Kendra talks to Jennifer Yen (jenyen1), a superhero, and the Founder of Purlisse Beauty (@purlisse), and Yensa Beauty (@yensabeauty). In two different stages of her life, Jennifer seized the opportunity to start two brands that initially met a personal need. Her acting role on the hit TV show Power Rangers required heavy makeup and other environmental triggers that damaged her skin. When other products yielded no results, Jennifer created Purlisse Beauty in 2008, sourcing ingredients and formulas derived from Asian beauty wisdom and reinvented into a modern, high-performing skincare line. Jennifer experienced a second transition when she became a mother and maintained her demanding schedule while simultaneously caring for her daughter.  Both her skin and body showed signs of depletion. This time Yen enlisted the practice of her heritage to bring about her healing: ‘Zuo Yuezi' aka in Chinese Culture as ‘The Sitting Out Month’; a practice that dates back 2000 years. The mother heals by nourishing her body with a blend of superfoods to restore inner and outer vitality. It is those superfoods that we find in Jennifer’s second brand, Yensa Beauty, which she names as “the first Asian true superfood cosmetics line that marries tried and true superfood ingredients with science to revive the skin and complexion”.  

In our conversation, Jennifer shares her differentiated experience of starting and scaling two brands in two different challenging periods: the recession and the pandemic. Tune in to learn about her multiple pivots, becoming a known digitally native brand, her views on DTC versus retail, her take in financing and so many more lessons!

“I would talk to investors in 2006 and they would be like ‘who’s going to buy this?’ and I would say ‘go to your wife’s cabinet  and see how many beauty products she has.’ Now it’s like everybody knows. VC firms that have invested in technology want to get into beauty because technology helps to scale a beauty brand.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.