Tina Chen Craig started Bag Snob, her original claim to fame, in 2005. She hustled her way to the front row of New York Fashion Week when "blogger" was still a dirty word and before "influencer" was in anyone's vocabulary. Then, in 2019, she did something she never expected to do and launched a beauty product, marking her first step in building a full beauty brand spanning skin care, body care and color cosmetics. Called U Beauty, the brand launched on Net-a-Porter in November 2019 with Chen...

Running two beauty businesses without outside funding is no small feat, but Maria Hatzistefanis, founder and CEO of Rodial and Nip+Fab, is making it work. And her businesses are thriving. Hatzistefanis launched the luxury skin-care and makeup brand Rodial in 1999, after being fired from her investment banking job in her early 20s. She went on to launch Nip+Fab in 2010. Now best known for its bestselling Glycolic Fix product range, Nip+Fab was originally meant to be Rodial's more accessible,...

Along with being the founder of 7-year-old Megababe, Katie Sturino is an influencer (803,000 followers on Instagram, 25,000 on TikTok), a body positivity advocate and the author of the book "Body Talk," published in 2021. Megababe is best known for its first product: Thigh Rescue, an anti-chafe stick of which over 1 million units have sold. In addition to being sold at Target, Ulta, Goop, Anthropologie and Nordstrom, among other retailers, the brand launched at Walmart in early...

Tattoos are now big business for the beauty industry. Since 2021, tattooing and tattoo care products have attracted both investor and strategic acquirer attention. Brands like Mad Rabbit have raised millions in outside funding to provide tattooed customers with before, during and aftercare products. According to a 2015 Harris Poll, more Americans are getting tattoos, with 29% having at least one. Specifically, 47% of millennials have one compared to over 36% of Gen Xers. What was previously...

Love Wellness, the supplements brand created by "Laguna Beach" alum Lo Bosworth in 2016, is now eight years old. The brand's bestsellers include its Good Girl Probiotics and The Killer boric acid suppositories, both designed to support vaginal health, as well as its Bye Bye Bloat de-bloating supplement, of which 2 million bottles have sold. Last week, Bye Bye Bloat became a full-blown franchise with the launch of the brand's first true body-care products: a $14.99 Lymphatic Massage Roller, a...

When Clinique’s 52-year-old Black Honey lipstick went viral on TikTok in 2021, it represented a major shift for both the decades-old brand and the beauty industry. For the industry, it introduced the notion that viral TikTok moments could be a cash windfall for brands and worthy of their always-on marketing attention. For Clinique, it jumpstarted the need for the brand to act like a nimble startup and affirm its cultural currency. Since then, Clinique has been bullish on reaching younger...

Though actor, podcaster, investor and brand founder Sara Foster never intended to launch a clothing line, it turns out she's quite good at it. Four-year-old Favorite Daughter, which she and her sister Erin Foster created in partnership with Centric Brands, was profitable by year two, she said. In 2023, the brand tiptoed into beauty, launching a duo of lip oils with Saint Jane, the "clean" beauty brand founded by Casey Georgeson. Now, with Georgeson's help, Favorite Daughter is launching its...

Maintaining the cultural relevancy of a 40-year-old brand is no small feat. However, Sarah Koch, svp and gm of Kendo Brands, is up to the task when it comes to OleHenriksen skin care. “You have to be true to your core as a brand, but then you have to continue to evolve with the consumer so that you're relevant to where he or she is in their lives,” said Koch on the latest episode of the Glossy Beauty podcast. The anti-aging brand was founded in 1983 by Ole Henriksen, a Danish esthetician who...

Kyle Leahy, Glossier's first CEO after its founder Emily Weiss vacated the role in May 2022, has had a busy first year-and-a-half in the job. She brought the brand into wholesale for the first time. brokering its partnership with Sephora, which has been a great success. She's also continued the brand's WNBA partnership, launched its first college tour and increased the cadence of its launches. But perhaps most importantly, she can be credited with the revival of the brand, which, as she said...

Botox has dominated the neurotoxin market since its FDA approval for cosmetic use in 2002. However, its iconic status would not be possible without the backing of global company Allergan Aesthetics. In addition to Botox, Allergan Aesthetics itself a subsidiary of pharmaceutical company AbbVie, which houses aesthetics brands including Juvéderm, SkinVive, Kybella and Coolsculpting, among others. In its full-year 2023 earnings released in February, AbbVie reported that the global net revenue of...

Renée Rouleau, the celebrity esthetician and entrepreneur, opened her first spa and launched her first product in 1996. By 1999, she had become an early entrant in e-commerce. Today, rather than giving facials, Rouleau is focused on her role of founder and CEO of her brand, which offers a robust assortment of SKUs. Still, she makes time for celebrity clients, which include Lili Reinhart and Demi Lovato. Rouleau is known for her unique approach to categorizing skin — she does so by assigning...

Though Moroccanoil co-founder Carmen Tal initially launched the 15-year-old hair- and body-care brand with little to no beauty experience, she has been able to grow it into a global empire. In February 2023, Moroccanoil, which is currently distributed through thousands of salons, announced a three-day, Las Vegas-based event for professional hairstylists called The Collective. Meant to showcase the brand's network of global talent, the sold-out event eventually hosted 2,000 people in Las...

