With Kosa Body Care, A Sustainable Design Expert And Spa Owner Harnesses Ayurveda’s Healing Benefits For Hair And Skin

Kosa Wellness Spa founder Shilpa Sankaran was born in India, but spent her grade-school days in the small American town Middleton, Wis. As a kid attempting to integrate, she says, “I tried to separate myself from my...

Longtime Beauty Brand Strategist Lisa Adams Launches Shield+Heal At Target—And It Sells Out In Hours

For 20 years, retail strategist Lisa Adams has paired brands with prestige stores through her retail distribution and brand strategy business The Beauty Matchmakers, but she’s been building her collection of lipsticks, lip glosses and lip balms...

With New Brand Esas, Two Givaudan Alums Aim To Disrupt Beauty Manufacturing

Seda Bilginer and Amanda Sichon, co-founders of Esas, are self-confessed product junkies, but it’s the production floor that ignited their entrepreneurial spirit. As colleagues at Givaudan, the global fragrance and flavor manufacturer, they bonded over “a lot,...

Inspired By Fifties-Era Milkmen, Naked Frankie Brings A Closed-Loop Beauty Retail Model To Los Angeles

Milkmen aren’t generally the bellwether of beauty trends, but they’re the inspiration behind Naked Frankie. “When we launched, we started out as a delivery service for bath and body essentials,” says Jennifer Zhao, who founded the company...

This Brand Generated $2.6M In Sales Last Year While Sticking To Small-Batch Manufacturing

When Terran Lewis was a student at Georgia State University, she saw a flier advertising a farming internship at Atlanta’s Urban Sprout Farms that would ultimately put her on the path to founding Herb’n Eden, a rapidly...

“Dragon’s Den” Contestant Bushbalm Is On Track To Hit $15 Million In Sales This Year And $30 Million Next Year

While on his honeymoon in 2016, Bushbalm co-founder Tim Burns needed a product he couldn’t exactly get from room service. In short, he wanted to clean up his pubic area. On a whim, Burns decided to task...

This Emerging Cosmetics Brand Designed For Sensitive Skin Is Heading To Nordstrom

Based on Julie Rice’s resume, it seems almost inevitable that she’d pursue a beauty brand of her own. After graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology with a degree in cosmetics and fragrance marketing in 2003, Rice had...