Like the society that spawned it, the beauty industry has a complicated relationship with age. It’s perennially fighting it while grappling with shifting cultural views and nodding toward inclusivity. The simple truth, of course, is everyone ages. If the experience that comes with it is devalued, the worth of human capital is drastically reduced. And the thing is, speaking from a self-interested standpoint as a 42 year old, experience matters. Don’t trust me, though. Trust the Harvard Business Review’s research. It discovered, “When you look at most successful firms, the average founder age goes up, not down. Overall, the empirical evidence shows that successful entrepreneurs tend to be middle-aged, not young.”
The indie beauty brand founders 40 years and above we’re highlighting in the second part of our four-part 40 Over 40 series have extensive personal and professional experience that sets their businesses apart. Ron Robinson, for example, was an esteemed product developer with stints at Revlon, Avon and Estee Lauder prior to starting BeautyStat. Tiila Abbitt, the brain behind Aether Beauty, was formerly head of product development for the Sephora Collection. Melanie Simon spent years as an electrical aesthetician before developing the Ziip device based on the results of her services. We have so much to learn from them and the others on our list.
Susan Griffin-Black
Co-founder and Co-CEO, EO Products
What makes your brand different from all other brands?
We’ve mastered how to source, blend and formulate with essential oils and plant-based ingredients over our 25-year existence. We also manufacture everything in-house, which is rare in our industry, and gives us vertical visibility and control over the entire process.
What key milestones has your brand reached?
This year, we’ve brought on a president, and are leveling up focus and performance to grow in a meaningful way through relaunching our brands. It’s been a rigorous process and will be unveiled throughout 2020.
Have you experienced age discrimination?
As the founder/Co-CEO our company for 25 years, there has been sort of age discrimination bypass. It shows up when having to prep for media. My co-founder, co-CEO [Brad Black] puts a little gel in his hair and brings two shirts, and I have already been to hair, makeup, mani-pedi, tried on 10 different outfits, shoes, accessories. Looking my best requires more effort over the years and, in some ways, that is unfortunate. I think female leaders should be paid 20% more to compensate!
Do you see yourself in beauty and wellness marketing and advertising?
I’m seeing myself in beauty and wellness marketing and advertising more now than in the past, but I’m also not looking for validation from marketing and advertising now like when I was younger. Instead, I’m looking more for an emotional connection or something else to draw me it. A go-to blog that has really resonated with me is getinthegroove.com. Susan Feldman is a woman of the modern age, and genuinely portrays and inspires women who are full of vitality, possibility, confidence, and have their own style and sensibility.
What’s your approach to marketing and advertising?
I tap into the perennial mindset, which is to say that traditional demographics don’t matter as much, but finding a community of people who share the same values is important. What we’re most concerned with is wellbeing at every age.
What sort of boss do you try to be?
I have been a Zen Buddhist student for 25-plus years, so I listen deeply and do my best to practice right speech. Is what I am about to say factual, helpful, kind, endearing and timely? Being a boss is part of my practice. I trust my instincts and want to empower people to trust theirs.
What is your feeling about sharing your age?
I’m 63. Wooooohoooooo!
What are your thoughts on injectables and plastic surgery?
I have done aesthetic procedures over the years and willingly share that information. I have always cared about how I look and how I present myself. I think overall society’s attitudes are changing for the better toward these procedures. If having work done makes you feel more comfortable in your own skin, then that’s a good thing.
Where would you like your brand to be five years from now?
I’d love our brands to resonate with people on a deeper and more personal level through a shared digital and local community. We are most interested in being a beacon for business as a source of better for all for ourselves, each other, and all of our stakeholders and communities.
Ena Hennegan
Founder and CEO, Many Ethnicities
What makes your brand different from all other brands?
It works. So, I would say results for our customers, who primarily want to wear their hair naturally and seek high performance without harsh chemicals or a preponderance of synthetics. For multicultural people who are seeking authentic, high-quality, natural-ingredient based products, we simply stand out from the crowd. The formulations are clean, and they are new. We started this project in 2014 and literally built it from scratch without leaning on old formulary systems.
