Beauty Brand Success Stories
The beauty industry is huge and growing fast. Learn from entrepreneurs who built successful beauty and skincare businesses online.
The Beauty market is a massive industry with passionate customers, but it’s also incredibly competitive. You’re competing with major brands that spend millions on marketing, and customers have endless options.
These beauty entrepreneurs found ways to stand out and build profitable businesses. They’ll share how they developed products, navigated regulations, and built loyal customer bases.
What you’ll learn:
- Developing and formulating beauty and skincare products
- Understanding FDA rules and regulations for cosmetics
- Marketing beauty products in a crowded market
- Taking product photos that show how things really look
- Educating customers about ingredients and benefits
- Expanding internationally with beauty products
Perfect for: Beauty entrepreneurs, skincare brand builders, cosmetics creators, and anyone interested in the beauty business.
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Listen to all our Beauty Business Episodes on the Podcast:
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How Neve’s Bees Built a £100K Natural Skincare Brand by Focusing on What Works in eCommerce, with Julie Macken (episode 571)
Julie Macken is the Deputy Queen Bee of Neve’s Bees a family business turning the produce of their bee hives and local beekeepers into products that are now certified 100% natural. Founded in 2017, they switched focus to eCommerce in 2021. They now sell via their WooCommerce store, wholesale, and a couple of events, and…
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The MASAMI Story: Bootstrapping a Premium Haircare Brand Through Collaboration (episode 556)
Lynn Power is the co-founder and CEO at MASAMI a premium haircare brand. Founded in 2019, they now sell via their Shopify store and wholesale via Faire. Currently, sales have reached just under $1million. Lynn’s also the founder of the Power Beauty Collab which she launched in 2022 as a way for indie brands to…
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Nip + Fab’s Secrets to Creating Profitable First Orders and Powerful Customer Personas in Beauty eCommerce (episode 549)
Frederica Watson is the Head of eCommerce at UK beauty brand Nip + Fab. Founded over 10 years ago, they sell via their Shopify store and wholesale, and the DTC eCommerce site has a 7-figure turnover.
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How Cooki Haircare Grew from 4 Sales a Day to $3M with Jaimee Vilela (episode 531)
Jaimee Vilela is the Managing Director and Owner at Cooki Haircare. A D2C solid shampoo bar brand selling via their Shopify store and Wholesale. Founded in 2020 they grew 10x in 2024 from $170k to $1.1million, and are now on track to make 2025 their first $3million year.
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Why Focus is Wunderbrow’s Key Growth Strategy with Diego Mandelbaum (episode 524)
Diego Mandelbaum is the CEO at KF Beauty, a privately owned beauty company based in the UK, who own one of the most recognizable make-up brands launched in the last few years Wunderbrow.com. Founded in 2015 they now sell globally via their Shopify story and Amazon and some small select wholesale partners. And all in…
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How Naturisimo is Driving 7-Figure Success in the Clean Beauty Space with Judith Harvey (episode 512)
Judith Harvey is the eCommerce lead at Naturisimo, the home of ethical beauty. Founded in 2008 they now sell via their Shopify store with 7-figure sales.
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Increasing Philip Kingsley’s Profits with Strategic Promotions with Lauren Duncan (episode 510)
Lauren Duncan is the Head of eCommerce at Philip Kingsley, creators and sellers of Trichological Hair and Scalp products. Founded in the 1950s, Philip Kingsley now sells via their Magento eCommerce store, wholesale via salons and other retailers, and runs 2 clinics in London and New York. Their number one Hair Mask sells one unit…
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How Perkies is Empowering Women and Driving Sales with Rosie Mangiarotti (episode 508)
Rosie Mangiarotti is the founder & CEO at Perkies, creators of innovative undergarments. Founded in 2019, Perkies sells via their Shopify store, Amazon, and wholesale, and is now growing 100% year on year.
