The Glossy Beauty Podcast

Few beauty brands have had an evolution quite like Southern California-based ColourPop cosmetics (20:50).  Launched in 2014 at the height of the DTC era, the brand once released around 40 collections per year. “That's how consumers were shopping,” Vivian Weng, ColourPop brand president, told Glossy. “For a number of years, consumers were looking for the latest launch … and looking to get their hands on limited quantities of something that was very, very specific and timely.”  Flash forward to its eleventh birthday this month and things look very different. “[Beauty shoppers] are looking for newness, but in a different way,” Weng said. “The consumer has evolved, and we're trying to evolve with that community.”  So far, ColourPop's omnichannel evolution has become a case study for formerly-DTC brands: The brand launched into Ulta Beauty in 2018, then every Target store in 2023, and has cut its annual launches in half. “Especially post-Covid, consumers were starting to get fatigued with so many launches,” Weng said. “It felt very cluttered and noisy, and they were looking for more core, hero products.”  But hero need not mean boring: ColourPop's top seller in Target is a $9 body glitter gel ,and its super-pigmented $7 Super Shock pressed eyeshadow is the retail's No. 6 top eyeshadow, Weng told Glossy. The latter is also the first product the company ever made and continues to be its bestseller.  “We like to say that ColourPop is an overnight success story 70 years in the making,” Weng said. That is, the brand was born in Spatz Labs, a family-owned contract manufacturer in Oxnard, California.  ColourPop co-founders Laura and John Nelson, whose father started Spatz Labs decades before, grew up watching the top cosmetics in the country being quietly made in their family's factory. Seed Beauty, the parent company of ColourPop, is also well-known for being the original manufacturer of Kylie Cosmetics' first Lip Kit. However, due to the demand of ColourPop, Weng told Glossy that Spatz Labs no longer contracts for the industry. Weng joined the company in 2022. Previously, she held executive roles at Anastasia Beverly Hills and L'Oréal; she got her start at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey & Co. In today's episode, Weng discusses the brand's strategic evolution, the challenges along the way and the future of the prolific beauty brand. But first in today's episode, hosts Lexy Lebsack and Sara Spruch-Feiner discuss the top headlines of the week. This includes Walmart's plan to test new high-touch beauty bars in 40 stores, the growing marketing opportunity at Formula 1 events, the rise in clinical testing among leading supplement brands and MET Gala highlights. 

About four years ago, Glossy profiled Muneeb Shah. At the time, he was a resident who had accumulated an impressive 6 million TikTok followers. He had started posting during quarantine. Now, that number has skyrocketed to 17.9 million — plus an additional 1.1 million followers on Instagram. Recent content reveals partnerships with brands including Timeless Skin Care, No. 7 Skin Care and TirTir, to name a few. Last March, Dr. Shah debuted Remedy, his own brand, which currently offers three serums, a lip balm, a moisturizer, a dandruff shampoo, a body cream for keratosis pilaris and pimple patches. In addition, Dr. Shah serves — along with Dr. Dhaval Bhanusali — as one of Neutrogena's two Global Innovation Partners. The multi-year contract saw him co-star alongside Tate McRae in Neutrogena's recent TV commercial, which aired during the Super Bowl. In this week's Glossy Beauty Podcast episode, Sara Spruch-Feiner speaks with Dr. Shah (20:12) about his TikTok growth and the content that resonates with his following, the trials and tribulations of his first year running a brand, and the work he's doing with Neutrogena. But first, co-hosts Sara Spruch-Feiner and Lexy Lebsack chat about Ulta's consumer-facing Ulta Beauty World event in San Antonio, the retailer's partnership with Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter tour, and the recent layoffs at Coty and UPS.

Gabby Shacknai and Zoe Weiner were already veteran beauty editors when they debuted their nonprofit, Beautyfor, in June 2024. Like many people who work in the beauty industry, they'd long been surrounded by a surplus of products and felt there had to be a way to do some good with the excess. Initially, they planned a sale with excess from their friends in the industry. But then, brands got wind and asked to donate products. "All of a sudden, Gabby's apartment was filled with hundreds and hundreds of serums and moisturizers and things, and we were just kind of like, 'Where is this stuff coming from? It's great that brands want to donate this, but why do they have all of this stuff?'" Weiner recalled. Now, the organization has formalized its processes. It hosts quarterly sales, which have become — a pleasant surprise to its founders — like community events. It just held its first online sale at the start of April. Weiner and Shacknai joined Glossy Beauty Podcast hosts Sara Spruch-Feiner and Lexy Lebsack to talk about the organization's founding, its process of redirecting products from landfill to shoppers' shelves, its philanthropic work — donating the proceeds from beauty product sales to other nonprofits — and its dedication to maintaining a curatorial viewpoint with the products it takes on.

Pact Collective isn't the first company to try to solve the beauty industry's waste problem. But in four short years, it's already become the most successful.  “It feels like a really exciting time for the industry, but we've still got a lot of work to do,” Carly Snider, executive director of Pact Collective, told Glossy. “We [as an industry] are creating 120 billion units of beauty packaging globally and only a fraction of those are recycled or reused.”  This widely-shared statistic was one catalyst for Pact's launch in 2021 as a nonprofit industry collective founded by retailer Credo Beauty and clean cosmetics brand MOB Beauty.  Today, Pact has many pillars. First, it serves as a recycling alternative to city-run curbside bins and private recycling initiatives. The concept is simple: Educate consumers about their products' end-of-life while creating a data-driven, closed-loop system that reduces waste through in-store collection bins and consumer-friendly mail-back programs.  Pact has been embraced by the industry and actively has 3,300 collection bins across the U.S. and Canada in retailers like Sephora, Ulta Beauty, Credo Beauty, Nordstrom and many more. It also works with brands like L'Oréal USA, Fenty Beauty and Summer Fridays.  Growth across its packaging collection program has helped the company meet volume collection requirements for its biggest program of 2024: a closed-loop manufacturing initiative called New Matter. The initiative debuted in September with pumps made from recovered plastic. “I didn't imagine this level of growth so soon,” Snider said. “Right now we have 150 members across the entire supply chain [including] brands, retailers, packaging suppliers, media, you name it. … If you're working within this space, we want you to have a seat at the table. We want to have your voice heard, because it's an all-hands-on-deck situation.” In today's episode, Snider discusses Pact's growth, including its plans to get recycle bins into non-retail locations like colleges and libraries and exactly what happens to the empty packaging it collects. Snider also addresses how brands and retailers can lessen their environmental footprint and educate consumers on recycling nuances. But first in today's episode, Glossy senior reporter Emily Jensen joins host Lexy Lebsack to address the industry's top headlines. This includes backlash over buzzy fragrance brand Boy Smells' new rebrand; Sephora as a bright spot in LVMH's disappointing earnings; and Amorepacific's plans to reshore manufacturing to the U.S. amid mounting tariffs. 

Esteemed beauty marketer Michelle Miller knows a thing or two about a successful TikTok strategy. Miller served as CMO of K-18 during its gangbuster rise and 2023 strategic acquisition by Unilever. Her CV also includes Kosas, Too Faced and, as of January, CMO of Vegamour hair care.  “[TikTok has] an algorithm that is able to democratize beauty in a way that makes it a lot more accessible [to the average consumer],” Miller said. “With the platform being so uncertain, it's emotionally hard for brands that have invested so much time into creator communities, into content on Tiktok. And most of all, it's really, really hard for creators that have built their entire living and livelihoods on the platform.”  Miller joined Glossy podcast hosts Lexy Lebsack and Sara Spruch-Feiner (23:21), plus Glossy managing editor Tatiana Pile, to discuss the latest movement in TikTok's ongoing sell-or-be-banned legal predicament and what it means for the beauty industry.  As previously reported by Glossy, concern over TikTok's algorithm and its ability to influence Americans through disinformation campaigns, as well as the large amount of data being collected by ByteDance about Americans, are the top concerns of those behind the ban. This conversation goes back to 2020 when President Trump said he planned to ban the app, but it wasn't until TikTok added commerce with TikTok Shop in September of 2023 that momentum rebuilt. Then-President Biden signed a law into effect in April of 2024 that gave TikTok owner Bytedance a window to sell the majority of the business to an American owner or be banned from being downloaded in the U.S.  Despite numerous legal challenges, including one heard by the Supreme Court, Bytedance unsuccessfully fought the legislation, and the app briefly went dark in January before garnering an extension by President Trump.  On April 4, TikTok received a second extension to find a buyer until June 19. Until then, the app is safe. However, alongside a developing trade war with China, TikTok's fate hangs in the balance with a meaningful impact on the beauty and wellness industries.  “It really puts into place — not only for big brands in beauty, but also for smaller brands that are just getting started — [the questions] of: ‘How do you future-proof your brand? How do you work virality today, and what's next if TikTok does go away in 75 days?” Miller said.  Also included in this episode is a news rundown on the top stories of the week. The team discusses President Trump's escalating global tariffs, Beyoncé-founded Cécred's splashy launch into Ulta Beauty and the latest celebrity beauty brand to hire bankers to explore an exit, ahead. 