How did the idea for the brand come about?
I never had any intention in becoming a brand founder or a CEO. I am a doctor, and that keeps me rather busy. But, as I transitioned my hair from processed to natural, I was seriously disappointed by what was available in the marketplace and what was being marketed to me. A lot of the products, regardless of cost, simply didn’t work or contained a lot of chemicals that I simply did not want to put on my head or on my children’s heads. So, I partnered with world-class cosmetic chemists and created my own formulations. We worked on this in R&D for about three years. As a working mom and physician, I drew from my experience in chemistry and biology, but equally so from my experiences as a multiracial child and as the mother of three multiracial daughters who each had a different texture and challenge in caring for their hair.
What are your thoughts on the term “anti-aging”?
I think that it’s not true science. At the very least, it is a misnomer. You can’t reverse or stop the aging process. There are products with ingredients that do reduce the signs of aging via decreasing the appearance of wrinkles, but that’s about it. Prevention through healthy lifestyle choices is the best way to slow the cosmetic and physical effects of aging, and being blessed with really good genes doesn’t hurt.
What’s your approach to marketing and advertising?
From the start, Many Ethnicities was about real solutions for real people. I am not a model, and neither are our daughters. We are real people who want great results without having to spend all morning working on their hair before they walk out the door. All four of us participate in our marketing and advertising because we want people to become more comfortable with true beauty. We have great hair days and not-so-great hair days. A lot of that is around circumstances and, literally, how much time we have to spend doing any of the things that are important in my life.
Here’s my reality: I work as a full-time physician, commute about 40 minutes by car to work in crazy Chicagoland traffic, have three daughters at different stages of their lives, run a small but growing personal care company, participate in as many community opportunities as I can, and try to live my life to the fullest extent. That means that I don’t always have time to make my hair completely perfect. Part of the drive to create Many Ethnicities was to ensure that my hair and our daughters’ hair always would be healthy. I think that people who are interested in true beauty appreciate that, and come to Many Ethnicities because they think that way, too.
What’s the toughest challenge you’ve faced growing your brand?
Without question, it’s finding the right people to help you on the journey to success. And you are going to need people, people who truly care about results. There are a lot of people in and around the industry who want to partner with you in the areas where you will need help, and those areas surely vary by your own expertise. I am a doctor, not a marketer. For me, the greatest challenges are in getting our story out there in a meaningful way that leads to sales because I don’t have the ability to be at a show every week.
Many Ethnicities is a passion project for me, and it is important, but my patients and my practice are more important. So, that has required meaningful partnerships with sales-focused marketing partners who authentically want to grow with us, and not take shortcuts or can’t walk the talk. I think a lot of companies in the so-called “marketing space” don’t understand how important it is to help the customer find you. We’re not only a new brand, but in an emerging space. Marketing that doesn’t connect people in a meaningful way that prompts someone who is searching for what you have to try your products doesn’t return much on your investment. And, if you get into one of those loops with marketers who can’t financially advance your brand, you are going to feel trapped inside your own company.
What is your feeling about sharing your age?
Well, as my late father often said, getting older isn’t for sissies. I have no problem telling people that I am 50. Most people don’t believe me when I tell them that, which actually kind of makes me pretty happy. In my medical career, age and experience count and are respected, which has given me a positive self-image around aging.
Where would you like your brand to be in five years?
I know that a lot of CEOs might say that they would like to be in X number of stores or have X amount of dollars in gross revenue or X number of units running down their production lines. I believe all of those metrics come if you focus on the customer, and that’s where we are focused now and where we will be focused in five years. The country’s demographics and the world’s demographics are changing, and I would like to be providing quality and value to the underserved through smart science and innovation. That’s what got me into this business, the opportunity to make people’s lives better in a meaningful way. I would like Many Ethnicities to be viewed as the first choice among people with curly hair of all types and textures, and for more people to have greater access to better choices for safe, gentle and effective products in hair care.
Walter Faulstroh
Co-founder and CEO, Hum Nutrition
What makes your brand different from all other brands?
