How Danielle Cuccio Is Helping Guide Star Nail Into The Future Without Forgetting Its Past

Danielle Cuccio’s family is conjoined with Star Nail International. The “Star” in the nail product company’s name refers to her uncle Steven, father Anthony, better known as Tony, and mother Roberta. Founded in 1981, Star Nail has catalogued many firsts in the beauty industry. It was the first company to bring private-label nail polish to California and to upgrade the nail salon experience with spa-like products. By 2001, it had surpassed $250 million in sales.

Today, it has six brands: spa product brand Cuccio Naturalé, self-care brand Cuccio Somatology, professional nail brand Cuccio Pro, nail art brand Cina, nail polish brand Cuccio Colour and haircare brand ProLific. “We really want people to know our brands and that we have so many products. We have two warehouses and thousands of SKUs, from nail care to body care,” says Cuccio, who works hand in hand with her parents at Star Nail. “It’s amazing what a beauty powerhouse it is, and I want to continue to build that for my family.”

Beauty Independent spoke with her about how she’s pushing the company forward while embracing its past, what led her to creating Cuccio Somatology, how distribution has changed from Star Nail’s days of being purely professional, and her goals for the future of the business.

How did you parents start Star Nail?

This is a great story. My parents, who met when they were 12 years old, moved from Long Island, N.Y. to Los Angeles with $250, and they somehow started selling beauty products on Venice Beach. They had a little stand. My parents have very different backgrounds. My dad is an Italian go-getter businessman. He came from no money. My mom has a Jewish background. She came from some money.

They started going to nail salons selling nail products door to door all over Los Angeles. That’s how they grew the company into this global business with distributors reaching practically every country now. During my childhood, my dad would always be traveling. He was getting distributors onboarded to sell our products.

My father started a new brand under Star Nail called Cuccio with more spa-focused products like salt scrubs or body lotions that nail salons could use to bring more of the luxury spa experience to clients, and it gave nail technicians add-ons to make more money. If you want to go to a place like Bellacures for add-ons, my father invented that. He was super inspiring to me growing up.

How did you get into the business?

I was super entrepreneurial, but I didn’t have an interest in nail products. If I’m going to commit time to something, I need to be passionate about it. I went to UCLA, and then to beauty school and yoga school to teach yoga. My dad and my mom were like, “I’m not sure what Danielle is doing, but we are going to let her figure it out.” I had no idea what I was doing either.

I started working as an aesthetician in skincare, and at the same time, I was getting certified in yoga. I started teaching yoga to celebrity clients like Zach Braff and Ariana Grande. I still teach yoga when I’m not being CEO of my business. I was asking my aesthetician clients about their lifestyle, how much water they drink and how stressful their lives are. It wasn’t just about their skin and a quick fix because, in the yoga world, it was so much more holistic.

I started creating yoga-focused products like yoga mat cleaners, bath salts for after workouts and muscle balms. That’s how Cuccio Somatology began. I started creating it in 2015, and it launched in 2016. We started selling to yoga studios and spas, and now we are in Neiman Marcus and Anthropologie. Today, we have way more of a self-care focus. Because I’m a mom of two and run a business, life is stressful. Every product is about elevating the experience of self-care at home, even if it’s just about taking a 10-minute milk bath that hydrates the skin and delivers a moment of relaxation.

How did you build an audience for Cuccio Somatology?

I started doing subscription boxes four or five years ago. I think a very small subscription box called Yogi Surprise was my first subscription box order. Then, I worked with FabFitFun on an add-on. I was so fascinated by subscription boxes and how so many products get into people’s hands quickly, and they actually try them. That’s what we wanted. The cost they can pay is low, but we have manufacturing capabilities because of the 40-plus years my family has been in the business.

We started working more with FabFitFun and other subscription box companies. We did a million units at one point. It was the biggest order unit-wise we had ever done. I’ve had influencers buy my products from the boxes, and they are now genuine lovers of the products. It’s amazing for brand awareness, that’s what the boxes do best. You might break even on the products, but you are getting all this marketing.

While subscription boxes soared during the height of the pandemic, some have struggled as beauty consumers return to stores. What’s your approach to subscription boxes today?

With any customer we work with now, we have to be more cautious. I think times are very odd. You never know. Something can look like it’s succeeding, and it’s not, but I definitely still believe in subscription boxes and participating in them.

During the pandemic, it was something that people really enjoyed, but there is only such much that people want to get. The boxes really have to have enticing products. I subscribe to the boxes because I want to learn about them, and sometimes I don’t really care for them. They have to keep you wanting more.

At the start of Cuccio Somatology, what was your approach to creating products and selling them?

My strategy at the time was to go to every yoga studio to sell it, and I was selling it to my yoga clients. I used to teach yoga booty ballet, and I would clean my yoga mat at the start of class with our yoga mat cleaner even though I had already cleaned it. It was about having it in the front of the class so everyone could see it.

At the beginning, I was a yoga teacher and not making a lot of money. Why would I go to a Whole Foods to buy a yoga mat cleaner? My yoga mat cleaner at the time was $14 for an 8-oz. bottle. It wasn’t expensive, and I thought other yoga teachers could sell it as well. Then, I made a muscle balm, a lotion, bath salts, and it kept going. It became about how to get people relaxed when I wasn’t teaching them.

I can’t teach everyone. I wanted them to feel like they did after a yoga class, but at home. Scent is huge. You know what it smells like when you walk past an Equinox? We want the products to smell like that. It’s all about eucalyptus and lavender, and the scent experience.

What was it like to start selling the products at yoga studios?

It was hard. I felt like I was doing what my parents did so many years ago at nail salons. I would come in with my little Cuccio bag, meet with studio managers and pull out my products to talk about them. Then, I would take a class at the studio.

