Breaking Beauty Podcast

Women of a certain age know the name of this hair legend: Frédéric Fekkai . Get ready to hear the backstory behind the dashing Frenchman and former model who was among the first to charge hundreds of dollars for a haircut in Manhattan. In his heyday, Frédéric was called upon by Hollywood royalty like Meryl Streep and Oprah Winfrey— at one Academy Awards show, he worked on three nominees in one nig...

Makeup dreams do come true. In today’s episode, we sit down with the one and only Mario Dedivanovic, a.k.a Makeup By Mario . With Kim Kardashian as his muse, is it any wonder the duo has created the defining makeup look of the decade? His masterclasses sell out across the country, so get ready for your very own mini-masterclass in how to perfect your base just.like.a. Kardashian.   We get all the...

Who doesn’t love a sleeper hit? Among the cacophony of beauty launches, meet the indie brand that’s managed to quietly cut through the clutter to amass a niche group of devoted beauty fans. We sit down with makeup artist Kirsten Kjaer Weis , who tells us all about the vision for her eponymous cosmetics range that’s both ultra-luxury and certified organic—not to mention entirely re-fillable.   Seve...

First up, some housekeeping notes! Don’t forget to weigh in for our listener survey . By completing the survey, you'll automatically be entered to win a huge skincare prize from our friends @theinkeylist , valued at more than $200 - one lucky person will win 19 products! We’re accepting entries until May 22.   To kick off the episode, we share some recent conversations we’ve had with some amazing...

First up, beauty podfam! We’re conducting a short listener survey and we’d love to hear from you ( Click here to answer our survey ). It will only take a couple of minutes (promise!) plus there's a giveaway. By completing the survey, you'll automatically be entered to win a huge skincare prize from our friends @theinkeylist , valued at more than $200 - one lucky person will win 19 products! We’re...

Meet the fastest growing hair care brand at Sephora: Briogeo . Today we’re chatting with its brilliant founder, Nancy Twine , a University of Virginia graduate and Goldman Sachs alum. As a woman of colour, she couldn't understand why there wasn’t any natural, non-toxic haircare on the market for all ethnicities and hair textures under one brand. Having whipped up DIY beauty products using avocado...

Is it just us or is CBD Beauty EVERYWHERE right now? There’s so much to learn, which is why we partnered with Miss Grass on a special episode all about the benefits of cannabis beauty. On the mic we welcome Anna Duckworth and Kate Miller, founders of the leading women’s cannabis website that’s been dubbed “The Goop of Cannabis” by W Magazine .   Aside from offering up pink porcelain “Le Pipes”, ca...

How many of you are fans of premium, budget-friendly skincare ? Well, you might be interested to know about an up-and-coming skincare brand called The Inkey List that will debut at Sephora this month. We sit down with founders Colette Newberry and former microbiologist-slash-virologist Mark Curry to get to the bottom of the fast-growing phenom – one product sells every 30 seconds in the UK, where...

With all the news about climate change , what woman doesn’t want to reduce her eco footprint? The most logical place to start might just be in the bathroom, given that 120 billion units of packaging are produced in the global cosmetics industry annually . We’re chatting it all out in this episode, alongside Julianne Robicheau , co-owner of Eco + Amour , a sustainable living boutique specializing i...

Sylvie Ganter worked for brands like Hermes and Fresh before co-creating her boutique fragrance line, Atelier Cologne with her former boss turned husband, Christophe Cervasel. Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, the brand boasts over twenty stand-alone stores around the world. It’s just one example of how indie fragrance brands are pretty much killing it right now, as the thirst for unique signa...

We have some catching up to do on the SXSW front! In today’s episode we take you through the ins and outs of the House of Modern Beauty hosted by RealSelf , including the #glowdown on which cosmetic treatments were offered absolutely free (you’ll want a ticket next year, trust.) You’ll also find out which beauty activation had us jotting down a shopping list to try to re-create the Victoria’s Secr...

Today we’re chatting with our first ever tanning founder!! It’s Jules Von Hep , a celebrity spray tanner who has glow’d up everyone from Kate Moss to Sienna Miller to Poppy Delevingne. Jules started Isle of Paradise just last year, bottling up his decade bronzing bodies of all sizes, shades and shapes with his super-smart colour-correcting formula that promises to bring the bronze without any dull...

Alright, you can stop DM’ing us because the Samantha Ravndahl episode is finally here! “Meet the beauty blogger who’s made a career out of brutal honesty,” said Vanity Fair , in an article profiling the 26-year-old professional makeup artist last year. Samantha began creating content in 2013 with just 2,000 followers, which grew into 10,000 fans in one month— and ballooned into an audience of one...

