She pitched her growth plans to an expert panel, including Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking, BNZ's Director of Partners Shelley Ruha and The Icehouse CEO Andrew Hamilton before being selected for mentoring by BNZ Head of Small Business Harry Ferreira and NZME's chief marketing officer Liza McNally.
Ethique was already poised to go to the next level of a business which had attracted plenty of global attention with its mixture of beauty and environmental sustainability.
But Ferreira has set up a series of meetings with network contacts with whom Ethique could collaborate and grow and McNally and West discussed a change in the company's marketing - moving from "pushing a product' to "telling our story", says West.
That change to content marketing has seen West move her marketing force in-house after previously employing an offshore agency in Sydney. Telling Ethique's story also looks to be a smart move - as the company has already stimulated plenty of attention in its short life.
Ethique claims to be the only company in the world producing shampoo, conditioner and other beauty products only in solid bars (with 100 per cent biodegradable packaging), rather than liquids contained in plastic bottles.
West, based in Christchurch, is aiming to prevent at least 1 million plastic bottles from tarnishing the world as she grows her business - and consumer acceptance of beauty products that do not come in a plastic container.
"It's our goal to save a million plastic bottles by 2020 - and we're well on the way," she says. "Business should not just be about money and commerce. I certainly have never thought about it solely in those terms."
It's no easy task. New Zealanders throw out 50 million plastic shampoo and conditioner bottles alone every year. In the US, 3 billion are thrown out annually.
"I am not trying to save the world by myself, of course not. But I figure if what we do is seen as important, and if it starts to gain acceptance, it will trigger other businesses to do the same thing."
The 30-year-old West attracted attention from the likes of Britney Spears, Ashton Kutcher, the Huffington Post and Forbes; last year she was named one of the top 100 global thinkers by the US Foreign Policy (equivalent to our Foreign Affairs ministry).
The company's environmental ethos is clear when you understand its origins - in West's shower.
She dropped a shampoo bottle, losing much of the contents and, in her chagrin, thought how stupid it was to contain such a product in plastic when it could be produced in solid state and in a form which lasted much longer than a liquid in a bottle.
"Somewhere between 65 per cent and 85 per cent of shampoo is actually water; for conditioner it is more like 95 per cent - and yet water is obviously present in your shower."
The environmentalist in her clicked in. Water is a commodity under pressure in various parts of the globe and saving it is a task close to her green heart. Couple that with a shampoo, conditioner and other products that do not need plastic packaging - and she had a business opportunity.
In her second year of a science degree, West worked long hours to teach herself what the various ingredients of a shampoo do and how they could be combined into a bar a bit like a bar of soap, far more concentrated and longer lasting than bottle-based products.
That was four years ago and she now has solid beauty bars offering body washes, face creams as well as shampoos and conditioners and has even branched out into household cleaning products and pet wash. All products are made from naturally derived cruelty-free and vegan ingredients and come from ethical sustainable sources.
As West says: "We have to stop transferring responsibility for saving our environment to consumers. Businesses need to lead the way by adopting practices that show they are responsible for their product for its entire life cycle."
Follow the journey on The Mike Hosking Breakfast on Newstalk ZB and at SupersizeSME.co.nz
