Rooibos cosmetics

It's no secret that natural deodorant gets a bad rap. Clean beauty consumers looking for brands that leave out ingredients such as aluminum have long complained of having trouble finding something that works. These frustrations were what inspired Sarah Moret to found body-care brand Curie in 2018. Aluminum-free deodorant has come a long way since then, as Curie’s latest news shows: The brand launched into 4,300 Walmart locations nationwide on August 22.  On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Moret tells the story of the early days of the brand and the pivots she made along the way, including the introduction of hand sanitizer when deodorant buying fell off a cliff during the pandemic lockdowns. She also talked about her experience on the hit show "Shark Tank," and why it was as good for exposure as it was for fundraising.

Patrick Ta has come a long way from the MAC counter, where he started working over 12 years ago in Scottsdale, Arizona. Today, the brand founder and full-time makeup artist travels the country creating looks for Gigi Hadid, Sydney Sweeney, Camila Cabello and Alix Earle, among other well-known names. He often documents the process or the finished looks for his following of 3.4 million on Instagram and 1.2 million on TikTok. In 2019, Ta launched his namesake brand with a small array of products including a body oil, a lip gloss, a face mist and a fan to set the makeup in place. Since then, the brand has expanded to foundation, blush, contour, lipliner, lipsticks and a brow collection. In the past few months, Ta has been active on TikTok, documenting a TikTok tour of sorts that took him from Alix Earle's Miami dorm room to Bretman Rock's Paris Fashion Week suite to his own hometown of L.A. for stops with Glamzilla, Kensington Tillo (aka @kensnation) and Patrick Starrr. In this month's Glossy Pop edition of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Ta speaks about how he made it as a celebrity makeup artist, what celebrity makeup artists owe to the Kardashians and how Earle changed his perspective on TikTok. Related stories: Patrick Ta, Ashley Tisdale, Susan Yara and Glamzilla on leveraging a viral moment ‘It was easier for Kylie Jenner’: Makeup artist Patrick Ta on the launch of his brand and plans for expansion

Back in the day, the men’s grooming category was synonymous with shaving products. But not anymore. The rising acceptance of facial hair has led to a boom in beard-care products.  Take Scotch Porter, for example. On top of the fact that it's the top-selling beard-care brand at Target, its beard conditioning balm is the No. 2 best-selling product in the retailer's entire men’s care category.  “Beards have the staying power,” said Scotch Porter founder Calvin Quallis on this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast. Investors agree that beard care is big business, as well. The brand’s $11 million dollar Series B round was led by Pendulum, a firm founded by the Obamas' financial advisor. The brand is now expanding into body care, skin care and fragrance.  In the episode, Quallis shares the founding story of the brand, which emerged from the popular barbershop he founded to serve as a hub for both hair care and events ranging from performances to political debates. He also talks about men’s care trends and the brand’s bet on new categories such as fragrance and skin care.  Related reads: Men’s grooming sales pick up momentum Men’s brands remain ‘bullish on beards’ The mustache makes its comeback: How brands are getting on board

We all know that there are diehard skin-care enthusiasts out there who spend hours researching the ingredients.  In 2021, Emily DiDonato and Christina Uribe launched skin-care brand Covey to target the opposite of that type of customer. Instead of "skintellectuals," they’re focused on the busy millennial who doesn’t have time to go down what they call the “skin-care rabbit hole.” Both founders are bringing unique expertise to the brand. As a fashion model who has worked with countless brands including Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Givenchy, DiDonato has had firsthand experience with time-consuming skin-care routines. Uribe, meanwhile, is still working full-time at Google, which offers her firsthand knowledge of the process of researching search trends to find what beauty shoppers want.  On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, DiDonato and Uribe discuss the founding story of the brand, the Covey lip balm that went viral on TikTok, and the state of mainstream consumer awareness about popular skin-care trends like vitamin C and SPF.

In the past, most of the celebrity hairstylists that launched their own salons and hair-care lines were men. That’s been changing, as more female celebrity stylists are becoming founders. Mara Roszak is a member of this new generation shaking up the hair-care market. You’ve probably seen her styling work on Natalie Portman, Emma Stone, Michelle Yeoh, Olivia Wilde or Zoe Saldana on the red carpet. When she’s not doing celebrity looks, she runs her salon, Mare, and her new hair-care line, Rōz, which launched in 2021. On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Roszak shares the story of how she got started working with celebrities and how that led her to found her own brand. She also discusses the processes of coming up with silicone-free formulations and ensuring the efficacy needed for celebrity public appearances. And finally, she talks about how she's approaching sustainable packaging, and where she’s putting her focus during the ongoing WGA and SAG strikes.

