quite lucky that I haven’t had any negativity or resistance at all with this journey, I do however admit that I do think a lot about what I post or what I talk about to avoid it at all costs and it does really worry me sometimes.
Does doing your make up and Instagram page help your mental well-being?
I think social media is a double edged sword to be honest, it genuinely scares the living daylights out of me just because of the pressure that it can put on people, it’s so easy for people to be negative, you can never stop that, and I do feel that pressure a lot because social media rules so much of our lives these days. I always make sure I take digital detox’s when I feel it is getting too much for me, and on my worst mental health days, I refuse to even look at it.
Having said that, I have met so many lovely people through what I do, and what I have achieved has come mostly through Instagram, the positivity I get from posting most of the time does mostly outweigh the negative, so I am trying to focus on that rather than pining for likes.
Can you tell us a little more about your experiences with mental health?
I was diagnosed with severe depression in 2014, I think I knew from about age 11 that something was there, but I never really knew how to define it, depression wasn’t as widely talked about at that time, and it definitely wasn’t a word I even knew at 11 years old.
My family didn’t really recognise my issues, mostly because we didn’t really share feelings or worries and I just thought the way I was feeling was ‘just how some people were’ but I also at the same time couldn’t understand why some people were happy all the time, and I think that’s how I learnt very well to pretend that I was.
Mental Health started to become a well talked about topic and it finally gave a definition to what I had been feeling all these years, I stayed quiet about it for a few years, until I had an incident in my life that made me really spiral, I realised at that point that I really needed help. I was diagnosed, I started therapy and I started to talk more openly about my mental health. By talking about it with my family members, I found out they’d also struggled with depression and anxiety, and we were able to talk openly, I felt like it was breakthrough for all of us, like a huge weight had been lifted.
I'm still working my way through therapy, and still trying to find the right fit for me, but it has helped me so much as a person to finally open up, and release years of built up anger and hurt. I've learnt that I can't change the past, but i can change how it affects me and my relationships, and it has 100% helped me become a better person, to myself and my friends and family.
How has your makeup journey helped you as a whole?
I think it helped my confidence a lot, it’s really reignited a purpose and passion in me that I lost. It really helped me find myself, and the way I did my makeup was actually me subconsciously expressing myself when I, at the time didnt really know who I was.
If you could speak to your younger self, what advice would you give?
Let go sooner, it shouldn’t feel exhausting trying to make people happy and trying to keep people in your life. Focus on yourself, your boundaries, and your happiness. The right people will love you for the real you, you don’t need to try and be what they want you to be just for their validation.
How do you aim to inspire others in a similar situation?
I want to encourage people to not be so afraid of opening up about their mental health, it’s a really hard process, but by creating meeting spaces and communities like we have done, where they can feel comfortable, we can help people not feel so alone and know that there is nothing to be ashamed of. Struggling with your mental health is nothing to be ashamed of. I think partnering it with topics like makeup, fashion, beauty and skincare, things that people are passionate about, we can start to talk about mental health more confidently and add it into conversations more freely, as it should be, it's not abnormal, it's not strange, it's a topic, like any other, and it shouldn't be treat like something to be ashamed of.
What is your proudest moment throughout your makeup career?
It may not seem that much to some people, but selling our palette worldwide is huge for me, we sold to 11 states in America in the few months of launch and it just baffled me, we have had orders and reviews from people in France and Italy, and it always overwhelms me thinking that our palette, that started in our stock room in Swinton is now in the hands of someone in Italy.
Charlie Betty Beauty’s Earth Palette was modelled on representing the Earth element – in the 5 elements of earth, air, fire, water and aether, what element would you say you resonate with the most and why?
I started with the Earth Palette during lockdown, I went on a journey of trying to find myself, I spent a lot of time in nature which inspired the shades, looking into the representations of the earth element, I do feel more connected this one.
What is your favourite shade in the Earth Palette?
Haha this is like asking a mother who her favourite child is! HOWEVER, Ivy, is the one that definitely tested me formula wise, and I think she came out amazingly, so IF I did have to choose, it would be this one!
Can you give us a little insight into your vision for the future of Charlie Betty beauty?
I definitely got lost in the business side of things these past two years, I was losing sight of what CBB meant to me and everyone that had supported us. Getting so consumed by social media pressures and the pressure that comes with being a business owner. So i’m taking a month long break throughout July to reignite the purpose behind Charlie Betty Beauty and come back even better than ever. I want to really focus on new collections, new collaborations and do more for the community and the charities we are currently involved in.
Finally, what’s a quote that you live by?
I’ve never really been one for quotes to be honest, however it's a bit of an inside joke that my life motto is ‘mind over matter’, harsh to some, but for me, it’s thinking If I really need something to affect me, If I see something that would normally make me feel down, I will take a minute and think, do I really want this to affect me, does it really matter, is it really worth worrying about? No? Then it doesn’t matter, move on!
So there you have it, the down low from each and every angle of Charlotte Miller's personal and professional life. We love the passion, we the love the determination and we love the desire to keep building a business that is going to change the world! We are all waiting with anticipation to see what comes next, so please don't go away for too long, Charlie!
We also want to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of our wonderful readers who have followed our More Than Make Up journey. If you still haven't caught up, or if you missed the previous feature, then click here to access them all!
Don’t hesitate to let us know your favourite MUAs, Bloggers and Influencers in the comments below. We always need more inspiration and more role models to keep our fires burning! Share, share, share away!!!