The Glossy Beauty Podcast

Nathalie Gerschtein, L'Oréal's first female president of the North American Consumer Products Division, has spent over two decades shaping beauty markets globally. She shares insights on the transformative power of beauty in boosting self-esteem and self-expression. Nathalie emphasizes the blend of data analytics and intuition in decision-making, discusses the importance of understanding diverse consumer needs, and highlights innovations like ColorSonic that merge technology with personalization, ensuring beauty remains accessible to all.

When Javon Ford (@javonford16, 455,400 TikTok followers) graduated college, he knew he wanted to be a chemist and wanted to work in the cosmetics industry. What he didn’t anticipate was becoming wildly popular on TikTok with nearly half a million followers.Ford’s background in chemistry, working on making new formulations for cosmetics companies, has given him an in-depth knowledge of what goes into beauty and skin-care products. His videos involve him busting some of the most widespread myths in beauty and skin care, pointing out which ingredients are harmful or, more commonly, useless. In a recent video, he helped diagnose what ingredient in a lip product was making Olympian athlete Simone Biles’ swell.According to Ford, his newfound popularity has led to multiple brand collaboration offers, but he’s steadfast about refusing to do work with companies whose products he doesn’t trust or who don’t provide the scientific data to back up their claims.Ford joined the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss his career development and where he’s going next. 

When it comes to influential families in the beauty industry, Jami Morse Heidegger and daughter Hannah Heidegger are in a class all their own. They represent the third and fourth generations of skin-care brand owners in the U.S. dating back to the late 1800s. After immigrating to the U.S. as a child, Jami’s grandfather Irving Morse apprenticed for John Kiehl, the founder of Kiehl’s Apothecary in New York City. In 1921, when Kiehl retired, he allowed Morse to buy the brand and, for the next eight decades, it was Morse’s family business. For Jami, Kiehl’s Apothecary was a second home. “I would go there after school and just play,” Jami told Glossy. “My father was wonderful. … He would let me take different ingredients and experiment with them … and I had control of a whole bathroom. That was my laboratory, and I used to mix things in the sink.”Years later, Jami turned bathroom mixing into innovative formula development when she joined the business. Jami created more than 100 formulas for Kiehl’s, many of which still anchor the brand’s top franchises like Ultra Facial Cream and Calendula Toner. Other bestsellers, like the Blue Astringent, were created by her father, who ran the business after her grandfather passed away. Jami and her family sold Kiehl’s to L’Oréal in 2000, a bittersweet decision that ultimately allowed the brand to scale to what it is today. At the time, Jami was in her 40s and signed a 10-year non-compete with L’Oréal. With three small children at home and a payout that was estimated to be over $100 million, she thought it was her retirement from beauty, but the passion didn’t fade. In 2015, Jami and her husband, Klaus Heidigger, ended their retirement from the beauty industry and launched Retrouvé, a line of luxury skin care formulated by Jami and her favorite longtime chemist collaborators. Inspired by Jami’s “boosted” visions of products she would have made just for herself back at Kiehl's, the brand is based on clinically proven actives and a patented triple airless pump system to safeguard each formula’s efficacy. Today, Jami and her daughter Hannah are working hand-in-hand to build Retrouvé into a luxury skin-care leader. The formulas, which top out at $215, sell direct-to-consumer and at Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Revolve, Shopbop and Bergdorf Goodman. A decade in, Jami and Hannah are looking for a strategic partner to scale. Today, the family is challenged with stock issues: At the time of publication, three of eight of the brand’s skin-care products were running a waitlist.Jami Morse Heidegger and Hannah Heidegger join the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss the early days at Kiehl’s, the decision behind selling to L’Oréal, the ins and outs of product formulation, the ways the beauty industry has changed through the years, and the future of Retrouvé. 

Three tween girls from New York City discuss their interest in beauty, sharing their skincare routines, favorite products, and beauty influencers. They talk about shopping at stores like Sephora, discuss skincare tools, and share how their moms are involved in their beauty routines.

Founders Nicole Collins and Corey Weiss discuss launching 213Deli, a text-commerce beauty platform inspired by China's shopping trends. They focus on personalized beauty offers via text messages, disrupting traditional e-commerce with single product drops from top brands.

