Sarah Waller started Sweet Libertine Mineral Cosmetics on February 14th, 2009. Unsatisfied with the quality and price of high-priced cosmetics, she spent months trying to find a better option. It wasn’t long until Sarah was making her own eyeshadows, blending colors and micas and oxides. Her friends heard about it and asked her to list some in her Etsy shop and she did – and the entire store sold out within an hour. Sweet Libertine continued to grow over time and is now run by Sarah Waller and her husband, Justin.

Sarah Waller didn’t take the typical road into the beauty industry – she was born in rural Indiana, and at 12 started working as a farmhand and vet tech. She attended college to obtain a Bachelors in History but  had to withdraw due to the economic collapse and lack of tuition money. She spent a year trying to find a job, but not many people were looking for a History degree drop out with no form of transportation. Money was tight, but to treat herself, she went to Walgreens and bought a good amount of makeup – eyeshadows, blushes, eyeliners – and was upset when the color pay-off and quality were very, very low. She started researching (and this is where she admits that the history education did come in handy), and before long was making the exact cosmetics she was hoping to get when she bought the drugstore type. Her friends heard, she opened the Etsy store, and the rest, as they say, is history!

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