The founder of beloved makeup brand Tarte has revealed the real meaning behind the cosmetics company’s name — as she describes how her choice of name nearly ruined her dreams of expanding the company globally.
Maureen Kelly51, has created a makeup empire with her brand that has grown into one of the fastest growing beauty companies in the industry.
And as Tarte’s CEO now reels in success, she’s described the uphill battle the company started, starting with naming it.
On her TikTok account, Maureen revealed how she was forced to change the company’s name and almost failed to make it in the industry because of the meaning of the word “cake.”
Maureen Kelly, 51, the founder of beloved makeup brand Tarte has revealed the real reason behind the cosmetic company’s name
And as Tarte’s CEO now reels in success, she’s described the uphill battle the company started, starting with naming
In her TikTok account, Maureen revealed how she was forced to change the name of the company and almost failed to make it in the industry
In a viral clip, which has been viewed more than 382,000 times, Maureen said, “Here’s something I wish I knew earlier, naming a company is really hard.”
Tarte’s CEO began by explaining that she used to call the company “Plume.”
She said she chose this name because she thought it had a nice ring to it and emphasized that her makeup brand was cruelty-free.
‘It sounded nice and the website was available. Think about what is a plume? The feather of a bird or animal.
What is Tarte and what has it been since 1999? Cruelty-free brand,” she explained.
When she received the very first makeup packaging — which she said were silver and not the iconic Tarte purple because she couldn’t afford to customize them at the time — she learned that Stila came on the market before her and ‘they had plumes on them’.
The founder of Tarte revealed that she didn’t realize how “stupid” calling the brand “feather” was until her best friend pointed it out.
Maureen said, “My best friend said, ‘You call the brand Plume?’ And I was like, “Yeah don’t you like it, it’s that good.” And she said, “Isn’t it cruelty-free?” I’m like, “Yeah, my mom grew up on a farm in Ireland, of course it’s cruelty-free, animals are so important to me.”
She says, “Right, but isn’t it part of an animal?” It’s so stupid, so I had to rename it.”
The makeup empire founder said at the time that she went straight back to the “drawing board” and thought about what she wanted the brand to represent.
Tarte’s CEO started by explaining that she first called the company “Plume” because she thought it looked good and emphasized that her makeup brand was cruelty-free
Tarte’s founder revealed she didn’t realize how ‘stupid’ calling the brand ‘feather’ was until her best friend pointed it out
Your skin is your largest organ, everything you put on it is absorbed into your bloodstream. You want it to be something that’s really good for you, good for your skin, good for your body, so it’s like a treat for your skin.
“So I called it ‘tarte,’ cake is a treat, something that’s nice and delicious,” she explained.
Maureen loved the name and was “really proud” of herself. However, she soon discovered that she would again have problems with the name of her brand, because the word cake also has a different meaning.
While pie means a delicious pastry, it’s also defined as a “promiscuous woman,” which is why Maureen’s choice of brand name raised a few eyebrows.
She said she didn’t realize the name could pose a problem until her mom went to the website tart.com.
“My mom visits the website tart.com, so that’s what she thinks it is. In 1999 prostitution was illegal… So you can imagine when my mother went to tart.com and not tarte.com, what she saw on that website,” said the founder of Tarte.
She then named the brand Tarte, inspired by the word “tart” – meaning a delicious treat and a “promiscuous woman.”
As Tarte became more successful, Sephora International wondered why they would market a brand in their country that meant a “promiscuous woman,” but then people came along
However, since she trademarked Tarte and never imagined the cosmetics company would become a global brand and expand into Europe – where tart is spelled tarte – she didn’t think the name would be a problem.
As Tarte became more successful, Sephora International wondered why they would market a brand in their country that meant a “promiscuous woman.”
“I felt so bad about myself, here I was with this great brand that people loved, and it was growing in the United States and no one in the United States felt that way.
“At one point we weren’t sure if we could even launch in other countries. Over time, we were able to launch in Sephora France and Sephora Italy.
“The brand was so big. People knew what tarte meant and they didn’t think the name was bad. It was pretty awesome,” she said.
Looking back on the fiasco, the Tarte founder said she learned a valuable message.
“Whatever is happening in your life or going on in your business, and you are [thinking] you won’t get past this, you’ll get over this, you’ll be fine, you got this. I believe in you.’