The Glossy Beauty Podcast

While she may be best known for her acting and singing, Vanessa Hudgens, is not new to entrepreneurship. The 34-year-old star, with 49 million Instagram followers, is behind Caliwater, a cactus water she said she drinks every morning. She also has a margarita line, which she co-created with Ashley Benson and Rosario Dawson for Thomas Ashbourne. She first launched Know Beauty in 2021 with singer, Madison Beer. It was a somewhat complicated concept in which users used a DNA kit, which was used to pair them with personalized products matched to their skin type and concerns. Hudgens admits it didn't land and decided to go back to the drawing board entirely. Yesterday, she re-launched Know Beauty as a completely different brand. This time, it is sold on Amazon and has just one product, the $35 Glacial Bay Clay Mask.Hudgens partnered on the formulation with Cosmos Labs founder and CEO Mary Berry. And she noted in the conversation that the brand will continue to be "mask-forward." In the first Pop Edition of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Hudgens discusses what motivated the reinvention, what makes Know's starting SKU different and why Amazon made sense as a launch retail partner.

Meg Bedford has always been attracted to startups. Bedford, CEO of Loops Beauty, dabbled in editorial at Vogue before joining Tom Ford and eventually Pat McGrath Beauty, finally landing at Loops in Aug. 2022.Loops, the 3-year-old hydrogel face mask brand, has made a name for itself as a buzzy celeb-loved brand. In Oct. 2020, Loops announced model Emily Ratajkowski as its partner and creative director. Then, in July 2022, Loops appointed “Riverdale” actress Camila Mendes as its partner and creative director.Loops is sold through Ulta Beauty and expanded to Target in February. It was founded by brand incubator Syllable, in collaboration with content production house Shots Studio. Loops offers a variety of need-based face masks, ranging in price from $25-$35 for a bundle of five. The brand also offers a subscription service. According to WWD, Loops was expected to earn between $8 million and $10 million in retail sales in its first year in business.

When Tiffany Scott got the idea for Róen Beauty in 2017, her goal was to create a glam luxury brand centered on clean beauty products. After two years of searching, she found lab partners that understood her vision and mission. And she launched Róen Beauty in 2019 with non-toxic eyeshadows and a makeup brush. Shortly after the brand's inception, Scott met Róen Beauty's current creative director, Kate Synott, and the two hit it off. Scott's passion and innovative vision have successfully complemented Synott's expertise in makeup and skin care; together, they've transformed Róen Beauty into a premiere clean beauty brand. Since its launch, the brand has expanded to product categories including skin care, mascara and blush.For 2023, Scott and Synnott said continuing to produce new and exciting clean beauty products that are accessible is top of mind. Expanding into more product categories and physical retail stores are goals, as well. "The success has been really great, and the partnerships have been really great," Scott said on the latest episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast. "But we want to expand into [more categories] this year. And we have another exciting launch coming in Q2 that's a retail partnership. [The retailer] is a really beautiful, clean, well-known beauty retailer in the U.S. and abroad."

Growing up in communities of color, Jeff Lee and Courtney Shields were both early to understanding the importance of diversity and inclusion in beauty. When they met virtually through peers during the pandemic, they instantly connected over a shared desire to create a multicultural collection of beauty products catering to all. Their mutual passions for making all women feel seen and beautiful birthed DIBS Beauty, short for Desert Island Beauty Status, in September 2021. The co-founders secured $2.6 million in an initial funding round from Tula's co-founders, as well as major stakeholders at finance company L Catterton, which also invested in Tula, and influencers. DIBS Beauty's less intimidating and more inclusive approach to beauty also made it one of the fastest-growing brands in 2022, according to research firm Spate. Thanks in part to the virality of the brand's hero product, Status Stick, average monthly searches for the brand grew to 2,470 in 2022."The mission of DIBS Beauty is desert island beauty status. It's the makeup you would take with you to a desert island," Lee said on the latest episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast. In January, the company reported 700% year-over-year sales growth. With expansion top of mind for the co-founders, creating new, innovative products and expanding to new distribution channels are the biggest priorities this year. 

When Lauren Otsuki and Vimla Black-Gupta launched skin-care brand Ourself in February 2022, their main goal was to provide beauty consumers with cosmetic enhancement options other than injections and lasers. To date, the indie brand has received $30 million in funding for its groundbreaking, at-home biotech alternatives to clinical products. Ourself's science-backed products are said to give the same effects as fillers and toxins. The company's ability to leverage science has helped it gain a large following in less than a year. Currently, the brand has 23 products, with some standouts being a two-step lip filler alternative and a five-product hyperpigmentation healer. "The idea of Ourself was about looking like yourself — because when did that actually stop being OK? The second meaning of Ourself is that you actually do it yourself," Black-Gupta said on the latest episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast. "What our technology offers for the first time ever is to be able to get visible results that are self-administered from the comfort of your home. It's easy to use, and you get visible results."Co-founders Otsuki and Black-Gupta have long careers in the beauty industry. Otsuki previously founded five biotech firms, including SkinMedica and Alastin Skincare, and is the evp of Glo Pharma, Ourself's parent company. Black-Gupta was formerly CMO of Equinox and also held marketing roles at Estée Lauder, P&G and Bobby Brown.The duo is confident Ourself will revolutionize topical skin care. And as the brand prepares to celebrate its first anniversary, Otsuki and Black-Gupta are working to strengthen its DTC channels to ensure longevity. 

