Rooibos cosmetics

Few beauty executives currently compete in a category they created, but that’s the case for Dr. Julie Chung and Kent Yu, the married co-founders behind T3 hair tools (19:00).  The duo created the luxury hair tool category back in 2004 when they launched T3 with the first lightweight, sleek and quiet blowdryer that delivered smoother, faster results. T3’s Featherweight model was the first luxury dryer on the market and the most expensive at the time, priced at $200. Dr. Chung and Yu quickly found a consumer, and before long, T3 was the first hair tool sold in stores like Sephora.  Fast forwar...

Reuben Carranza knows a good brand when he sees it.  Bansk Beauty, where he serves as executive chairman, made headlines in September after acquiring the buzzy, clinical skin-care brand Byoma. It’s part of the late-stage private investment firm’s growing beauty roster, which includes Amika, Eva NYC and Ethique.  “No. 1, they're on a tear, right? They're growing rapidly. But I think what we loved about them was the story,” he told Glossy on stage at this week’s annual Glossy Beauty and Wellness Summit about its Byoma acquisition. “It's the story: they've de-complicated complicated skin-care routines.”  Carranza kicked off the Summit with a...

Allison Kent-Gunn knows good beauty packaging when she sees it.  The Los Angeles-based aesthetician-turned-packaging consultant has become one of the leading voices in beauty packaging on social media thanks to her "hot takes" on packaging wins and misses. She’s a former cosmetic packaging instructor at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, and outside of her social media, where she goes by @AllisonTurquoise, her insights can be seen in an upcoming Cosmetic Science Textbook used in packaging courses.  Today’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast —  a special episode dedicated to the best, and worst, beauty packaging — concludes our three-part...

The Glossy Beauty Podcast is back with its second of three deep dives into beauty packaging. Today, our guest is Helen Steed, a veteran in the field, whose resume includes a 10-year stint leading creative at Bumble & Bumble, and a gig as Glossier's founding creative director before striking out on her own. Now, she helms Steed & Friends, which has worked with brands including Rhode, Lore, Sakara and Ursa Major. On today's episode, she takes listeners through mini case studies, examining her work on products like Rhode's iconic phone case, Glossier's first foray into body care and Merit's logo. But first...

What does it take for a beauty campaign or brand to cut through the noise in 2025?  Our second-annual Glossy Pop Awards is one place where our team recognizes the best and most culturally relevant beauty and fashion campaigns, people, products, and brands.  In today’s episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, we welcome three esteemed beauty executives to discuss the secret sauce behind their Glossy Pop Award-winning campaigns.  These winning campaigns drove audience engagement, generated buzz and successfully met their set business goals.  To start, host Lexy Lebsack welcomes Leslie Ann Hall, founder and CEO of Iced Media (18:50). She and her te...

Executive coach Angela Bennett knows a thing or two about the unique needs of beauty and wellness industry leaders. She spent more than two decades working across L’Oréal and Estee Lauder brands like La Roche-Posay, Maybelline and Clinique in roles like vice president, general manager and svp of talent acquisition. "The subjective nature of [the beauty industry] requires an art of balancing data points, intuition and conviction [while] becoming your own leader to navigate the decisions that need to be made on a daily basis," Bennett said. But today, Bennett is part of a growing number of certified pro...

After starting as a brick-and-mortar nail salon in Los Angeles in 2013, Olive & June closed up shop in 2020, with founder and CEO Sarah Gibson Tuttle pivoting her focus to DIY manis. By November 2024, Helen of Troy had acquired the brand for $225 million in cash and a $15 million earnout subject to performance over three years. Helen of Troy's beauty portfolio also includes Drybar, Curlsmith and Hot Tools, among others. But Gibson Tuttle was intent on remaining involved in her brand's operations — operating essentially as it did prior to the acquisition, but with greater support. Now, nearly a year post-acquisition, Gibson Tuttle joins the...

