The Skincare Purist-Tiffany Masterson

Drunk Elephant is easily one of the most cult-loved skincare brands in town. Since its launch in singapore last november, their products have flown off the shelves; they are much sought after for their candid rebuttal of suspicious or harmful ingredients that have conventionally been used in beauty products. It wasn’t a clinic full of scientists who called this out. Instead, it was one woman who dared to question the beauty industry. She is Tiffany Masterson

- Guan Tan

WHILE YOU TOOK CARE OF THE HOUSE AND YOUR FOUR CHILDREN, YOU STARTED SELLING BAR SOAPS, DIDN’T YOU?

As they grew older, we struggled more with money — because you got to send these people to school, and also got to feed them, also have to give them clothes. For sure, it was a struggle, and it got stressful. I started looking around for something to sell, just to make some extra money… So, then I got a job with Arbonne — it’s a multi-level direct-to-consumer thing. And then my brother called me and said that he and his wife had found this little bar cleanser from Malaysia. I started to sell this bar cleanser [and talked] to friends and people, who would buy the bar, about their skin issues.

PRIOR TO DRUNK ELEPHANT, YOU WERE FIRST AND FOREMOST A STAY-AT-HOME MOTHER. WHERE DID YOU GET YOUR BEAUTY EDUCATION FROM?

So, I just started reading about ingredients — I just started looking into things. I would Google a product and look at all the ingredients, and kind of try to start understanding why they were there. [While] reading about the ingredients, [I would ask myself], “What is that in there for?”, “Is it drying alcohol?”, “What does toner do?”, “How does your skin function on its own?”, “What makes it tick?”, “What makes it healthy?”