Teenage Rose blooms in the lip balm business

Rose Dyson was fed up with the cost of lip gloss, so she made her own. Catherine Scott meets the 17-year-old entrepreneur

Most 17 year olds are busy worrying about their A levels, learning to drive and deciding which university to apply to.

Rose Dyson from Barnsley is doing all that but at the same time she is running her successful beauty business.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Rose makes all her lip balms and scrubs from her mum and dad’s kitchen and her dad’s garage has been turned into a workshop and storage unit.

Schoolgirl Rose Dysons Pura Cosmetics makes  lip balms and scrubs. Picture Scott MerryleesSchoolgirl Rose Dysons Pura Cosmetics makes  lip balms and scrubs. Picture Scott Merrylees
Schoolgirl Rose Dysons Pura Cosmetics makes lip balms and scrubs. Picture Scott Merrylees

She has recruited her mum to help with packaging and posting her unique flavoured lip balms which come in a variety of flavours.

Rose started what was to become Pura Cosmetics when she was just 15 years old as part of a school enterprise initiative with a couple of friends.

“We were all sick of paying the high prices of lips balms and lip scrubs and so we decided to make our own and sell them for £2.50 around school.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The idea was to create a quality product using natural ingredients aimed but making it affordable for the teenage market.

The fledgling business went so well that they ended up winning the competition. It then underwent a total, professional re-brand and re-name.

Pura Cosmetics was born n July 2015. A bright, new logo, trademark and striking new product image allowed the business to take off to new heights.

Aided by some European Union funding with the help of the ‘Enterprising Young People’ scheme in Barnsley, word-of-mouth and a growing social media platform, the natural lip care products were becoming increasingly popular.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Social media has been incredibly important in growing the business, “ says Rose.

Schoolgirl Rose Dysons Pura Cosmetics makes  lip balms and scrubs. Picture Scott MerryleesSchoolgirl Rose Dysons Pura Cosmetics makes  lip balms and scrubs. Picture Scott Merrylees
Schoolgirl Rose Dysons Pura Cosmetics makes lip balms and scrubs. Picture Scott Merrylees

“I use Twitter a lot and get people to come up with new flavours and give me feedback.”

However, at this point Rose was only selling at local craft fairs. Therefore, the next stage of her business venture was launching online.

She recruited a team at Hacksaw Studios to design a complete, stand-out e-commerce website.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Going live in March 2016, the website established Pura Cosmetics’ ability to reach and retail to a national audience.

Alongside online sales, Rose continued and still continues today touring Yorkshire and surrounding areas’ larger markets, fairs and trade events, especially around the Christmas period, when she sold an impressive £5,000 worth of products.

“I love going to the craft fairs and meeting my customers,” says this switched on teenager.

“Providing optimum customer service and the best purchase experience, both online and offline also remains at the forefront of my aims.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

And her achievement hasn’t gone unnoticed and she has a received a host of awards for her business acumen.

She received the Jacqueline Gold CBE #WOW Women in Business award in August 2016, picked as one of the prestigious British businesswoman’s top three businesses out of more than 200 entrants. Jacqueline tweeted “Delighted to announce today’s talented #WOW winners… @PuraCosmetics encourage you to use their carefully designed lip care regime to give your pout a well-deserved, perfect pamper” to her 57,000 followers.

More recently, in November 2016, Rose was awarded Start-Up Business of the Year at the Proud of Barnsley awards, succeeding the other shortlisted businesses who are ran by adults.

She will meet Dragon’s Den star Theo Paphitis next month after winning his Sunday Award recently.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I can hardly believe it, I just love the Dragon’s Den and have watched it since I was little and in some ways inspired me to start my own business and now I am going to meet Theo,it’s unbelievable,” says this charming 17-year-old.

And she has also been nominated for the Yorkshire Choice Awards for most Inspirational Individual.

Alongside these several business accolades, Rose has also taken a large interest in inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs, something that she cares deeply about and something she feels needs to be encouraged. She has presented to primary school assemblies about her story and given her top-tips – as a result, there are many more children in the Barnsley area taking part in enterprise projects.

As for her business, as you can imagine Rose has big plans for Pura Cosmetics and her Perfect Pout range.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I want to create an extensive lip range but then move onto other natural beauty products which I’d love to see in high street shops one day.”

She is working on seasonal products and is just launching her range of wedding favours for bridesmaids.

All this is very impressive but what makes this young entrepreneur so incredible is her business acumen.

She has the entire year planned well in advance. Her Valentine’s products were completed well before Christmas.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Christmas is a busy time for us but it is important to plan for the months when things might be a bit slower.”

Although she is concentrating on running her business as well as her school work Rose makes sure she still finds time for her friends and to be a normal teenager.