The Glossy Beauty Podcast

In the heart of Los Angeles lies a seven-acre oasis known as Flamingo Estate.Flamingo Estate, the brainchild of Richard Christiansen, is a modern take on an apothecary-meets-sanctuary. Nestled in the foothills of the City of Angels, Flamingo Estate began in March 2020 during the initial upheaval of Covid-19, when all industries were reeling from its sudden shock. But what started as a passion project soon blossomed into something much more. Today, Flamingo Estate works with a collective of farmers, horticulturists and herbalists to develop a 150-product portfolio. It sells products including soap, wine, candles and condiments for the bath, garden, home and kitchen.Christiansen is also the founder of the creative agency Chandelier Creative, which he formed 16-years ago. It has since grown to have 60 employees across three offices in Los Angeles, New York City and Paris. The Australian native grew up on a honey farm but always dreamed of working in luxury goods."I used to say to everyone at the office that our job was to fight for fantasy, because the real world is so boring," said Christiansen on the latest episode of the Glossy Beauty podcast.The formation of Flamingo Estate was ultimately a confluence of coincidence, opportunity and the ineffable desire for the paradisiacal. Christiansen, whose hobby was beekeeping while living in New York, gifted people honey while on a photoshoot in Los Angeles, and one recipient asked for a favor: The favor was to place some bees in a seven-acre garden in the city, owned by an eccentric older man. When Christiansen first arrived, the man wore a leopard-print G-string and a red silk bathrobe. Eventually, Christiansen took over the Grey Gardens-esque property and turned it into a modern version of the Garden of Allah."I put some bees in, and I saw this garden -- this amazing garden. And I thought, 'Oh my god, this is my dream.' It was all rundown and overgrown," he said. "A couple of years went by before I purchased the house."Christiansen spoke with Glossy about the origin of Flamingo Estate, his philosophy around brand building and the lifestyle brand's next steps.

In a special edition of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Jill Manoff, editor-in-chief, sat down with senior beauty reporters Liz Flora and Emma Sandler to review the year in beauty news.The previous 12 months were, in many respects, a rollercoaster. The year started and ended with a bang, in the form of multiple high-profile acquisitions and investments. Plus, the burgeoning worlds of the metaverse and NFTs ruled conversations, and social shopping and shop-in-shops increasingly dictated where and how people shop.

Not long ago, skin-care options for teens were limited to the traditional players in the market. In November 2019, beauty industry veterans Alison Haljun and Christin Powell set out to change that with the launch of Gen Z-focused skin-care brand Kinship. On this week’s Glossy Beauty Podcast, the co-founders shared the brand’s founding story, as well as their approaches to distribution, marketing and learning from a younger audience. With colorful branding and a focus on sustainability and meeting clean ingredients standards, Kinship was founded by Haljun, its president, and Powell, its CEO, after they had struggled to find products for their own kids. Since its launch, the brand has entered Credo Beauty and Ulta Beauty, and collaborated with top Gen-Z skinfluencer Hyram Yarbro. The co-founders’ strategy in running the brand is based on their years of beauty industry experience. Powell co-founded original clean brand Juice Beauty, and Haljun is a Benefit Cosmetics alum, plus they sought out input from young consumers and investors. The brand consults with a Gen-Z focus group called its “Kin Circle” for everything from packaging design to product testing, and its first investor was only 18 years old.