Sephora has launched numerous new brands in recent months, many of them buzzy and beloved — but perhaps none has been as hotly anticipated as Ultra Violette (that's pronounced "violet"), the Aussie sunscreen brand first launched in 2018. Sephora marks the brand's official debut into the U.S. market — a landmark occasion, because, as co-founder Bec Jefferd said on this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, "You can't be a serious global beauty brand if you aren't in the U.S." That's in spite of the fact that the brand has already launched in 29 other markets. Jefferd and co-founder Ava Matthews met as coworkers at Mecca, the premier Australian beauty retailer. Growing up in Australia, sun protection is a focus, even in childhood, given the country's climate and high skin cancer rates, Matthews said. Still, in 2016, when they began ideation for the brand, the duo saw the opportunity for a brand that approached the category differently. "[Sunscreen] wasn't at the center of a skin-care routine. We were talking about it as a skin cancer preventative or something to wear in summer, even in Australia," Matthews said. "There were a lot of people talking about sun care in a serious way, in terms of [skin] cancer, but no one talking about sun care as a kind of prestige skin-care product." For reference, Supergoop launched in 2007, as did Coola; while Vacation launched in 2021, as did fellow Aussie sunscreen brand Naked Sundays. Ultra Violette, with its brightly colored packaging and elegant formulas, quickly became one of the hottest sunscreen brands on the market — its unavailability in the States only added to its cool factor. In-the-know editors got it overseas or had friends bring it back when they traveled — it became ubiquitous in chic poolside pics. As recently as 2021, Matthews and Jefferd had no plans to launch in the States, but now, with formulas they've deemed just as good as their Aussie counterparts and the promise of a new broad-spectrum filter likely soon to be approved in the U.S., the time was right. And though the U.S. has not approved a new filter since 1999, 2026 might change that. As of March 28, the brand is on Sephora.com and in-store at all doors. As for the marketing for the Sephora launch, influencer partnerships are about to kick off, mailers have gone out, and a New York City breakfast, co-hosted by Tinx has been held. As Matthews put it, "We're really not prepared to fuck this up." The U.S. range features five products, to start, four sunscreens and one lip product — with SPF, of course — in two shades. Prices range from $22-$40. In 2024, the brand closed a 15 million Australian-dollar minority investment from equity firm Aria Growth Partners. In this episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, the co-founders discuss why it finally made sense to launch stateside, why there's promise in the long-awaited new sunscreen filters in the U.S. and who the Ultra Violette customer is, especially as the sunscreen market has become more crowded.

Act+Acre's husband-and-wife founders were early to the growth of the scalp-care market when they launched their brand in 2019 with one product: a $48 prewash treatment called Scalp Detox Oil.  “[Scalp care] was definitely an afterthought for people [a few years ago],” brand founder and hairstylist Helen Reavey told Glossy. “Launching it in 2019, we were one of the first to solely think about scalp care the way skin care had come up and was so personalized, and we took that approach. It's not a one-size-fits-all for the scalp.” Reavey has seen the effects of poor scalp care throughout her 15-year career as a celebrity and editorial hairstylist — most notably during fashion month, when models' hair is routinely overworked backstage until their scalps become sensitive to the touch. “I had that moment where I was like, ‘I wish I could give them something to remove everything and to really start with a fresh canvas,'" she said. “It was that moment [where we said], ‘OK, we should do this; we should launch a brand.'”  Reavey is also a certified trichologist, a specialization focused on the treatment and health of the hair and scalp. She launched Act+Acre with husband and business partner Colm Mackin, who now serves as CEO.  Now an award-winning hero product for the brand, Scalp Detox is one of 25 products sold individually and through 10 curated systems made up of individual SKUs. From oil control to hydration to hair growth, they're each designed for a specific concern.  To help consumers navigate the offerings, Act+Acre publishes blog posts and educational content on social media, and offers a 10-plus question quiz on its site to match a consumer with the right products.  Top selling systems include its Stem Cell System, Thick + Full System and Essential Hydration System. Meanwhile, individual bestsellers include Stem Cell Serum for $86 and Daily Hydro Scalp Serum for $24.  The line is sold DTC and through Sephora, Revolve, Bluemercury, Amazon, Dermstore, Anthropologie and TikTok Shop, among other channels. The brand does 60% of its business DTC and has a 50% subscription rate within that cohort, Mackin told Glossy.  Several products are also recognized by the National Psoriasis Foundation for being safe for those with psoriasis.  “People are definitely starting to understand that the scalp is a foundation for healthy hair, and that comes across in all of our messaging,” Reavey told Glossy.  Act+Acre's latest launch, a two-step shampoo and treatment, is focused on hard water buildup, which impacts the majority of U.S. consumers. High levels of minerals like calcium and magnesium in tap water can build up in the hair and cause brittleness and discoloration, especially on color-treated hair. “I don't think people were really understanding that hard water was this silent destructor,” Reavey told Glossy. The brand's Clarifying Hard Water Shampoo sells for $32, while the Clarifying Hard Water Scalp Treatment goes for $38.  In this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Reavey and Mackin share insider details on these topics. The duo also discusses the ways they stand out in the market, including through community building, education and customer service.

Very few beauty entrepreneurs have had more success than Carolyn Aronson. In 2006, the longtime hairstylist and salon owner launched professional hair-care brand It's a 10 with one hero product: Miracle Leave-In spray. The $21 formula was an immediate success for its ability to hydrate, smooth, condition, defrizz and protect hair with one formula. The brand had immediate success by seeding the product to professional hairstylists before entering Ulta Beauty, Target, Sally's Beauty, Cosmoprof, SalonCentric and Amazon, and selling DTC.  Using Miracle Leave-In as the anchor for expansion, the company added formulations through the years for various hair types and preferences. This includes new Miracle Leave-Ins for coily, blonde and men's hair; keratin- or color-treated hair; and lite, fragrance-free and dye-free variations. Each new collection includes shampoo, conditioner, masks and a variety of other offerings. The brand also sells body care.   In 2017, Aronson bought out her co-founder to become the sole owner of It's a 10. She's taken on no investors. The brand currently brings in around $500 million in gross annual sales and is distributed in more than 125 countries.  On a personal level, Aronson has also provided inspiration for women in the beauty industry. She entered the foster care system at age 2, began working in salons as a teenager and is currently one of the beauty industry's few self-made billionaires. She's also known for her philanthropy. For example, It's a 10 donated $250,000 worth of products to the Los Angeles Dream Center in January to help victims of the Los Angeles wildfires.  This year, Aronson is expanding her empire with Cloud Haircare, a new, Gen Z-focused line of shampoo, conditioner and styling products sold in two collections: nourishing and volumizing. Each SKU sells for $11.99 in CVS, Walmart and DTC.  The line features colorful, flat lay-friendly packaging and Gen Z-focused values: vegan, Leaping Bunny-approved formulas free of parabens and SLS, and sold in bottles made from post-consumer plastic resins.  Aronson's expansion into mass comes at a time when the sector has experienced a renaissance, of sorts. New, fresh brands are currently flooding the market, many of which are priced at $11.99 — like Odele, Saltair, Being Frenshe, Laura Polko and Function of Beauty —  while bargain formulas like Suave are back with new branding.  Beyond Cloud Haircare, Aronson entered the home hair-color space in 2023 with Rewind it 10, a line of men's home hair and beard dyes. She partnered with friend and rapper Fat Joe on the collection, as well as her husband Jeff Aronson. It sells for $15 per box DTC and through Sally's Beauty, CVS, Walmart, Amazon and more retailers.  To entice shoppers, each shade of hair dye is modeled by an influential figure like model Tyson Beckford, football star Trace Kelsie, DJ Khaled and celebrity face Brody Jenner, among many others.  On this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Aronson provides Glossy listeners an inside view of her move into mass hair care with Cloud and insights into navigating the men's marketplace with Rewind it 10. She also gives listeners a teaser on her entry into women's hair color and her hopes for Cloud Haircare.

Kathryn Winokur launched Hally Hair in 2021 after working for companies including PepsiCo and Dove. From engineering college partnerships to hosting a trip for Alabama sorority girls, the brand has succeeded by keeping its finger on the pulse and remaining deeply entrenched in youth culture. Its latest move is a timely one, too: On March 6, it introduced Lady H, a $39 alcohol-free hair perfume that also adds shine to hair. The scent launched DTC and on TikTok Shop and will hit Ulta Beauty — in all doors and online — on April 20. "We see hair and fragrance as some of the most individualistic forms of self-expression. That was the driving force behind Hally's new hair perfume," Winokur said. In this episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Winokur talks about filling a white space with Hally, getting insights directly from Gen Z and launching the brand's new product, Lady H hair perfume. The scent has notes of ripe cherry, jasmine vanilla and deep moss.

