One Brand Founder Tested Her Makeup’s Staying Power During Her Son’s Delivery And Shared The Results On Social Media

High Endurance Cosmetics founder Ashley Vuu has taken to testing her brand’s sweat-proof products in extreme and personal situations. She’s worn them for pressure-packed business meetings, steamy vegetarian cooking, everyday exercise, marathons and even the birth of her son, which she proved with posts for social media posterity.

Hundreds of people tuned in to Vuu’s Instagram Stories to see if her All Day Active Foundation and Plum Plie Matte Lipstick would hold up through delivery — and they did. The foundation didn’t fade from the time she showed up at the hospital late evening Monday, June 5 until the afternoon of Thursday, June 8 when Julien arrived weighing 6 pounds, 13 ounces. She reapplied the lipstick as the three-day labor drew on in attempts to break up the tediousness.

“The foundation worked great. It really lasts. It’s been wonderful for my marathons. If you put powder on over it, it’s especially good. It will stay on for days,” says Vuu. “And I got so many compliments on the lipstick. The nurses kept saying, ‘Oh, you look so beautiful.’ I don’t know if they were just humoring me because I was in labor. When he was born, a nurse said, ‘He has plum lips just like you.’ It was really the lipstick that looked like that, not my lips.”

“I’m not self-conscious about a blemish. I feel confident, powerful and beautiful. I enjoy those special moments like running a marathon or having a baby more because I feel confident.”

Vuu usually hands control over her brand’s Instagram account to employees at High Endurance Cosmetics. But she was going a bit stir crazy waiting for Julien and in dire need of distractions. “It was a really long, hard labor, and I thought, ‘Why not capture it?’” says Vuu, remembering her rationale for posting before, during and after the delivery of her second son and brother to 2-year-old Alexander. Vuu posted one picture with a caption that read, “Is it sweat-proof enough for you?”

Some of High Endurance Cosmetics’ staff members teased Vuu for sharing the makeup she sported in the delivery room, and she took their ribbing in stride. “Makeup helps me go through important moments,” explains Vuu. “I’m not self-conscious about a blemish. I feel confident, powerful and beautiful. I enjoy those special moments like running a marathon or having a baby more because I feel confident.”

With Julien and High Endurance Cosmetics developing nicely, Vuu’s makeup is going to have to withstand different sources of stress and perspiration now. She’s balancing motherhood with running the growing brand that recently scored a deal with a major retailer to enter 3,000 doors next year. Vuu has the advantage of spearheading her brand from home, where she has a nanny to assist with childcare and the flexibility to bond with her new baby when she wants.

High Endurance Cosmetics

“I have to stay busy. I ran and traveled up until the end of my pregnancy, and I didn’t really take a maternity leave. I’m fully back at work now,” she says, laughing, “It’s never boring. I will tell you that.”