The Glossy Beauty Podcast

After working in Hollywood for over two decades, Ashley Tisdale has now set her sights on the wellness space. In 2020, she launched an online community platform called Frenshe with the goal of making wellness and wellness-focused goals a bit more accessible to all. Two years later, that community transformed into the wellness brand Being Frenshe. And in July 2022, the brand launched at Target with a 45-product assortment spanning candles, body washes, hair masks and bath bombs."I wasn’t even thinking about doing a product line. I was very much just wanting to connect with people," Tisdale told Glossy in a July 2022 interview. "I started to understand what [people] were going through in the pandemic, together."In the years since, Being Frenshe has had its fair share of TikTok virality due to the success of its hero products, the Body Serum Sticks, which have magnesium on the ingredient list. And in June, the brand won two Self Healthy Beauty Awards for its body lotion and body oil. Tisdale credits Being Frenshe's quick rise to fame to staying true to the brand's original mission of offering wellness with a non-intimidating and inclusive approach.On this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, founder Ashley Tisdale talked about Being Frenshe's early stages and how staying authentic has helped the brand grow. 

Before the term "clean beauty" was coined, brands were making notable strides in the space. One of those was Pacficia Beauty, a 100% vegan and cruelty-free beauty brand founded in 1996 by Brooke Harvey-Taylor and her then-partner-now-husband Billy Taylor. The brand, which is currently based in Portland, Oregon, is partly a love letter to Harvey-Taylor's childhood, she said. She grew up on a ranch in Montana where she was first introduced to the world of clean, cruelty-free beauty."[Pacifica] is a beauty company based on the strong beliefs that animals, humans and the planet should be treated with compassion and that fearlessness is our greatest natural resource," Harvey-Taylor said on the Glossy Beauty Podcast. "We use this brand to make a difference in the world, and we work tirelessly to do that. I'm proud that this has been my trajectory in the beauty industry and my contribution. I've always had a very clear position on accessibility, fairness and justice."Through the brand's progressive stances on sustainability, environmentally-friendly packaging and what Harvey-Taylor describes as "compassionism," Pacifica Beauty has been able to resonate with a diverse group of consumers, which has led to its longevity in the beauty industry. Now, Pacficia Beauty is looking to the future after a recent investment from private equity firm Brentwood Associates in 2022 and a newly focused business plan, which includes more innovative products and a prioritization of safe, accessible beauty.On this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Harvey-Taylor talks about how Pacifica has been able to stay true to its core values while evolving and growing in the ever-changing beauty industry.  

Over the past year, the Glossy Beauty Podcast has provided an insider’s look into the beauty industry through thoughtful interviews, unique perspectives and forward-thinking commentary. But this week, we’re taking a look backward. For the final episode of the year, hosts Emma Sandler, Glossy’s beauty and wellness editor, and senior reporter Sara Spruch-Feiner, are joined by myself, Glossy’s West Coast Correspondent, to reflect on 2023 and offer our predictions for the year ahead. The changing finance landscape — and how it impacted brand closures, as well as mergers and acquisitions — was a topic du jour. As was the opportunity for brands using TikTok Shop. We dissect the growth and innovation in the fragrance category, which is having a gangbuster year, and what we can expect from influencer- and community-focused marketing in 2024. Keep scrolling for highlights, and be sure to listen to the full episode for the team’s end-of-year thoughts. We’ll see you next year!

Brooklyn and Bailey McKnight, YouTube personalities and co-founders of ITK Skin, talk about their start on YouTube, the challenges of skincare for younger generations, simplifying skincare for Gen Z and Gen Alpha, successfully pitching their brand to Walmart, and their exciting plans for the future.

Over the past five years, corporate venture capital (CVC) has emerged as a major player in the startup funding space. And CPG company Reckitt plans to be front and center of that change through its own CVC firm, Access VC.In 2020, Rakesh Narayana, gm of Access VC, saw that most consumer venture funding was flowing toward traditional food and beverage consumer brands, not categories like sexual health and hygiene, to which Reckitt is dedicated. Reckitt owns brands like condom brand Durex, feminine hygiene brand Queen V and sexual wellness brand KY. Additionally, there was a dearth of brands serving or being led by people of color, coupled with a growth in better-for-you brands. Since its launch, in 2020 Access VC has invested more than $50 million in over 30 startups, including sexual wellness brand Maude and men’s wellness brand Asystem, across pre-seed to Series C rounds and beyond.On the latest episode of the Glossy Beauty podcast, Narayana shared that he grew up in India and was raised by a single mother before moving to London for higher education. From there, he worked at Boston Consulting Group as a consultant before entering the CPG category. He said his love for CPG stems from an appreciation for its tangibility and tactile nature and the way consumers interact with and are influenced by consumer brands. While at Reckitt in various roles, he saw the gap between large CPG conglomerates and more innovative indie brands, and the solution he spotted was corporate venture capital.“There is a large difference and gap between big companies being able to do disruptive innovation and the startups and universities and laboratories that have real cutting-edge innovation,” he said. “Corporate venture capital, in some ways, is meant to bridge that gap. Large companies are exceptionally good at making $100 million brands into $1 billion brands but perhaps not as good at creating brands which don't exist [and growing them] to a $100 million brand.”Narayana detailed the Access VC investing strategy, the way it differs from traditional venture capital and the role investors have in fostering innovation.