For New Yorkers, C.O. Bigelow is an institution.  “There's something about the [Bigelow] apothecary that emotionally appeals to people,” Ian Ginsberg, president, pharmacist and third generation owner of C.O. Bigelow, told Glossy. “Everybody, no matter how young or old you are, has some memory about going to the apothecary and the pharmacist telling you what to do. That's where I started [when I joined the family business four decades ago]. I started focusing on what happens when you walk in the door.” Opened in 1838, C.O. Bigelow is a mainstay in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City and touted as the city's oldest apothecary. To wit: The original Kiehl's apothecary opened 14 years later in 1851.  C.O. Bigelow is known as a go-to for well-heeled New Yorkers, NYU students, tourists and neighborhood locals. Its lore includes customers like Sarah Jessica Parker and the late Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, who purchased her iconic headbands in the shop, according to C.O. Bigelow.  “It's not always about what you buy, it's about how you feel when you're there,” said Ginsberg. “I always say we have to be in the want business, not the need business. The minute we're in the need business, we're dead.”  His family has built more than a pharmacy and retail. The company also has an eponymous beauty brand made in partnership with Bath & Body Works, formerly Limited Brands. The products range from makeup to body care and currently sell in the Greenwich store as well as through Bath & Body Works, Bloomingdale's and Revolve, among other retailers.  The company also sells its wares direct to consumers. They include the namesake beauty line and the diverse curation found in store. Its stores offers luxury brands like Westman Atelier and Augustinus Bader, prestige offerings from RMS Beauty and Caudalie, and masstige products like Avene and Bioderma.  “You can't just put stuff on shelves anymore,” Ginsberg said. “Anybody can find unique things and put them on shelves, but it's about making people feel good -- that's more important now than ever before. People talk about experiential retail, but our experimental retail is just person-to-person communication, helping people, explaining things to them and answering questions and showing them how to use things in whatever category it is. That's the secret sauce.” The company also owns a distribution company called Bigelow Trading that imports and distributes small brands into the U.S., for its own retail and others. Marvis toothpaste is among those brands. In addition, Bigelow Trading has a thriving hotel amenities business that works across hospitality brands like Aman, Nobu Hotel and Soho Grand Hotel, among others.  But perhaps the most surprising thing about C.O. Bigelow is the role of the pharmacy in the overall business.  “People sometimes say to me, ‘You have this great beauty business because you have this strong pharmacy business,” Ginsberg said. “But they have it all wrong. [The pharmacy business is supported by the beauty business].”  As previously reported by Glossy, 2024 was a bad year for American drugstores, and 2025 could end up even worse. Just last year, CVS closed 586 locations, Rite Aid closed 408 stores, and Walgreens closed 259 locations, which has created “drugstore deserts” across the U.S. As a pharmacist and third-generation pharmacy owner, Ginsberg also shared his perspective on a buzzy topic in the industry: pharmacy benefit managers, which act as middlemen between drug companies and consumers. PBMs are currently under investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for alleged pricing abuse, according to reporting by Reuters in January,  Paired with razor-sharp drug margins, pharmacist staffing shortages and more issues native to pharmacies, the industry is struggling. Ginsberg joined the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss the company's secret sauce behind its thriving brick-and-mortar business and the role beauty retails plays in it. 

There is a traditional path for successful makeup artists nowadays: Build up a roster of influential clients, accrue a following on social media, and start a brand of your own. After all, makeup artist-led brands — think: Makeup by Mario, Patrick Ta, Violette Fr and Fara Homidi — have never been hotter. But makeup artist Kelli Anne Sewell is taking a different approach. Sewell started her career in tech and would slide into the DMs of influential people, offering free services during her time off from work and posting the results on social media — even when she had 10 followers, she recalled. Her strategy has since paid off. Sewell has now provided glam for celebs and influencers including Kelsea Ballerini, Alix Earle and Kristin Juszczyk. Along the way, Sewell realized she also has a knack for education. So, rather than stamp her name on a product collection, she founded Makeup By Kelli Anne, a members-only app and website featuring long-form beauty tutorial content ranging up from makeup 101s, like "How to line your lips" and "How to cover dark circles," to joint features with big names like Jaclyn Hill, Sir John and Daniel Martin. Now, Sewell herself has 331,000 Instagram followers and 159,000 TikTok followers, and her company's Instagram account has over 73,000 followers. In this episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Sewell talks about starting scrappy, building a community and giving back to that community.

For MCoBeauty CMO Meridith Rojas, the ability to democratize the beauty industry lies in the power of dupes.  “We're in this moment, in this cultural zeitgeist, where people don't want to have to spend $1,000 on a face of beauty and don't want to be left out of the trends,” said Rojas. “We really want to create luxury for everyone. And of course, we have amazing dupes, but we also have some homegrown innovation. The combination has been really magnetic, and our community is growing in the U.S. so fast. We have a very exciting year ahead of us.”  Dupes, the colloquial term for a lower-priced product inspired by a luxury category leader, makes up about half of MCo's offering. Unlike counterfeits or copies, which are often associated with unsafe formulas and flagrant IP violations, dupes are in their own category and are incredibly popular globally.  MCoBeauty sells recognizable dupes for popular products from brands like Charlotte Tilbury, Drunk Elephant, Sol de Janeiro and Laneige for around a third of the price. For example, MCo Beauty's best-selling Flawless Glow Foundation retails for $14.99, and its Miracle Flawless Pressed Powder goes for $9.99. Similar products from Charlotte Tilbury retail for $49 and $28, respectively. It also offers non-dupes, like its best-selling XtendLash tubing mascara, which sells for $13.99. MCoBeauty was launched in Australia in 2016 by founder Shelley Sullivan, a former modeling agency owner. It is currently the top-selling color cosmetics brand in Australia and New Zealand, according to Greg Barker, MCoBeauty's evp of North America. As previously reported by Glossy in December, MCoBeauty launched its U.S. expansion at the end of 2024 with entry into 1,700 Kroger stores, which include regional grocery stores like Smiths, Fred Meyer, King Soopers, Frys, Ralphs and more. The expansion also includes DTC sales via MCoBeauty's site and Amazon. This week, MCo Beauty also launched into 1,300 Target doors and on Target.com.  Rojas joined The Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss MCoBeauty's U.S. expansion and the marketing strategy supporting it. She shared anecdotes about the company's OOH and digital marketing successes, including advice on building a digital community, connecting with influencers early in their careers, getting the best community UGC and hiring digitally-minded celebrities to lead social-first campaigns.

Longtime beauty executive Lori Singer has been instrumental in some of the biggest fragrance license deals of the past 20 years. Singer spent more than a decade at Coty, where she worked on bestselling fragrances by Calvin Klein, Vera Wang, Balenciaga and Nautica. She also tripled global net revenues for Marc Jacobs with its iconic Daisy franchise launched in 2007. Singer got her start at Revlon, and her CV also includes Calvin Klein Cosmetics, Unilever and Benetton Group.  “I've spent my entire career in beauty. I'm sort of a beauty lifer,” she told Glossy. “I fell in love on day one at Revlon, my first job, and I really have never looked back.”  Singer joined Parlux in 2019 to grow its license business and immediately set her sights on Billie Eilish.  “Other than music, fragrance and scent are everything to her. So, upon meeting her and hearing about her deep knowledge [of fragrance, we knew it was a fit for Parlux],” Singer told Glossy. “She knows ingredients and she knows about olfactory territory. She has had a natural nose for scents." By 2021, her first scent, Eilish, was released, which she followed up with Eilish No. 2 the next year and Eilish No. 3 in 2023.  Fast forward to last week, and Parlux released Eilish's fourth fragrance, called Your Turn. The new scent is priced at $90 for 100 milliliters and available DTC — it will launch in Ulta Beauty doors later this spring. Your Turn is gender-neutral and described as “warm, woody and fresh” with notes of peach, ginger and sandalwood.  Frank Voelkl, principal perfumer at fragrance house Firmenich, was the “nose.” One of the most famous perfumers working today, he has created Glossier's You franchise, Phlur's Mood Ring and Father Figure, and Le Labo's cult Santal 33, among others.  Parlux is a global licensee for celebrities, fashion houses and lifestyle brands. The company launched in 1984 and is privately held. Its licenses include Kenneth Cole, Vince Camuto, Jessica Simpson, Steve Madden and Jason Wu, among others. Most recently, Parlux entered into a partnership with basketball player LeBron James to create The Shop, a line of grooming products distributed through Walmart. Then, in late 2024, the company launched its first fragrance with influencer-turned-designer Danielle Bernstein, the creator behind WeWoreWhat, called WeWoreWhat 001.  Later this year, the company will celebrate another milestone: Paris Hilton's 30th fragrance over 20 years. Called Iconic, the scent will launch this spring.  Singer joined the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss the secret sauce behind Parlux's celeb fragrances, the evolving fragrance consumer and 2025 industry predictions.

Jordan Samuel, a former ballet dancer, launched his eponymous skin care brand in 2013, with just two products: The After Show Treatment Cleanser and the Hydrate Facial Serum. He has grown, since then, but remained small, which he calls, a “badge of honor.” The brand is beloved by leading skin care influencers like Caroline Hirons (776,000 Instagram followers). It is primarily DTC but is carried at the fast facial bar, Formula Fig, as well as C.O. Bigelow, and available to international customers via Cult Beauty. In this episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, he discusses his unique trajectory from ballet dancer to brand founder, the autonomy he's been able to maintain by being carefully selective with retail partnerships, and staying small, and why launching less makes a big difference.

To her 769,000 Instagram followers, fitness entrepreneur-turned-brand founder Amanda Kloots feels like a friend who just happens to sometimes star in movies or host TV shows — she wrapped her gig on CBS's "The Talk" when the show ended last year and hosts "Live From The Other Side" on Netflix. Some of her fans have been following her journey since she started teaching fitness classes nearly a decade ago, in 2016. That was when she first transitioned out of her previous career as a Radio City Rockette and Broadway dancer and started building her fitness business, Amanda Kloots Fitness. Earlier this month, Kloots launched Proper, a wellness brand that debuted with five powder supplements. It is the seventh brand to launch in partnership with Ben Bennett's incubator, The Center — its other brands include Naturium, which exited to E.l.f. Beauty at the end of 2023. Bennett and Kloots are striving to create products that appeal to the "everyday woman who comes to my classes, who is really just looking for something to keep her happy and to make her feel her best," Kloots said on this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast. Proper's first five products include the greens powder Daily Boost, Metabolism + Energy Boost, Digestion + Bloat Relief, Immune Support, and Calming Aid. Each is $28 and, for now, exclusively available direct-to-consumer. And they're brightly colored to represent the idea of "drinking the rainbow," Kloots said. On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Kloots discusses how the early days of the boutique fitness boom made her social media savvy, what business lessons she learned from past ventures and collaborations, and what's next for Proper.