Jess Hunt, now 27, has been creating content for over a decade. She has 1.7 million followers on Instagram, where she got started, and another 184,000 on TikTok. Through her career as a content creator, she met Jenna Meek, formerly the founder of a beauty brand called Shrine, who eventually became her co-founder. Today, the duo runs Refy Beauty. Refy launched in 2020 and hit shelves at Sephora by 2021.Hunt's bold, bushy brows provided the impetus for Refy. On set for a photoshoot, Meek watched Hunt doing her brow makeup and asked her for details. Hunt spilled that it took a multitude of products and varying brushes to get her signature look. Together, they dreamed up an alternative, which became Refy's first product, its $24 Brow Sculpt.On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Hunt discusses her road to "influencer" in the early days of the role being a career, the founders' journey to creating Brow Sculpt and the brand's recent foray into the complexion category with its first concealer. 

In December, America’s first big move to regulate the beauty industry in more than 80 years went into effect with the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulatory Act of 2022, best known as MoCRA. But it isn’t until the end of this month that the industry will meet its first big deadline from the Food & Drug Administration. By July 1, brands and manufacturers must provide a list of their products and where they were made to the FDA through its online portal called Cosmetics Direct. It’s the first of many deadlines and requirements, some of which are still in flux, that will slowly reshape how the industry is regulated over the next few years. For example, MoCRA will give the FDA new visibility into what’s in beauty products and where they are manufactured. It also provides new authority to the FDA to issue mandatory product recalls and alert consumers to common allergens through mandatory warning labels. That’s thanks, in part, to new visibility into fragrance ingredient lists, which had long been classified as intellectual property but must now be shared with the FDA.Previously, America’s regulation was made up of small federal and state laws, which created a growing movement for better regulation. For example, brands like BeautyCounter spent years lobbying for better regulation on social media and on the hill in Washington, while brands like Henry Rose by Michelle Pfeiffer was created to offer an alternative to the under-regulated fragrance industry.  So how did this piece of legislation finally get passed? While you may not know attorney Katlin McKelvie by name, she is a Washington D.C.-based lawyer who was integral in the creation of MoCRA. McKelvie has more than two decades of experience working in food and drug law, including 11 years at the FDA. She also served as the Deputy General Counsel of the United States’ Department of Health and Human Services and as the Deputy Health Policy Director and Senior FDA Counsel to the Senate Committee on health, education, labor and pensions for chair Patty Murray. While working with Congress, she helped shape many pieces of legislation that have impacted us all, including MoCRA, before becoming a partner of a private D.C. firm called Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher.On today’s episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, McKelvie shares the origin story for MoCRA, including the challenges and compromises made during its early days in the Senate. She also shares the challenges she suspects brands may face while navigating compliance, the requirements the FDA will release next and the changes consumers can expect in the coming years. 

Deepica Mutyala, founder of Live Tinted, discusses the brand's evolution, from viral video success to focusing on complexion products. She shares insights on starting the brand, progress since the BLM movement, and the importance of inclusivity in the beauty industry. Mutyala highlights Live Tinted's commitment to diversity and future plans for expanding their makeup offerings.

Unlike many beauty executives, Sara Mitzner, vp of brand marketing at AS Beauty Group since 2019, started her career in fashion. Her resume includes roles a Complex, Fullbeauty Brands and Swimsuits for All. AS Beauty Group is a personal care product company that owns Cover FX, Laura Geller Beauty, Julep Beauty, Mally Beauty and Bliss brands.Mitzner has led many of AS Beauty brands' biggest marketing moves, including Laura Geller Beauty pivoting its strategy to attract and acquire more mature consumers. According to Mitzner, in April, AS Beauty Group's sales were up 140% year-over-year. "It's been fun for me to be at a company in an industry that they always say is recession-proof," Mitzner told Glossy.On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Mitzner discusses the future of AS Beauty Group and the Gen X opportunity in beauty.

Taylor Frankel is one of three co-founders of Toronto-based Nudestix. And, as the beauty brand's main face, she has been spending the year celebrating its 10-year anniversary. She founded the brand with her sister, Ally Frankel, and her mother, industry veteran Jenny Frankel, when the two sisters were teenagers.In today's competitive beauty market, making it to the 10-year mark deserves to be celebrated. As such, the brand has kicked off a tour, during which Frankel will participate in brand activations in her home base in Toronto, as well as in New York, Los Angeles and London. These customer-facing events will include panel discussions, workout classes and influencer dinners.On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Frankel discusses Nudestix's points of difference, the unique ways it works with influencers and celebrities, and the strategies it's using to grow its skin-care business.