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Kyle Leahy, Glossier's first CEO after its founder Emily Weiss vacated the role in May 2022, has had a busy first year-and-a-half in the job. She brought the brand into wholesale for the first time. brokering its partnership with Sephora, which has been a great success. She's also continued the brand's WNBA partnership, launched its first college tour and increased the cadence of its launches. But perhaps most importantly, she can be credited with the revival of the brand, which, as she said in her 2023 Glossy 50 profile, is a long-haul job: “We genuinely believe we’re on year 10 of building a 100-year brand.” On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Leahy spoke about all of the above, in addition to what the brand did when Reddit leaked its eye cream launch and what Glossier has in common with Taylor Swift. She also addressed social media rumors regarding whether or not the brand had reformulated its bestselling fragrance, Glossier You.  Get more from Glossy with the daily newsletter, sent out each weekday morning. Visit glossy.co/newsletters to sign up.

Botox has dominated the neurotoxin market since its FDA approval for cosmetic use in 2002. However, its iconic status would not be possible without the backing of global company Allergan Aesthetics. In addition to Botox, Allergan Aesthetics itself a subsidiary of pharmaceutical company AbbVie, which houses aesthetics brands including Juvéderm, SkinVive, Kybella and Coolsculpting, among others. In its full-year 2023 earnings released in February, AbbVie reported that the global net revenue of its aesthetics portfolio was about $5.3 billion, with global Botox Cosmetic's net revenue reaching $2.7 billion and global Juvéderm's net revenue equalling $1.4 billion. Leading this portfolio of aesthetics products, and guiding the future of the aesthetics industry, is Carrie Strom, svp of AbbVie and Global Allergan Aesthetics president. Strom has kept busy over the last year. In May 2023, Allergan received FDA approval for Skinvive by Juvéderm, and in early Oct. 2023, it became available for patients to receive as a treatment. Skinvive has been available in Europe since 2017 and marketed under the name “Volite.” Plus, the company has driven countless marketing moments, including the first-ever Juvéderm Day in Aug. 2023 and the fifth-annual National Botox Day in Nov. 2023. In addition, Strom has busied herself by shoring up Botox’s status, as competitors, including Jeuveau and long-lasting neurotoxin Daxxify, nip at its heels. In conversation on the Glossy Beauty podcast, Strom discussed how younger consumers are changing the aesthetics market and how Skinvive can serve as an entry point for new patients, among other topics. 

Renée Rouleau, the celebrity esthetician and entrepreneur, opened her first spa and launched her first product in 1996. By 1999, she had become an early entrant in e-commerce. Today, rather than giving facials, Rouleau is focused on her role of founder and CEO of her brand, which offers a robust assortment of SKUs. Still, she makes time for celebrity clients, which include Lili Reinhart and Demi Lovato. Rouleau is known for her unique approach to categorizing skin — she does so by assigning it to nine types, rather than the traditional three or four.  On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Rouleau spoke about how she categorizes skin, how getting a headstart on e-commerce worked to her brand's advantage and why, after 27 years, she's rethinking her DTC sales focus.

Though Moroccanoil co-founder Carmen Tal initially launched the 15-year-old hair- and body-care brand with little to no beauty experience, she has been able to grow it into a global empire. In February 2023, Moroccanoil, which is currently distributed through thousands of salons, announced a three-day, Las Vegas-based event for professional hairstylists called The Collective. Meant to showcase the brand's network of global talent, the sold-out event eventually hosted 2,000 people in Las Vegas. "Every [attendee] had the opportunity to either learn or demonstrate their skills. It was incredible to see the [hair-care] community, which is very close, share information," Tal said on the Glossy Beauty Podcast. "Trends are changing and tools in the industry have changed, allowing [hairstylists] to do better work. ... Everyone left with a sense of accomplishment and education." With the surprise success of the event, Tal said she is looking forward to producing similar opportunities to bring the brand's community together IRL this year. On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Tal talked about the importance of community, as well as her brand's longevity in the hair-care space and its road to becoming a global brand.  Get more from Glossy with the daily newsletter, sent out each weekday morning. Visit glossy.co/newsletters to sign up.

This week, we’re doing things a little differently. Joining us on the Glossy Beauty Podcast is Laurie Lam, E.l.f. Beauty's chief brand officer, providing an up-close look at the beauty brand’s latest project: a 15-minute short film, “Cosmetic Criminals,” which is playing in select AMC theaters before the start of the movie “Mean Girls”. It is also streaming on Amazon Freevee. The film parodies the true crime genre, prompting viewers to piece together who is “E.l.f.-pinching,” which is the brand’s term for “borrowing” products without intending to return them. The concept, Lam said, was introduced to the brand by its community. Get more from Glossy with the daily newsletter, sent out each weekday morning. Visit glossy.co/newsletters to sign up. 

With over a decade's worth of experience in the hair-care industry, entrepreneur Shelby Wild is now venturing into the mass hair-care space. In July 2023, Wild unveiled California Naturals, a clean hair-care brand that launched direct-to-consumer and with exclusive distribution at Target. Compared to her previous hair-care brand, Playa, Wild is taking a different approach to hair care by zeroing in on more affordable but still effective products. Currently, all of California Naturals products are priced under $10. According to previous Glossy reporting, prior to launching California Naturals, Wild raised $4 million from consumer investors L Catterton, Sandbridge, Midnight Venture Partners and Elizabeth Street Ventures. Investors Eric Ryan and Roth Martin also contributed to the brand's funding round. Though California Naturals, with its accessible price point, may target a different consumer, the core of why Wild got into hair care in the first place remains. "Most of what I did at Playa informed California Naturals. I always knew that I wanted to create a mass market iteration of Playa," Wild said on the latest episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast. "I grew up in the South ... and we weren't a high-income family. So for me, throughout my childhood, product development and product discovery was happening on the shelves of Target, CVS and Walmart. It wasn't happening in Sephora or Ulta. While I was creating these prestige products [at Playa], I was also seeing and hearing the feedback — not only from our own customer service channels, but also from my peers at home — that the price point was just too high." As California Naturals approaches its first anniversary, Wild said a few exciting things coming down the pipeline. For starters, the brand tapped pro-skater Tony Hawke, who also serves as the chief culture officer, to create a new fragrance for the brand set to launch this month. A-list actor Owen Wilson also joined the brand and will be a major part of the product development side of the business as well as future marketing campaigns. And in February, California Naturals is set to launch moisture shampoo and conditioner, which was mostly driven by the brand's community and audience. On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Wild talked about the reason she launched a second brand and the differences between mass and prestige. 

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, the 23-year-old identical twins and co-founders of ITK Skin, got their start on YouTube in 2013, where they now have over 7 million subscribers. They also have 9.3 million followers on Instagram and 6.6 million on TikTok. Together, in partnership with the beauty incubator Maesa, the sisters launched ITK in August 2022. The brand started at Walmart, with 15 products priced at $7-$15.  But, by the time they launched ITK, the McKnight sisters were already veteran founders, having launched their first business venture, clothing and mascara brand Lash Next Door, when they were just 16.  On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Brooklyn and Bailey McKnight discuss how they got their start on their mom’s YouTube channel, why Brooklyn got her esthetician’s license, why they think TikTok Shop will level the playing field for brands and what it was like to pitch their brand to Walmart.

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.