We were the first brand to successfully bridge wellness and beauty with solutions that truly worked from the inside out. All of our formulas are based on clinical research and made with the highest quality ingredients and practices. That’s what has helped us become the number one ingestible brand in prestige beauty.
How did the idea for the brand come about?
I personally struggled with adult acne for many years and wasn’t seeing results with traditional dermatological approaches. Finally, in the early 2000s, I worked with a forward-thinking nutritionist who understood the connection between gut and skin health. It changed my life forever. Intrigued by the results, I wondered whether there were other people out there that wanted to improve their skin and wellbeing from the inside out. With that goal in mind, we launched Hum.
What’s the toughest challenge you’ve faced growing your brand?
There are so many, but I think building a reputation in an extremely crowded space is always a challenge. When we launched Hum, there were over 1,000 beauty brands and over 1,000 supplement brands. Many had attempted to bridge the two, but no one had ever succeeded. We attribute our success to creating great products with formulas rooted in clinical research, empowering the customer with free education and nutritionists, and working with the right retail partners to reach our audience.
If you had a magic wand, what’s one thing you would change about the beauty and wellness industry?
Ultimately, I just want everyone to feel very good about themselves. I think the beauty and wellness industry has come a long way in terms of awareness. Companies are using less Photoshop and retouching now, but I think it can continue evolving towards greater authenticity. If I had a magic wand, I would just want to instill confidence in everyone to feel good about themselves. That’s why I love working in beauty nutrition. Micronutrients do not discriminate against age or gender, and there’s nothing to cover up. We just want to help people feel good in their own skin.
What are your thoughts on the term “anti-aging”?
I think anti-aging is thankfully over. I truly believe one should feel comfortable in one’s own skin at any age. My philosophy has always been to not focus energy on being against something, but rather to be proactive towards something positive. So rather than focusing on anti-aging, I believe in focusing on creating a healthy relationship with yourself and your body at any age is key to a happy life.
What’s a pet peeve you have about how the business of beauty and wellness is conducted?
I truly love the beauty industry. I’ve worked in other industries before, and I find that the beauty industry is more inclusive and positive than others. Of course, nothing is perfect, but it’s a really good industry to be in. In terms of wellness, there can be a sort of elitism, which I’m not crazy about, but we try to overcome that by focusing on providing free educational resources like our nutritionists for our customers.
Where would you like your brand to be in five years?
We just launched in Germany and China, so it’s certainly a big step towards this, but I would love for Hum to have global recognition within the next five years.
Cheryl Yannotti Foland
Founder, Lilah B
What makes your brand different from all other brands?
We are a brand that praises simplicity and encourages customers to purchase less, not more. I don’t believe that we need to buy more, use more, layer more in order to look beautiful. In reality, we have our three or four favorite products. All of our products are multipurpose. I’ve made beauty simple again by giving women major multitaskers across each of our products. So, three Lilah B. products is truly all you need.
How did the idea for the brand come about?
I spent more than a decade in the beauty industry designing marketing strategy for prestige and mass brands. The space intrigued me—I learned a lot—particularly how cluttered and confusing the world of color cosmetics had become. Along the way, I had moved to California from New York, where my life changed dramatically, and I embraced a simpler, healthier lifestyle. Lilah B. is truly the result of my desire to bring things back to basics, believing it was important to create a collection to make beauty simple again for the modern-day woman.
What sort of boss do you try to be?
In my previous career, I worked in a most incredibly collaborative environment with the best mentors I could have asked for. They let me take risks, make mistakes and celebrate successes. I’ve taken those leadership learnings into my own brand where I look to my team for insight and guidance on any and all decisions we make. None of us is as smart as all of us.
What’s the toughest challenge you’ve faced growing your brand?
A challenge for me is not always being able to anticipate the supply and demand of my product and the challenges that occur with manufacturing internationally. On the flip side, being a smaller brand allows me to be nimble and navigate quicker and faster to market.
How do you think the beauty and wellness workplace of the future should be better than it is today?
