WHERE BRAINS MEET BEAUTY

Thirty years ago, Sonya Dakar was taking polaroid photos of clients in her esthetician office, fondly referred to as skin boot camp. Today her namesake skincare line is recognized worldwide. As a skincare expert, Sonya is renowned for building a brand dedicated to educating consumers and treating the skin with clean, effective ingredients. Her iconic clinic in Beverly Hills serves as a center for...

After being fired from a fast-paced banking biz position in London, Maria Hatzistefanis, Founder of Rodial, took months before making her next move. That move eventually combined her business savvy and experience in the finance world with her long-time love of the beauty industry. This episode reminds us to keep calm and find the beauty in every road block, rejection and set-back.   #wherebrainsme...

What’s it like to be the first African American woman to hold a patent within a space? In this week’s episode, we hear from Gwen Jimmere, Naturalicious CEO & Founder and the journey that took her from dreams of being a singer, to a swanky corporate position at Ford, and eventually starting a natural hair care company. Gwen is as raw and honest as she is determined, taking this episode through...

Steve Weigler is a mastermind when it comes to protecting your brand. After many entrepreneurial pursuits of his own, he's come to understand more than just the legal side of building a business, giving him a unique perspective in helping his clients keep their brands safe from knock offs and other legal woes. The EmergeCounsel Founder explains in this episode how a small investment at the start c...

Dara Levy, Founder of DERMAFLASH, leads with grace and gratitude. She’s made it through the past several months, as well as many difficult years, by channeling kindness and positivity. Like many entrepreneurs, her career journey has been far from linear, but for Dara, it all seems to have fallen into place. Perhaps it’s her power to manifest good things through gratitude and positive energy. Liste...

When Fiona Stiles went to college to study photography and fine art, she never imagined that her canvas would be a face! As a celebrity makeup artist and CEO of Reed Clarke, she loves the unpredictability of her job and the challenge to create new looks and appearances. Growing up in the 70s and associating makeup with “the opera and maybe movies and special effects” it was after she moved to New...

Joy Harari, Founder and CEO of Shore Magic, pulled from her own childhood experiences when building her brand. She is a certified holistic health coach and created a digestive collagen supplement from fish skins that is not only effective and healing, but also helps you look good from the inside out. She first discovered the powers of marine collagen while working with children suffering from ADD...

Life is all about finding the beauty hidden within the imperfections. In this episode, Dr. Ava Shamban, dermatologist and founder of SKIN FIVE by AVA MD, shares her journey through the societal norms of beauty and how they helped her find her calling of being a medical and cosmetic dermatologist. She’s managed to help people find their own beauty through their signature feature, rather than trying...

Doreen Bloch, Executive Director of the Makeup Museum, has embarked on a journey back to the world of the 1950s makeup and beauty. She created a time capsule of artifacts and nostalgia that includes not only actual makeup bottles belonging to celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, but also submissions from people who lived through the 1950s to today. In the midst of a pandemic that delayed the launch of...

Grit and grace come naturally to Alicia Grande, founder and CEO of Grande Cosmetics. At a young age, she learned the importance of hard work and sacrifice, fueling her desire and passion for business. Since 2008, Alicia has grown her brand from a single product sold at a tradeshow, to a best-loved brand of over forty products that help enhance the natural beauty of her customers. For her, it isn't...

In many ways, Manon des Sources CEO Manon Crespi's journey to a beautiful head of naturally silver hair is representative of her winding path through the beauty industry - long, flowing, and sometimes challenging. After a year of literally 'getting back to her roots' while she grew out dyed and damaged locks, Manon realized there was white space (or shall we say grey space?) in the beauty industry...

Here’s a reminder that we’re all in this together. Even seasoned business owners, innovators and entrepreneurs are navigating uncharted waters as we shift the way we connect with our teams and our customers. Frédéric Fekkai, Founder and CEO of Fekkai shares in this episode how he and his team are working through a time of change, and how through many changes over the past several years, he’s manag...