Dr. Jonathan Leary is on a mission to change how and where consumers socialize.  “We're the world's first social wellness club. What I mean by that is we're not a gym, we're not a spa, we don't do beauty, and we don't do aesthetics. All we do is self-care, but made social,” said Remedy Place founder and CEO Dr. Leary. “I'm really trying to change the narrative of how people socialize, but in a healthy way.” That means he encourages his clients to substitute happy hour for a group cryotherapy appointment or a work meeting for a group sauna session at one of Remedy Place's three locations in L.A. and New York City. “We call them social substitutions with self-care experiences,” he said.  This aligns with an overall sea change he's seen in the U.S. that includes more interest in preventative health and less interest in drinking or socializing in bars and clubs. According to a 2023 Gallup poll, young adults are drinking less than previous generations: 62% of adults under age 35 say they drink, down from 72% two decades ago. “We're the sickest we've ever been, and people are lonelier than they've ever been,” Dr. Leary said. “There are so many things that need to change, and I think social self-care has the potential to be the largest vertical in the health and wellness industry.”  Dr. Leary has a doctorate in chiropractic medicine from USC and got his start as a wellness- and sports medicine-focused concierge doctor in Los Angeles, traveling to the homes or offices of wealthy clients, many of which were professional athletes. This allowed him to test and perfect the offerings now available at Remedy Place. Many of his private patients became investors in Remedy Place, and Dr. Leary opened his first location in 2019.  Remedy Place offers acupuncture, chiropractic care, cryotherapy, infrared saunas, red light therapy, IV therapy, contrast therapy and many more wellness modalities, all of which can be booked for groups or individuals. The company is known for its 30-minute ice bath class which includes guided breathwork before a group-led ice bath plunge. Clients strive to join the “six-minute club” after lasting as long submerged in the 39-degree water. “You are getting a huge endorphin rush and dopamine spike, which is responsible for that mood change [people talk about],” he said.  Remedy Place is privately held. The company took on an undisclosed round of seed investments in 2021, according to Crunchbase, and a $5 million bridge round of investment in 2022. Investors in the latter include music producer Zedd, NFL player Marcedes Lewis and Australian music group Rüfus Du Sol. The latter investment was part of a company valuation of $60 million.  While memberships are offered for a small price break on services, Remedy Place operates like a traditional spa or fitness studio where appointments for classes, group rooms and individual appointments can be booked in advance. Costs start at around $40 per session. The ice bath class is around $50 a session, while other modalities such as the lymphatic massage, start at over $100 per session.  Remedy Place has three locations: one in L.A.'s West Hollywood neighborhood and two in NYC in Soho and Flatiron, with a fourth planned for Boston early this year.  To grow awareness, Remedy Place has a robust OOH events strategy that includes pop-ups at cultural events like the Cannes Film Festival and Art Basel. Back at home, Nike, Peacock and Saint Laurent have all rented out a Remedy Place location for private events. But perhaps the largest collaboration planned for 2025 is a luxurious ice bath created in partnership with Kohler. It retails for $15,000 and is available for pre-order now for home and commercial use.  Dr. Leary joins the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss all of this, as well as the evolving role of self-care for wellness consumers, in today's episode.

Dr. David Shafer has been a practicing plastic surgeon for 15 years, but since 2020, the Shafer Clinic, where he practices, has also operated Advitam, a metabolic aesthetics clinic. Through Dr. Shafer's work with both, he sees patients who are striving to lose weight or gain energy, and he's also had a front-row seat to the rise of GLP-1s. In the plastic surgery clinic, patients may come in for skin removal surgery, having lost a lot of weight taking a GLP-1. At Advitam, they may be supervised while taking one. If you've seen headlines in the past year about Ozempic face (or breasts, or butt), then you already understand how the two practices can work hand-in-hand. On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Dr. Shafer discusses them.

Despite being around for nearly 100 years, pilates has never been so popular.  As previously reported by Glossy, search volume for “pilates” was at an all-time high in January 2004, with small yearly spikes each January since. It wasn't until 2022 that search numbers topped those 2004 numbers before hitting an all-time in January 2023 and then again in January of 2024.  However, searches have already topped 2024 numbers during the first week of the new year, according to Google Trends. The highest search numbers are coming from Australia, Singapore, New Zealand and the U.K. The U.S. ranks ninth for searches so far this year.  Pilates is a low-impact strength and mobility training practice designed by Joseph Pilates in 1920s Europe to rehab injured WWI veterans. He developed its tenets on a machine crafted from bed springs and wooden boards, which later inspired the "reformer," a machine with straps and springs that's been evolved many times over for pilates practices today. Pilates is also taught on a yoga mat using hand weights, stretchy bands and other props.  Partially fueled by celebrity devotees like Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner, and propelled by viral fashion trends like 2024's #PinkPilatesPrincess, the exercise modality shows no signs of slowing in 2025.  It's something that Australia-based Emma Stallworthy is betting on with 4-year-old pilates rental and digital class subscription company Your Reformer. The company is well-known in Australia and New Zealand markets and, as of September, has officially expanded to the U.S. with its signature $39-per-week in-home reformer bed rentals. They come with more than 800 high-quality training videos on a corresponding app. The company also sells its reformer beds to consumers as well as studios, gyms and hotels. Your Reformer is fully bootstrapped by Stallworthy and her husband and co-founder Ben. The duo started as gym owners in Melbourne. After renting out their gyms' reformer beds during the pandemic, thy sold their gyms and doubled down on this new business. Emma is also a pilates instructor. The company has nearly no competition for reformer rentals. Leaders in the space selling or financing equipment include Stott Pilates, Balanced Body and Merrithew. Your Reformer beds sell for around $2,500, while the reformer bed prices of the aforementioned manufacturers start at around $5,000. Outside of the rentals, the company's reformer sales and corresponding digital classes mak up a unique business model that is best compared to Peloton stationary bikes. Peloton gained massive popularity during the pandemic but later experienced financial distress that led to cuts and the replacement of its CEO in 2024, as reported by CFO Drive.  Stallworthy joined the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss the company's growth and expansion to the U.S. in September, the secret sauce behind growing its digital class subscriptions, its beauty and wellness partnerships, and the overall rise of autonomous pilates classes.

For this week's special episode, Glossy Beauty Podcast co-hosts Sara Spruch-Feiner and Lexy Lebsack brought on colleague Emily Jensen to discuss six topics — all 2024 trends they expect will continue to dominate in the year to come or emerging trends they believe will be big topics of conversation. These included the pending TikTok ban and how it will affect beauty brands, the shifts in influencer marketing including the question of "authenticity," the rise-and-rise of the fragrance category, the boom in sports and beauty partnerships, the impact of GLP-1 drugs on skin care, and the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health secretary and the potential impacts on the wellness industry. Listen in for a taste of what's to come in Glossy's beauty coverage this year.

Glossy reporters Lexy Lebsack, Sara Spruch-Feiner and Emma Sandler welcomed dozens of guests onto the Glossy Beauty Podcast in 2024. This included top executives at L'Oréal Group and Kendo Brands; longtime industry leaders from Retrouvé and Versed; and breakout indie brand founders from Flamingo Estate and Fazit. But it was the six interviews highlighted below that best capture the ways in which the beauty industry changed in 2024. In today's special end-of-year podcast episode, Lebsack and Spruch-Feiner walk through six can't-miss clips. In the clips ahead, Estée Lauder VP Chloe Green-Vamos discusses how the conglomerate is utilizing AI to better the business while longtime beauty exec Sarah Creal muses about reaching women over 40 with her new namesake line — two massive trends that swept the industry this year. This special 2024 episode also highlights an important change in retail's role in business, as heard in a clip from Black Girl Sunscreen founder Shontay Lundy's September episode. Speaking of sunscreen, Beauty of Joseon founder Sumin Lee joined the pod this month to discuss entering the U.S. market with the TikTok-famous brand. In another clip, Beachwaver's Sarah Potempa shares the secret behind her knockdown success live-selling business on TikTok. And finally, in Glossy's Tweens Talk Beauty episode, three Gen Alpha tween shoppers discuss the role beauty plays in their lives. The Glossy Beauty Podcast will be back next week with another special episode looking ahead at 2025 and will return on January 9 with our regular episodes.

“I believe that every great brand should evolve its look and feel about every five years,” said Katherine Power, serial entrepreneur and the founder of Versed skin care. “Since our launch in 2019, we've seen that our core customer, who is primarily an older millennial or young Gen X — I call them Xennials — has really grown along with us, and we wanted to continue to grow with them and to create something fresh and modern.” This included a refresh of packaging, visuals and language overseen by Lola Gonzalez Marra, Versed's longtime creative lead. Power and Marra have worked together for more than a decade on Power's many entrepreneurial projects, including editorial sites WhoWhatWear and Byrdie — which Power launched with Hillary Kerr in 2006 and 2013, respectively — as well as color cosmetics line Merit, which Power founded in 2021.  “We decided we needed to evolve enough that it's a change, but not so much that you go on Versed one day and it's a completely different brand,” said Marra. As Power and Marra explained on this episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, the refresh has been in the works for over a year.  Versed was launched in 2019 from data and insights learned at Byrdie and WhoWhatWear, which Power and Kerr have since sold to publisher Dotdash in 2019 and publisher Future Brands in 2022, respectively.  Thanks to Versed's omnichannel strategy where 75% of its sales are through Target, switching over merchandise has required a unique strategy. Hint: Versed is selling off older products DTC for 30% off right now. The team also rolled out tweaks to its social media aesthetic and naming formula for products. The brand also used this as an opportunity to fine-tune the assortment by making product cuts. But perhaps the biggest change is in its packaging colors, which Marra desaturated and leveraged into category IDs, all of which the duo discusses in the podcast episode. 

