In episode 117 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Watts talks to the founder of People Haircare, Katherine Ruiz.

Katherine never pictured herself starting a beauty brand, but she has always had an interesting relationship with her hair, and that relationship was sort of a visual representation of the relationship she had with herself. Katherine has naturally curly hair but, as so many of us do, wanted hair she didn’t have so she grew up straightening it, slicking it back, whatever she could do to disguise its natural texture. Similarly, she tells me that, at that time, she didn’t really love herself- she was pretending to be totally confident, but didn’t truly feel it until she really started working on that relationship with herself as an adult. Coincidentally or otherwise, it was around this time that she started embracing her curly hair. 

Katherine founded People Haircare in 2022 out of a wish for haircare for everyone- meaning haircare for each unique hair type, at an accessible price point. The brand is physically accessible too, launching into 800 Coles stores nationally from day 1.

In this conversation, Katherine shares how she’s working to convert supermarket customers who have previously shopped habitually, why you shouldn’t wait for the first version of your product to be perfect, and just how important it is to ask for what you want. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow People Haircare on Instagram @peoplehaircare.

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

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In episode 116 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Watts talks to the co founders of Elemis, Noella Gabriel and Oriele Frank.

This is probably the best example of serendipity that we’ve had on the show in the way that Noella, Oriele and their third co-founder Sean Harrington were brought together, each with a complementary skill set, the combination of which was precisely what the brand needed, but also with no real understanding of what they were saying yes to. By no means did the imagine that 34 years later, the brand they co-founded would be stocked in 100 countries.

Elemis was founded in 1989, in London, but all of the products and really the ethos overall feel so modern and so current. That combination of science backed formulas and botanical ingredients feels very much like something that would be launched in 2023. 

In this conversation, Oriele and Noella share just how deeply they’re looking at sustainability and traceability, how they’ve maintained a relevant brand identity 34 years into business, and what they did when the brand’s first ever clinical trial results came back to show the product did absolutely nothing. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Elemis on Instagram @elemis and @elemis_anz.

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

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In episode 115 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Watts talks to the founder of Naked Sundays, Samantha Brett.

Samantha Brett has always loved beauty but, despite a brief stint as a beauty writer during an internship, she only ever wanted to be a news reporter. 

Sam worked as hard as she possibly could to achieve the dream she’d held onto since she was 14 years old, and once she got there it was a job she truly never pictured herself walking away from. That was, until, the 2019 to 2020 bushfire season. It was while reporting on those bushfires that she found herself questioning precisely what is was that she wanted from her life.

The idea for Naked Sundays came from a few places at once a few months prior. Sam’s husband was complaining about having to reapply his sunscreen while playing golf, meanwhile Sam was watching her television colleagues having cancerous lesions cut from their faces after full days reporting out in the sun with no way to apply sunscreen without ruining their makeup for camera. 

Sam pitched the idea for an SPF50+ Mist to 25 manufacturers before one finally said yes. She and her husband used money from their mortgage to fund the business, and Naked Sundays launched in January 2021 to a waitlist of over 2000 people. That’s 2000 people before they’d launched a single product. The brand hit a reported $100k in sales within 4 weeks of that launch, the brand launched into Mecca that October and sold out of three months’ worth of stock in 24 hours, and the brand was selling one product per minute by the end of that year. 

In this conversation, Sam shares how important it is to know the steps it’ll take to reach your dream, rather than expecting it to happen tomorrow, why she waited until September 2021 to leave her television job, and a world exclusive announcement of not one but two new Naked Sundays products. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Naked Sundays on Instagram @naked_sundays.

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

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In episode 114 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Watts talks to the co founder and creative director, respectively, of Mr. Smith Hair, David and Freda Rossidis.

Freda Rossidis is an industry legend. Freda tells me that being a migrant to Australia, very few of her earliest memories are centred around beauty. She had no idea what she wanted to be when she grew up, she fell into hairdressing, and grew to love it over time. As that passion grew, so too did Freda’s resume, as she directed the hair styling for shows at Australian and New York fashion weeks and worked internationally on shows for Prada, Chanel, Dior and Hermes.

