An owner of a small makeup business in Matapihi has lost up to $3000 in makeup in a recent burglary on her property.

Lillybeth Melmoth says her professional makeup kit was taken from her car.

'We think someone was here on Monday, then came back here to steal stuff on Tuesday.

'Two weeks ago on Monday, my husband noticed little things in our garage had been moved around and at that time we suspected someone may have been in there,” she says.

'Thursday I went to do a makeup booking and realized my kit was not in the house or in the car.

'I had last had it in the car from a booking on Tuesday and my husband had used the car Wednesday so we suspect it may have been taken Tuesday night.”

She says the stolen kit is large, on wheels, and is made up of more than $3000 of cosmetics, tools and electronic equipment.

Lillybeth says despite what has happened, she remains ‘emotionally-calm'.

'I try to hold on lightly to possessions,” she says.

'Even though I knew my kit was gone on Thursday I had overflow makeup and was able to put a kit back together and go to my booking that day along with another booking for a wedding on Sunday.

'I still had stash I could rely on, but just had to work harder to make it work but the fact it is my livelihood on the line and the whole kit was worth around $3000.

'It would cost around $4000 to replace new, but I have some good relationships with a few companies so I can get it at wholesale rate for $3000.

'It's not fully covered by insurance, I thought it would be but they only cover up to $1000 for business tools with a $300 excess.

'The more I think about it, the more I get angry.

'It takes time to build up a kit and I would have spent years on doing that,” she says. 'Things like customized lip pallets which might be worth around $400, but are made up of 24 different lipsticks that have been melted in and specifically customized to create the perfect lip shade those are irreplaceable.”

She says after suspecting someone may have been at their property, her husband was prompted to install cameras, which were later ripped off the house.

The pair replaced the cameras once more with a higher quality system, and were able to capture footage of the person they believe may have taken their belongings.

She has since posted photos to a private Facebook group to help confirm their identity and taken this information to police.

'People have commented quite abusive things and I don't agree with some of those, I don't like that mob mentality.

'I don't think they knew what they were taking, it's used makeup so you could probably sell it for a few hundred.

'What concerns me is that this person has been here four times and they keep trying into our shed.”

She says Police have are now analyzing finger prints which will take up to a week.

'If he's on record he will be found,” says Lillybeth. 'If he is I do hope they pay him a visit and find everything that would be amazing because there are other people in the same area as me who have let me know about property stolen from their homes too.

'We think it could be the same person who has stolen our property, it all seems to be cars getting broken into.”

She says a white t-shirt and a cheap pair of sunglasses were also taken from her car during the burglary.

'They seem to have just taken any little thing, but left others within the garage like my bike.”

'I have mostly replaced it but that is mostly out of my own pocket and insurance will cover some of that.”

She is now encouraging other people in the Matapihi suburb who have recently had burglaries at their properties to get in touch with her.

Anyone who has been the victim of burglaries in the Mataphi area can also contact the Tauranga Police on 075774300.