From Kylie Jenner to Martha Stewart, 51-year-old skin-care brand Mario Badescu has been cited as a go-to by a wide range of celebrities known for their strong thirst trap game.What started as a small facial studio in New York City has now become a brand stocked in thousands of stores at national and international retailers. Joseph Cabasso, the president of sales and co-owner of Mario Badescu, joins this week’s Glossy Beauty Podcast to talk the past, present and future of the brand. He tells the story of the brand’s history, including how his family acquired the brand and and who Mario Badescu was. During the episode, he shares accounts of its early days–including its big break with Henri Bendel and the start of its 40-plus-year relationship with Martha Stewart, who still goes into its New York salon for monthly facials to this day. He discusses the background of Mario Badescu’s best-selling hero drying lotion, as well as how the brand has evolved over the years to reach new generations, from Urban Outfitters and the VSCO girl era to TikTok today. He also gets candid about TikTok’s skin-care “cancel culture,” why his company is keeping prices low in a time of inflation, and why the brand is not big on paid influencer marketing.

One of only 17 artists to ever achieve EGOT status, singer-songwriter John Legend is also a man of many business ventures, such as wine, fashion and now skin care. On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, he shares all the details of his newly launched brand, Loved01, which debuted in CVS on February 1 and enters Walmart in March. Speaking to Glossy not long after welcoming his third baby, he talked about the process of developing the brand, including how it caters to melanin-rich skin, what inspired him during the creative design process and why he chose the brand’s accessible price point. He also talked about the gender-neutral concept of the brand, as well as the state of gender in culture these days. Listen to hear him weigh in on why men are taking better care of their skin, sharing their feelings and embracing the “soft life.” He also discussed the backlash from patriarchal forces and the impact that’s having on politics.

Formerly the CEO of Ben & Jerry’s, Jostein Solheim took the helm of Unilever’s Health & Wellbeing division in June 2021. He’s drawing on over 30 years of experience at Unilever to guide the 4-year-old division through its acquisitions, which have so far included wellness and supplements brands including Nutrafol, Liquid I.V. and Olly. The company has high hopes for the new division with “well north of €1 billion” in net sales annually, he said. On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Solheim weighs in on what’s driving “the fusion of wellness into beauty and beauty into wellness,” as he puts it; how wellness brands are breaking taboos on topics like women’s hair loss; and which wellness trends Unilever is looking at for future acquisitions.

A beauty industry veteran, Victor Casale knows a thing or two about building brands. After serving as the chief chemist at MAC Cosmetics from its inception through its acquisition, he later went on to found CoverFX. Now, he’s back in the beauty startup world in a big way as the co-founder of two brands he’s helping run simultaneously: custom skin-care brand Pure Culture Beauty and refillable makeup brand MOB Beauty.His interest in revamping the way beauty is packaged and sold comes from a long-held interest in sustainability. In fact, he spearheaded MAC’s “Back to MAC” package recycling program 35 years ago, pre-dating municipal recycling in many cities. Now, he’s the co-founder of beauty recycling program Pact Collective, which has 160 members and partnerships with retailers including Ulta Beauty and Sephora. On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Casale goes into extensive detail on refillable beauty, his experience with recycling in the early days, the way Pact Collective works and how consumers can demand change.

From an early age, Richard Parker was aware of his skin. When Parker was a teenager, he was diagnosed with a skin condition caused by sun damage called ochronosis. And in his early 20s, he suffered from acne. After meeting multiple dermatologists and learning more about products and ingredients that could help his conditions, Parker was inspired to venture into health and beauty to share that knowledge with others.The knowledge Parker gained from medical experts and his own studies led him to launch Rationale in 1992. Since its creation, the skin-care brand's sole purpose has been to equip consumers with the necessary information and products to help repair damage caused by the sun and other free radical exposure. "The information [on how to maintain healthy skin] was so valuable to women [when we launched] because there weren't any of the codebreakers or websites that we all have access to today," Parker said on the latest episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast. "Some of the vital components that we now know are important to skin health, like immune boosters and antioxidants, didn't exist in skin care at that time." Rationale's unique and medically-backed approach to skin care catapulted the brand's growth in Australia. Three decades later, Rationale is considered a cult favorite among many of Australia's biggest celebrities and skin-care enthusiasts. Parker is now grooming the brand to connect with consumers around the globe. He's currently focused on the U.S. and Southeast Asian markets.