KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 — Shelby Kho “accidentally” discovered her beauty business while doing her housemanship in Teluk Intan a few years ago.

Her lips were always moisturised even when she was working in the freezing cold of the operating theatre, drawing attention from the nurses.

Kho told them the secret to her luscious lips: her homemade lip balm. They coaxed her into starting a business when they too experienced the goodness of Bisou Bon Bon’s first beauty product. The rest is history.

How did your love for beauty products come about?

Long before I started Bisou Bon Bon, I was a lifestyle blogger and wrote about beauty products focusing on skincare. I love products that make people pretty so I would try out different types of beauty products.

There were a lot of beauty brands promoting their products and every time I saw the advertisements, I would want to try them!

The only problem is I have sensitive skin so some of the products wouldn’t work for me. But it still didn’t stop me from buying them!

It’s great that there is Sephora now where you can try things out. Back then before Sephora, even asking for samples was hard. I had a beauty graveyard, where I threw away beauty products that I didn’t like or which didn’t work on me.

In the end when I cleaned it out, I realised I that there were so many things in my beauty graveyard!

Besides beauty reviews, the travel entries in my blog were popular as well. I’m really interested in aesthetics.

In fact, I was one of the first in Malaysia to blog about Brazilian waxing. The post was so popular that a local newspaper interviewed me about it!

I also did hair extensions and eyelash extensions back then when it wasn’t very popular.

Who are your favourite beauty gurus?

I would say Michelle Phan even back when she was known as Ricebunny. I like her make-up videos because they are really simple to follow. I especially like her wedding make-up tutorial because I think that comes in handy. These skills are important in life and you can say I’m a skill collector!

I also like Xiaxue, the Singaporean blogger. I know it’s such a strange choice but I like it that she teaches make-up step by step.

Back then, people were selfish about sharing information but Xiaxue really gives details in her tutorials. I even learned how to photoshop through her tutorials!

What are your favourite beauty brands?

I’m currently in love with this Korean brand called 3CE by Stylenanda. It stands for three concept eyes and it’s about the ulzzang (best face) look that’s popular among Korean stars.

Stylenanda is a brand that’s similar to Anthropologie which is a specialty brand that sells different things. I discovered 3CE one or two months ago in a Chinese magazine at a hair salon.

This brand is frequently featured in beauty magazines and right now they have this look I like called the “geisha lips” which is similar to gradient lips.

I tend to experiment with new brands rather than sticking to big brands. If you noticed, brands like MAC are geared towards more earthy tones while 3CE is more about popping colours.

Another brand I like is Benefit because they have nice packaging and I like it that every product comes with a story. I also like Smashbox because they have nice packaging too. What do you think about the beauty market in Malaysia?

Malaysians are not really experimental when it comes to beauty products, they are more conservative.

Places like Japan, US and other big cities are more embracing of unique styles and colours.

Also, when it comes to beauty products a lot of consumers are uninformed about them. For example, some beauty companies would claim that their products are natural but the truth is, they are not really natural.

But because the brand is good at marketing and people are familiar with them, they would go for the brand.

I also find that Malaysians are not supportive of small indie businesses but these past few years, they are more receptive towards these small indie beauty businesses.

What is a Francophile? How did you become one?

A Francophile is a person who likes all things French. I started liking the French culture when I became acquainted with a French guy back in college. I found his outlook in life very different. There’s just something about European culture. He was very well-versed with studies and for me I think the Malaysian education tends to be more rigid.

My friend was also very quirky and he taught me a lot of things. For example, he would carry baguettes in the pockets of his cargo pants! If you were in Malaysia, people would find that weird but it was fine with him. He thought it was perfectly normal and nobody questioned him. “When I’m hungry, I just eat the baguette from my pocket!”

These things made me curious about French culture and through that experience I learned how to be more accepting of myself. Growing up, I was “different” because of the clothes I wear - people thought it was loud and weird - but when I was in the UK, everyone accepted my style of dressing.

What do you do during your free time when you’re not making beauty products?

I’m a Downtoner! That’s a term used for Downton Abbey fans. I love watching Downton Abbey because the plots are so good. Also, I like the way they speak and behave, having studied in the UK. Everything is so proper! Other than that, I try to blog as much as I can. Sometimes when I’m free I’ll also do crafts

like book binding and helping my Mum with her stamp collection.

I also swap tea for fun! There’s a community online where you swap things. I like tea so I would send tea overseas. In a swapping community, you swap things you like with someone who shares the same interest. For example, if the request is to have five bags of tea then you can post five bags of tea to that person. I really enjoy receiving packages through the post because it’s like having pen pals.

Lately I haven’t been doing any swaps because the prices of posting has increased dramatically! I used to send teas for RM6 but it’s now RM25! Hopefully, they would reduce the price so I can start swapping again.

Find out more about Shelby and Bisou Bon Bon at http://bisourose.blogspot.com/ and check out her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/bisoubonbon.bisourose

This story was first published in Crave in the print edition of The Malay Mail on February 27, 2014.