Her son, David, subsequently grew up in the salon environment, and found himself working in marketing and product development for a haircare brand following his studies. From there, David developed a balancing shampoo and accompanying conditioner with no real plans to turn those two products into a fully fledged brand. 

Both David and Freda tell me that, if I’d asked them 8 years ago if they saw themselves working together, it would have been a hard no. However, 2 months after David’s first two products went to market, they were featured in Esquire New York… and then in GQ, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Wallpaper Magazine. International press led to a truly unexpected surge in consumer demand, so Freda left her business and started working with David full time. 

That was in 2015. Today, Mr. Smith haircare is available in 12 countries, and what began as 2 products is now a brand with over 40 SKUs.

In this conversation, Freda and David share whether or not it’s possible to grow a business at the rate of Mr. Smith and maintain a balanced life, the advice anyone wanting to make it in the world of startups needs to hear, and some surprising stats around hairspray sales in Texas. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Mr. Smith on Instagram @mrsmithhair.

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

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In episode 113 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Watts talks to the founder and CEO of Kat Burki Skincare, Kat Burki.

Kat had studied Healthcare Law and Health Policy at university and was working happily in the industry, occasionally picking up passion projects in interior design as a creative outlet. Upon completing an interior for her brother-in-law, she decided she wanted to sign off the project with a signature scent. She met with some people who worked in the beauty industry creating hand batches, and they helped her create a candle.

The home fragrance became so popular amongst those who had smelled it that it was suggested to Kat they she should create a body lotion with the same scent. This prompted Kat to start looking into formulation science, and the team who had helped Kat create that very first candle went on to become the very first formulators of Kat Burki Skincare. 

Kat Burki Skincare launched into Henri Bendel in New York City in August 2013 with first-of-its-kind cold pressed skincare. The subsequent four years saw the brand launch into Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus, and Mecca here in Australia, and in 2023, Kat Burki Skincare is a truly global brand. 

In this conversation, Kat shares what she had to fight to put extra money towards when her namesake business was in its infancy, how her earliest memories have shaped the brand she runs today, and why you don’t need to say “yes” to everything. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Kat Burki Skincare on Instagram @katburkiskincare.

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

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In episode 112 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Watts talks to the founder of ROBE Haircare, Lauren Mackellar. 

In 5 seasons of this show, Lauren Mackellar is the most inspiring guest I’ve had the joy of sitting down with. 

Lauren Mackellar was one of Australia’s most in demand hair stylists. In early 2022, following years of intense migraines that she’d chalked up to her work, she took herself to the emergency ward and was diagnosed with a brain tumour. She went into surgery a day and a half later.The tumour was successfully removed, however it was Stage 3 cancer so radiation needed to begin immediately. Throughout chemotherapy, Lauren was told that her hair was unlikely to ever grow back given that she had no hair follicles at this point, let alone hair. 

Unable to return to hairdressing, Lauren decided to revisit the haircare brand she had began to formulate prior to her diagnosis. She figured she had nothing to lose in trialling her own products on herself and, having sat opposite her to record this a couple of months ago, Lauren now has a thick, healthy head of hair. ROBE Haircare launches this week. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow ROBE on Instagram @robehaircare.

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

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In episode 111 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Watts talks to the co-founder of Sundae Body, Lizzie Waley. 

Imagine not just trying to get customers on board with a new brand, but getting them to entirely change the way they’ve done something for their entire life.

That is precisely the task Lizzie Waley was faced with on launched Sundae Body. 

Lizzie had had a conversation with her business partner about how bath time is so fun when you’re a kid, and by adulthood it’s totally lost its magic- likely because, realistically, your only options are a bar of soap or a liquid body wash, neither of which inspire a whole lot of play or joy. Armed with that thought, Lizzie asked a chemist if there were any other mechanisms or mediums that could be explored in the body care space, to which that chemist suggested a foam. 

