Women Worth Knowing: Meet Shrinkle a/k/a Sugarpill a/k/a Amy Doan

I love makeup. Love it. Love, love, love it. A few years ago, when I was looking for a particular shade, I came across a girl selling loose kryolan pigments on Ebay. Shrinkle, as I knew her then, had a robust store that included cutesy-pie dresses, vintage slips, and accessories I coveted. The cute clothes of her own design and a revolving door of vintage are still available on the Shrinkle etsy store, but the makeup is long gone.

Why, you ask? Because Amy Doan, Shrinkle herself, developed her own line of cosmetics called Sugarpill.

Since I’ve been following Amy’s stores and blogs for years, I have watched from afar as she made the transition from simple seamstress to sylph of a makeup mini-empire (Sugarpill is the official makeup brand for the 35th Anniversary of Hello Kitty.) Amy’s photo filled blogs are always full of color and energy. She is positive and exciting, and I love her story. I love her makeup. I want to hang her eyeshadows on my wall as art because they are so pretty.

You should get to know Amy and all her enterprises. Shop her stores and read her tutorials. I thought I liked Amy before she responded to my WWK inquiry, but reading her answers to all my silly questions…I want to put this girl in my pocket and take her everywhere with me. She is just fabulous.

Meet Amy.

Amy Doan aka Shrinkle
Age Range: Just turned 30, wooo!
Preferred Job Title: Fashion designer and owner of Sugarpill Cosmetics
Industry: Fashion and Cosmetics

(In a departure from the usual WWK interview, I added some very Amy-centric questions that I thought would be interesting.)

How did your business evolve from you making outfits for yourself to a new beauty empire?
I started out making clothes for myself because I had nothing to wear. I was a broke college student and couldn’t really afford to go shopping much. I got lots of compliments whenever I wore the outfits I made, so I began selling them on eBay. It kind of just took off from there, and before I knew it it had become my full time job! I decided to branch out into cosmetics when I realized that makeup can really make or break a fabulous outfit. A super awesome outfit never looks complete without the perfect makeup to compliment it.

What designers do you like?
I don’t really have a favorite big name designer. I don’t care too much about labels, I mostly just wear vintage flea market slips! But I do love to support my friends who have their own indie clothing and accessory lines, like Jessica Louise (www.jessicalouise.com) and Cutie Dynamite (cutiedynamite.etsy.com).

<What inspires your colors for Sugarpill?
I love obnoxiously bright colors that sparkle and shine in dark clubs! No subtlety here.

How do you pick names for your colors (because that just sounds like fun!)
Whenever I think of or hear a word that I like, I write it down on this giant master list I have on my computer. Then when it’s time to come up with color names, I pull up the master list and start mixing and matching a bunch of the words together. I am also a super nerdy bird enthusiast and love to name colors after birds. And my cats!

The usual Questions
Who are you? I am a crazy cat lady and the owner of Sugarpill Cosmetics and Shrinkle clothing!

Describe your family: I’m the youngest of 3 girls, no brothers. We all live within an hour of each other, so we see each other quite frequently. I am really close with my sisters and we share all our secrets. My parents are pretty cool too, although I don’t really tell them anything. But I think my mom already knows all the scary details about my life because I found my Twitter and blog bookmarked on her computer. My mom is also my favorite shopping buddy. We love to hit up the senior discount days at Ross and Savers! My dad is awesome and can beat anyone at tennis, even competitors half his age!

What does the first hour of your day look like? I usually wake up covered in warm purring cats, so I’m a slow waker upper. I spend the first hour of my day laying in bed with my cats, reading my emails.

The last hour? I answer work emails until I can’t keep my eyes open anymore, then I pass out!

What makes you feel successful? I am terrible at keeping track of my finances, so unlike most people I’m unable to gauge my success with dollar signs. I guess I feel successful when the people around me are happy. Whether it’s my customers, my friends, or my family. It means I’m doing something right if people around me aren’t complaining, haha!

What brings you joy? Sewing, being around animals, cuddling with the boyfriend, and discovering super amazing vegan food even though I’m not vegan.

What women do you admire? I love and adore all of my female friends. They are adventurous, creative, talented, funny ladies who inspire me!

What do you like best about your closest friend? That we’ve been best friends since the 3rd grade, know each other’s flaws inside and out, and still like each other! Also, we’re so over impressing each other. We are the hugest scrubs when we hang out!

What do you like best about yourself? I can finish a foot long burrito in less than 10 minutes! It’s 100% true, I have witnesses.

What advice would you give boys about girls? Just because girls are more independent now than in the past, it doesn’t mean you should stop doing nice things like holding doors open for us or offering to carry heavy objects if we’re obviously struggling with it. Common courtesy and gentlemanliness never go out of style!

How do you overcome adversity? I’m an optimist! Whenever things look shitty, I remind myself that it can only go uphill from there. Wait it out, it will always get better!

How do you want to be remembered? I hope people remember me as someone who was happy and made others feel good about themselves.

Find Shrinkle and Sugarpill Cosmetics on Facebook and follow for updates on new product, and just to have pretty pictures pop up in your feed now and then.