In the moment of building a new brand, you can oftentimes lose sight of work/life balance and taking a step back to look and celebrate how far you’ve come, particularly as a team. Off-sites, downtime and balance are key.
How is your beauty and wellness routine different from your parents’ beauty and wellness routines?
Growing up and, particularly looking at my parents’ lifestyle at my age, there was not a huge focus on self-care. That was viewed as frivolous or selfish, whereas today, we recognize the importance of eating right, taking care of you and, ultimately, being a happier, healthier person in the lives of those around you.
What is your feeling about sharing your age?
I’ve always embraced my age and am open about sharing it with people. I’ve never before felt so fulfilled both personally and professionally, and I believe that a lot of who and where I am today comes with age.
Where would you like your brand to be five years from now?
I’d like to see Lilah B. as a game changer in the clean beauty space creating and offering a collection that is refreshing and simple for everyone.
Robin Brown
Co-founder and CEO, Erbaviva
What makes your brand different from all other brands?
We are uniquely positioned as one of the most organic brands available, with more than 75% of our range certified to USDA organic.
How do you handle raising kids while building your brand?
My kids are 26, 22, 14, 9 and 8. It is always a hard balance juggling between the everyday pressures of running a business and trying not to take it home. It’s sometimes hard to completely shut off.
What sort of boss do you try to be?
Demanding, but fair. I like to accommodate our employee’s family lives into their work life.
What are your thoughts on the term “anti-aging”?
There is no such thing. We all age just as time keeps on ticking. What we can do is to do our best to age healthfully and with dignity.
What’s the toughest challenge you’ve faced growing your brand?
Our positioning has always been quite challenging in the U.S. market. We are a premium bran, but we are also high-level organic. Until recently, with the advent of venues such as Detox Market, Follain, Credo and Citrine, the only place people shopped for organic brands was in the health food arena, which has not necessarily been premium-focused. Being positioned as “best in class” for our baby category is a challenge because many people in the U.S. market do not want to spend too much on baby care, whereas, in certain other markets—Asia, for example—parents don’t have such a limit as to how they will spend for their baby.
What’s a pet peeve you have about how the business of beauty and wellness is conducted?
I dwell on the fact that so many brands abuse the way they declare ingredients on their label. It is all too common a practice to list multiple botanical ingredients on the labels of natural and organic products that are only present as “blessing ingredients.” Marketing-wise, brands address the benefits of an ingredient that in reality is hardly even present in the product. There are many suppliers to the industry that make a business out of supplying water-clear herb extracts that may be comprised of many botanical ingredients that lend nothing of benefit to the product because they are so diluted. The brand is technically being correct on their labeling, but it is unfair to the consumer. Erbaviva takes great pride in the fact that, when we add an herb extract, we do so in real proportions, for real benefit. I believe that is how it should in the industry as a whole.
What constitutes your role at your brand today, and how would you like it to evolve?
I am the co-founder and CEO. I also have an active role in product development as well as being involved in operations. We have our own factory and do our own manufacturing. In the future, I would like to evolve away from any operations role.
Where would you like your brand to be five years?
$50 million in revenue with our own brick-and-mortar stores as well as having a more evolved digital presence.
Melanie Simon
Founder, Ziip Beauty
What makes your brand different from all other brands?
Ziip is the first and only at-home facial device that syncs with an app, giving users the ability to send multiple electrical current treatments from their phone to their Ziip to improve the health of their skin. We married my practical expertise as an aesthetician with my partner David Mason’s background as a Silicon Valley-based industrial engineer to create a futuristic tool that gives you the ability to take beauty into your own hands.
We often say that Ziip “strikes beyond the boundaries of skincare” because it is possible to address nearly every skincare desire someone may have, from reducing acne or pigment to softening fine lines to sculpting and defining the cheekbones and jaw. Each electrical treatment—here are now eight vastly different ones on our app—uses a unique combination of waveform shapes and electrical current types, including nanocurrent, to increase ATP (a naturally-occurring chemical that you already have in your body) in skin cells as well as increase blood flow, kill bacteria or reduce melasma. The results are both immediate and cumulative, and ideal for any skin type and any age. Once a treatment is synced to your device. There is a step-by-step video tutorial for each treatment that is also available within the app.