Cyndi Ramirez founded Chillhouse, a self-care spot in SoHo, in 2017. The idea was to solve for a white space she’d observed: a place to get an affordable massage, a manicure and an adaptogenic matcha latte, all under one roof.During Covid, Chillhouse pivoted quickly to ensure its survival, launching press-on nails featuring its signature cool-girl nail art. Since then, the brand has also launched a suite of body-care products including a body scrub, mist and in-shower lotion. Today, these products account for around 70% of the brand’s business and are sold at retailers like Target and Urban Outfitters.On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, senior reporter Sara Spruch-Feiner spoke to Ramirez about her original idea for Chillhouse, the pivot to press-ons and the process of choosing brand collaborators.

Olamide Olowe is a born entrepreneur.The Topicals skin-care founder grew up in an entrepreneurial household and pursued track running, which enabled her to earn a scholarship to UCLA, where she initially studied pre-med to become a dermatologist. Topicals was born after Olowe's college roommate revealed a family connection to SheaMoisture. On the latest episode of the Glossy Beauty podcast, Olowe said she learned that skin care, dermatology and beauty could be made accessible over the counter. The name Topicals serves a dual function because it means both something applied on the skin and something that is culturally relevant or topical. Topicals is dedicated to helping chronic skin issues like eczema and psoriasis for all types of consumers and is sold through Sephora and its DTC e-commerce.Topicals has received wide praise since its launch in 2020, including being honored by Allure's Best of Beauty in 2023 and Women's Health 2023 Skincare Awards, among others. But the journey to get there was not easy. Just like many other female and BIPOC-founded brands, Topicals had a difficult fundraising experience, at first. But the brand went on to raise $15 million in outside funding.On the latest Glossy Podcast, Olowe spoke with Emma Sandler, beauty and wellness editor at Glossy, about her entrepreneurial vision for the beauty industry, Topicals' early entry into Sephora and streetwear culture's influence on her business. 

Pritika Swarup has built a large following, thanks, in part, to her successful career as a model. A graduate of Columbia Business School, Swarup founded her skin-care brand, Prakti, in 2021. It was designed to blend Ayurvedic tradition with modern skin-care ingredients. It soft-launched with one product, an exfoliating powder.Today, the brand has six products and sells direct-to-consumer, though expansion into retail will come next year. On this episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Pritika discusses balancing modeling and brand-building, introducing the U.S. consumer to Ayurvedic ingredients, and giving back via Operation Smile, for which she is a global ambassador. 

Mona Kattan has been obsessed with fragrance her whole life. So after building Huda Beauty with her sister, Huda, following its launch in 2013, she decided to build her own brand, Kayali, starting in 2018. Now, Huda Beauty, Kayali and Wishful (which makes skin care) form the Kattan sisters' beauty empire.Kattan's passion for scent is evident when she speaks about perfume. In January, she shared a video on YouTube displaying her "fragrance library," which stores over 3,500 bottles. Kayali, she shares on this episode of the Glossy Beauty podcast, had a big year. It launched its Yum Pistachio Gelato 33 perfume, a limited edition wedding collection timed to Kattan's own nuptials and, most recently, its biggest drop yet, "Oudgasm." The Oudgasm collection focuses on four interpretations of oud, a traditionally Middle Eastern wood note.Kattan spoke with Glossy about her lifelong obsession with fragrance, her approach to building a brand at the right speed and her process of testing up to 500 new scents at a time. 

Dr. Dhaval Bhanusali's office is in New York City. But, on any given day, he could be in Miami or Los Angeles, or just about anywhere else, working on one of the various side projects that keep him busy both in and out of the dermatology office.Dr. Bhanusali has founded multiple companies including Skin Medicinals, a prescribing platform allowing dermatologists to custom-create formulas for their patients at lower prices than traditional prescriptions. There's also HairStim Labs, which similarly aids in the creation of products helping patients experiencing hair loss, and Aire Health, which lets dermatologists create over-the-counter skin-care routines from vetted brands, at a discount. In addition, he's an adviser to Ephemeral — the long-lasting, but not permanent, tattoo startup — and the dermatologist-in-residence for Hailey Bieber's Rhode.Dr. Bhanusali joined the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss his various businesses, including how he works with Hailey Bieber on Rhode and how he believes dermatologists can be most effective on social media.