Breaking Beauty Podcast

Today, we welcome Uoma Beauty founder Sharon Chuter, whose Pull Up For Change initiative made headlines when it launched in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests earlier this year. The Nigerian-born activist fills us in on how the powerful social media movement that challenges companies to reveal their diversity reports or stop with the performative posts, is still making major headway today...

Who’s up for a little re-decorating while we’re spending so much time at home? The perfect duo to help us out are Brooklyn-based curation queens Claire Mazur and Erica Cerulo of A Thing or Two . You may remember them from the wildly popular (and sadly shuttered) e-commerce platform “Of a Kind,” where their knack for identifying the next big things in shopping and design landed them a spot on Forbe...

Does our Breaking Beauty #Fam love a deal or what? We’ve gone deep in the drugstore aisles this season to round up the latest cheap thrills and get this: every #damngood product we recommend is under $15!! Starting with two contenders to treat maskne and irritation, you’ll hear about a new K-Beauty pimple patch that can be worn beneath your makeup, along with a hydrogel face mask that’s designed t...

German skincare founder Dr. Barbara Sturm has earned a cult celebrity following that includes Kim Kardashian, Hailey Bieber and Bella Hadid .  On the cusp of her newest outpost touching down in West Hollywood very soon –  you’re about to find out why the brand’s spa facials and Molecular Cosmetics line have become coveted around the world for delivering the famous #sturmglow . Turns out, this doct...

In today’s episode, Jill sits down – pre-Covid times – with the restorative tattoo artist who’s about to become Los Angeles’ next big brow guru . It’s Shaughnessy Otsuji , co-founder of Studio Sashiko in Vancouver, who’s bringing her coveted “fluffy brows” to a new location in La-La Land next. Shaughnessy’s hyper-realistic approach to natural, microbladed brows has earned a celebrity clientele tha...

We’re back with a fresh AF #damngoods episode! First up, there’s so.much.makeup news this season… We review the hotly-anticipated Rare Beauty collection by Selena Gomez , answering the question on everyone’s minds: does the foundation boasting 48 shades hold its own, or is it merely a Fenty-wannabe? Next, we weigh in on highlights from the brand new Byredo Makeup collection, a fire collab between...

Huda Kattan, Dubai-based founder and CEO of Huda Beauty, has been named one of the “Richest  Self-Made Women” in the world. The Iraqi-American makeup artist was an O.G. in the YouTuber space, and she’s still one of the most followed personalities on Instagram , with a whopping 47 million fans following her every move. Today, Huda shares the origin story behind the brand, starting with the Kardashi...

Frizz, dryness, flatness –  here to help with  solutions, we’re sitting down with Herbal Essences Celebrity Hairstylist Bridget Brager . Bridget is a Los Angeles-based hairstylist who works with the glistening manes belonging to stars like Priyanka Chopra, Constance Wu and Millie Bobbie Brown .  We get all the tips on how to avoid breakage , a hack for making hair look thicker , driving moisture i...

Meet Skincare By Hyram – aka Hyram Yarbro – the 24-year-old “Skincare Specialist” whose viral videos are making ordinary brands like CeraVe sell out among his six million TikTok Stans . Starting with his popular skincare routine reaction videos launched earlier this year, his #skincarebyhyram hashtag has racked up 1.4 billion views on the platform in just six months. In today’s episode, Hyram disc...

Meet Brooke DeVard , host of Naked Beauty Podcast and total DIY skincare guru. Not only is her voice one of the calmest in all of podcasting, Brooke’s show was one of the first to hit the beauty space in 2016. Featuring casual-yet-candid chats on self-care routines along with deeper conversations in how we see the beauty in ourselves, Naked Beauty was nominated for an iHeartRadio Podcast Award ear...

Hands up if you’ve had to get creative to cover up your roots this year?! Without question, most of us have had to stretch between colorist visits. Today, we get the backstory behind the genius hair color-in-a-makeup-pan, earner of seven Allure Best in Beauty Awards and the impetus for about a bazillion knock-offs.    Founder Gail Federici goes way back to share her roots in inventing strand-savin...

Today we are chatting with YouTube sensation Camila Coelho! With nearly 9 million Instagram fans, Camila is a bright star and a hugely influential voice in beauty and style today. But is everything as perfect as it seems? Camila opens up about her revelation that she’s been living with epilepsy since age nine, and why she decided to go public with her diagnosis in recent months.    Plus, Camila re...