Aliett Buttelman and Nina LaBruna launched Fazit Beauty in January 2022. When it first debuted, the brand focused on various skin-care patches. In the years since, it has built a following on TikTok (76,000 followers) with products like oversized acne patches, silicone scar patches and patches that help treat ingrown hairs. According to Buttelman, by October 2024, the brand had amassed around 200 million views on the app when its trajectory changed overnight. That's because, in October, Taylor Swift wore Fazit's Faux Freckle Makeup Patches to a Kansas City Chiefs game. The patches, which come in a variety of metallic hues and some sports-themed shades, apply like temporary tattoos. They launched in April 2024. Within 48 hours, the brand's site traffic spiked by over 3,500%, resulting in $1 million in sales. Last week, Fazit entered 400 CVS doors with its Gold Stardust Speckle Makeup Patches. It is also sold at Urban Outfitters and on Amazon. On the latest Glossy Beauty Podcast, Buttelman teased that a dream retailer is coming soon and noted that the experience with Swift gave her and LaBruna more confidence in negotiating such deals.

If you've scrolled TikTok lately, perhaps you've come across a sunscreen from K-beauty brand Beauty of Joseon. On the app, it's somewhat ubiquitous. Sumin Lee is part of a team that acquired the brand and totally reinvented it, introducing the version today's U.S. consumers know in 2019. In the five years since, it's become a hit, particularly for its sunscreens, including the Relief Sun Aqua-Fresh: Rice + B5 (SPF50+ PA++++). It not only uses advanced SPF filters that were previously unavailable in the U.S., but it's also relatively affordable, at $18. The brand has taken off not only on TikTok Shop but also on Amazon. Lee credits the sunscreen's success to both its super-lightweight texture and TikTok itself. The brand is formulated around "hanbang" ingredients, meaning the formulas feature traditional Korean herbs as key ingredients. On this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, founder Sumin Lee discusses the brand's exceptional popularity in the states, especially compared to Korea, its upcoming retail expansion in the U.S. and its strategy for combatting counterfeiters.

According to market research analytics companies and retail industry trade groups, American consumers are forecasted to spend nearly a trillion dollars on holiday shopping this year.  Specifically, shoppers could spend around $1,778 each, up 8% from 2023, according to new data released by Deloitte. Meanwhile, holiday sales could grow an estimated 2.5-3.5% to reach $990 billion in sales from November 1 to December 31, up from $964.4 billion in 2023, according to the National Retail Federation.  However, how consumers will spend this money — and on what — has yet to be seen. In this special Thanksgiving crossover episode with sister publication Modern Retail, Glossy Beauty Podcast co-hosts Lexy Lebsack and Sara Spruch-Feiner are joined by Modern Retail editor-in-chief Cale Guthrie Weissman to discuss BFCM retail trends.  This includes the growing bifurcation between prestige and value shopping. For example, the new luxury experiential brick-and-mortar shops from Chanel, Dior, Laneige and Violet Grey fall in sharp contrast to the “crazy low prices” promised by Amazon's newest site, Haul. The site seeks to compete with low-price shopping on Temu, TikTok Shop and Alibaba.  The discussion also dives into current retail challenges, like abbreviated shipping times and the forthcoming return rush, as well as the concept of “chaos shopping,” all in today's episode.  The Modern Retail Podcast, hosted by Weissman and Gabi Barkho, senior reporter at Modern Retail, airs every Thursday.

Richard Christiansen has learned many priceless lessons since he began fundraising for his brand, Flamingo Estate, around two years ago.  This includes his surprising realization that many investors care little about the brand or the founder's story. Instead, he said, there's a near-universal desire among the VC set for 90% margins across personal care products.  “Know your audience; they're there to look at the numbers. … No one cares about the [brand or founder] story,” he told Glossy. "I, too, spent so much time on the storytelling, but at that moment, in those meetings, it's only about the numbers.”  In the 160 investor meetings he's attended in the past two years, he's been told to abandon key parts of his business to increase profitability and to trade its sourcing practices — many of which reflect a hallmark of the brand — for cheaper, faster ingredients.  On the podcast, Christiansen also shares with Glossy that he has secured his dream investor and, pending contract finalization this week, will have funding for brand expansion in the coming months.  Christiansen launched Flamingo Estate in 2020, during the pandemic, by selling boxes of produce in a Los Angeles parking lot. Nearly five years later, the brand has become an in-the-know measure of luxury and has expanded to subscription produce boxes, candles, books, and personal care products available at Anthropologie, Nordstrom, Bergdorf Goodman, Forward, Mecca and many smaller retailers.  The story behind Flamingo Estate, which Christiansen shared on the Glossy Beauty Podcast three years ago, is a departure from the luxury marketing Christiansen was well known for over the past decades, but it still possesses the elevated luxury branding consumers love.  The latest in his releases is “The Guide to Becoming Alive,” out this week from San Francisco-based Chronicle Books. The 600-page coffee table book retails for $50 DTC and across the brand's retailers. Its chapters are anchored around in-depth interviews with Jane Fonda, Martha Stewart, Kelly Werstler, Chrissy Teigen, Mecca CEO Jo Horgan and many more influential people. The book includes life lessons from Christiansen's garden, anecdotes from his life and stories about growing his business. 

Before the "aha" moment that led to the creation of JB Skrub, the brand she co-founded with "Modern Family" star Julie Bowen, Jill Biren worked in magazine publishing at Condé Nast for 16 years. But then, one day, she was packing her 9-year-old son up for camp and realized there wasn't a personal care brand made for him. He was too old to bring baby soap to camp, and she didn't want to send him with a synthetically fragranced men's product. And so, an idea was born. Bowen, also a boy mom, related to this struggle, and the two came together to work on a brand of body care products for tween boys. They chose to do so independently and spent eight years taking it from concept to reality, until finally launching in January of 2023 with five products: a body wash, a body spray, a face wash, a face lotion and toner pads. Recently, JB Skrub added hair care to the mix with the introduction of a shampoo. On this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Biren discusses the moment she realized she'd stumbled upon a white space in the market, JB Skrub's unique motto for teaching boys good hygiene and the power of telling this rarely-spoken-to consumer that this product was, in fact, made for him.

After more than seven years in business, Angela Caglia Skincare is having its hockey stick moment.  “Our sales are up 437% in the past year,” founder Angela Caglia told Glossy. “We'll finish this year at close to $4 million [in sales] and around 90% of that will be the Cell Forté Serum; it's all we're promoting.” Since launching the hero product in October 2023, the brand's Cell Forté Serum has garnered several beauty industry awards from publications like Elle, Byrdie, TZR and Essence, and sold out three times on Violet Grey. And it was the catalyst for the brand's expansion into Nordstrom last month.  Caglia's focus now is keeping the serum in stock, and she hopes to expand the franchise next year with face and eye creams. The serum retails for $395 for 1 ounce. The serum's value proposition rests on its ability to replace antioxidant and hydrating serums, like those focused on vitamin C and hyaluronic acid, as well as exfoliating products and retinols, Caglia told Glossy.  The brand leads marketing materials with results from a 28-day clinical study where nearly all participants (87-91%) reported less hyperpigmentation, increased luminosity, improved skin elasticity and a more youthful appearance.  The serum is powered by "human-derived adipose mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) conditioned media," a technology Caglia discovered when researching treatment options for her mother's ongoing treatment of dementia. Today, she sources the material from a stem cell research lab based in Texas that specializes in stem cell banking and FDA-cleared clinical trials, she told Glossy. MSC-conditioned media is sourced from fat, called adipose tissue, which is donated by young and healthy plastic surgery patients and then processed in a lab. As Caglia explained in the latest Glossy Podcast episode, the stem cells are removed from the tissue and placed in a human-like environment where they excrete growth factors, cytokines and proteins, which are then used in the serum. The stem cells, which hold the patient's DNA, are removed before the broth goes into the serum.  Growth factors are a bit like little emails: They tell the other cells how to regenerate and act younger, which we don't fully understand yet.  Caglia is only one of very few brands playing in this space. Whereas there are many brands — like Eighth Day and Dr Diamond Metacine — that offer "bio-identical copies" of growth factors, few brands offer human-derived versions of growth factors.  According to market research company Spate, growth factors are a rising trend in online searches alongside skin care, with an average of more than 32,000 Google searches per month over the past year, marking a notable +202.7% surge. Coglia joins the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss her new hero product, Cell Forté, as wll as her journey to the brand's hockey stick moment. 