The first studio in Silver Lake that bought from me still buys from us and is still thriving—thank god—through the pandemic. These people have become my friends, and it was really from me just telling my story, showing up with my Cuccio bag and seeing what they needed. They could keep our larger-size products in their studio to clean their in-house yoga mats.

Prior to 2000, what was the business like?

It was thriving. FabFitFun really helped us. The million units I mentioned, that was with our Calm + Clean Body + Hand Wash in 2019. It’s an Epsom salt-infused hand and body wash that also has shea butter and lavender. It’s very hydrating and smells really nice. It elevates hand washing. We had it before the pandemic when hand washing became huge.

If you are washing your hands many times a day, I want it to be enjoyable and not dry out the hands. I swear by the product, and it was amazing that we made it before there was such a big need for it. It’s our bestseller now.

Before 2020, we had really fast growth. After that, a lot of yoga studios shut down, and it absolutely impacted the business. At the same time, there was still a need for sanitizing yoga mats. Right at the beginning of the pandemic before it appeared in the United States, we had this huge order from Hong Kong. I was like, “What is this?” I was confused. They were buying out all of my yoga mat cleaner and what happened is that they couldn’t get alcohol. I started to read about the pandemic when it wasn’t here yet. It was almost like a signal.

After that, the studios didn’t need our products as much, but there was more focus on e-commerce and home use. That’s when I really focused more on self-care because people were at home, and it was about how we could create self-care sanctuaries for people at home.

When did the brand get into bigger retailers? How do you market to help sales at them?

We got into Anthropologie in 2020, and Neiman Marcus came this year. We also work with Terrain and Thrive Market. I still very much believe in our subscription box strategy for marketing, but we are focusing a little more on influencers, which we hadn’t really done, and pushing content, building up our newsletter and creating more of a self-care community for people to connect with and learn from us. I love creating self-care tips for the newsletters. I’m very heavy on Instagram personally. I just love connecting with people on there.

We are diving more into self-care. We are about to launch a new line, which will be a botanical-infused line with body oils, bath oils, and hand and body wash with plants visibly in the products. It’s going to be a really beautiful line and will further our mission of self-care.

Who are the core customers for Cuccio Somatology?

The core customers are mostly female aged 24 to 40. They definitely care about sustainability. Our lab is solar-paneled, and we try to make everything as earth-friendly as possible. They definitely care about ingredients. They care about healthy living, treating their bodies well. They don’t have to practice yoga, but they care about taking time for themselves. Even if they are not a mom or a caretaker, it’s still about finding that time between the stress of the world, work, and family and friends.

Do you produce products today differently than you might have in the past?

We recently got someone in our own lab to make our products. Even though we love manufacturers and have been working them for years, they have many brands, and it can be a slower process. It can be really frustrating for someone like me who’s controlling of the business. When I get a deadline, I take it seriously, especially from our big retailers and box companies that have really strict deadlines. We have brought in our own lab to expedite the process. Then, we do most of our filling in our own warehouse.

What’s your take on Amazon?

We love Amazon. At first, my family was very into professional beauty. It was just professional beauty for 30 years of the business. It was super exclusive and only professionals could get it, but then the world changed, and we had to change with it. It became e-commerce, and we went on Amazon, and it blew up.

Just think about the things we buy on Amazon. I probably buy 80% of my things on Amazon. It’s easy and convenient. Sometimes, you don’t want to drive, and gas is expensive. Do I think it’s for every brand? No, but I think for our $15 [Cuccio Naturalé] cuticle oil, it’s perfect. We have 105,000 mostly five-star reviews.

What are some of the long- and short-term goals you have for the business?

I want to get our products into the hands as many people as possible. I would love to partner with other retailers, maybe Whole Foods with some of our cleaning products or maybe get one or two of our brands in Sephora. I think we can target retailers we haven’t targeted yet and really grow the Cuccio brand as a whole.

Where are you seeing growth today?

Nail art, for sure, and at-home nail care. People are doing their nails at home a lot more. The fact that there are so many people buying the cuticle oil on Amazon shows that it’s big. The great thing about the cuticle oil is that, in between a manicure, you want your nails and cuticles to look good, and you can drop that on, and they look amazing. You can also use it to hydrate your hands.

Then, self-care and body care are huge. We are really seeing lot of growth there because people are really valuing what they use on their body and making sure they enjoy it. It’s not just about slathering any product on. It’s about, does it have benefits? Are the ingredients clean? We are so much more conscious of what we are putting on our bodies now.

What do you think consumers don’t know about the beauty industry that they should know?

It’s almost like a family. It’s actually very small. I’ve been to beauty shows and everyone knows each other, especially in my parents’ generation. I don’t want to say it’s old school, that’s the wrong word, but there’s a lot of history and a lot of the brands are family brands.

It’s amazing to see generations of family doing these businesses and watching them evolve in new ways. Of course, there are a lot of new brands, including influencers doing brands, but then there are those with so much more history, and I think they will last a lot longer.

What stamp do you want to put on your family’s business?

I want to make sure it’s current and fresh, and that we are doing all the things we need to be doing at this time like influencer marketing, social media and subscription boxes. It’s really interesting because there’s this idea of getting back to door to door, and really connecting and making relationships. If anything, the pandemic taught us that relationships are so key.

For me now, whenever I’m talking to someone and forming a relationship, I love it even more because we weren’t able to do that for so long. I kind of want to take the old world and new world, and tie them together in this amazing way to grow.

I want to do everything that I can to help my parents, and they still do everything they can to help me. I would have never known to do this without them, but they aren’t on social media, whereas I’m on it all day every day. It’s really about combining our worlds. I don’t think I’m going to take the business to the next level alone, I think it’s going to be us doing it together.