In 2022, Chriselle Lim and Ben Bennett, re-launched Phlur, a dormant "clean" fragrance brand at the time, with Ben Bennett. Bennett is the founder of the brand incubator The Center, which is behind Saltair, Naturium and Make Beauty. The brand was a near-instant success, with its first fragrance, Missing Person, going viral on TikTok. That year, Lim was named to the annual Glossy 50, a list of people who made a mark on the fashion or beauty industry. Last week, Lim launched the brand's ninth new fragrance, Father Figure. It launched with a splashy campaign featuring some of Lim's notable, powerful female friends, including influencer Aimee Song; founder of Make, Carrie Barber; founder of Arrae, Siffat Haider; co-CEO of Baby2Baby, Kelly Sawyer; and stylist Monica Rose. Lim is also heavily featured in the campaign imagery, alongside phrases like, "I'll be your Daddy," and "One week they love me. Next week they hate me. Both weeks I got paid." In this monthly Glossy Pop edition of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Lim speaks about Phlur's boom of a relaunch and newest perfume, and her journey from college vlogger to mega-influencer.

In a timely Glossy Beauty Podcast episode for the height of summer, this week features a category that has blown up in beauty: sunscreen. Long gone are the days when options were limited to a handful of brands like Coppertone and Hawaiian Tropic. In recent years, a wide range of chic new sunscreen labels have been hitting the market, while skin-care brands are churning out new SPF product launches. One of these hip new brands is one-year-old Dune Suncare, which uses a colorful, nostalgic aesthetic to appeal to both men and women across all age groups. This week’s episode features the brand’s co-founders, Emily Doyle, an event production and marketing pro, and Mei Kwok, who also produces events and performs as a highly sought-after DJ. The founders have created a cool factor for the brand by working with luxury hotels, including QR codes to Kwok’s playlists in its packaging, and shooting campaigns with top fashion photographers. But its distribution plan is all about accessibility as they focus on scaling through wholesale partners including Amazon and Ulta Beauty.

When Snapchat first tapped into the power of augmented reality circa 2015, no one understood how impactful it would be to the social media platform and the beauty industry. Snapchat's “Lens” feature was introduced in 2015. This feature, powered by augmented reality technology, allows users to change how they and the world around them look. But it wasn’t until at least 2017 that the beauty industry started to catch up through independent providers like Modiface, which was later acquired by L'Oréal Group in 2018. To help further Snapchat’s relationship with the beauty and fashion industries and promote its AR strategy, Snapchat hired Rajni Jacques, head of fashion and beauty partnerships at Snapchat, to lead the charge. Jacques joined the social media platform in April 2021 from her previous role as fashion director at Teen Vogue and Allure. Jacques has been in the editorial world for the last two decades, holding positions at InStyle, Glamour, Nylon, The Fader, Vibe and Honey.  Jacques sat down with Liz Flora, Glossy’s West Coast correspondent and host of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, to chat about all things augmented reality, Gen Z and the ways both play into beauty.

The star of Netflix’s "Queer Eye," Jonathan Van Ness has captivated a massive fan base as a comedian, best-selling author and podcast host with a prolific social media presence. But he definitely hasn’t forgotten about hair. Nearly two years ago, he added hair-care brand founder to his expanding resume with the launch of JVN Hair.  For this episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Van Ness was joined by Teresa Lo, JVN Hair’s global vp and gm who has been with the brand from the start. Topics covered include Van Ness’s career journey, JVN Hair's founding story and the products’ unique formulations, which use hemisqualane and are silicone-free. Lo also addressed whether the brand is seeing any impacts from the recent changes at its parent company, Amyris, after the company announced layoffs and the departure of its CEO last week.  While Van Ness is known for his humor and positivity, he’s also outspoken when it comes to more serious topics. In this interview, he reflected on the end of a Pride Month that was rife with homophobic rhetoric.

If you are one of Mikayla Nogueira’s 14.6 million TikTok followers, then you already know that one of the app’s biggest beauty influencers is getting married this weekend. But what you may not know is that she custom-created the lipstick and liner for her big day, with E.l.f. Cosmetics. The color resulting from the collaboration, which launched on Thursday, is cheekily named “Til Death Do Us Paht,” a reference to Nogueira’s famous Boston accent. Nogueira had partnered with E.l.f. before, and, as she struggled to find a lipstick she deemed perfect for her wedding day, she decided to reach out to the brand and ask if they’d like to work on one collaboratively. Nogueira has been creating content on the app since the early days of Covid. Before becoming a full-time creator, she worked at Ulta Beauty. She has done product collaborations with brands including the indie makeup brand Glamlite and skin-care brand Glow Recipe, and has partnered on sponsored posts for brands including Charlotte Tilbury, L’Oréal, Maybelline, Rael and RoC. In an April 2022 Glossy story, we reported on Nogueira’s ability to sell out a beauty product or catapult it into virality. In late January, Nogueira was at the center of a TikTok controversy around a L’Oréal mascara ad she posted: She was accused of wearing false lashes in the “after” footage demonstrating the mascara’s results. After taking a few days off, Nogueira’s next video started with, “I’m sure we all know why we’ve all gathered here today. … It’s the month of love, bitches.” She never addressed the criticism further. In the monthly Glossy Pop episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Nogueira speaks to the harsh realities of being an influencer with nearly 15 million sets of eyes on her, the pros and cons of going viral (and that ubiquitous TikTok sound of her saying Kim Kardashian’s name), and the creation of her wedding-day lipstick.