It’s no secret that green beauty is everything these days ( natural personal care and beauty products earned over $1.5 billion in U.S. sales in 2017 .) But long before Sephora came up with the “ Clean at Sephora ” seal, Romain Gaillard pioneered the modern concept of green beauty retail with The Detox Market . That was back in 2010. It was a pop-up situation on Abbott Kinney in Venice Beach. And i...

So many of you are already fans of British blogger and YouTuber Anna Newton of The Anna Edit , and now that we’ve met her, we totally know why. Anna is like your best friend who gives you great style advice and adulting tips –  but isn’t at all intimidating. She also hosts a podcast called At Home With , along with co-host Lily Pebbles . Anna has got her shit so together, she’s just released a fre...

Meet Tomi Gbeleyi , the 27-year-old founder o f Makeup For Melanin Girls . Winning headlines in Glamour Magazine, and Buzzfeed , MFMG Cosmetics was born out of a beauty blog that blossomed into a 170,000-strong online community, filling a void for women of colour. Just a year and a half in, the direct-to-consumer makeup line recently earned investment capital from the New Voices Fund – a Unilever-...

It’s red carpet season , woot woot ! So what better time to welcome celebrity hairstylist Adir Abergel . You’ve seen his masterful skills on Saoirse Ronan ’s bedroom hair for the February Hollywood issue of Vanity Fair.  He also fashioned one of his signature un-average updos for Charlize Theron at the Critics Choice Awards. The LA-based hair pro is also creative director and partner in a line of...

Today we’re talking hair colour with a French master. The colourist behind Tilda Swinton, Vanessa Paradis and Catherine Deneuve’s perfect colour and healthy shine— it’s Christophe Robin ! Christophe was the long-time magic man behind all the big L’Oréal Paris hair colour ad campaigns, plus the hands responsible for 90’s supermodels’ sparkling manes . They all went to Christophe to get this signatu...

Just how do you get beautiful from the inside out? We sit down with best-selling author and certified holistic nutritionist Joy McCarthy , the founder of Joyous Health to find how to do just that. In partnership with our friends at Genuine Health , we are chatting about everything beauty-from-within, from beauty foods to beauty supplements and every cucumber juice in between. Joy schools Carlene a...

We are deeply saddened by the untimely passing of Brandon Truaxe, founder of Deciem and The Ordinary. We sat down with Brandon in January of 2018 - when he was at the top of his game, making headlines and mystifying the competition- and we are re-releasing this episode as a tribute to his creative genius within the beauty industry and beyond. As evidenced in this episode, Brandon was funny, brilli...

She’s the fresh-faced entrepreneur who’s been bottling her eponymous, all-natural skincare since 2010. Today we’re chatting with eco beauty pioneer Tata Harper ! With her unmistakable green glass packaging and sophisticated, earth-friendly formulas, the Columbian skincare founder succeeded in elevating the whole green beauty game at a time when organic formulas couldn’t shake their crunchy granola...

There’s lots to catch up on during this first #GlowDown of 2019! Find out why @donte.colley is our fave person on instagram right now, Carlene shares a cautionary tale from her New Year’s Eve while Jill’s mission is to get hella organized this year. Plus we have two incredible guests - one who shook up an iconic makeup brand and another who’s giving us the inside scoop on the reinvention of a near...

We’re kicking off 2019 with a huge guest of honour and that is the one and only Anastasia Soare , founder of Anastasia Beverly Hills .  It’s her first podcast interview ever and we couldn’t be more excited to share with you her incredible story.   Romanian-born beauty entrepreneur Anastasia Soare fled communism in the late 1980s and moved to Los Angeles—not knowing a word of English—where she laun...

In today’s show, we are looking back at the Year in Beauty because what a year it’s been! We spill alll the tea on the highs, the lows and everything in between.
 Joining us are two very special guests: Grace Lee , Lead Makeup Artist for Maybelline New York who is the key makeup artist for their shows at New York Fashion Week and works with celebs like Adriana Lima and Gigi Hadid. We also have Kat...

Is the facialist to Michelle Obama quite possibly the most influential skin expert in the world? Heads are nodding in Breaking Beauty’s sound studio where yes, we sat down with Montreal-based Jennifer Brodeur — dubbed JB Skin Guru by the mighty Oprah Winfrey, another star client. You’re definitely not going to want to miss Jennifer’s stories about tending to the skin of the entire Obama family in...