Boardroom Beauty

In this special crossover episode of Boardroom Beauty and The Hue Report, hosts Lydia Drakeford and Olivia Hancock sit down with award-winning founder, educator, and industry visionary Danessa Myricks for an in-depth conversation about the journey behind Danessa Myricks Beauty. This episode was made possible by Shea Moisture and their “Yes, And” campaign celebrating the limitless versatility of Black women.

Danessa shares how her career began unexpectedly, teaching herself makeup in her basement with 99-cent drugstore pencils, before going on to transform beauty for both everyday consumers and professional artists. She reflects on her transition from sales and marketing into entrepreneurship, the role of community in building her brand, and the product innovations that have driven viral moments across social platforms.

This episode explores:

• How early experiences in publishing and photo studios planted the seeds of her artistry
• Why problem-solving, accessibility, and multi-use performance guide her product development
• The community-driven momentum that helped take the brand from startup to international distribution
• Her leadership philosophy and commitment to representation, empathy, and legacy-building
• How creating this brand has also been a deeply personal process of healing and self-affirmation

Danessa also speaks candidly about vulnerability as a founder, the emotional weight of leading a Black-owned beauty brand, and the importance of showing up for consumers, creators, and her team with transparency and compassion.This conversation offers inspiration for creators, entrepreneurs, aspiring founders, and anyone interested in the future of inclusive beauty.

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In this episode of the Boardroom Beauty Podcast, host Lydia Drakeford interviews Roxana Ontiveros, a Senior Product Lead at Topicals. They discuss Roxana's journey from being a first-generation college student to a leader in the beauty industry, emphasizing the importance of centering community, innovation, and impact in her leadership. Roxana shares her thought leadership in product development, the significance of diversity in leadership, and her passion for creating inclusive beauty products.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Roxana Ontiveros

02:56 Self-Care and Community Engagement

05:15 Navigating Identity and Leadership

09:53 Academic Achievements and Early Ambitions

14:16 Transitioning from Law to Beauty

16:37 Cultural Identity in Leadership

19:19 Product Development at Topicals

22:57 Innovation and Consumer Needs in Beauty

26:24 Diversity and Inclusion in Product Development

30:16 Fun Product Recommendations

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In this episode, we sat down with Kara Brothers, President of Starface. From navigating a career after Google to building a culturally relevant brand that embraces experimentation, Kara shares what it means to move with clarity, curiosity, and trust in the process.

🎧 In this episode we talk about:

✨ Building a brand through experimentation

✨Trusting intuition over outdated timelines

✨ Beauty with cultural and fashion relevance

✨ Letting go of people pleasing

✨ Why leadership should feel human

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Kenya Eldridge has made a career out of proving that marketing isn’t just about syncing channels or media investments, it’s about shaping the soul of a brand. With leadership roles at Estée Lauder, NARS, and Shiseido, she’s built connections between brand and consumer that go beyond selling products, but moving culture and empowering purchasers. In this episode, we’ll discuss: Kenya’s personal blueprint for navigating the beauty industry, from early roles to executive leadership, and everything in between including: 

00:00 The Importance of Representation

02:54 Kenya's Origin Story and Early Influences

06:12 Navigating Education and Career Choices

08:51 Transitioning from Advertising to Beauty

11:46 Beauty’s Power to Change the World 

14:57 Resilience of the Beauty Industry

17:48 Network = Net Worth

20:55 Brand Innovations and Legacy 

23:57 What Keeps Customers Coming Back 

40:01 New Frontiers in Aging

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The Boardroom Beauty podcast is BACK! and we are so excited to kick it off with the return of Chanel Tyler a former beauty executive turned lifestyle creator with experience as the Global Head of Beauty at Youtube and the former Director of Marketing at La Mer!

Tune in as we sit down with Chanel Tyler to discuss topics like:

✨ career detours & redirection

✨ creator economy trends & the creator shift

✨ identifying burnout & setting boundaries

✨redefining luxury, leadership, and ambition on your own terms

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We are delighted to welcome our first official partner, Hue, into the fold of Boardroom Beauty!

Hue is a shoppable video platform that helps embed authentic video reviews on retailer and brand’s DTC shopping websites, leveraging a community of diverse 2,000+ beauty creators to generate UGC. Authentic content for brands is able to be leveraged for ads, social, email marketing & more. 

The solution allows prospective online buyers to browse video reviews of “others similar to them” and actually see how the product looks and feels on lots of different skin tones, skin types, ages and hues! 

