Rooibos cosmetics

If you asked her 10 years ago, Hillary Peterson would tell you she was not all that interested in beauty. With a background in marketing, and an interest in beauty that didn't extend much further than her own personal skincare, Peterson never thought she would become the founder and CEO of her own natural skincare company. However, following a thyroid cancer diagnosis in her 30's, she became much more interested in living her healthiest lifestyle, specifically with the products she was consuming. It was from this interest that Peterson created True Botanicals. The company, which features a wide range of products from facial serums to shampoo and conditioner, touts a MADE SAFE certification, and uses independent clinical trials to test efficacy of each product. True Botanicals has also started to expand its retail strategy, opening it's flagship store in California at the end of 2018, and hopes to continue that expansion through a mix of temporary and permanent retail settings. On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, beauty editor Priya Rao sits down with Hillary Peterson, the founder and CEO of True Botanicals, to discuss starting a new business in a crowded market, leveraging a direct connection with your customers and how she hopes to expand their retail strategy.

Before Alex Friedman decided to dive into the world of feminine hygiene and sexual wellness, she was a businesswoman and a mom with a problem to solve. Everywhere she looked, people were talking about ingredients -- in food, in beauty products and even in diapers. But when she looked at the side of the box of tampons she had been using all of her life, the possible ingredients included a list of words she didn't recognize, and that scared her. She reached out to her friend and future business partner, Jordana Kier, and they decided that something needed to be done. "We were horrified," said Friedman. "So we decided to start a business to bring ingredients transparency to the tampon industry. Over the course of 3 years in business, what we learned was that every life stage is the same, from your first period, to when you start having sex, to thinking about fertility, to pregnancy, postpartum, menopause and beyond.It's all stigma, no ingredients transparency, and not enough conversation." On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, beauty editor Priya Rao sits down with Lola co-founder and co-CEO, Alex Friedman, to talk candidly about sexual wellness and feminine hygiene products, the importance of ingredients transparency and how education has played a vital role in building the brand.

Divya Gugnani was motivated to launch Wander Beauty when she realized there were no beauty brands speaking directly to her -- a woman who loves beauty and maintains a fast-paced lifestyle. Now, three years into the business, Gugnani and her team are taking a strategic approach to scaling the company by implementing technology like chatbots and text communications, and pairing that with a strategic distribution that brings them directly to their customer, wherever she is. On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Glossy's beauty editor, Priya Rao, sits down with Wander Beauty's Divya Gugnani to discuss how Wander Beauty is learning about its core customer, how it's using that information to further connect with her and what's on the horizon for the brand.

Flamingo, a DTC company focused on women's grooming needs, was the first brand to emerge out of Harry's Labs, in October of 2018. Since Harry's launched in 2013, it's seen a lot of success with female customers, at one point boasting over 1 million female subscribers. It finally decided to take advantage of the built-in fanbase of women and create a brand specifically for them. Allie Melnick, who's worked at Harry's since its launch and now serves as gm for Flamingo, saw saw the opportunity to connect with female customers by serving them with both a suite of products specifically designed for how they use them and honest, approachable education surrounding hair removal. On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, beauty editor Priya Rao sits down with Allie Melnick to discuss how Flamingo is humanizing hair removal, educating consumers and evolving.

In 1992, Laura Slatkin had no interest in home fragrance. She had spent 12 years building a successful career for herself working on Wall Street, where she met her husband. After they were married, her brother-in-law had an interior design business that was booming and was looking for partners to help him expand, when Slatkin and her husband signed on. Together, the three went on to create Slatkin & Co., which launched in Saks Fifth Avenue and was one of the first luxury home fragrance brands on the market. In 2005, Slatkin & Co. was acquired by Limited Brands, leaving Laura in a position to choose her own destiny. Saddled with a non-compete clause, she spent the next three years helping high-end designer brands develop fragrances on their own. These projects were successful for the most part, but Slatkin felt like there was a missing piece of the puzzle. It was with that notion that Nest Fragrances was born. Since its inception, the brand has expanded its offering of home fragrances and moved into new categories such as fine fragrance and, most recently, personal care. As the brand continues to grow, Slatkin hopes to turn her luxurious, yet approachable brand into an all-around lifestyle for her customers. On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Glossy beauty editor Priya Rao sits down with Laura Slatkin, founder and executive chairman of Nest Fragrances, to talk about the brand's beginnings, its expansion into new categories and its plan to turn fragrances into a lifestyle.