What does it take to successfully reinvent a heritage beauty brand? Industry veteran Dawn Hilarczyk is on a mission to completely transform Borghese, the 68-year-old heritage brand famous for its Italian skin care and Fango mud masks — and it’s working.  In today’s episode, Hilarczyk dives into the nitty-gritty of her brand turnaround efforts. She breaks down her strategy in great detail, from cleaning up the brand’s Amazon presence and expanding into Ulta Beauty, to reestablishing a social presence and reducing the brand's SKU count from 87 to 27.  But first, host Lexy Lebsack is joined by Glossy senior reporter Emily Jens...

The beauty industry had an eventful summer marked by changing retailer strategies, stark revenue tumbles and a flurry of pricey acquisitions.  In this special episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, reporters Lexy Lebsack, Emily Jensen and Sara Spruch-Feiner walk through the stories that defined the season.  This includes strategy shifts within retailers like Sephora, Ulta Beauty and Target, plus a look at disappointing revenue at conglomerates Shiseido and Estée Lauder Companies. The team also discusses the biggest acquisitions of the season — including Rhode, Dr. Squatch, Space NK and Touchland — and the tariff-related topics we’re watching as fall approaches.  To start, G...

Host Lexy Lebsack is joined by reporter Melissa Daniels from Glossy’s sister publication Modern Retail and co-host of the Modern Retail Podcast, to walk through this week’s biggest beauty news stories.  This includes a brief analysis of E.l.f. Beauty’s response to consumer outcry over casting controversial comedian Matt Rife in its latest campaign, a topic Lebsack and Glossy reporter Emily Jensen discussed in last week’s episode.  Next, Lebsack and Daniels discuss the likely voluntary recall of mousse sunscreens, which includes offerings from Vacation and Supergoop sold through Sephora, Target, Nordstrom and more retailers. Its part of th...

co-hosts Lexy Lebsack and Emily Jensen discuss industry news of the week, including changes to beauty brick-and-mortar retail, from Nordstrom's NYC flagship's approach to Mecca's new 40,000-square-foot flagship in Melbourne. They also discuss the controversy immediately surrounding E.l.f. Cosmetics' new ad featuring drag queen Heidi N Closet and comedian Matt Rife, who, in 2023, sparked outrage after he made jokes about domestic violence in his Netflix special. Commenters have flooded the brand's TikTok and Instagram pages, and have also created their own content condemning Rife's casting. Later, co-host Sara Spruch-Feiner sits down with New York City-based plastic surgeon Dr. T...

Krave Beauty isn’t your average K-Beauty brand. “[Our mission] resonates with a lot of people who are really tired of the beauty industry's narrative of ‘more is more,’” CEO and co-founder Liah Yoo told Glossy.  After getting her start working for Amorepacific in Seoul, South Korea, Yoo joined YouTube to share her own skin challenges. “I was documenting my acne skin struggles in my mid 20s, and I literally tried everything,” she said. “Nothing worked until I pressed reset and simplified my routine, going from a 14-step skin-care routine to a super minimal three-step skin-care routine [with] super gentle, minimal, hydratin...

In this episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, board-certified dermatologist and Mohs surgeon Dr. Jane Yoo, and the Melanoma Research Foundation's director of advocacy, Kim Wezik, MPH, chat with Glossy podcast co-host Sara Spruch-Feiner about how the U.S. wound up so far behind the rest of the world when it comes to sunscreen, how the Melanoma Research Foundation is working with congress to try to make progress in the field, and what's at stake (20:00). But first, co-hosts Lexy Lebsack and Emily Jensen discuss some of the week’s biggest beauty news, including TSG Group's acquisition of Chriselle Lim's Phlur, wh...

