Adore Beauty founder Kate Morris was fired twice from first jobs

The founder of Australia’s first online cosmetics retailer worth $100million has spoken about being fired from her first two jobs at department stores before turning a ‘wacky’ idea into a booming business.

Kate Morris, who grew up in Tasmania, was just a 21-year-old business student when she borrowed $12,000 from her boyfriend’s dad and set up Adore Beauty in her garage in 1999.

In the years prior she had been fired from her jobs working at the cosmetics counters at various pharmacies – once for giving ‘too much attitude’ and another time over a jealous boss – before her partner encouraged her to go out on her own.

Now a 44-year-old mother-of-two Ms Morris’ business is one of the most respected and well-recognised online platforms in the beauty industry in Australia, something that continues to baffle the humble entrepreneur.

Speaking to Gus Worland on his new podcast ‘Not an overnight success’, Ms Morris spoke about her ASX-listed company and how it has grown from a pipe dream to an empire in 23 years.

Now a 44-year-old mother-of-two Ms Morris’ business is one of the most respected and well-recognised online platforms in the beauty industry in Australia, something that continues to baffle the humble entrepreneur

Ms Morris originally enrolled in a law degree after finishing school in Tasmania, before discovering during the very first lecture that it might not be the course for her.

‘I floated around in an Arts degree instead and did bits of business in between, and I really liked the business classes. So I actually finished those and still have units left on my Arts degree,’ she said.

While at university she worked at various chemists and department stores, seeing how the beauty counters interacted with their customers. 

‘My theory was always if you give customers honest and truthful information that people will respond well to you,’ Ms Morris said. ‘And that wasn’t always being done well on those counters’.

While at university she worked at various chemists and department stores, seeing how the beauty counters interacted with their customers

‘My theory was always if you give customers honest and truthful information that people will respond well to you,’ Ms Morris said. ‘And that wasn’t always being done well on those counters’

The internet was in its infancy but Ms Morris could already see the potential for an online beauty website, something she began working on behind the scenes.

‘I felt like the shopping experience could be so much better online. So my boyfriend said “well are you going to do this or not?” and that got me up and going,’ she said.

That boyfriend is now the father of her two young children, James Height. 

‘It certainly wasn’t a quick thing because shopping online wasn’t really around at that stage,’ she said.

Adore Beauty only stocked two small Australian brands to begin with, Baiame and Santalia. The first mainstream brand, Bloom, signed on in 2002. Clarins signed on in 2006.

Adore Beauty only stocked two small Australian brands to begin with, Baiame and Santalia. The first mainstream brand, Bloom, signed on in 2002. Clarins signed on in 2006

Ms Morris reflected that she might have been ’10 years too early’ for Adore and so the process of building the company was slow and steady. 

The name came about because Ms Morris wanted something that would appear at the top of a beauty directory, before Google was even ‘a thing’.

‘So I wanted it to start with A and I was flicking through the dictionary and saw Adore… it didn’t have a domain name at the time so that was that,’ she said.

The company listed on the ASX in 2021 and has hundreds of luxury, cosmeceutical and mass market brands under its belt, but this is just the beginning for the retailer.

‘If there are women who can look at me and say “I can do that” than that’s great,’ she said.