When Dr. Yannis Alexandrides first formulated a healing serum for patients of his London-based plastic surgery clinic, he had no intention of turning it into one of the beauty industry’s most sought-after luxury brands.The brand came about after Dr. Alexandrides, a still-practicing plastic surgeon, sought a post-operative treatment that patients could use to heal any residual wounds and marks. But when one of his patients mentioned her affinity for the serum to a Harrod’s personal shopper, the famous luxury department store sought to stock the brand, and things took off from there. The location of Dr. Alexandrides' practice, at 111 Harley Street in London, inspired the brand name.Since starting with a single shelf in Harrods in 2012, the brand has slowly and quietly grown a global distribution network that includes Bergdorf Goodman, Net-a-Porter, Neiman Marcus, Harvey Nichols and Mecca. When the business was formed, 111Skin brought on board Eva Alexandridis, Dr. Yannis Alexandrides’ wife, as a co-founder to help with retail expansion. She now also oversees the brand's creative direction and new product development.“We never made decisions based on a board meeting or according to trends,” Dr. Alexandrides told host Priya Rao on the latest episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast. "We make product decisions based on patients that I see in the clinic -- on real skin problems and on real skin solutions with great results. That's what sets us apart -- being a highly scientific brand that doesn't chase the trends.”This strategy has paid for the brand, which earned $20 million in wholesale sales in 2020 and approximately $50 million in retail sales. In Feb. 2020, 111Skin raised an undisclosed amount in outside funding from Vaultier7, which previously invested in hair-care brand Gisou and fashion resale platform Vestiaire Collective.

At L’Oréal, Erica Culpepper has overseen a portfolio of brands that have been at the forefront of the beauty industry’s transformation, when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion. With a tenure of over 17 years in the L’Oréal Consumer Products Division, she has worked across much of the company’s brand portfolio including holding positions at L'Oréal Paris, Maybelline and Garnier. Now the general manager for Carol’s Daughter, Softsheen-Carson and Thayers Natural Remedies, Culpepper candidly discussed the direction of the industry with host Priya Rao on this week’s Glossy Beauty Podcast. “It's important to support Black-owned brands. It's also important to support Black-founded brands, as well as Black-led brands. So it's all a very big and important conversation, and we need all of it in order to be successful,” she said during the interview, discussing the backlash that some founders receive when they sell their companies. She also discussed the positive changes she’s seen in the industry, including retailers’ efforts to stock a more diverse range of brands, and the way social platforms like TikTok and a new generation of brand ambassadors are helping legacy brands reach a younger audience.

While many children begin to pursue hobbies around eight years old, they are not typically along the lines of curating a skin -care routine, unless of course, you are Shani Darden. The founder of her eponymous beauty line made a name for herself working as an esthetician for Hollywood celebrities like Jessica Alba, Kelly Rowland and Chrissy Teigen.Darden paved the way for her next role as beauty founder in 2013 after identifying a white space in the market for retinol products without the typical harsh side effects of flaking, irritation and redness, she said on this week’s Glossy Beauty podcast.After coverage in 2017 from publication US Weekly an influx of orders began. Michelle Shigemasa, former CEO of Murad and current CEO of Shani Darden Skincare, joined in July 2021 because of its “highly efficacious” products as well as Darden’s “authenticity and her approach to skin care,” said Shigemasa, who also joined the Glossy Beauty Podcast this week. Now, as the Beverly Hills-based brand approaches the end of its own eighth year, Shigemasa focuses on facilitating Shani Darden’s evolution from the inside out. In addition to building the internal team, influencer outreach, and overall brand awareness, “We want to win in a meaningful way with Sephora,” said Shigemasa. Shani Darden launched on Sephora.com and Sephora.ca in March 2020, and later in-store at Sephora in October of the same year. However, “We’re not yet a huge brand at Sephora, and that’s our ambition,” she said.

Today, "digital" is practically synonymous with fashion and beauty. But to boast an advanced knowledge of the digital world in the early aughts is what Alessio Rossi, evp of Shiseido and Clé de Peau Beauté and head of digital transformation for the Americas at Shiseido, considers "serendipitous.""I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time, so that today, people can consider me a veteran of the space," said Rossi on this week's Glossy Beauty Podcast. Brands were taught to be "one talking to many," he said of the first wave of digital 20-plus years ago. "We weren't necessarily taught to listen, to get feedback and to engage in many multiple, concurrent, sometimes synchronous conversations with our audience... That was a huge change for brands around the world, specifically in luxury."Rossi landed at Shiseido six years ago, after over 12 years in the luxury industry with companies like L'Oréal and Kering. In January 2021, he transitioned to his current position, where his main task is discovering "the ongoing redefinition of what luxury beauty online means from an experiential standpoint," he said. Now, Rossi harnesses social as a community-builder, ensuring Shiseido's spot as a key successor in the U.S. beauty landscape and responding to customer preferences changed by Covid-19. The pandemic pushed shopping toward livestreaming and direct selling, he said. "We tried to reinvent the proposition immediately because this is what was needed. And we are in the process of reinventing it because consumers [have even more] options now."