How did the idea for the brand come about?
I have five different machines I use in my work as an aesthetician to create different electrical waveforms for different outcomes on skin. My electrical facial treatments are centered around electricity entirely. Because my two strongest businesses in the beginning were in Montecito and Jackson Hole, I had a small and devoted clientele, most of whom I would see every 10 to 14 days. They gave me lots of feedback, and I was able to really learn the nuances of changing the shape of a waveform from a square to a sine, or from speeding up the amount of times a wave hits per second to slowing it down, or from solely using a positive current to only using a negative one. They allowed me to try different things and give feedback, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without them.
I was starting to get to the point where I was getting more national recognition in the press. It started with a full-page feature in Town & Country, and people from all over the world were writing to me were asking me how they get these types of treatments where they lived. I didn’t know anyone else who was simply focused on electricity. Not being able to help everyone who reached out made me sick to my stomach, and I genuinely wanted to find a solution for them.
How do you handle raising a kid while trying to build your brand?
I have a 13-year-old daughter. It’s important for her to see that I am driven, passionate and am making my mark. I want her to find her passion someday and reach for the stars, and know that the opportunities are limitless. I love that I am a role model for her (well, trying to be!), and that she understands the importance that women have every right to work in the same capacity as men do to earn a living and be independent.
How do you think the beauty workplace of the future should be better than it is today?
Our entire company is remote, and it feels like the current and future reality of the workplace. We do everything on Google Hangouts and Slack, and are able to accomplish a great deal. Many of us have kids, dogs, etc., and work from home. It is not unusual for us to have meetings from our beds or while wearing face masks.
What’s a pet peeve you have about how the business of beauty is conducted?
New for the sake of new.
What’s your feeling about sharing your age?
I tell anyone who will listen. Aging is a gift, and I feel empowered to take care of myself and understand how we age and how to feel and look the best we can as time marches on.
How do you think society’s attitudes toward injectable and plastic surgery procedures are changing?
The attitude towards them has changed radically. There is so much more openness, and so many more options, and people are playing with things like injectables and lasers at younger and younger ages. At the same time, there are others who are uninterested in needles and doing anything they view as invasive, yet they want to make measurable, positive changes in their skin. That is where Ziip comes in.
Where would you like your brand to be in five years?
In five years, we will be a lot bigger company, but I really expect that it will feel similar to how it does now: a fun, family-oriented group of people who work really hard to push on the boundaries of beauty & technology. I think that we will see in five years that Ziip has brought a lot of newness from non-beauty sectors, primarily tech and consumer-focused, into the health, beauty and wellness space. We have a ton of projects in the works and, over the next few years, we will see those all become reality.
Shirley Pinkson and James Walker
Co-founders, W3ll People
What makes your brand different from all other brands?
Walker: Two key elements. [One is] our dream team. The triple threat that introduced clean makeup to market: a wellness visionary, professional makeup artist and dermatologist. It is our unique, holistic approach to beauty that gives us our winning edge. [Two is] our mission. For over a decade, we’ve challenged conventional beauty norms by creating nontoxic, plant-based cosmetics made with purposeful, innovative clean ingredients that deliver. We do not believe expensive equals efficacy. We don’t believe clean beauty should be an exclusive club. We do believe clean beauty should be accessible for all.
How did the idea for the brand come about?
Walker: In the early 2000s, I led landmark consumer research with Whole Foods regarding their Whole Body division. In my previous marketing career, I learned that the ingredients used in most conventional beauty products are a real personal and environmental health problem, and no brands were delivering elegant, natural, nontoxic solutions that worked. It was clear that the same sweeping changes regarding transparency, social responsibility and health occurring in the food category would inevitably happen to beauty. I reached out to makeup guru BFF, Shirley, who happened to be getting more and more questions from her celeb clients regarding cosmetic ingredients, to create a bright, bold, beauty brand based on simplicity, sustainability, performance and long-term skin health.
