From a simple idea, to becoming globally synonymous with swatch stencils

Meet our founder

Hi there, I'm Alli - solopreneur, cosy hobby collector, and tired mum - and Swatch Perfect has been my baby since I started the business back in 2017.

I've always been creative, and that has often gone hand-in-hand with entrepreneurship - and while over the years I've started and ran multiple businesses and freelance projects, Swatch Perfect is not only the longest running, but the most unique.

Here's the story of where it all began...

Created to fill a need

Back in 2017, I was a beauty content creator with a blog, a small but engaged following on Instagram, and a love for collecting eyeshadow. I'd come home from my full time job and spend hours in our spare bedroom under my giant softbox lights - creating flatlays, swatching products, and writing up detailed reviews of the products I tried. It was an exciting time to be a beauty blogger - social media was still pretty new, and despite never doing tutorials or professional makeup artistry, I still built up a small but engaged community of other content creators and makeup enthusiasts who loved beauty as much as I did.

And while I could create beautifully aesthetically pleasing flatlays and posed shots of my #FOTD (face of the day) products, I could never get my actual makeup swatches looking as clean and crisp as I wanted. But then one day, while creating swatches of a new eyeshadow palette, I had a thought. What if there was a product that could help you create crisp, clean, aesthetic swatch photos?

That product didn't exist. So I made it.

Designed with passion

I don't make stencils I don't like. There - I said it. What's the point of having a small creative business if you can't create the things you love? I pour hours of thought, inspiration and attention to detail into every design, thinking about how best to use it, and what products you could showcase. I'll never use AI to design my stencils, and I'll never copy another brand's designs.

Made with care

While all our stencils are designed digitally and then cut on an electronic cutting machine, that doesn't mean there is no handmade element.

All our stencil designs are unique, with each element being carefully sized and placed to get the best result. Many of our shapes are also hand drawn, to get that perfect finish and create the vision we have for the design.

Every single stencil we make is also hand-peeled and checked carefully before being listed for sale, to ensure there aren't any faults or imperfections - and we only sell stencils that meet our very high quality standards.

Building something sustainable

Sustainability has always been at the heart of what Swatch Perfect does - and I realise the irony in saying that, as a company that essentially makes products out of single-use plastic! Here are a few of the ways we limit our impact on the environment:

  • We use premium quality vinyl so our customers can re-use their stencils multiple times, should they choose to
  • We source our vinyl from a local supplier, using mostly end-of-roll offcuts and collecting it ourselves - meaning zero packaging or postal waste is generated
  • All our product and shipping packaging is recyclable and/or biodegradable - from kit sleeves to packing tape
  • We use minimal packaging for our products to reduce consumer waste
  • We save and reuse vinyl scraps to create even more products wherever we can
  • We carefully sort and recycle as much of our business waste as we can, as well as reusing postal packaging from supplier deliveries

Where to next?

Almost a decade into business, many things have changed! We bought our first house - much of which we owed to the success of this business - then sold it and bought a bigger one; got married; and even had our first child.

Thanks to the experience in this business, I've also grown my own career, landing several great jobs in part thanks to it - and now work as an online Copywriter for a multi-million pound, household name in the retail and ecommerce space.

Through it all, Swatch Perfect has been a steady part of our lives, bringing together makeup enthusiasts from all corners of the globe (6 continents, in fact). As well as all our standard designs, we've also created 100s of custom stencils for PR packages, in-person product launches, and even for brands to sell on their own websites.


As we look to the future, it's really important to me that Swatch Perfect continues being sustainable, practical, and most of all - fun.

We'll never change the world, but the fact that our silly little product idea has changed the way people swatch - and have another level of enjoyment with their favourite makeup products - makes me so excited to continue on this path.

So from the bottom of my heart - thank you!

Alli xx