Here’s a reminder that we’re all in this together. Even seasoned business owners, innovators and entrepreneurs are navigating uncharted waters as we shift the way we connect with our teams and our customers. Frédéric Fekkai, Founder and CEO of Fekkai shares in this episode how he and his team are working through a time of change, and how through many changes over the past several years, he’s manag...

The name is catchy but it’s much more than that. It reflects an entire business ethos that revolves round clean ingredients, honest marketing, respect for customers and smart internal practices, i.e. no b.s (bullshit or bad stuff, whichever you prefer) in any of it. Learn how Diana Briceno, CEO of No B.S. Skincare, developed the “b.s. meter” that she and her team use every day as they make decisio...

When you first read the name, Thrive Causemetics, you know that this is a different sort of beauty company. A former makeup artist, founder and CEO Karissa Bodnar launched her company with dual purposes: to create quality, vegan, skin-loving makeup and skincare and to support organizations that help women. Both missions have equal importance—for every product sold, another is donated. The inspirat...

Like so many beauty leaders in this moment, Natasha Cornstein, CEO of Blushington, has had to rewrite the playbook from scratch, as they’ve closed their brick-and-mortar beauty lounges and have had to pivot overnight from one-on-one, in-your-face makeup applications to an emphasis on ecommerce and their curated selection of independent female-founded beauty brands. No mean feat. Hear how this smar...

Jhoana Heras, PR manager at Base Beauty Creative Agency, was headed for a career in accounting when a PR internship serendipitously came her way. She thought it might be an interesting summer diversion but it turned out she really loved it and discovered that she absolutely did not want to be an accountant. Good to know! Listen to her full story, including her truecareer goal, being on The Real Ho...

After a five-minute career on Broadway, David Pirrotta, founder and CEO of David Pirrotta Brands, discovered his passion for the beauty world and his talent for scoping out and launching fledgling brands. He also realized he was still fulfilling his desire to perform but on a different stage, as he stood front and center promoting and presenting young brands to the beauty marketplace. With over 80...

Inessa and Alina Vike have a collaboration that started in utero. These ultra-confident twins have used their award-winning influencer platform as a launchpad for an innovative product that they plan to grow into a global makeup brand. Their family story—including how they are striving to give back and honor their refugee parents’ sacrifices and dreams—is poignant, heartfelt and not to be missed....

Leetah McGee, account manager at Base Beauty Creative Agency, was destined for a career in fashion like everyone in her family. But after graduating from FIT, she wasn’t loving what she saw ahead and took a year to figure out what was next. Lessons learned: It’s okay not to know. It’s okay to change your mind. Hear all about Leetah’s career pivot and how this remarkable young woman made her way to...

It took a long time for Deborah Lippmann, celebrity manicurist and founder of Deborah Lippmann, to finally realize how much she loved nail care and her work as manicurist to the stars. Her first love was music and she originally learned the manicurist’s trade to support herself while pursuing her singing career. Now that she’s created her eponymous nail line and singing has become her side hustle,...

Listen in as Sasha Plavsic, founder of ILIA Beauty, confesses how difficult it was to rebrand the business she had conceived and given birth to nine years ago. It was time for the update, for sure, but it also involved letting go of a lot of her past…and it felt like losing an old friend. You’ll want to hear Sasha discuss this painful but necessary part of growing a business and how she’s getting...

When Amy Carra, Sr. Director of Brand Innovation and Universal Beauty Products, Inc., was working for Air France and traveling the world, she never imagined a career in beauty. Her love affair with the beauty industry began with a position at Revlon, where she saw colleagues “playing” with makeup as part of their jobs and thought, “Hmm…this could be fun.” Hear the rest of Amy’s story, from more jo...

Sarah Kugelman’s catalyst for creating the skincare line skyn ICELAND was her personal story of stress and illness, a story far too many of us—especially women—have experienced as we try to juggle our complex lives. As she healed herself, the CEO and founder focused on the toll modern life takes on skin and decided to do something about it. Tune in to hear all about Sarah’s amazing journey from co...