I’m the founder of the makeup brand Tarte – here’s why I chose the name Tarte

The founder of beloved makeup brand Tarte has revealed the real meaning behind the name of the cosmetics company – while detailing how her choice of moniker almost ruined her dreams of expanding the business worldwide. 

Maureen Kelly, 51, has created a makeup empire with her brand that has become one of the fastest-growing beauty companies in the industry. 

And while the Tarte CEO is raking in the success now, she has detailed the uphill battle that was starting the company, beginning with naming it. 

Taking to her TikTok account, Maureen revealed how she was forced to switch the name of the company and nearly didn’t make it in the industry due to the meaning of the word ‘tart’.

Maureen Kelly, 51, the founder of beloved makeup brand Tarte has revealed the real reason behind the name of the cosmetics company

And while the Tarte CEO is raking in the success now, she has detailed the uphill battle that was starting the company, beginning with naming it

Taking to her TikTok account, Maureen revealed how she was forced to switch the name of the company and nearly didn’t make it in the industry

In a viral clip, which amassed over 382,000 views, Maureen said: ‘Here’s something I wish I knew earlier, naming a company is really hard.’ 

The Tarte CEO began by explaining that she first named the company ‘Plume’. 

She said she decided to go with this name because she thought it had a nice ring to it and emphasized the fact that her makeup brand was cruelty-free. 

‘It sounded fun and the website was available. Think about it what is a plume? The feather from a bird or an animal. 

‘What is Tarte and what has it been since 1999? Cruelty-free brand,’ she explained. 

When she received the very first makeup compacts – which she said were silver and not the iconic Tarte purple because she couldn’t afford to customize them at the time –  she discovered that Stila was launching before her and ‘they had plume on them.’ 

The Tarte founder revealed she didn’t realize how ‘stupid’ calling the brand ‘plume’ was until her best friend pointed it out. 

Maureen said: ‘My best friend was like, “You’re calling the brand Plume?” And I was like, “Yeah don’t you love it, it’s so good.” And she said, “Isn’t it cruelty-free?” I’m like, “Yeah, my mom grew up in a farm in Ireland, of course it’s cruelty-free, animals are so important to me.” 

‘She’s like, “Right but isn’t it a part of an animal?” It is, so stupid, so I had to rename it.’ 

The founder of the makeup empire then said she went straight back to the ‘drawing board’ and thought about what she wanted the brand to represent. 

The Tarte CEO began by explaining that she first named the company ‘Plume’ because she thought it had a nice ring to it and emphasized the fact that her makeup brand was cruelty-free

The Tarte founder revealed she didn’t realize how ‘stupid’ calling the brand ‘plume’ was until her best friend pointed it out

‘Your skin is your largest organ, everything you put on it gets absorbed into your bloodstream. You want it to be something that’s really good for you, good for your skin, good for your body, so it’s like a treat for your skin. 

‘So I named it ‘tarte’, tart is a treat, something that’s yummy and delicious,’ she explained. 

Maureen loved the name and was ‘really proud’ of herself. However, she soon discovered she would once again face trouble with the name of her brand because the word tart has another meaning too. 

While tart means a delicious pastry, it is also defined as a ‘promiscuous woman,’ prompting Maureen’s brand name choice to raise a few eyebrows. 

She said she didn’t realize the name could be trouble until her mom went onto the website tart.com. 

‘My mom goes to the website tart.com, so that’s what she thinks it is. Back in 1999, prostitution was illegal… So you can imagine when my mom went onto to tart.com and not tarte.com what she saw on that website,’ the Tarte founder said. 

She then went on to name the brand Tarte, drawing inspiration from the word ‘tart’ – which means a delicious treat and a ‘promiscuous woman’ 

As Tarte grew more successful, Sephora international questioned why they would bring on a brand that meant a ‘promiscuous woman,’ in their country, however, people then came around

However, since she had trademarked Tarte and never imagined the cosmetic company would be a global brand and expand to Europe – where tart is spelt tarte – so she didn’t think it the name would be an issue. 

As Tarte grew more successful, Sephora international questioned why they would bring on a brand that meant a ‘promiscuous woman,’ in their country.

‘I felt so bad about myself, here I was with this awesome brand that people loved, and it was growing in the United States and no one in the states thought that about it. 

‘We weren’t sure at a point that we could even launch at other countries for a long time. Over time, we were able to launch in Sephora France and Sephora Italy.

‘The brand was so big. People knew what tarte meant and they didn’t think anything badly of the name. It was pretty awesome,’ she said. 

Looking back on the fiasco now, the Tarte founder said she learned a valuable message. 

‘Whatever is happening in your life or going on in your business, and you’re [thinking] you can’t get past this, you’ll get past this, it will be okay, you’ve got this. I believe in you.’