There has been a global shift in the way businesses are formed.
Women all around the world are not only standing up for their rights and advantages, but also ensuring their place as leaders and innovators in the world.
We've compiled a list of six accomplished, determined, and inspiring women who have altered or are altering the way we consume and perceive beauty in honour of International Women's Day.
1. Irene Falcone
Since she founded Nourished Life in 2011, the go-to source for all things natural has grown almost as naturally as their concept. Irene has always been a beauty aficionado, and nothing beats the joy of discovering a new lipstick, scent, or skincare secret.
However, after years of beauty store overspending and twice-daily touch-ups, she was exhausted. Irene struggled to walk up a set of stairs one particularly dreary morning in 2011.
She was a woman on a mission from that day on, searching the globe for the best-performing, safe, and certified organic items.
Fast forwards to today, and while Nourished Life has grown from a passion project to the internet's most trusted natural lifestyle store, they remain just as dedicated to their principles of community and ingredient purity as they have always been - which is wonderful because we couldn't agree more!
Irene has now moved on from beauty after selling Nourished Life in 2017.
One day soon I hope our products will be stocked at Nourished Life.
2. Amina Kitching
Since 2001, Amina Kitching has been campaigning for natural and organic beauty products as the founder of Safe Cosmetics Australia and Organic Beauty Brands.
More than 250 creative brands from Australia, New Zealand, England, Ireland, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, China and the Philippines have joined The Toxic-Free Campaign (TM) to demonstrate their dedication to safe and healthy cosmetic ingredients, including Merindah Botanicals.
Safe Cosmetics Australia, which was founded in 2010, was the first to develop toxic-free criteria for cosmetic manufacturers who prefer natural and organic products.
Here at Merindah Botanicals, we are big advocates when it comes to natural beauty products and have won a myriad of awards for our amazing products to prove it.
Click here to take a look at our impressive awards gallery.
3. Jo Horgan
Jo Horgan, founder and co-CEO of MECCA Brands, who launched the company in 1997, joins our list of inspirational Australian women.
Jo has reshaped the Australian beauty industry, cultivating an environment of innovation and excellence for her customers. Mecca Brands is one of Oceania's most well-known beauty companies, with over 98 locations in Australia and New Zealand.
Not to mention, the company has been named to the BRW Best Places to Work Top 5 list for multiple consecutive years.
I have a serious store crush on Mecca! Every time I visit, I stand in there, looking at the shelf and dream of seeing my products on those gorgeous shelves.
4. Kate Morris
Kate Morris, founder of Adore Beauty, was a bank manager's worst nightmare when she was 21 years old and had little experience but enormous dreams.
She couldn't get a loan from the banks, so she had no choice but to borrow $12,000 from family and bootstrap her business for years. She's turned Adore Beauty into one of Australia's most well-known beauty businesses.
Kate has always been interested in cosmetics, but growing up in Launceston, Tasmania, she couldn't afford to buy most of the things she saw in magazines.
Kate relocated to Melbourne for university and acquired a part-time work at the Clarins counter, where she discovered that many individuals were intimidated by the cosmetics floor.
She established her ecommerce site from a garage in a northern Melbourne suburb when she was 21 years old.
It was 1999, and the site only offered two brands to clients. She had no technical skills and only a "gut feeling" that it would work.
After 20 years, the company now has a 220 brand inventory with 15,000 products, handling over a million transactions per year.
Another store on my wish list. Hopefully one day soon...
5. Madame CJ Walker
Madam CJ Walker has been a huge source of inspiration to me. She was born to enslaved parents, and after experiencing hair loss, she was inspired to manufacture her own hair products.
She was a gifted entrepreneur with a knack for self-promotion who developed a commercial empire by selling products directly to Black women and employing "beauty culturalists" to hand-sell her wares.
Her products were once distributed by over 15,000 sales agents across the United States and in other international nations and also established a statewide network of beauty schools.
She donated a big portion of her riches to several charities and used her fortune to finance scholarships for women.
6. Kaydee Kyle-Taylor
Kaydee Kyle-Taylor is a First Nation Pro MUA in Australia and the owner of I Think She's A Freak, a small business she started in 2016 while studying for her expert makeup artistry diploma.
During her time at beauty school, Kaydee saw a significant lack of representation of First Nations people in the beauty and cosmetics industry, as well as a lack of understanding of how to interact with BIPOC clients.
She now focuses her efforts on specialising in and catering to BIPOC clients, as well as raising awareness of the beauty industry's shortcomings in this area.
In addition to running her business and building her beauty empire, Kaydee is devoted to full-time work in education as an Aboriginal Coordinator at a high school in Melbourne's north.
She provides programmes around confidence, resilience, mental/sexual health, and career pathways via a cultural lens to support the welfare and academics of young Aboriginal women between 12-18.
Who do you look up to for inspiration? Tell us in the comments below.