With roles at Target, The Home Depot, Family Dollar and now Ulta Beauty, Kecia Steelman, Ulta Beauty chief operating officer, can legitimately affirm, “Retail is in my DNA."“Life has [come] full circle because I’m leading the Ulta Beauty at Target partnership,” said Steelman, who spearheaded the collaboration, on this week’s Glossy Beauty Podcast. (Steelman worked at Target between 1993 and 2005 and has been at Ulta Beauty since 2015.) Ulta Beauty at Target, which launched in August and consists of a 1,000 square foot, Ulta Beauty expert-staffed shop-in-shops in Target, is set to reach 100 new shops by the end of this year.The curated assortment of 54 prestige beauty brands is one of the ways that Steelman has facilitated a more convenient shopping experience for Ulta Beauty's existing customers as well as create a new ecosystem of shoppers at Target, said Steelman.Additionally, Steelman has worked to expand Ulta Beauty’s digital innovation with elevated curbside and same-day pickup capabilities last year. “We shifted to be focused on self-care, self-expression, and togetherness because that’s what our guests needed from us at that time,” she said.

When Carolyn Bojanowski, svp and gm of e-commerce at Sephora, joined the retailer team in 2005, it was an opportunity to pay homage to her childhood as the daughter of a candy buyer. In her mind, Sephora was the "candy store of beauty.""Sephora has always been committed to the digital experience," said Bojanowski on the latest Glossy Beauty Podcast.And that e-commerce experience had to go into overdrive during the pandemic. Not only did Bojanowski spearhead the acceleration of Sephora's in-store pick-up, but she facilitated an unlikely ally in Instacart. She also launched Sephora's same-day pick-up service to expand its customer reach. "If you can give someone back time, that is another way to think about having a luxury experience," she said.During Covid-19, Bojanowski was also tasked with translating the in-store customer service experience to online, where the practicality of in-store product trial did not exist. In addition to its thorough product pages, shade finders, quizzes and UGC, Sephora launched on Sephora.com its live home chat, which enables customers to chat with Sephora's in-house beauty advisors from the comfort of their homes, said Bojanowski. This has also created a whole new retail role for the company.

Clean or effective? It's a question that the beauty industry has tried to tackle for the last decade. For Tula, a probiotic-based, skin-care brand, it has attempted to combine its doctor-founded, science-backed approach with the appeal of being a modern, clean brand,said Savannah Sachs, Tula CEO, on the latest Glossy Beauty Podcast. Sachs joined Tula in 2018 and has seen the brand through the rapid expansion of its team, expanded retail distribution and technological development, much of which transpired under a Covid-19 lens. Though Tula launched with Ulta Beauty in 2018, its presence within the beauty retailer grew just prior to the pandemic. The brand launched its "Skin Bar takeover" in Jan. 2020. Although Ulta Beauty stores soon shut down due to Covid, Sachs said, "We retained our retail field sales team throughout the pandemic [and] cross-trained them to educate and serve customers via chat on our direct-to-consumer business."In addition to Ulta Beauty, Tula has also met its millennial and Gen-Z customer base on TikTok, where it has amassed 380,000 followers in the past year. "We have committed to being a positive force for change in the beauty landscape in social media," she said. Tula's commitment to unfiltered spon-con through the hashtag campaign #EmbraceYourSkin this September is just one way the brand has done so.