Aussie woman's broken hand sparked huge beauty business
Storm Menzies has mild cerebral palsy, saying she has always lived with 'very few barriers' and has been able to adapt to living life with the use of one hand.
But, when the 30-year-old broke her dominant hand in 2023 it made her realise 'how bad' her right side was. In that moment, she finally understood how much she'd been overcompensating.
'You normalise your struggles, so it just becomes your everyday,' she told news.com.au.
Initially, she didn't think much of her broken hand. She was getting ready to go out one day, and tried to put makeup on, and she realised how difficult the task actually was.
'It was this moment of, 'Oh my god, how am I going to do this'. Everything else, I could find a workaround but you need a lot of dexterity to apply makeup,' she said.
'There was a tube of mascara and I couldn't pick it up from my makeup bag. I eventually managed to manouver it out, had it open and in my mouth and there was mascara everywhere. I couldn't put it on. It was so hard.'
She sat on her bathroom floor and cried, wondering how she'd leave the house for three months without makeup. So, she started to Google accessible makeup. She couldn't find a single thing — bar one business that didn't ship to Australia at the time.
Ms Menzies was confused, thinking maybe she was searching the wrong terms. She called a friend, who is also disabled and always looks immaculate, according to the Newcastle-based woman. She wanted to know how she did her own makeup.
'With great difficulty, why?,' her friend responded.
Her friend said it sucked, often needing the help of a support worker. Ms Menzies was stunned, thinking she was about to give her a boatload of information on accessible beauty options.
'She said, 'Storm, makeup isn't made for people like me. Why would it be? No one thinks we're beautiful.' That moment, I realised it wasn't about the physical accessibility of makeup but what not having accessible makeup meant,' she said.
'There was also a mix of shame of having a disability and being 'lucky' for it not affecting me, and I worked in the disability sector for a long time and never asked.'
Ms Menzies decided to fix this problem herself, and ByStorm Beauty was born. Initially, she started with the idea of creating accessible makeup. She bought some modelling clay and attached it to her makeup. She said she needed more surface area to grip with, and she was thrilled that the attachment helped.
The young woman did a survey of 100 people with disabilities to discover what their beauty needs actually were.
'One of the resounding things that came through was people just wanted to use the same products, they didn't want to have 'special' makeup,' she said.
'Which wasn't what I was thinking.'
So, she printed some 3D designs that essentially work as attachments to already existing makeup products. Ms Menzies noted it was lucky that a lot of makeup was cylindrical, and so far has made two attachments - a ball shape and a paddle shape, to help cover as many needs as possible.
She said it's the 'coolest thing' to watch people use the products for their different needs. For instance, a male friend who was injured in a sporting accident who can now paint his daughter's nails with the help of her accessories.
She commented that there have been some trolls, but she said in her mind it comes from a place of not seeing people with disabilities in spaces such as this before. She said more often than not, disability is portrayed in an incredible infantilising way — and her brand is bucking that trend.
The big goal for Ms Menzies is to not only land in stores such as Mecca — as well as offering training to help staff cater to people with disability — but also prompt other brands to follow suit when it comes to inclusivity.
And the brand sure is starting to take off; she's already got a supporter in Australian comedian Celeste Barber. Ms Menzies contacted Barber's brand BOOIE about a partnership and she replied instantly.
'I've been rejected by so many investors, I can't even count. But I sent her my pitch deck,' she said.
'She literally said to me, 'Holy f***ing sh*t balls, I was trying to make my products accessible and I thought accessibly priced but I never thought about how people use the products. I feel like such a d***.'
'I never expected her to reply,' the beauty founder admitted.
Now, BOOIE is selling Ms Menzies' products in its signature colours on their website. Ms Menzies said it was the dream outcome.
'It's all I ever wanted to do,' she said.
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