The Glossy Beauty Podcast

When Luxury Brand Partners founder and CEO Tev Finger pitched his idea to Estée Lauder Companies -- an in-house brand incubator that he would run after the company bought his brand Bumble & Bumble -- the company almost went for it."I give a lot of credit. It's hard for a company that buys brands that are profitable to even contemplate taking a risk on incubators," Finger said on the Glossy Beauty Podcast. "It ended up not happening."That was around 2006, Finger recalled. But all these years later, he still sees Luxury Brand Partners, which he founded in 2012, as an incubator for beauty conglomerates in everything but name."I'm actually an arm of them," Finger said. "We kind of line it up for them to make an easy acquisition. We know the things they're looking for." Since the Bumble & Bumble acquisition, Finger has sold Becca to ELC, Pulp Riot to L'Oréal and Oribe to Kao Corporation. Other brands in the LBP portfolio include R+Co, Patrick Starrr's One/Size and Camila Coelho's Elaluz -- the latter two launched during the pandemic.Which of the giant beauty companies ends up buying the small companies he sets up is beside the point, as long as one of them does. Not that it's easy."It has to be profitable, and it has to be well executed. And you have to have trademarks around the world and licenses -- so when they buy it it's seamless," Finger said. "If you can erase the roadblocks and put it to them on a platter, you're going to get a lot of buyers."

Fragrance isn't what it used to be, according to Acqua Di Parma CEO Laura Burdese."I don't wear a fragrance anymore to represent my personality to someone else," Burdese said on this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast. "I do it because of myself, because it's part of my personal, intimate life."That's partly due to the pandemic that is hitting with renewed strength, of course, both in the company's native Italy and around the world. If people are still wearing perfume, they're doing it for themselves."On top of fragrances, we've seen the rise of so many bath and body products and home fragrances like candles and diffusers," Burdese said of the self-care momentum. "This is a shift that was probably somehow already there, but the pandemic really accelerated it."Acqua Di Parma's customer base is slowly skewing younger, Burdese added. For those generations and overall, the meaning of luxury has changed from being a simple price bracket to requiring an emotional resonance with customers, "something they believe in and feel is relevant to them," Burdese said. "To me, luxury is becoming something more personal." And that, she said, is oftentimes "more difficult."

When Covid-19 hit the U.S. in March, Ipsy, like all beauty companies, had to rethink its year ahead. But CEO Marcelo Camberos said he hoped the larger economic and consumer changes would allow Ipsy, best known for its monthly subscription Glam Bags, to become "a bigger part of members' lives.""In this world where they really need us, where it's much harder to go to physical retail and feel confident doing so, how can we provide more value?" said Camberos, on the most recent episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast. "We thought that the key way we could do that was to give them more control."Ipsy aims to give its customers more control by allowing them to choose the merchandise that they get in Ipsy's Glam Bags and to offer more personal care products in tandem with beauty. Camberos said the big question for his team when thinking of customers is always, "Was it worth it for me this month?" in regard to the monthly shipment of products.And this line of thinking has been applied to all of Ipsy's franchises, including its events, which the company had previously gone heavy on in 2019, and incubation, as seen in its August launch of Item Beauty with TikTok star Addison Rae Easterling."We probably changed more than half of our business initiatives for the year," said Camberos of the company's pivot. "This is a new world; we need to act quickly."

Glossy is proud to present Unfair, a podcast about the global skin-lightening industry and everything it touches, from the demand for lighter skin to the beauty companies selling to it.In this bonus episode, we share a live Q&A first hosted by Unfair host Priya Rao and its producer, Pierre Bienaimé. They were joined by a source from the series' first episode: activist and speaker Nina Davuluri. Together they discuss the industry and the podcast itself, and take audience questions.

Glossy is proud to present Unfair, a podcast about the global skin-lightening industry and everything it touches, from the demand for lighter skin to the beauty companies selling to it.In episode four, Unfair considers the future of the skin lightening industry -- and how the criticism it has faced this past year will or won't lead to systemic change among its biggest stakeholders.Unfair is hosted by Priya Rao, executive editor at Glossy, and produced by Digiday senior producer Pierre Bienaimé.

Glossy is proud to present Unfair, a podcast about the global skin-lightening industry and everything it touches, from the demand for lighter skin to the beauty companies selling to it.In episode three, Unfair explores the deep -- and often surprising -- history of the market for skin-lightening that existed in the United States and South Africa.Unfair is hosted by Priya Rao, executive editor at Glossy, and produced by Digiday senior producer Pierre Bienaimé.

Glossy is proud to present Unfair, a podcast about the global skin-lightening industry and everything it touches, from the demand for lighter skin to the beauty companies selling to it.In episode two, Unfair covers the health problems and psychological harm these products pose to consumers at large. We hear from Minnesota and California state health department workers, the World Health Organization, and Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar.Unfair is hosted by Priya Rao, executive editor at Glossy, and produced by Digiday senior producer Pierre Bienaimé.

Glossy is proud to present Unfair, a podcast about the global skin-lightening industry and everything it touches, from the demand for lighter skin to the beauty companies selling to it.In four episodes, Unfair will explore the industry’s origins, history, systems of regulation and its future.Unfair is hosted by Priya Rao, executive editor at Glossy, and produced by Digiday senior producer Pierre Bienaimé.

Glossy is proud to present Unfair, a podcast about the global skin-lightening industry and everything it touches, from the demand for lighter skin to the beauty companies selling to it.In four episodes, Unfair will explore the industry’s origins, history and systems of regulation. It will also lay bare the societal and health problems presented by these products, whether found on store shelves around the world or sold as bootleg items on online marketplaces.This narrative series will hear from academics, activists, dermatologists, government employees and industry analysts to bring listeners a fuller understanding of this segment of the beauty industry.Unfair includes more than 30 voices, like those of U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar and former Miss America Nina Davuluri. The podcast will uncover how familiar consumer packaged goods companies and their customers have a lot to win or lose, especially as these companies seek to walk a line between progressive marketing and profits.Unfair is hosted by Priya Rao, executive editor at Glossy, and produced by Digiday producer Pierre Bienaimé. Subscribe to the Glossy Beauty Podcast now on Apple Podcasts -- or wherever you get your podcasts -- to hear the first episode on Thursday, September 17.

80% of Foreo's business comes from Luna, a small line of handheld gadgets that promise to clean the face through vibrating silicone bristles. Despite the demand for the brand as <a href="https://www.glossy.co/beauty/how-beauty-device-brands-are-avoiding-clarisonic-fate">facials have only recently resumed in cities like New York</a> -- "business is amazing," said Beki Hoxha, the vp and gm of business operations for Foreo Americas -- the Swedish company won't be making any changes to pricing."There's nothing in the world that is the 'white truffle' of technology, that we'll actually charge $1,000 and be able to justify it," Hoxha said on the Glossy Beauty Podcast. "That's why we follow the model where Luna 1 launched at $199 -- Luna 2 came out and was a much better, improved product, but it didn't go higher in price."Hoxha talked about TikTok's big advantage over incumbents like Facebook and Instagram, what makes for a great influencer in 2020 and how one of their product lines caters to the "anti-anti-aging" crowd.