Do you see yourself in beauty and wellness marketing and advertising?
Walker: For the most part, no. This ridiculous Kardashian ideal of perfect beauty permeating Instagram is nauseating, if not self-destructive. It may be odd, but we want to talk about more than just makeup. In fact, we’re hoping to inspire a healthier relationship with beauty inside and out. Those are the conversations we want to have.
What’s your approach to marketing and advertising given your perspective?
Walker: Being true, and that’s not easy. We’re trying to be more and more honest with ourselves and, therefore, our community. We’re discovering that transparency, and not just about cosmetic ingredients, is actually quite thrilling. Hopefully, when you see our blogs, follow our posts, read our little product boxes, they give you a sense of encouragement, heightened self-worth, and a smile.
What sort of boss do you try to be?
Walker: “Leadership is not about being the best, it’s about making everyone else better.” This inspires us and our roles as leaders. We lead with humanity and a relationship built on trust and equality.
What’s the toughest challenge you’ve faced growing your brand?
Pinkson: Keeping up with inventory demands has been a consistent challenge. Forecasting has also been a sore spot because our plans continue to be outpaced. Steps in resolution include receiving PO commits from key retailers, cushioning forecasts by 30% to 40%, and the creation of stock allocation based on said PO commits.
How do you think the beauty and wellness workplace of the future should be better than it is today?
Pinkson: The wellness and beauty space can improve only by the implementation of legislation. Currently, the wellness space is grossly unmonitored and regulated in the U.S. As the sector grows, this legislation has to tighten up, otherwise the over saturation of the market may result in further confusion over what is truly deemed natural and good for you from a toxicity perspective.
Where would you like your brand to be in five years?
Pinkson: Everywhere.
Tiila Abbitt
Founder, Aether Beauty
What makes your brand different from all other brands?
Everything is ethically sourced and sustainable from the ingredients to the packaging, while also creating ultra-innovative and efficacious formulas never before seen in the clean beauty space.
How did the idea for the brand come about?
I used to be the head of product development for Sephora for the private label brand Sephora Collection. I worked on their makeup collaborations and accessories. Then, I volunteered on top of my day-to-day role, and became their head of research and development for sustainability for the entire retailer. In that role, I really learned how bad the packaging piece was in the beauty industry. I was also pulled into meetings when Sephora was ideating their Clean at Sephora category and realized how much the clean beauty brands in the space lacked when it came to storytelling, formula innovation, colors and trends. I knew I could do better. I like to say I got my second master’s degree learning from some of the best product developers and merchants in the beauty industry.
How do you handle raising kids while building your brand?
I have a 6-year-old daughter and an almost 4-year-old son. That is definitely the hardest part. Balancing having it all. Still in 2019, women average nine hours more of household work compared to men. Not to mention, what women carry mentally organizing the household—they call that the mental load—on top of those extra nine hours. There are definitely families that balance this better, and it’s heading in the right direction, but there’s plenty more work that needs to be done in our society. Men need to grow up owning half of all chores and being responsible for their own cleaning instead of mothers that do it for them. I’m all about raising independent children. I’m happy to say my 4-year-old boy is obsessed with vacuuming.
What sort of boss do you try to be?
I am 100% against this bullying mentality in the beauty industry. My main “secret” is very simple: be nice to people. I’m about giving employees enough space for them to own their work while balancing it with leadership and the ability to help them when they struggle. But I trust them. I don’t believe in a typical 9-to-5 day where the employee has to be stuck in an office the entire time. I believe people work better when they manage their own time. I believe in work and life balance should be had for all. After all, at the end of the day, it’s only makeup. We will survive and figure it out.
What’s the toughest challenge you’ve faced growing your brand?
I’ve had investors knocking since day one, and I naively talked to the majority of them. That was a huge waste of time since, the younger you are and the less sales you have, the bigger the piece the investors want. But I’ve never started my own brand before and, when you hear people want to invest, of course, you want to talk to them. So, instead of using that time to grow my business, unfortunately, it was time that was unnecessarily used for unfounder-friendly terms.