Years ago, a strong retail strategy often included brands staying in one pricing category, such as mass, prestige or luxury. Today, those best practices have come into question.  “It's strategic, … and it's also nerve-racking at the same time,” Rosie Jane Johnston, founder of fine fragrance and body-care line By Rosie Jane, told Glossy about her company's expansion into the mass market this month through Target. “It's always been in the back of my mind to make By Rosie Jane, particularly the body-care side of the brand, accessible in a real way.”  As of this week, Johnston is executing against that goal with a strategic expansion onto Target.com — the line's first and only mass retailer — with just the brand's body-care line, which Johnston developed during the pandemic.  “Body care is a new category for us, [and] we take it very seriously,” Johnston said. “I don't want [this expansion] to just feel like an extension of my perfume line — that's a different experience. I want this experience to be something unique.” By Rosie Jane launched with a clean, fine fragrance direct-to-consumer in 2012 before expanding into Sephora in 2019. The brand currently offers seven fine fragrances. It also sells through Revolve, Nordstrom and other select retailers, and has maintained its DTC channel.  By Rosie Jane has sold limited-edition body-care extensions of its fine fragrance in the past, including body oil and body wash in best-selling scents like Rosie or Missy. But today, Johnston is focused on three new fragrance franchises called Wake the F Up, Calm the F Down and Chill the F Out.  Based on mood-boosting ingredients like essential oils, the line is meant to evoke feel-good emotions and was inspired by Johnston's menopause journey. The line includes body wash, oil, lotion and deodorant all priced between $15-$42. To start, the products will be sold on Target.com, though the hope is to further expand to Target stores. By Rosie Jane fine fragrances will remain exclusive to retailers like Sephora and Nordstrom, while the body-care will be offered at both mass and prestige retailers.  According to a rep from By Rosie Jane, the company is set to reach $10 million in sales in 2024, with body care making up around 8% of revenue.  Johnston joined the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss her brand's expansion, including her hopes for the body-care category. 

When the pandemic hit, Matt Newman, like many hairstylists, found himself at home unoccupied. Eventually, though, he took his expertise to TikTok — and today, he has 2.4 million followers on the platform and another 1.2 million on Instagram. Regularly working with brands like Tresemmé, he's known for both his tutorials and his takes on viral trends and hacks. But what he is most proud of in his four years of content creation is simply teaching people how to do their hair, he said. "The thing people tell me when I meet my internet friends in real life, is, 'You taught me how to blowdry my hair.' That's my biggest accomplishment — and it's not always my most viral content, but it's my most meaningful content. It's empowering to know how to fall in love with your own hair in your bathroom, with the stuff you already own." On this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Newman discusses the value of educational content, the power of creating with brand partnership opportunities in mind and the reason he's not creating tons of TikTok Shop-forward content.

Sarah Potempa, celebrity hairstylist and co-founder of The Beachwaver, is a live-selling expert. It all started in 2012 when she launched her first product, the original Beachwaver rotating curling iron, live on QVC. “It was wild because they said, ‘Don't get too excited — you might get four or five shows in your first year.' … And then I was on QVC over 50 times my first year,” she told Glossy.  She thrived in the medium and was able to reach a growing number of consumers looking for an easier way to create beachy waves at home. She sold out frequently, became a viewer favorite and was asked to return time after time.  Unlike traditional curling irons and waving wands, The Beachwaver allows the user to clamp the end of a section of hair in place before pressing a button to wrap the section of hair around the electric iron. This avoids an unintended arm workout and the likelihood of burnt fingers, both common with the then-popular waving wands. Although she was already a well-known celebrity hairstylist and a regular in beauty publications for her styling advice, Potempa's ability to connect with viewers while live-selling forever shifted the trajectory of her career.  Potempa has since launched more than 100 SKUs — including a variety of hot tools, hair care and accessories — and has sold more than 2 million Beachwaver irons, which retail for $99 and up. Her line is available at Ulta Beauty, Walmart, Target, Anthropologie and Dillards, among other retailers. Today, she uses the skills she learned on QVC to be a leader in social media-based live-selling, often going live for hours at a time on TikTok, Amazon, Beachwaver's own DTC site and anywhere else experimenting with the medium. This has translated to massive success on TikTok: As of October of 2024, she's sold more than 1.1 million units on TikTokShop, making her one of the most prolific sellers on the platform.  Beachwaver is an independently held family business co-founded with Potepa's two sisters, Erin and Emily, and her extended family regularly appears in the company's many TikTok content franchises, which she calls “shows”. Her team and family stream from Beachwaver's Illinois warehouse and offices, and this month she opened a second office and content studio in New York City.  Potempa joins the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss the nuances of live-selling and the benefits of an in-house content studio.

Claudia Sulewski's career started at age 11, when she launched her YouTube channel with a video about applying her mom's blue eyeshadow. Today, the channel has 2.46 million followers. On Instagram, Sulewski also has 2 million followers, and she has yet another 1.1 million on TikTok. Last year, she translated her success as a creator into the launch of her brand, Cyklar, which she bootstrapped and debuted with one product, a body cream. In March of this year, Cyklar received investment from The Center, the brand incubator and investment firm that runs Phlur, Make, Prequel and Saltair — it sold Naturium to E.l.f. Beauty in August 2023. Now, Cyklar is relaunching with a wider product range, including four body washes and four body lotions, which will be sold direct-to-consumer. On this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Sulewski discusses self-funding the brand to get it off the ground, deciding to take on investment and emphasizing fragrance in the brand's second iteration.

“VICs are the driving force of the luxury business,” Sukeena Rao, co-founder of London-based personal shopping firm Luminaire, told Glossy. “They count for a large percentage of global sales with pretty much every brand.” VICs, or "very important customers," is shorthand in the luxury market for a growing subset of high-end, wealthy shoppers that are “very low key, very off the radar [and] not known to the public,” Rao told Glossy. It's part of what she calls a shifting market where, 15-20 years ago, the luxury shopper was mostly well-known celebrities or very wealthy public figures. Whereas now, luxury shopping has become more curated and discreet. To wit: The internet calls this "quiet luxury."  “It's not always about wearing [a luxury piece] on a red carpet or being shown to the public,” Rao said. “It's done in a much more stealth way.”  This changing luxury customer also has changing needs. Whereas a high-profile individual or celebrity may not need an introduction to a luxury brand or referral to an in-demand makeup artist or hairstylist, today's VIC is looking for access to top lifestyle, beauty, wellness, fitness and health brands and experts, as well as the fashion, jewelry and accessory markets.  On today's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Rao shares the ins and outs of this growing demographic, which she reaches through her London-based personal shopping firm, Luminaire.  “We have a waitlist right now. … [We're] very selective about new clients, because we never want to under-deliver,” she says. “We do keep people waiting until we really have the capacity to look after them.”  Rao launched Luminaire in 2022 with co-founder Harriet Quick, a former fashion features director at British Vogue. While billed as personal shopping, the company is more nuanced than that. For around $57,307 (£45,000) per year, clients receive high-touch appointments with Luminaire's stylists, personalized mood boards, unlimited sourcing and gift procurement, as well as brokerage of just about anything one can desire, from apartments to cars.  Meanwhile, entry-level membership starts at $6,367 (£5,000) per year and includes recommendations, mood boards, unlimited sourcing, fashion edits and basic access to luxury wardrobe and gift procurement and planning.  However, Rao told Glossy that beauty, wellness and health products and services are the fastest-growing requests from clients, whether that is a haircut with a celeb stylist, an appointment with a holistic doctor, a masterclass with a renowned makeup artist or a private shopping experience. “If you really drill down on the data, you will see that, for us, beauty and wellness — alongside jewelry, which is a hugely growing category — is leading,” Rao said.  Rao discusses these topics, as well as her predictions for the future of the luxury industry, in today's episode. 

With the fragrance industry expected to generate $59.9 billion in 2024, both new and heritage brands are strategizing to differentiate in the growing market. For some, the result is offering niche scents, and for others, it's leveraging communities. For 8-year-old DedCool, a genderless, planet-first and functional approach is what sets it apart, said founder Carina Chaz. Since launching DedCool in 2016 with a self-investment of $10,000, Chaz has made her brand one to watch. In August 2022, Dedcool expanded to Sephora stores and its e-commerce channels and introduced three new product categories, including air fresheners, candles and laundry detergent. The latter, Chaz told Glossy, now drives 30% of the business. "The fragrance category has expanded so much, and DedCool was never meant to be a true fragrance brand. We want to speak to fragrance in ways that our competitors aren't speaking to fragrance," Chaz said on the latest episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast. Also on the podcast, Chaz shares how she grew DedCool in its early stages and how she has created a brand that appeals to people in different life stages. 

Shontay Lundy is on a mission to disrupt the sun-care space.  She is the founder of Black Girl Sunscreen, a sunscreen brand she launched in 2016 as an alternative to the many sunscreen formulas that leave a white cast on skin, a problem that's particularly noticeable on medium and dark complexions. The line was an instant hit and she quickly gained wide distribution at Target, CVS, Ulta Beauty, Walgreens, and Walmart, among other retailers. The brand also sells direct-to-consumer and on Amazon. In 2019, Lundy launched a children's line called BGS Kids, which features its own branding and social marketing channels, and just this month, a men's line called BGS Mens. The latter also has its own branding, to match the matte finish and more masculine scent.  All of the brands' products range in price from $10-$23 and are formulated to melt seamlessly into all complexions, whether the formula uses a chemical, mineral or hybrid UV filter. They also feature hydrating ingredients like jojoba oil and shea butter, which deliver a dewy, hydrated finish in some formulas.  But beyond products, Lundy is on a mission to educate Black consumers about the value of sunscreen, in hopes of debunking the myth that people with dark complexions don't need sunscreen. As we know, the deadliest form of skin cancer, called melanoma, impacts people of all skin tones and ethnic backgrounds.  Lundy spoke about managing the line's omnichannel distribution on the Glossy Beauty Podcast. She shares that being in the biggest retailers in the country comes with its own unique set of difficulties. What's more, Black Girl Sunscreen's success means that resources must be allocated for battling counterfeiters on marketplace sites. She also discusses the brand's robust out-of-home marketing strategy, which includes billboards celebrating its many campaigns. 