Meet the Super Influencer with her own jingle: Jackie, Jackie, Jackie, Jackie, Jackie, Jackie!  So how did YouTube veteran Jackie Aina go from serving in the military to serving lewks as one of the top makeup influencers in the game? For over a decade, Jackie’s legions of YouTube fans – 3.5 million subscribers and counting – have tuned in for the dope tutorials, legit LOLs (those memes!), and her...

Happy summer friends! Today, we’re diving into the cult-fave Brazilian body care line that celebrates your every curve with its beach-vibe packaging and ridiculously addicting scent . Launched back in 2015, Sol de Janeiro’s body butters, washes and scrubs are inspired by the beaches of Rio, all designed to help you flaunt the body you’ve got . We get the backstory on the brand’s cheekily named Bra...

Is “Clean Beauty” a myth? According to a growing social media movement led by the scientific community , a lot of the ingredients on all of those “free-from” lists may not be so dangerous after all. Today we’re chatting with Jen Novakovich , the cosmetic chemist and formulator behind The Eco Well . Jen started her platform to bring more science into the conversation around sustainability in person...

As two longtime beauty editors, we’ve always made it a point to highlight the *breakthrough* people, products and moments snatching our attention. Today, we’re shining a light on the latest indie brands breaking through a whole lotta clutter. From the next K-Beauty Vitamin C serum bound to make its way onto your top shelf with its purse-friendly price tag, to the colourful Gen-Z toner already fire...

Supermodel, beauty mogul and philanthropist at heart, Miranda Kerr unravels the glowing backstory behind Kora Organics, founded in 2009. Listen in as Miranda recalls her days growing up around her Grandmother’s farm in her native Australia, where she discovered the skin-soothing magic of Noni fruit, the hero ingredient in the range. An early adopter in the clean beauty movement, Kora Organics is n...

Dark spots beware! Today we’re chatting about all things hyperpigmentation with Dr. Alexis Stephens , a Florida-based dermatologist and Skin of Color expert who’s leading the charge when it comes to cultural competency in the field of skin science. (Check out her life-changing before-and-afters on patients here .) We’re getting to the bottom of why hyperpigmentation happens and what you can do abo...

Wanna know what’s really* worth the spend this summer? Just in time for quarantine-release mini gatherings everywhere, Carlene discovers a brand new self-tanning-meets-serum hybrid , while Jill gives Wishful Skincare’s new radiance-inducing face mask a go. (She tests the neck-snatching mask, too! Gimmick or great? Inquiring minds want to know!) On the makeup front, stay tuned as Carlene discovers...

Today we’re sitting down virtually with Miko Branch , co-founder of Miss Jessie’s Haircare . Hairstylist by trade, Miko launched the line in 2004 with her late sister, Titi Branch, sharing the Curly Pudding recipe they mixed up for their devoted clientele. Without any help from investors, the siblings bootstrapped the entire business, taking the homemade hair concoctions they learned to make in th...

Happy Pride everyone! In today’s episode, we’re celebrating Pride Month with Canadian drag artist Brooke Lynn Hytes! The Queen of the North, who was first runner up in the 11th season of RuPaul's Drag Race , is here to spill the tea on her royal beauty routine, allying through advocacy and her new role as an official judge on Canada’s Drag Race Season 1 - premiering on Crave Canada and Wow Present...

In today’s episode, we’ll review the latest FDA findings around sun safety, along with our roundup of the best mineral sunscreen innovations shaking their “chalky” reputation of the past. Also known as physical sunscreens, SPFs that use mineral filters like zinc oxide and titanium dioxide to filter out the sun’s UV rays used to resemble thick white paint when you put them on. Good news though: the...

Today we are pausing our regularly scheduled show to make space for Black voices. Below is a list of articles and podcasts referenced in today’s episode to read and listen to instead:   Articles/Social media:   Danielle Prescod - her IGTV post is absolutely must-watch.  Kathleen Newman-Bremang’s story from Refinery29 : The Pandemic Of Black Trauma Will Never End . Ateh Jewell’s piece that she co-w...

In partnership with our friends at Olay, today we’re sitting down *virtually* with Dr. Frauke Neuse r, P&G’s principal scientist and ingredient wizard, to answer some important questions about the almighty retinol. Backed by decades of clinical research, this non-prescription form of vitamin A has been proven to kickstart cell turnover and collagen production to reverse signs of wrinkles, age...

In today’s episode, Arielle Lorre – also known as The Blonde Files – gets real on starting over at age 28, after hitting rock bottom with an addiction that nearly took her life. Today, the 32-year-old lifestyle and wellness influencer shares nutritional recipes and workout lewks with over 200,000 followers, some of whom have strong opinions about her May/December marriage to Hollywood mogul Chuck...