Beauty dupes have never been more popular. But is mimicking a competitor a sound business decision?   “This might surprise people, [but] dupes may not be illegal on their own," brand protection attorney Elizabeth Milian told Glossy. The word “dupe” is shorthand for “duplicate” and often denotes a product that is inspired by a higher-priced luxury offering. A dupe is different from a counterfeit product that presents itself as the original.  It's very common for duped brands to regularly bring lawsuits against the companies allegedly infringing on their trade dress, or IP, such as packaging, branding, logos or any other unique asset. While...

In the big wide world of health and wellness, there is always a buzzword du jour. In the past couple months, you've likely heard buzz about gut health and GLP-1s, ingredients like creatine and colostrum, and, of course, protein. For many of these trends, Arrae, the supplement brand co-founded by Siffat "Siff" Haider and her husband, Nishant Samantray, has been right there, answering consumer demand with a product featuring that of-the-moment ingredient or speaking to a top-of-mind concern. Wellness is Haider's passion and something she enjoys thinking about constantly, she said, both to live her best life and to g...

Earlier this year, Sahajan founder Lisa Mattam shared insights into her clinical testing strategy with Glossy, including the difference between clinical testing and consumer perception testing; the cost, challenges and complications that can arise with this sort of investment; and how she uses the results to market her line.  In today’s podcast episode, she breaks down all of this in more detail, including the challenges, cost and unseen hurdles.  But first, Glossy Beauty Podcast host Lexy Lebsack is joined by senior reporter Emily Jensen to discuss the news of the week. This includes the latest C-suite shuffles at Byredo and...

West Coast correspondent Lexy Lebsack is joined by senior reporter Emily Jensen to discuss this week’s news, starting with a buzzy new lawsuit that could impact the future of beauty dupes. They discuss Glow Recipe’s new lawsuit against MCo Beauty for allegedly copying one of its hero products, $36 Watermelon Glow Dew Drops, with MCo’s $11.99 Hydrate & Glow Ultra-Dew Serum. Jensen and Lebsack also discuss L'Oréal Group’s latest acquisition of the British skin-care brand Medik8. Announced this week, the conglomerate acquired a majority stake in the brand, which launched stateside in 2023, to bolster its luxury and dermatological beauty di...

On this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty podcast, Sara Spruch-Feiner, senior reporter at Glossy Pop, and Emily Jensen, Glossy senior beauty reporter, are joined by Gabi Barko, senior reporter at Glossy's sister publication Modern Retail, and Brit Starr, CMO at influencer marketing platform Creator IQ. Kicking off the episode, Jensen and Spruch-Feiner chat what's happening on TikTok in beauty this week, why Pride Month will look a little different this year, and why Huda Kattan is taking back full ownership of Huda Beauty. Later (16:18), Spruch-Feiner, Barkho and Starr discuss the biggest beauty news of the year, announced last Wednesday...

Maison Louis Marie (20:00) was founded in 2012 and has never taken on investment, which, according to the married couple behind the brand, Marie du Petit Thouars and Matthew Berkson, has allowed it to focus on slow and steady growth. It is profitable and does not spend excessively on influencer marketing. "We want to be careful with the brand. We really want to create a legacy brand," Berkson said. In 13 years, Maison Louis Marie has grown to sell eau de parfums, perfume oils, candles, diffusers, body wash, lotion and deodorant, among other products. It entered Sephora in 2017. A little over six months...

The WNBA kicked off its new season last week with beauty brands lining up to gain access to the league’s growing cohort of fans.  In a gold rush that started around 2020, some of the industry’s top brands have entered into multi-year sponsorships with the league or its top players. The most recent, Fenty’s sponsorship of the New York Liberty, was announced earlier this month and kicked off on Saturday’s home game opener with several activations including a "Gloss Bomb glam cam" where fans show off their beauty look.  The NY Liberty, a top team in the league, ha...

Despite a new, 90-day pause on President Trump’s sky-high tariffs on goods imported from China, near-shoring and multi-shoring are leading topics on the minds of business insiders now.  But the idea of near-shoring, or moving a supply chain closer to the brand’s home country, as well as multi-shoring, or diversifying your supply chain to additional regions, comes with many pros and cons.  On today’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, host Lexy Lebsack is joined by Melissa Daniels, senior reporter at Glossy’s sister publication Modern Retail and co-host of the Modern Retail Podcast, to unpack the nuances in...

