There’s No Gatekeeping With The Lipstick Lesbians’ New Brand

Innovating is one thing. Sharing your brilliant ideas with the world is quite another. Unfortunately, the road between the two is bumpy, and most people don’t make it from Point A to Point B. The Lipstick Lesbians will, though—and they’ll be sharing their travel diaries along the way.

On Friday, March 6, Alexis Androulakis and Dr. Christina Basias Androulakis are launching a new (or actually, still-in-process) brand: Leaked Labs. It’s arriving alongside a beauty platform where they plan to share their innovations as they occur, directly from the labs where they’re formulated.

Keep reading to learn everything there is to know about the concept—including the brand’s first “unreleased” release.

The Inspiration

Alexis, a longtime product developer and makeup artist, tells Byrdie that the inspiration for Leaked Labs really came after she and Christina spent a year on the cosmetics trade show circuit. Sick of seeing possible breakthroughs sit undeveloped for years because of approval cycles, retail constraints, and marketing pressures, they decided to make their own timeline.

“[Christina] got to see me interact with the most innovative beauty products that all the suppliers were showing at the shows, and she was actually really sad because she asked me, ‘Well, when are these going to launch? Because they’re amazing and we just made content; can we post it?'”

Alexis’s response, of course, was that they couldn’t post unless they talked to the suppliers. And the answer was probably going to be no. Also… those products probably weren’t going to launch at all.

“You may see one of the thousands of formulas we just saw actually hit the market, and if it does hit the market, it will be totally unrecognizable,” she explained. “So it was really that moment for [us] that the idea was born.”

Their conversation percolated on the entire plane ride home from the MakeUp in Paris show; Christina really couldn’t stop thinking about those formulas.

“She honestly came up with the idea in the shower and screamed so loud that she scared the shit out of me,” added Alexis. Christina’s thought? “We need to launch these products, and we need to call them ‘unreleased.'”

The Debut Product

Leaked Labs’ debut release, aka Leak 001, is the Amplify Flexi Powder. These flexible discs of pigment don’t have a pan, and are instead made to reform as you see fit: you can bend them, chop them up, activate them with water or setting spray, whatever you like. You can use the shimmering pigments, which come in four shades, across eyes, lips, and cheeks for a pop of buildable shine.

As is the case with any great innovation, Flexi was originally just a philosophy Alexis had. She felt like it “had to be born in the form of a product” and then fell in love with using it.

The duo found a supplier, who just happen to be the originators of “baked” makeup.

“Now imagine literally thinking about putting a meringue inside an oven to get a texture—that’s the dedication these people have,” explained the product developer. “Of course, these are the same people that bring you pasta and bolognaise and lasagna. So of course they’re gonna bring you lasagna inspired sheets of powder.”

The Process

Every “unreleased” launch (they’re officially calling them “Leaks”) will coincide with a live evaluation phase, where consumers can test the product’s performance. Depending on the feedback, it’ll go into broader scaled production, back to the drawing board for further development, or remain a limited lab release.

“Rather than relying solely on closed-door testing environments, Leaked Labs observes how formulas perform across diverse routines, climates, and application styles,” explained the brand in a press release. “This real-world performance data informs internal R&D decisions around refinement, iteration, or archival. In other words: formulas are authored in the lab, and evaluated in the wild.”

So, get testing team! Flexi is a great place to start—it’ll be fun.

“We as adults don’t get to play anymore,” Alexis added. “Everything is so much harder sometimes than it even needs to be. But Flexi is an invitation to play and be curious about beauty. I hope that it offers everybody who is bored out of their minds another alternative to experiencing beauty products.”

You can shop Amplify Flexi Powder ($34) beginning Friday, March 6 exclusively at leakedlabs.com.