July 27, 2021

Zanna Roberts Rassi | Co-Founder of Milk Makeup

41 minutes

In episode seventy one of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Watts talks to the co founder of Milk Makeup, Zanna Roberts Rassi.

Zanna’s very first job was as a model, after her boyfriend at the time secretly entered her into a modelling competition. While it was never really her passion, Zanna explains that it did open her eyes to the number of roles that existed (and still exist) behind the scenes. She spent most of her time on set asking questions of those around her- so it’s no surprise that the job she eventually moved into was that of a journalist.

It was while having her makeup done on set that Zanna realised she wanted to be part of the story telling of beauty, so she made herself known to the Beauty Editor of the magazine for which she was modelling and secured herself an internship.

In time, Zanna became a Beauty Assistant and eventually Beauty Editor at Marie Claire magazine, during which time she met her now husband, Mazdack Rassi, co-founder of Milk Studios. Zanna then moved from London to New York and was soon asked to host a fashion segment on the Today Show. That segment became a launchpad for her television career, with Zanna now serving as E!’s style correspondent, a Today Show contributor and, previously, as a guest judge and mentor on Project Runway All Stars.

It was in around 2013 that Zanna, her husband and their soon-to-be Milk co-founders Georgie Greville and Dianna Ruth began to conceptualise what would eventually become Milk Makeup, craving easy, fun, multi-tasking makeup. They launched in 2016 with 85 products, and today Milk Makeup is available to consumers in over 130 countries.

In this conversation, Zanna shares why Milk are intent on creating products that have never been seen before, the story of her stint as an undercover makeup artist at Paris Fashion Week, and why her first real encounter with beauty was reminiscent of, in her words, “advanced hypothermia.”