Lisa Guerrera and Emmy Ketcham, co-founders of Experiment, met in 2019 at an event for the Sephora Accelerate program, which Guerrera participated in with her first business. Together, they soft-launched their skin-care brand in 2020 with a lime-green silicone sheet mask. Since then, the brand has grown to include products including a glycerin-based hydrating serum, a “micro-slugging” oil gel and a lip balm. Its first cleanser will launch in a few weeks. In April, Experiment announced a $3.3 million seed round, led by Greycroft. On this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, the duo discusses how they launched the company with $8,500, why theirs is a brand for the “nerdy, smart girl" and why science ultimately beat out "clean" beauty.

Chloe Green-Vamos, the vp of global innovation strategy at the Estée Lauder Companies, leads the company's global research and development strategy, innovation portfolio insights and analytics, and enterprise innovation planning. She's also the chief of staff to Estee Lauder Companies' chief research, product and innovation officer, Carl Haney. Green-Vamos represents a new kind of executive role at a company like Estée Lauder — one that heavily relies upon collecting and understanding all types of new and emerging digital and consumer data, as well as the newest forms of media, technology and social media. On the latest episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Green-Vamos discusses how she betters the company using AI, including a custom AI-powered tool made by Microsoft, and how social listening is driving innovation at ELC. She also breaks down Estée Lauder Companies' reverse mentorship program, which pairs an executive with a Gen-Z or millennial staffer to help the execs better understand new ways young shoppers think about and use technology. 

Sarah Creal got her start in beauty while working at a Clinique counter. But it wasn't long before Creal was working in product development and marketing at major brands including Bobbi Brown, Tom Ford and Prada Beauty. In 2018, she co-founded Victoria Beckham Beauty with the former Spice Girl herself — she was CEO of that company until 2022. Then, earlier this summer, she debuted Sarah Creal Beauty, designed for luxury shoppers over 40. Sold direct-to-consumer since its launch, the brand is made up of a tight edit of skin-care and color cosmetics products including a concealer, a brightening and hydrating essence, a lip balm and a priming eye cream. Next, on September 3, it will debut at Sephora. And on the 10th, it will launch a line of lipsticks. On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Creal discusses her decision to launch a brand, her brand's upcoming lipstick and women's ongoing struggle to raise funds for their own ventures.

Sloane Stephens started playing tennis at 9 years old and quickly climbed the ranks, beating Serena Williams in the 2013 Australian Open at age 19. She is the founder of The Sloane Stephens Foundation, which works to introduce tennis to underserved students — and, as of August 21, she is the founder of Doc & Glo, a body-care line that debuted with two products: the $18 Game-Changing Deodorant and the $22 24/7 Hustle Deodorizing Body Mist. The brand is named after Stephens' grandparents. Her grandfather was an OB/GYN, while her grandmother "had all these girls' groups and always gave back," Stephens said on the Glossy Beauty Podcast. The brand will retail on its own DTC site, on Amazon and on the Free People Movement website — Free People Movement has sponsored Stephens since the start of 2023. On this week's episode, Stephens discusses her venture into entrepreneurship, the target audience for her brand's first two products and tennis's current moment in the cultural spotlight. 

Back in 2014, Lindsay Dahl's career trajectory took an unexpected turn. She'd spent a decade working at chemical safety- and environmental-focused nonprofits in Washington D.C. before she got an offer she couldn't refuse.  “I never thought I would go to the corporate side,” Dahl told Glossy. “If I'm being honest, I really liked being a part of the nonprofit community where I felt like I could be both challenging companies and also challenging those in power in government.” But then she got a call from Beautycounter. “I sat down and talked to Gregg [Renfrew], the founder and CEO, and she said, ‘Look, I know how to start companies. But I don't know how to do what you know how to do, which is … to use this business model to essentially see if you can do advocacy at the company level.' And this was before corporate activism was cool.” Dahl moved to the West Coast and served as Beautycounter's head of mission for seven years. In this new type of executive role, she created a blueprint for a company to have safe, ethically sourced and sustainable products, while also educating consumers about industry-wide issues and lobbying for better regulation and a more transparent industry.  Today, Dahl is bringing those learnings to another trailblazing company: Ritual, an 8-year-old brand of supplements founded on a mission of transparent sourcing, efficacy and purity. For the past two and a half years, she's served as chief impact officer where she oversees much of the mission-driven side of the business, including traceability and sustainability — which Ritual is known for — as well as advocacy, certifications, PR and community. Dahl joined the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss her career trajectory, the ins and outs of running a mission-driven company, and her hopes for the future at Beautycounter. She also speaks about the biggest issues plaguing the supplement space today, such as contamination, purity and unsubstantiated claims. And she shares the changes taking place at Ritual, including a recent shift from its DTC subscription model to an omnichannel strategy that includes retailers like Target and Whole Foods.

Nathalie Gerschtein's career at L'Oréal started before she even graduated college.  “One of the reasons I joined L'Oréal, [which I met] on campus [in college], was because it would give me the opportunity to work internationally, and I knew I really wanted to discover different cultures, different go-to-market strategies,” she told Glossy. “Then when I started to work in beauty, I realized how joyful it is because beauty is about self-esteem, it's about self-confidence, it's about self-expression. And it makes people happy to interact with this category. So here I am, 22 years after starting in L'Oréal, [and] I'm still working in beauty today.” More than two decades into her tenure at L'Oréal, Gerschtein has accomplished those early goals and more. She started in a brand marketing role for L'Oréal Paris skin care in France, was able to work across European and Asian markets, and, most recently, became the first woman to hold the title of president of the consumer products division at L'Oréal, North America, now based in New York City.  Today, she leads her team through a mix of experience and intuition. “Sometimes you have to look at all the analytics, understand your consumer, understand the data, and understand the market panels and everything — and sometimes you also have to trust your intuition and take a leap of faith,” she said.  This strategy has served her well, allowing her to put steam behind the right trends and products while continuing to better understand the evolving shopping habits of the mass consumer.  Gerschtein joined the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss her career growth and lessons learned, predictions for the future of the mass shopper, and recent challenges. 

When Javon Ford (@javonford16, 455,400 TikTok followers) graduated college, he knew he wanted to be a chemist and wanted to work in the cosmetics industry. What he didn't anticipate was becoming wildly popular on TikTok with nearly half a million followers. Ford's background in chemistry, working on making new formulations for cosmetics companies, has given him an in-depth knowledge of what goes into beauty and skin-care products. His videos involve him busting some of the most widespread myths in beauty and skin care, pointing out which ingredients are harmful or, more commonly, useless. In a recent video, he helped diagnose what ingredient in a lip product was making Olympian athlete Simone Biles' swell. According to Ford, his newfound popularity has led to multiple brand collaboration offers, but he's steadfast about refusing to do work with companies whose products he doesn't trust or who don't provide the scientific data to back up their claims. Ford joined the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss his career development and where he's going next. 

When it comes to influential families in the beauty industry, Jami Morse Heidegger and daughter Hannah Heidegger are in a class all their own. They represent the third and fourth generations of skin-care brand owners in the U.S. dating back to the late 1800s.  After immigrating to the U.S. as a child, Jami's grandfather Irving Morse apprenticed for John Kiehl, the founder of Kiehl's Apothecary in New York City. In 1921, when Kiehl retired, he allowed Morse to buy the brand and, for the next eight decades, it was Morse's family business. For Jami, Kiehl's Apothecary was a second home.  “I would go there after school and just play,” Jami told Glossy. “My father was wonderful. … He would let me take different ingredients and experiment with them … and I had control of a whole bathroom. That was my laboratory, and I used to mix things in the sink.” Years later, Jami turned bathroom mixing into innovative formula development when she joined the business. Jami created more than 100 formulas for Kiehl's, many of which still anchor the brand's top franchises like Ultra Facial Cream and Calendula Toner. Other bestsellers, like the Blue Astringent, were created by her father, who ran the business after her grandfather passed away.  Jami and her family sold Kiehl's to L'Oréal in 2000, a bittersweet decision that ultimately allowed the brand to scale to what it is today. At the time, Jami was in her 40s and signed a 10-year non-compete with L'Oréal. With three small children at home and a payout that was estimated to be over $100 million, she thought it was her retirement from beauty, but the passion didn't fade.  In 2015, Jami and her husband, Klaus Heidigger, ended their retirement from the beauty industry and launched Retrouvé, a line of luxury skin care formulated by Jami and her favorite longtime chemist collaborators. Inspired by Jami's “boosted” visions of products she would have made just for herself back at Kiehl's, the brand is based on clinically proven actives and a patented triple airless pump system to safeguard each formula's efficacy.  Today, Jami and her daughter Hannah are working hand-in-hand to build Retrouvé into a luxury skin-care leader. The formulas, which top out at $215, sell direct-to-consumer and at Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Revolve, Shopbop and Bergdorf Goodman.  A decade in, Jami and Hannah are looking for a strategic partner to scale. Today, the family is challenged with stock issues: At the time of publication, three of eight of the brand's skin-care products were running a waitlist. Jami Morse Heidegger and Hannah Heidegger join the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss the early days at Kiehl's, the decision behind selling to L'Oréal, the ins and outs of product formulation, the ways the beauty industry has changed through the years, and the future of Retrouvé. 

