The Glossy Beauty Podcast

"At a certain age, every woman colors their hair," said Amy Errett on this week's Glossy Beauty Podcast. As the CEO and founder of the rapidly growing hair-color brand Madison Reed, she would know. Concretely, "every woman" means a market of about 90 million customers coloring their hair "on an average cadence of about seven weeks."Madison Reed first came to market as a DTC brand to be an at-home solution for color, but Errett could not stop before expanding to the salon market, too. The company announced last month that it would begin franchising in order to make its nearly 60 shades available to more consumers across the country."Our highest penetration just basically follows the U.S. population. Urban metros have the highest population, but we reach out to about a 150-mile radius around any of those cities and suburbs in a big way," said Errett.Errett joined beauty editor Priya Rao to talk about how she's breaking the stigma around coloring at home, how she's catering to a younger customer and what tough words of advice she would give to a competitor.

This week, beauty editor Priya Rao sits down with Bobbi Brown, the CEO of Beauty Evolution and founder of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics. Brown discusses her career's origin story in unwittingly creating the "no makeup" makeup look, her stint as Yahoo's beauty editor ("which was amazing for someone who doesn't know how to type"), and why 2016 was high time for her to leave Estée Lauder Companies.

This week, beauty editor Priya Rao sits down with Anne Maza, the co-owner and vice president of sales and marketing at hair brand Olivia Garden. Maza discusses evolving a 52-year-old brand for today's customer, walking the line between the professional and consumer hair segments, and protecting the company's top quality products against counterfeits.

This week, beauty editor Priya Rao sits down with Katia Beauchamp, CEO and co-founder of Birchbox, the company that sends monthly packages with a few samples of beauty products -- after that, it's up to the user to determine whether they want to take their relationship with this or that swatch of makeup to the next level. Katia discusses establishing Birchbox's appeal to the everyday beauty consumer, its recent partnership with Walgreens, and its plans for international expansion.

This week, beauty editor Priya Rao sits down with Nicola Kilner, CEO and co-founder of Deciem, umbrella company to cult-favorite skin-care brand The Ordinary. Kilner discusses why demand should lead product supply, why fashion retailers make good partners and how Deciem is faring following founder Brandon Truaxe’s removal from the company and subsequent death early this year. 

In two short years, direct-to-consumer company Hims launched a sister brand Hers, raised nearly $200 million in funding and became one of few digital-only unicorns. And it all started with taking medicines like finasteride and sildenafil (better known by brand names Propecia and Viagra, respectively), and repositioning them with the end customer in mind. On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Hilary Coles, cofounder and vice president of product development at Hims and Hers, sits down with Glossy's Priya Rao to discuss whether telemedicine is wellness, how Hims and Hers have evolved their out-of-the-box engagement efforts, and what the company is planning for retail.

Michael Bumgarner was not an avid beauty consumer before launching his CBD skin-care brand Cannuka in 2017, but he did have a history in rural farming that led him to see the power of cannabis. "Because of my background in farming, I got really interested in industrial hemp, and I wanted to create a brand that was very much approachable to the canna-curious consumer," he said. "Looking at the cannabis industry, we saw a big gap in products being developed specifically for that consumer, and so we looked at it as an opportunity to reintroduce cannabis in a different way." Shortly after the Farm Bill passed in December 2018, Cannuka ramped up distribution in nearly all Ulta stores, as well as at Free People, Anthropologie, Riley Rose and Neiman Marcus. On this week’s episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Bumgarner sits down with Glossy’s Priya Rao to discuss why betting on a direct-to-consumer strategy was not viable, why retailers are taking a risk on cannabis and how making a splash in skin care will open the door for cannabis wellness products and ingestibles. 

When beauty influencer and content creator Jackie Aina got her start on YouTube over a decade ago, her very new, public persona wasn't something she necessarily wanted to shout from the roof tops. "If you were a YouTuber in 2009 you were a weirdo," she said. "People were like, 'You're literally talking to yourself' and you're recording the process, so it wasn't something that I was like, 'Oh guys, look what I'm doing.' Clearly, that has changed today as Aina has a 5 million-plus social following across platforms. Her take on beatuy extends to culture, which is why some of the most talked about brands in beauty, like Too Faced and Anastasia Beverly Hills, have come knocking on her door. On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Aina sits down with Glossy's Priya Rao to discuss developing her social voice, the business of being an influencer and yes, the Kardashians.

Perfect Corp. is on a mission to transform the beauty industry through AR and AI innovation. For Alice Chang, the CEO of the Taiwanese tech company, it all started when she realized the power of giving someone the tools to make themselves feel beautiful. Founded in 2014, the tech company has launched a series of AR apps, like YouCam Perfect, which uses a 'beautify' function and other photo editing software to help users craft the perfect selfie. Perfect Corp. has also partnered with brands and retailers, such as Ulta, to create an in-store, virtual try-on experience, so customers can interact with cosmetics before committing to a purchase. On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, beauty editor Priya Rao sits down with Chang to discuss how Perfect Corp. is marrying tech and beauty, how it's individualizing in-store AR experiences for each brand, and how AI could revolutionize a consumer's beauty experience.

Unlike those suddenly hopping on the bandwagon, Robert Rosenheck has been working in cannabis for years. Growing up in a conservative family, Rosenheck avoided the recreational drug until finally sampling it with some friends during his senior year of college. He found it gave him a temporary release from the depression he had been struggling with for years. A few short years later, after a rock climbing accident left him with a broken ankle and chronic pain, he discovered that topicals infused with cannabis helped alleviate some of his suffering. In 2013, Rosenheck and his wife, Cindy Capobianco, decided it was time to create a brand of their own that celebrated cannabis. Thus, Lord Jones was born. Over the past six years, Lord Jones has garnered endorsements from celebs like Mandy Moore, entered retail partnerships with SoulCycle and Sephora, and most recently, announced a $300 million acquisition from Canadian pot company Cronos. But with all of the brand's success, Rosenheck said the stigma and confusing regulations surrounding CBD and cannabis remain big challenges. On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Lord Jones founder and CEO Robert Rosenheck sits down with Glossy's Priya Rao to discuss what makes a quality CBD product, what makes SoulCycle and Sephora the perfect retail partners, and whether the brand will branch out to THC.