Beauty brand founder who pulled out her eyelashes due to OCD goes viral on TikTok with sell-out lash growth oil

A young skincare brand founder has described how her thriving business became her “absolute nemesis” when a slump in sales and the resulting stress caused a flare-up of trichotillomania, leading her to pull out all her eyelashes.

Isobel Perl, 30, from Watford, gained 50,000 TikTok followers in three months at the start of 2021 by posting videos about the ups and downs of running a brand solo – and sales of her signature pink clay mask boomed. But when pandemic restrictions were eased in 2022 and consumers started to spend less on skincare, sales plateaued.

After investing £8,000 in advertising, which wasn’t successful, and propping up the business with her own savings, the mounting stress triggered a flare-up of trichotillomania – an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) condition that had been dormant since she was 14 – and Isobel started pulling out her eyelashes.

“It was a really bad period, I couldn’t see a way out,” Isobel told PA Real Life. “As a result, my mental health was in the pan and my eyelashes took a beating. I had struggled with low moods throughout my life, but that was the first time I was like, ‘Wow, I do not want to get out of bed’.”

On the verge of closing her business, Isobel opened up to her TikTok followers about her dire financial straits and sales shot up again. Then, after searching for a lash growth serum that didn’t contain synthetic growth hormones, she decided to develop a natural lash oil to support her recovery.

The Nourishing Lash Oil went viral when it launched in 2023, with one video getting 2.7 million views. It sold out multiple times, became the brand’s best-selling product and garnered a 400% sales increase in 2024.

Now, after having therapy and giving up alcohol, Isobel’s mental health is much stronger and her trichotillomania is under control. The brand founder wants to raise awareness about the condition and offer support to others who are struggling with OCD or anxiety.

Isobel started Perl Cosmetics in 2020 when she lost her London-based project management job due to pandemic cost-cutting measures.

Forced to move back in with her parents in Watford, she decided to take a chance on an idea she’d had on the back burner, a waterless skincare brand, launching with the British Pink Clay Mask in July 2020, using £1,000 of savings she had left from selling her car to fund the initial product development and production.

In September, she started a full-time project management job, continuing to run the skincare brand in her spare time, and the following January, Isobel decided to start posting videos on TikTok about what it’s like to grow a business on your own.

“That’s when things completely changed,” she says. “TikTok transformed the business. I grew 50,000 followers in around three months. In the first six months, I had generated £5,000 in revenue, but in 2021, we did £100,000 in revenue, and that was literally from one product and all social media [exposure].”

In April 2021, Isobel quit her full-time job to focus on Perl Cosmetics and took on several part-time staff to help fulfil the thousands of orders that were flooding in. The following year, she released the brand’s second product, Radiance Facial Oil, and revenues continued to rise steadily, which Isobel credits to the “perfect storm” of the pandemic lockdowns.

“No-one could get to the spa, and it was like the spa experience came to you, plus our customers loved the fact that they were supporting a small business.”

However, when restrictions were lifted in 2022 and consumer spending habits changed, sales of Perl Cosmetics stagnated. Isobel invested £8,000 in advertising, to no avail, and she was “burning [herself] out” working long hours with only two part-time staff members to help.

The constant stress took a severe toll on her mental health and led to a flare-up of trichotillomania – a symptom of OCD Isobel had first experienced aged 14 – and she started compulsively pulling out her eyelashes.

“The business, my ‘baby’ that I had grown, became my absolute nemesis,” Isobel says, explaining that her lash-pulling triggers were “being stressed, anxious, tired or hungover. It’s hard to explain, but it’s comforting, it’s a self-soothing mechanism.”

At the depths of despair, Isobel posted on TikTok talking about her financial difficulties and the video went viral, getting more than two million views and thousands of encouraging comments. It generated £12,000 in revenue from the subsequent sales uplift, which saved the business from closure. Isobel also started going to therapy to address the “underlying problems” behind her anxiety.

In the meantime, Isobel had started to develop a natural lash oil because the synthetic growth serums she’d used in the past left her looking “haggard” around the eyes. She didn’t intend to sell the oil at first, but after posting about it on TikTok, users were clamouring for the product.

“It had five or six million views across different videos on TikTok before we’d even launched it. We had a wait list of over 5,000 people, and we ended up selling out in nine hours. It was insane, we just couldn’t keep it in stock, I think it sold out seven times.”

Nearly two years on, Perl Cosmetics has 280,000 TikTok followers and 10 part-time staff, the product line-up includes seven core products, and Isobel says she is “in a much better place” with her mental health and trichotillomania.

While she still experiences work stressors – for example, being forced to change the brand name to Isobel Perl, which will be completed in 2026, due to a copyright infringement claim from a similar-sounding company and losing money on a pop-up shop that took place in June – Isobel is better able to cope when they arise.

Asked what advice she would give to anyone who has trichotillomania, she says understanding your triggers is key. “Without actually understanding why you’re doing it, it’s going to always be there. I definitely recommend speaking to a doctor or mental health practitioner, and going to therapy if you can.”

Giving up alcohol was also a game-changer. “I stopped drinking because I had a very bad relationship with alcohol, but by removing that it was one whole trigger [for trichotillomania] completely gone. I sleep amazingly well now, I’m clear-headed, and it’s definitely helped with my mental health as well.

“It’s honestly the best thing I’ve ever done – well, apart from starting the business. It’s the second-best thing I’ve ever done.”