Sundae Body took about 18 months to develop, beginning with a can designed to look like whipped cream and ending with a range fruit and dessert scented whipped body foams, formulated to put the fun back into showering- at any age. Lizzie pitched Sundae Body to both Woolworths and Priceline before launch and was picked up by both, meaning Sundae Body had space on over 1200 shelves before they’d launched a single product. 

In this conversation, Lizzie shares both the pros and cons of self funding a startup, the lessons learned from her first job in a call centre, and why the right distributor was key to securing space with two of the country’s retail giants. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Sundae Body on Instagram @sundaebody.

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

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In episode 110 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Watts talks to the CEO and founder of Gem, Georgia Danos. 

This conversation is essentially a marketing masterclass.

One of Georgia’s earliest roles was at Remedy Kombucha. Now, we all know what kombucha is now, but keep in mind this was in 2014, before the brand was even on Instagram, so Georgia’s job wasn’t just to build the brand’s social media presence- she was more or less responsible for bringing the product to mainstream recognition. 

After helping to launch the brand in the UK, Georgia had well and truly caught what she refers to as “the start up bug,” and this is where her story gets really interesting- rather than identifying a gap for a product and then deciding to launch a brand to fill it, Georgia first decided she wanted to start a business of her own and then identified that gap. Where she landed was the oral care sphere. Given that beauty was and remains so saturated, she found space for a product at the intersection of beauty and health and wanted to develop a product that had a daily, or in this case twice-daily, touchpoint with consumers. 

Georgia launched Gem, an Australian made, premium, natural oral care brand in March 2020 following four years of product development. The brand has since been picked up by both Mecca and Woolworths stores nationally, has extended its product range to over 30 SKUs, and is launching into Boots in the UK next week. 

In this conversation, Georgia shares how she and her team manage to educate without fear mongering (no mean feat in this industry), how she got her brand on the shelves at Mecca, Woolworth and Boots, and how she got her product’s entire first run of packaging for free. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Gem on Instagram @gem.au.

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

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In episode 109 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Watts talks to the founder of YŌLI and En Gold, Steffanie Ball.

Steffanie Ball’s ties to beauty come through YŌLI, a brand centred around “elevated bathing rituals” that was launched in December of last year with a range including luxury towelling (emphasis on the word luxury), a scent range and a dry body brush. You’ve likely heard of Steff’s first business, furniture and homewares brand En Gold, which began as an Instagram account selling vintage furniture and morphed into a furniture brand that celebrates the design and workmanship of century old crafts. 

What I love most about the story behind both of Steff’s businesses is the ways in which she’s reconnected with her Filipino heritage throughout the business development process. She tells one story in particular about connecting with the original maker of the vintage pieces she was selling on Instagram and how, through En Gold, he and Steff were able to give all of his former workers their jobs back that you will love.

In this conversation, Steff shares why the art of ritual is so important to her, why she believes that retail is one of the best industries within which to learn and why she insists her team all spend time in the customer care department, and how an American skateboarder (her now husband of 14 years) proposed after 2 days… 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow YŌLI on Instagram @yoli_haus.

Follow En Gold on Instagram @en._gold

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

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In episode 108 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Watts talks to the founder of Vida Glow, Anna Lahey. 

Vida Glow is the number one marine collagen brand in the world, with one unit sold every four seconds. 

Anna doesn’t hold her cards close to her chest. From sharing the brand’s Shopify launch strategy, what goes into developing packaging and sourcing ingredients, how many products Vida Glow have discontinued and the rationale behind the brand’s 2021 rebrand, Anna sincerely believes that the increasing saturation of the ingestible beauty market is only going to push the category forward- and honestly, it was refreshing to hear. 

Anna and her husband Keiran launched Vida Glow in 2014 after years of importing collagen for herself from Japan, having experienced hair loss due to a blood clotting condition which she opened up about in our chat. Realising that making the ingredient accessible here in Australia could have a positive impact on so many people, Vida Glow was born.

In this conversation, Anna shares the power of a rebrand and the strategy that went into Vida Glow’s, what to look for when purchasing ingestible beauty supplements, and the million dollar question, what collagen actually is and what it can do. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Vida Glow on Instagram @vida_glow.

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

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