What’s been your experience with investors?
They seem to care that I’m a woman, and many tell me I have to have a partner in order for them to invest in my company. That, as a woman, I wasn’t capable of running a company by myself, except there are plenty of companies with single founders, especially in the beauty space. How much did Drunk Elephant just sell for? It’s not like Glossier is run by two women. I’ve also had plenty of male investors who know nothing about the beauty space, won’t even touch the product and just say they will take it home for their wives to try that wanted to invest because they know beauty is a lucrative space. I’m sorry, but, if you aren’t willing to test the product yourself and understand the space I’m going after, then they aren’t the right investor for me. Even the old CEO of Sephora would try on mascara so he could see what everyone was going crazy for.
What is your feeling about sharing your age?
I’m proud of my age and proud to turn 40. I look a lot younger, but genes and good skincare routines aside, I’m proud of what I have accomplished at my age. It can only get better. I don’t believe turning 40 is old. 40 is definitely the new 30. I feel like I am finally where I should be on my own path. The best thing about being your own boss is I don’t have anyone I have to stand up to, but I get to be a leader for other women and younger generations that you can create an ethical business and be profitable. I’m proud to say Aether Beauty is a Benefit Corporation. I also donate 1% of sales to 1% for the Planet and am working on becoming a carbon-zero company.
What’s a pet peeve you have about how the business of beauty and wellness is conducted?
The majority of color cosmetics components are not recyclable. Mirrors and magnets are completely unrecyclable, yet they are found in nearly every cosmetic component. The ingredients needed to create a magnet are found in mines that use treacherous human conditions. It’s time for a change. There is just so much greenwashing when it comes to packaging. A clean beauty company just revamped their packaging, and I was so excited to see their updates. Instead, I realized it was not only all plastic, but made with a soft-touch finish, which is literally horrible for the environment and for the workers that create it. Ultimately, they are responsible for that packaging ending up in a landfill, and it will.
The EPA reported that one-third of the landfill waste was from the beauty industry. I won’t launch any product unless it can be recycled. After all, I live here, too. I’m responsible as a business owner, and I’m responsible for what I create. My kids will have to deal with our waste, and I’m not OK producing something they would have to take care of. I would rather not create it. For example, there’s no way to make a makeup brush sustainable. Sure, you can have wooden handles and aluminum ferrules, but you can only use virgin plastic to create the bristles or animal hair. You can’t recycle those plastic bristles and, with over 8 million metric tons of plastic in this world, I am not comfortable producing more of it. So, I haven’t launched brushes and won’t until there is an actual sustainable way to do it.
Where would you like your brand to be in five years?
A household name, especially when it comes to sustainable beauty.
Ron Robinson
Founder, BeautyStat
What makes your brand different from all other brands?
BeautyStat has patented Vitamin C technology that no one else has, strong clinical results, and a cosmetic chemist founder that has industry and consumer cred.
What key milestones has the brand reached or will it reach soon?
Violet Grey was hugely important because we knew that they curate beauty based on product performance. We knew they had a testing process and set of standards for evaluating products among their panel of beauty experts. And, given we had stellar clinical test results, we thought that if they evaluated our products, we might pass their testing criteria, and we did.
What are your thoughts on the term “anti-aging”?
I don’t view this term as literal. I interpret it as anyone that wants to look the best they can be. For those in the industry, I think it makes sense to continue using the word. To communicate to consumers, brands can talk about what their products can do for the skin with no need to use the word “aging.” In my opinion, consumers don’t mind aging as long as they can look the best that they can for their age. I don’t have a specific word for this, but I’d describe it as being able to age, yet look better now than 10 or 20 years ago.
A popular social media trend is for consumers to show photos of themselves today and side by side with a photo of 10 years ago. The point here is that they look better now than then. We want to help consumers all consumers get the best, healthiest skin they can regardless of their age. On our package copy for Universal C Skin Refiner, we do not say “anti-aging” anywhere. We simply talk to the skin benefits (anti-wrinkle, firm, even tone, etc). But, if a retailer asks me what category we play in, I’d say anti-aging.