Few beauty brands have had an evolution quite like Southern California-based ColourPop cosmetics (20:50).  Launched in 2014 at the height of the DTC era, the brand once released around 40 collections per year. “That's how consumers were shopping,” Vivian Weng, ColourPop brand president, told Glossy. “For a number of years, consumers were looking for the latest launch … and looking to get their hands on limited quantities of something that was very, very specific and timely.”  Flash forward to its eleventh birthday this month and things look very different. “[Beauty shoppers] are looking for newness, but in a different way,” Weng said. “The consumer has evolved, and w...

About four years ago, Glossy profiled Muneeb Shah. At the time, he was a resident who had accumulated an impressive 6 million TikTok followers. He had started posting during quarantine. Now, that number has skyrocketed to 17.9 million — plus an additional 1.1 million followers on Instagram. Recent content reveals partnerships with brands including Timeless Skin Care, No. 7 Skin Care and TirTir, to name a few. Last March, Dr. Shah debuted Remedy, his own brand, which currently offers three serums, a lip balm, a moisturizer, a dandruff shampoo, a body cream for keratosis pilaris and pimple patches. In addition, Dr. Shah serves — along with Dr. D...

Gabby Shacknai and Zoe Weiner were already veteran beauty editors when they debuted their nonprofit, Beautyfor, in June 2024. Like many people who work in the beauty industry, they'd long been surrounded by a surplus of products and felt there had to be a way to do some good with the excess. Initially, they planned a sale with excess from their friends in the industry. But then, brands got wind and asked to donate products. "All of a sudden, Gabby's apartment was filled with hundreds and hundreds of serums and moisturizers and things, and we were just kind of like, 'Where...

Pact Collective isn’t the first company to try to solve the beauty industry’s waste problem. But in four short years, it’s already become the most successful.  “It feels like a really exciting time for the industry, but we've still got a lot of work to do,” Carly Snider, executive director of Pact Collective, told Glossy. “We [as an industry] are creating 120 billion units of beauty packaging globally and only a fraction of those are recycled or reused.”  This widely-shared statistic was one catalyst for Pact’s launch in 2021 as a nonprofit industry collective founded by retailer Credo Beauty and clean c...

Esteemed beauty marketer Michelle Miller knows a thing or two about a successful TikTok strategy. Miller served as CMO of K-18 during its gangbuster rise and 2023 strategic acquisition by Unilever. Her CV also includes Kosas, Too Faced and, as of January, CMO of Vegamour hair care.  “[TikTok has] an algorithm that is able to democratize beauty in a way that makes it a lot more accessible [to the average consumer],” Miller said. “With the platform being so uncertain, it's emotionally hard for brands that have invested so much time into creator communities, into content on Tiktok. And most of all, it's re...

Sephora has launched numerous new brands in recent months, many of them buzzy and beloved — but perhaps none has been as hotly anticipated as Ultra Violette (that's pronounced "violet"), the Aussie sunscreen brand first launched in 2018. Sephora marks the brand's official debut into the U.S. market — a landmark occasion, because, as co-founder Bec Jefferd said on this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, "You can't be a serious global beauty brand if you aren't in the U.S." That's in spite of the fact that the brand has already launched in 29 other markets. Jefferd and co-founder Ava Matthews met as...

Act+Acre’s husband-and-wife founders were early to the growth of the scalp-care market when they launched their brand in 2019 with one product: a $48 prewash treatment called Scalp Detox Oil.  “[Scalp care] was definitely an afterthought for people [a few years ago],” brand founder and hairstylist Helen Reavey told Glossy. “Launching it in 2019, we were one of the first to solely think about scalp care the way skin care had come up and was so personalized, and we took that approach. It's not a one-size-fits-all for the scalp.” Reavey has seen the effects of poor scalp care throughout her 15-year career as a...