This week, we’re doing things a little differently. Joining us on the Glossy Beauty Podcast is Laurie Lam, E.l.f. Beauty's chief brand officer, providing an up-close look at the beauty brand’s latest project: a 15-minute short film, “Cosmetic Criminals,” which is playing in select AMC theaters before the start of the movie “Mean Girls”. It is also streaming on Amazon Freevee. The film parodies the true crime genre, prompting viewers to piece together who is “E.l.f.-pinching,” which is the...

With over a decade's worth of experience in the hair-care industry, entrepreneur Shelby Wild is now venturing into the mass hair-care space. In July 2023, Wild unveiled California Naturals, a clean hair-care brand that launched direct-to-consumer and with exclusive distribution at Target. Compared to her previous hair-care brand, Playa, Wild is taking a different approach to hair care by zeroing in on more affordable but still effective products. Currently, all of California Naturals products...

After working in Hollywood for over two decades, Ashley Tisdale has now set her sights on the wellness space. In 2020, she launched an online community platform called Frenshe with the goal of making wellness and wellness-focused goals a bit more accessible to all. Two years later, that community transformed into the wellness brand Being Frenshe. And in July 2022, the brand launched at Target with a 45-product assortment spanning candles, body washes, hair masks and bath bombs. "I wasn’t even...

Before the term "clean beauty" was coined, brands were making notable strides in the space. One of those was Pacficia Beauty, a 100% vegan and cruelty-free beauty brand founded in 1996 by Brooke Harvey-Taylor and her then-partner-now-husband Billy Taylor. The brand, which is currently based in Portland, Oregon, is partly a love letter to Harvey-Taylor's childhood, she said. She grew up on a ranch in Montana where she was first introduced to the world of clean, cruelty-free beauty. "[Pacifica]...

Over the past year, the Glossy Beauty Podcast has provided an insider’s look into the beauty industry through thoughtful interviews, unique perspectives and forward-thinking commentary. But this week, we’re taking a look backward.  For the final episode of the year, hosts Emma Sandler, Glossy’s beauty and wellness editor, and senior reporter Sara Spruch-Feiner, are joined by myself, Glossy’s West Coast Correspondent, to reflect on 2023 and offer our predictions for the year ahead.  The...

Brooklyn and Bailey McKnight, the 23-year-old identical twins and co-founders of ITK Skin, got their start on YouTube in 2013, where they now have over 7 million subscribers. They also have 9.3 million followers on Instagram and 6.6 million on TikTok. Together, in partnership with the beauty incubator Maesa, the sisters launched ITK in August 2022. The brand started at Walmart, with 15 products priced at $7-$15.  But, by the time they launched ITK, the McKnight sisters were already veteran...

Over the past five years, corporate venture capital (CVC) has emerged as a major player in the startup funding space. And CPG company Reckitt plans to be front and center of that change through its own CVC firm, Access VC. In 2020, Rakesh Narayana, gm of Access VC, saw that most consumer venture funding was flowing toward traditional food and beverage consumer brands, not categories like sexual health and hygiene, to which Reckitt is dedicated. Reckitt owns brands like condom brand Durex,...

Cyndi Ramirez founded Chillhouse, a self-care spot in SoHo, in 2017. The idea was to solve for a white space she’d observed: a place to get an affordable massage, a manicure and an adaptogenic matcha latte, all under one roof. During Covid, Chillhouse pivoted quickly to ensure its survival, launching press-on nails featuring its signature cool-girl nail art. Since then, the brand has also launched a suite of body-care products including a body scrub, mist and in-shower lotion. Today, these...

Olamide Olowe is a born entrepreneur. The Topicals skin-care founder grew up in an entrepreneurial household and pursued track running, which enabled her to earn a scholarship to UCLA, where she initially studied pre-med to become a dermatologist. Topicals was born after Olowe's college roommate revealed a family connection to SheaMoisture. On the latest episode of the Glossy Beauty podcast, Olowe said she learned that skin care, dermatology and beauty could be made accessible over the...

Pritika Swarup has built a large following, thanks, in part, to her successful career as a model. A graduate of Columbia Business School, Swarup founded her skin-care brand, Prakti, in 2021. It was designed to blend Ayurvedic tradition with modern skin-care ingredients. It soft-launched with one product, an exfoliating powder. Today, the brand has six products and sells direct-to-consumer, though expansion into retail will come next year. On this episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Pritika...

Mona Kattan has been obsessed with fragrance her whole life. So after building Huda Beauty with her sister, Huda, following its launch in 2013, she decided to build her own brand, Kayali, starting in 2018. Now, Huda Beauty, Kayali and Wishful (which makes skin care) form the Kattan sisters' beauty empire. Kattan's passion for scent is evident when she speaks about perfume. In January, she shared a video on YouTube displaying her "fragrance library," which stores over 3,500 bottles. Kayali,...

Dr. Dhaval Bhanusali's office is in New York City. But, on any given day, he could be in Miami or Los Angeles, or just about anywhere else, working on one of the various side projects that keep him busy both in and out of the dermatology office. Dr. Bhanusali has founded multiple companies including Skin Medicinals, a prescribing platform allowing dermatologists to custom-create formulas for their patients at lower prices than traditional prescriptions. There's also HairStim Labs, which...