In episode forty eight of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Watts talks to the founder and CEO of lilah b., Cheryl Yannotti Foland. 

Having grown up on the East Coast of the United States, once self described “high strung, type A, fast talking New Yorker” Cheryl Yannotti Foland spent the first 20 years of her working life in private equity. Cheryl describes her attitude towards work, life and beauty during that time as “more, more, more,” but a move to California for work in 2006 saw the maximalist trade in her New York lifestyle for something a little slower.

Cheryl tells me that the life she’d been living was not the healthiest and recognised that her “need” for the next best beauty product was really more of a “want,” in turn identifying what she describes as a “white space” in the market for a brand that truly simplified beauty.

And so, lilah b. was born- a clean, luxe colour cosmetics brand in which each product has been formulated to have multiple uses, meaning that consumers can create a complete, polished look with minimal products- as Cheryl tells me, “three is all you need.” 

More or less on launch, lilah b. was picked up by both Barney’s and Net-A-Porter, meaning that the brand was being sold and marketed in upwards of 170 countries within five months. 

Today, lilah b. remains one of the world’s most coveted clean beauty brands, with Cheryl watching women (and men!) across the globe adopting her less is more ethos, having succeeded in her mission to make beauty simple again. 

This episode was recorded remotely, myself in Melbourne and Cheryl in California, so if you would prefer to read the interview I have made the complete transcript available on glowjournal.com. 

In this conversation, Cheryl shares the surprising influence Tiffany & Co. designer Elsa Peretti had on her brand, how increasing consumer demand for authenticity is rapidly changing the beauty industry and why all have a Rhodesian Ridgeback to thank for the lilah b. brand. 

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/interview-lilah-b-founder-cheryl-yannotti-foland

Follow lilah b. on Instagram at @lilahbeauty

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at [email protected]

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