Josie Maran has a long history with beauty. From the time she was just 12 years old, Maran was working as a professional model. Six years into her career, which included spending hours in the makeup chair on most days, she noticed the routine was taking a toll on her skin. Raised in a family that emphasized the importance of a sustainable and natural lifestyle, she decided to seek out makeup that met that criteria. So, in 2004, she decided to fill that hole in the market. On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, beauty editor Priya Rao sits down with model, actress and founder of her namesake beauty brand, Josie Maran, to discuss how her early career informed her work in beauty, what challenges she faced when starting her brand, and where she sees Josie Maran Cosmetics going next.

About 10 years ago, Vicky Tsai chose happiness. After years of working in corporate, she slowly realized that she didn't know what she wanted to do with her career. She had also been struggling with an increasingly bad case of dermatitis that shook her confidence in her appearance and in herself. So one day, she decided to quit her job and travel the world in search of something to believe in. Somewhere along the way she found herself in Kyoto, in more ways than one. After returning to the United States, Tsai looked everywhere for the products that had saved her skin with no luck. Determined to share these secrets with the world, she sold her engagement ring to buy 10,000 blotting papers, and from there Tatcha was born. In this episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, beauty editor Priya Rao sits down with Tsai, founder and chief treasure hunter for Tatcha, to discuss the difficulty of introducing foreign beauty concepts to the US market, skincare as self-care and why you can't rush amazing products.

When Frederic Fekkai was a young man, he had no intention of entering the beauty space. In fact, he didn't even know it existed. Shortly after this discovery, Fekkai quit law school, moved to Paris and threw himself into the world of beauty. He began to work fashion shows and photoshoots, and establish meaningful connections with some of the top players in the industry. Over the course of the next four decades, Fekkai would go on to establish and sell his own namesake company, buy and rebrand Côté Bastide to Bastide, and, most recently, buy back Frederic Fekkai. On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, beauty editor Priya Rao talks to Fekkai live at the Glossy Beauty x Wellness Summit about how he got his start in the industry, what it was like to build and sell his namesake company, and why he says up-and-coming brands should stop ripping off Chanel.

Kate Oldham has spent most of her life working at Saks. Her first job with the company, a sales associate at their flagship store, was supposed to be a short term way to make money while she searched for a more formal job in marketing. However, she quickly fell in love with the company, applied for their training program, and would spend the next two decades working her way up. As she moved up the company food chain, she began to work more in the beauty and cosmetic categories, eventually landing her current role as the senior vice president and general merchandising manager of beauty and jewelry. Throughout her time she has watched these categories grow and evolve, but nothing, according to Oldham, has had as much impact as social media. In this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, beauty editor Priya Rao talks to Oldham about the ever-changing beauty category, re-designing the Saks beauty floor and why Saks is betting big on hair.

When Jill Scalamandre first started her career, she wasn't interested in beauty. She had spent some time after college working in a fashion house in Paris and was trying to figure out her next steps when someone suggested she give the beauty industry a try. She accepted an opportunity with Revlon and quickly fell in love with the industry. In the decades since, Jill has built a long, successful career in beauty. In her current role of president of BareMinerals, Buxom and global development for Shiseido makeup, she has overseen the relaunch of the Shiseido and BareMinerals brands, and revamped BareMinerals' brick-and-mortar retail strategy. In this episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, beauty editor Priya Rao sits down with Scalamandre to discuss the challenges of overseeing such different brands, the benefits of working with influencers and the future of technology in beauty. Below are excerpts from the conversation, edited for clarity.