Very few beauty entrepreneurs have had more success than Carolyn Aronson. In 2006, the longtime hairstylist and salon owner launched professional hair-care brand It’s a 10 with one hero product: Miracle Leave-In spray. The $21 formula was an immediate success for its ability to hydrate, smooth, condition, defrizz and protect hair with one formula. The brand had immediate success by seeding the product to professional hairstylists before entering Ulta Beauty, Target, Sally’s Beauty, Cosmoprof, SalonCentric and Amazon, and selling DTC.  Using Miracle Leave-In as the anchor for expansion, the company added formulations through the years for various hair types and preferences. This...

Kathryn Winokur launched Hally Hair in 2021 after working for companies including PepsiCo and Dove. From engineering college partnerships to hosting a trip for Alabama sorority girls, the brand has succeeded by keeping its finger on the pulse and remaining deeply entrenched in youth culture. Its latest move is a timely one, too: On March 6, it introduced Lady H, a $39 alcohol-free hair perfume that also adds shine to hair. The scent launched DTC and on TikTok Shop and will hit Ulta Beauty — in all doors and online — on April 20. "We see hair and fragrance as some of the most individualistic forms of se...

For New Yorkers, C.O. Bigelow is an institution.  “There's something about the [Bigelow] apothecary that emotionally appeals to people,” Ian Ginsberg, president, pharmacist and third generation owner of C.O. Bigelow, told Glossy. “Everybody, no matter how young or old you are, has some memory about going to the apothecary and the pharmacist telling you what to do. That's where I started [when I joined the family business four decades ago]. I started focusing on what happens when you walk in the door.” Opened in 1838, C.O. Bigelow is a mainstay in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City and...

There is a traditional path for successful makeup artists nowadays: Build up a roster of influential clients, accrue a following on social media, and start a brand of your own. After all, makeup artist-led brands — think: Makeup by Mario, Patrick Ta, Violette Fr and Fara Homidi — have never been hotter. But makeup artist Kelli Anne Sewell is taking a different approach. Sewell started her career in tech and would slide into the DMs of influential people, offering free services during her time off from work and posting the results on social media — even when she had 10 followers, she recalled. Her strate...

For MCo Beauty CMO Meridith Rojas, the ability to democratize the beauty industry lies in the power of dupes.  “We're in this moment, in this cultural zeitgeist, where people don't want to have to spend $1,000 on a face of beauty and don't want to be left out of the trends,” said Rojas. “We really want to create luxury for everyone. And of course, we have amazing dupes, but we also have some homegrown innovation. The combination has been really magnetic, and our community is growing in the U.S. so fast. We have a very exciting year ahead of us.”  Dupes, the...

Longtime beauty executive Lori Singer has been instrumental in some of the biggest fragrance license deals of the past 20 years. Singer spent more than a decade at Coty, where she worked on bestselling fragrances by Calvin Klein, Vera Wang, Balenciaga and Nautica. She also tripled global net revenues for Marc Jacobs with its iconic Daisy franchise launched in 2007. Singer got her start at Revlon, and her CV also includes Calvin Klein Cosmetics, Unilever and Benetton Group.  “I've spent my entire career in beauty. I’m sort of a beauty lifer,” she told Glossy. “I fell in love on day one at Revlon...

Jordan Samuel, a former ballet dancer, launched his eponymous skin care brand in 2013, with just two products: The After Show Treatment Cleanser and the Hydrate Facial Serum. He has grown, since then, but remained small, which he calls, a “badge of honor.” The brand is beloved by leading skin care influencers like Caroline Hirons (776,000 Instagram followers). It is primarily DTC but is carried at the fast facial bar, Formula Fig, as well as C.O. Bigelow, and available to international customers via Cult Beauty. In this episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, he discusses his unique trajectory from ballet dancer to b...