Hue partners with 50+ innovative brands and retailers. Notable makeup brands include Laura Mercier, Laura Geller Beauty, Bare Minerals, Credo Beauty, and more, who are seeing strong metrics across DTC conversion and engagement on site.

You can connect with Hue at [email protected] and let them know Boardroom Beauty sent you!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Boardroom Beauty, we collaborated with Too Smart for This Podcast by Alexis Barber, the founder of TOO Collective, a wellness brand. Because August is Black Business Month, we decided to have a chat with two of our favorite black beauty founders to give us the real on their current state of being in a world where DEI is under attack and access to capital is very limited.

Desiree Verdejo is the founder of Hyper Skin, a vegan, clean, and cruelty free skincare line focused on melanated skin by treating hyperpigmentation. The lawyer-turned-beauty entrepreneur launched her brand and has had tremendous success via international retailer, Sephora.

Karen Young is the founder of Oui the People, a body care line striving to elevate the standards and experiences of the body care category with the mission to have everyone feel seen within their self care routine.She has bee very vocal in recent months and gone viral for her video stating that "many of your favorite black beauty brands may close down this year" due to lack of capital. In a recent press article in Entrepreneur magazine, Karen said, "There's a marked recession within a recession that Black women founders in particular are facing," says Young. "The clawback of the capital has been visible and painful for many of us."

For part 2 of this episode, head over to the Too Smart for This Podcast!

Learn more about these founders and their businesses in the links below:

Desiree Verdejo on IG | Hyper Skin on IG | Shop Hyper Skin

Karen Young on LI | Oui the People on IG | Shop Oui the People

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Daisy Boateng, a British-Ghanaian, new girl-mom, fashionista, author, and founder of The Step Up Sorority is a L’Oreal veteran. She has 14 years under her belt working in Paris, London, Melbourne, and New York City in brand management, digital, and now communications, Her track record for success and delivering strategic solutions at brands like Maybelline, NYX Cosmetics, Essie, and L’Oreal Paris has given her endless insight to share with The Boardroom Beauty Podcast. In this episode she shares everything from tips to navigating big beauty giant, L’Oreal to giving us a sneak peak of what she’s been working on in her role. 

Topics discussed include: 

• Finding a unique selling point early in your career and leaning into that for personal branding
• Her global role, translating brand objectives across markets
• Creating brand awareness strategies for culturally relevancy
• The trade offs between being a marketing generalists vs. specialist 
• Transitioning back to work post-maternity leave and mothering via inspiration
• Building supportive networks and communities to uplift and serve women of color at work.

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Yasmin Zeinab, the founder of ABI AMÉ, discusses the development of her innovative hero product, Summer Skin, which she launched her brand with just last year after conducting extensive market research in over 1,000 conversations with prospective customers to identify pain points and create solutions, centering her customer from the inception of the brand. Our conversation lightly touches on the importance of timing in the market and the growth potential of body care as well as where there was white space to advance the way we are caring for the skin on our bodies in the same way we care for the skin on our face.

Yasmin is Parisian and has gained an engaged skincare community on TikTok with her educational content on Parisian skincare. In this episode, she shares her recommendations for must-buy Parisian pharmacy finds as we discussed our favorite French pharmacy skincare products and the differences between the French and American beauty markets, for example, importance of word-of-mouth recommendations in the French market and the regulatory differences in sunscreen formulations between the US and EU. Yasmin shares her short-term focus on strengthening relationships with the ABI AMÉ community and staying true to their product development philosophy. In the long term, she hopes to expand retail availability and sees Sephora and Credo as ideal partners.

Learn more about ABI AMÉ on their Website, Instagram, and TikTok page!

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Milan Crawford joins the Boardroom Beauty Podcast as the Head of Social for Shea Moisture. Her recent work has entailed leading up highly visible activations for the brand as they continue to bring innovative products that solve the unique needs of their targeted clientele and much more. In this episode Milan shares where her personal passions align with her professional career, her perspective and expertise on all things social and creator-led content, and much more. Tune into this episode to hear her shed light on the following:

• The challenges and responsibility that comes with her role as a purpose driven marketer
• The process of bringing the new Bond Repair Collection to market
• The impact of insights-driven strategies in product development and the importance of addressing the specific needs of the target audience.
• The mission of Shea Moisture to serve the black community and the focus on inclusivity and education in natural hair care
• The important role the community plays in telling the Shea Moisture brand story
• Empowering content creators through long-lasting partnerships

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