What sort of boss do you try to be?
I lead through example. I’m very organized and structured. My team knows that I’m a very hard worker that is awake as early as 4 a.m. every day getting things done. I don’t expect them to work as hard as me, but they are inspired by my energy and passion.
Amber Fawson
Co-founder, Saalt
What makes your brand different from all other brands?
We knew when we started Saalt that entering the reusable period care space meant we would be up against two major stigmas: one surrounding period talk and the other surrounding the menstrual cup. We saw those stigmas as an opportunity to tell the product story differently. We created beautiful packaging that flipped the stigma on its head and placed the cup on a pedestal to elevate the product for what it really is: a simpler, healthier and more sustainable period experience.
But it is not enough for us to simply get a cup into people’s hands. We want them to adopt the cup. We know that, if they love the cup, they will tell their friends, and that together our following can create an incredible worldwide impact for sustainability and healthier period care. So, we coach our customers as they try to learn to use the cup. Our customers can ask any question on any platform. There is no such thing as TMI. And we have an incredible closed group on Facebook called our Saalt Cup Academy where over 10,000 cup users cheer on cup newbies as they learn to use their Saalt Cup. Word has gotten out. We sometimes get cup users who bought other brands come to us for cup coaching.
What key milestones has the brand reached?
We launched nationwide with Target in April 2018, which then cascaded into a need to grow our team. It has been incredible to watch our close-knit team grow and continue to feel small somehow. We’ve also been able to launch in the United Kingdom, European Union and Australia, and partner with brands who have been true thought leaders in breaking the period stigma, including Revolve. Our impact program has hit some major milestones like funding a latrine to serve school girls, with more latrines to be built soon. And, really, every time we receive a message from a follower who took the time to write about how the Saalt cup changed her life, we genuinely feel like that is a little milestone of its own. It fuels us.
Do you see yourself in beauty and wellness marketing and advertising?
I would love to see more age diversity in beauty influencers. I feel like the few influencers who are within five to 10 years of my age and who do their thing well really stand out. They come across with such grace and confidence because they are unafraid to be themselves. I feel like there’s an appetite for influencers who can take this approach. Two personal favorites who are so beautifully self-honest are This Organic Girl and Erin Loechner. I can’t get enough of either.
What’s your approach to marketing and advertising?
We focus on people who menstruate, and we very much take an intergenerational approach. We see the beauty of generations working together every day in our work. We very much rely on all generations to talk openly and easily about periods to break the period stigma. There is an incredible sense of community that grows out of people being willing to share their knowledge and experience about managing their period.
How do you handle raising kids while building your brand?
I have two high schoolers and two kids in elementary school. Sometimes, I’m able to involve them firsthand in my business. Just two nights ago, I called my teenagers into my bedroom at 9 p.m. to practice a pitch on them. But, most of the time, my children experience my business secondhand by watching me and my husband trade off work and family priorities. I find that I really have to take time to step back and examine my choices, then make big, slow adjustments. For example, my daughter is a junior in high school, and I was barely involved with the school for her first two years while I was building my business. I found I personally felt the need to be more involved and have been able to help coach a group at her school. If I keep my expectations realistic, I find I am able to feel satisfied when I make adjustments like these.
What sort of boss do you try to be?
I feel like my career is always changing and adjusting. I’ve been in publishing; I’ve coached high school; I’ve started a chocolate shop; and I’ve started Saalt. I believe that so many people are like me, and that their careers can cover a vast number of industries. That it is part of life’s adventure. We have team members who have been a hairdresser, a bench jeweler, a FedEx driver. I find it all so fascinating, and I love knowing that they could be anywhere five years from now. I love hearing about where people’s work lives have taken them, and I love being wide open to where their natural capacities and interests may take them next. It’s exciting to be a part of this as an employer.
What is your feeling about sharing your age?
I have no hesitation in sharing my age. I’m a believer in being honest about who you are and what your needs are, what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are. Honesty allows people to know how they can help you and allows them to connect and relate with you. Sharing my age is just part of that.
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