Poppy King

King was born to a Jewish family[1] and was educated at Lauriston Girls' School in Melbourne, and Wesley College, Melbourne. Her father died of cancer when she was seven.[2]

King started her own cosmetics company in 1991 at age eighteen.[2] Poppy Industries mainly produced a wide colour range of opaque lipsticks. The head office was located in Melbourne. Within three years, the company had grown to be one of the biggest cosmetic companies in Australia. In 1995 she received the Young Australian of the Year award and that year the company made a profit of $6.5 million.[2]

In 1998, after expansion into the U.S. market, the company collapsed and went into receivership, then liquidation. With further outside investment the company continued until 2002, when it was finally dissolved. In 1999, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission investigated allegations that Poppy Industries traded while it was insolvent, however the Commission later released a statement clearing the company of any wrongdoing.[2]

In 2006, King launched a new brand called "Lipstick Queen".[3] Lipstick Queen is currently stocked globally in department stores including Sephora, Bloomingdales and Mecca.[4] In 2018, Elle Australia listed her Frog Prince lipstick, which changes from green to pink on application, as one of the 10 most iconic lipstick shades of all time.[5]

King currently lives in New York. She wrote Lessons of a Lipstick Queen, published by Atria Books in August 2008. She has campaigned for the Australian Republican Movement.[2]

• Beth Dolan, Poppy King, Heinemann Library Young Achievers series, Port Melbourne, 1998. ISBN 1-86391-906-6
• Poppy King, Lessons of a Lipstick Queen – Finding and Developing the Great Idea That Can Change Your Life, Atria Books, 2008. ISBN 978-0-7432-9957-2.