Love Island’s glitter boob trend has helped this single mum rake in half a million a year… all thanks to an eBay business she set up in her bedroom
BRITAIN has gone mad for glitter and this single mum-of-two has turned the craze into a successful business, which rakes in more than half a million a year.
Kareen Buttle, from Glasgow, set up an eBay business in her bedroom at the height of the recession, in 2008.
At the time, the now 50-year-old had her own mortgage advice business – but was struggling to make a living for herself and kids Mhairi, now 20, and Graeme, 23, following the market crash.
She said: “At that point my daughter was 11. She danced and I struggled to get some of the make-up that she needed without going further afield.
“If I found those products hard to find, I figured other people would also find them hard to buy.
“So I thought, ‘Well I’ll buy more than just the one or two and I’ll sell them online.' I was thinking for stage but then it hit festivals.”
Kareen bought her first bulk load of glitter from her local cash and carry. She added: “At the time it was a hobby.
“I was buying online in bulk and from wholesale warehouses. We use suppliers who don’t necessarily retail to the public, who normally supply trade.”
Within eight months, Kareen had made selling sparkle her full-time job – and now has her own website called - a business which turns over £550,000-a-year.
She said: “It happened very quickly.
“My business was literally in a bedroom cupboard. Just a shelf I had, like a bookcase type thing, and the glitter was all on the shelf in there. It went from that to a full-time.
“I was taking in more and more offers and then I thought, ‘The products are actually quite good.'
“It was at that point that glitter and UV products became huge for the festival-goers and I happened to hit upon that.
“One day I made a decision to buy £1,000 of products. Before then it was £100 or £150.
“But I thought, ‘I’m going to spend £1,000 to see how this goes.' Then I chucked in my other business.
“It started in April and by Christmas I was fully working on the Glitter Store.”
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Kareen’s business isn’t only booming during the festival season – she’s also profiting on people dressing up for Christmas and Halloween.
She said: “Glitter’s become huge, not just for festival goers but for folk going to Ibiza and all these kind of things. So the actual glitter products have become massive.
“When I first started doing it I thought, ‘This will get me £50.' I’ll have an extra £50 cash to buy Christmas presents.
“It’s turning over more than half a million now. That wasn’t expected.”
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Kareen employs eight members of staff including her son, who has now brought fitness products to Glitter Store.
The company ship between 250 and 300 products every single day.
She added: “There’s not a colour that we don’t have. Every range of blue and every range of purple. Every supplier’s probably got 40 to 50 colours, and we’ve got them all.”
So why is Britain so obsessed with glitter? Kareen said: “They were covered in glitter on Love Island and on Big Brother. All these programmes are becoming a good advert.
“It really is becoming the way forward, definitely for the younger ones. They’re beautiful, some of the colours that are coming in.
“It’s just sparkle, a bit of glitz, and diamonds. I think people are becoming more and more outgoing and they like to stand out, especially among the young ones.
“I think it’s great. They’re all covering the bum or the boobs or the hairline and trying to be different.
“Mharai wears glitter when she’s going out. She’s just been over in Ibiza and they were all wearing it for nights out. It’s huge over there.”
Her advice to other Brits looking to start up a business from scratch? “Start small, that’s the main advice, and look at the numbers.
“I still see sellers coming and going online and they undercut us by a good bit.
“They think, ‘We’ll make 50p on each one and that’ll be enough for me,’ but what they forget is their outgoings.
“We’ve reached the stage we’re at without taking on debt or getting ourselves in trouble, which is why we’re still here.
“If you have an idea, go out and try it. Try it with as little risk as you can, if it’s possible, but try it. Don’t bankrupt yourself doing it. Start small and build.”
Glitter Store now sell all over the world, and the company prides itself on its customer service.
Kareen said: “What makes us different is the service that we issue. We dispatch on the day every day and we hold the stock.
“Even the people that are doing it part-time, alongside a job, make sure you keep an eye on your customers because that’s the only way they will come back to you.”
In more glittering success stories, meet Jenna Meek - the brains behind Gypsy Shrine, and woman who created the glitter boob trend.