This week, the Glossy Beauty Podcast welcomed three very special guests: Ali, 10, of New York City; Riley, 11, of Merrick, New York; and Leora, 12, of Bay Shore, New York. The three girls joined us in a Flatiron, NYC recording studio, where we sat down to talk all things beauty. Glossy Pop has fastidiously reported on the tween obsession with skin care for months, examining the rise of brands that cater to the demographic, younger and younger girls' beauty obsession vis-a-vis social media, the rise of Gen Alpha influencer-queen Katie Fang, and the Sephora tween brouhaha. On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, we talk through all of it, including how these girls first became interested in beauty, what brands are resonating with them now, what products they're allowed to buy and use, and what social media they consume and create.

Before business partners Nicole Collins and Corey Weiss launched the 213Deli text-commerce beauty shopping platform last year, they were behind the scenes working for digital commerce trailblazers like Ipsy and Flip.  Weiss worked in media at Sony Pictures and Yahoo before spending a decade growing the business side of Ipsy, a beauty subscription service started by Michelle Phan in 2011, where he met Collins. Meanwhile, Collins spent four years at Ipsy growing the brand partnerships team before joining the founding team at Flip, a shopping social network. Collins was also the co-founder of Yume, a Chinese-American company responsible for launching American beauty brands into China via the popular Little Red Book social shopping platform. Both found inspiration for 213Deli across these experiences, but it's the changing commerce marketplace in China — where consumers are accustomed to live shopping, text commerce and shopping across social media — that drove the duo to launch a text-only shopping platform stateside.  “There are so many really exciting ways to discover and shop beauty outside of traditional brick-and-mortar and e-commerce, which is really what's been going on in the United States for a long time,” Collins told Glossy. For 213Deli, meeting the company's millennial and Gen-X customers where they are means sliding into their text messages once a week with a new, can't-miss beauty offer. “You go to 213deli.com and give us your name and your phone number,” said Collins. “It's totally free, [and] once a week on Thursdays, at noon Pacific time, we're going to send you a text message about a really spectacular product.” So far, this has included brands like Osea, Farmacy, Phlur, RMS and Saltair. “If you want to buy that product, you text back and let us know how many pieces you want to buy,” Collins said. “If not, you ignore it — no big deal. And you get a message [about a new product] the next week.” 213Deli does not have an e-commerce platform and consumers provide their credit card information over text during their first purchase. The allure for many shoppers is free shipping and a gift with purchase, which is often a full-size complimentary product from the same brand.  Brands like Vacation and Thrive Causemetics, for example, have used 213Deli as part of their launch strategy. To wit: Vacation included a free full-size bottle of its after-sun aloe with the purchase of its Orange Gelée SPF, while Thrive Causemetics' GWP was a full-size mascara to accompany its new Sheer Strength Lip Plumper. Shipping is also fast and free.  To a consumer, 213Deli is streamlined and simple. But behind the scenes, Collins and Weiss have developed a custom tech stack to make the concept possible. And they're growing the business through partnerships with trending beauty brands and industry thought leaders like editors, artists and influencers.  Collins and Weiss discuss the advent of the brand and the future of text-to-shop commerce in the U.S. in today's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast. 

Jess Hunt, now 27, has been creating content for over a decade. She has 1.7 million followers on Instagram, where she got started, and another 184,000 on TikTok. Through her career as a content creator, she met Jenna Meek, formerly the founder of a beauty brand called Shrine, who eventually became her co-founder. Today, the duo runs Refy Beauty. Refy launched in 2020 and hit shelves at Sephora by 2021. Hunt's bold, bushy brows provided the impetus for Refy. On set for a photoshoot, Meek watched Hunt doing her brow makeup and asked her for details. Hunt spilled that it took a multitude of products and varying brushes to get her signature look. Together, they dreamed up an alternative, which became Refy's first product, its $24 Brow Sculpt. On this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Hunt discusses her road to "influencer" in the early days of the role being a career, the founders' journey to creating Brow Sculpt and the brand's recent foray into the complexion category with its first concealer. 

In December, America's first big move to regulate the beauty industry in more than 80 years went into effect with the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulatory Act of 2022, best known as MoCRA. But it isn't until the end of this month that the industry will meet its first big deadline from the Food & Drug Administration.  By July 1, brands and manufacturers must provide a list of their products and where they were made to the FDA through its online portal called Cosmetics Direct. It's the first of many deadlines and requirements, some of which are still in flux, that will slowly reshape how the industry is regulated over the next few years.  For example, MoCRA will give the FDA new visibility into what's in beauty products and where they are manufactured. It also provides new authority to the FDA to issue mandatory product recalls and alert consumers to common allergens through mandatory warning labels. That's thanks, in part, to new visibility into fragrance ingredient lists, which had long been classified as intellectual property but must now be shared with the FDA. Previously, America's regulation was made up of small federal and state laws, which created a growing movement for better regulation. For example, brands like BeautyCounter spent years lobbying for better regulation on social media and on the hill in Washington, while brands like Henry Rose by Michelle Pfeiffer was created to offer an alternative to the under-regulated fragrance industry.   So how did this piece of legislation finally get passed? While you may not know attorney Katlin McKelvie by name, she is a Washington D.C.-based lawyer who was integral in the creation of MoCRA.  McKelvie has more than two decades of experience working in food and drug law, including 11 years at the FDA. She also served as the Deputy General Counsel of the United States' Department of Health and Human Services and as the Deputy Health Policy Director and Senior FDA Counsel to the Senate Committee on health, education, labor and pensions for chair Patty Murray. While working with Congress, she helped shape many pieces of legislation that have impacted us all, including MoCRA, before becoming a partner of a private D.C. firm called Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher. On today's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, McKelvie shares the origin story for MoCRA, including the challenges and compromises made during its early days in the Senate. She also shares the challenges she suspects brands may face while navigating compliance, the requirements the FDA will release next and the changes consumers can expect in the coming years. 

In May, Live Tinted turned five years old. The brand was founded by Deepica Mutyala, a veteran of both the corporate beauty space, as a one-time manager at Birchbox, and the creator space — Mutyala has 502,000 followers on Instagram. Live Tinted launched in 2018, four years after Mutyala went viral on YouTube (333,000 followers) for a video about correcting dark circles with red lipstick. That video, which has 10 million views, landed her a segment on "The Today Show," and led to her quitting her full-time job and focusing full-time on the beauty brand. Today, Live Tinted sells the Huestick All-Over Color Corrector, which is inspired by Mutyala's viral hack. The brand also doubling down on complexion products. Live Tinted's Hueguard Skin Tint SPF 50 Mineral Sunscreen Broad Spectrum, which has become a best-seller, was an inflection point for the brand, Mutyala said. She now believes Live Tinted can become known for its complexion category. On this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Mutyala discusses how she always knew she'd start a beauty brand and what progress has been made since the BLM movement in 2020. She also talks about why the complexion category has been, and will continue to be, a game changer for Live Tinted. 

Unlike many beauty executives, Sara Mitzner, vp of brand marketing at AS Beauty Group since 2019, started her career in fashion. Her resume includes roles a Complex, Fullbeauty Brands and Swimsuits for All. AS Beauty Group is a personal care product company that owns Cover FX, Laura Geller Beauty, Julep Beauty, Mally Beauty and Bliss brands. Mitzner has led many of AS Beauty brands' biggest marketing moves, including Laura Geller Beauty pivoting its strategy to attract and acquire more mature consumers. According to Mitzner, in April, AS Beauty Group's sales were up 140% year-over-year. "It's been fun for me to be at a company in an industry that they always say is recession-proof," Mitzner told Glossy. On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Mitzner discusses the future of AS Beauty Group and the Gen X opportunity in beauty.

Taylor Frankel is one of three co-founders of Toronto-based Nudestix. And, as the beauty brand's main face, she has been spending the year celebrating its 10-year anniversary. She founded the brand with her sister, Ally Frankel, and her mother, industry veteran Jenny Frankel, when the two sisters were teenagers. In today's competitive beauty market, making it to the 10-year mark deserves to be celebrated. As such, the brand has kicked off a tour, during which Frankel will participate in brand activations in her home base in Toronto, as well as in New York, Los Angeles and London. These customer-facing events will include panel discussions, workout classes and influencer dinners. On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Frankel discusses Nudestix's points of difference, the unique ways it works with influencers and celebrities, and the strategies it's using to grow its skin-care business.

When Mielle Organics founder and CEO Monique Rodriguez started the textured hair-care brand in her kitchen 10 years ago, her goal was to create healthy organic products for her textured hair. Now, a decade later, Mielle Organics has become a household name and staple for many consumers with varying hair types. The brand is distributed in over 87 countries and over 100,000 stores across the U.S. In January 2023, Mielle Organics was acquired by consumer goods company Procter & Gamble for an undisclosed sum. On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Rodriguez discusses what's next for Mielle Organics under the new ownership and what it means to be a 10-year-old beauty brand in 2024.

Prequel Skin is less than a year old. But the direct-to-consumer brand, founded by dermatologist Dr. Sam Ellis, in partnership with Ben Bennett's incubator, The Center, has caught on. That can be owed, at least in part, to Ellis's social following: She has 336,000 YouTube subscribers, 226,000 Instagram followers and over 129,000 followers on TikTok. The brand's products span multitasking cleansers and moisturizers for the face and body, skin barrier-boosting ointments and a duo of serums, including one with vitamin C and one meant to address skin redness. On this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Dr. Ellis discusses how she came to create content as a dermatologist, why that's proven valuable, why she partnered with The Center and how her brand is inspired by favorite French pharmacy products.