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Mastering the Art of Public Speaking with Look Fabulous Forever’s Janis Thomas (episode 496)
Janis Thomas is the Managing Director at Look Fabulous Forever, an innovative cosmetics and skincare brand designed to meet the needs of older women. They’re a UK DTC brand selling globally to a customer base often ignored by the DTC world, which they’re serving via a Magento site. Founded in 2013, Janis has been driving…
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The power of tapping into an under-served market with Startup Tiwani Heritage (episode 413)
Lola Cawood and Carol Lathbridge are the co-founders of Tiwani Heritage, the UK’s FIRST retailer of recyclable synthetic hair extensions. They sell their 100% biodegradable and plastic-free products via their Shopify store and marketplaces. Founded in 2018, and launched in 2020 they are deep in startup land and have already helped over 400 customers in…
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Growing Skincare brand Blossom Essentials 3x to 7 figures with Sarah Vilenskiy (episode 405)
Sarah Vilenskiy is the Founder and CEO at Blossom Essentials, a line of clean and non-toxic hydration products directly addressing chronic dry and irritated skin problems. Founded in 2020 they sell on Shopify from the USA to the world. They are experiencing 300% growth and are on track to hit $1.4m this year.
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Grow from 7 figures to 8 figures in beauty with Janis Thomas from Look Fabulous Forever (episode 404)
Janis Thomas is ex-Birch Box and the eCommerce and Marketing Director at Look Fabulous Forever, the innovative cosmetics and skincare brand designed to meet the needs of older women. They’re a UK DTC brand selling globally to customer base often ignored by the DTC world, who they’re serving via a Magento site. Founded in 2013,…
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What’s it REALLY like to sell your eCommerce store? With Matt Edmundson (episode 358)
Matt Edmundson was the CEO of the Jersey Company, a group of health, wellness, and beauty companies that deliver products and services to over 120,000 loyal customers in the UK and Europe. Pre-pandemic (yes, that long ago!) he was on the show talking about how he’d grown Jersey Beauty to achieve global sales of $75million,…
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What it takes to get to 8-figures on Shopify & Amazon with Bakblade’s Matt Dryfhout (episode 341)
Matt Dryfhout is the founder and CEO at BakBlade a men’s grooming brand founded in 2009 they now do over 8-figures a year with growth at 15-20%.
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How to capitalise on a sudden shift to eCommerce with Julie Macken from Neve’s Bees (episode 336)
Julie Macken is the Deputy Queen Bee of Neve’s Bees a family business turning the produce of their bee hives into totally natural skincare. Founded in 2017 in the last year they’ve switched to eCommerce going from just £10,000 to £50,000 in annual online sales. She takes us through how she shifted the business from…
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Side Hustle into a 1,000+ monthly subscription service with Jessica Principe from All Girl Shave Club (episode 334)
Jessica Principe is the founder of All Girl Shave Club, a razor subscription service for women. Founded in 2016 they now serve 1,000s of women across North America every month.
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Startup Story 2: Afro Drops the Rollercoaster continues! With Luke Carthy (episode 330)
Luke Carthy is a well known eCommerce CRO and SEO specialist, and now the founder of Afro Drops the new start-up we’ll be following throughout 2021.
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Shifting from F2F to 90% eCommerce with Vanessa Ungvarsky from Taylor Made Polish (episode 329)
Vanessa Ungvarskyis the founder of Taylor Made Polish, founded in late 2016 they’ve had an interesting last 18 months… By the end of 2018, there were doing a stable 6-figure sales a year with growth just happening! But the majority of their retail was offline, as was that of their wholesale customers. So overnight sales…
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Why empathy and the right team are key to online growth with Yinka Martin from HairWeavon (episode 324)
Yinka Martin is the founder and CEO at HairWeavon. A bricks and clicks retailer she founded in 2011 to help women and men experiencing hair loss to find the best Wigs and Hair Replacement Systems. Ten years on they have just achieved 20% year-on-year growth.
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Meet our 2021 Startup founder: Luke Carthy of Afro Drops. What’s the plan for the first 6months? (episode 314)
Luke Carthy is a well known eCommerce CRO and SEO specialist, and now the founder of Afro Drops the new start up we’ll be following throughout 2021.
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Influencer Marketing, Pinterest Ads, and Lead Gen Quizzes with Simon Driscoll from UXB Skincare (episode 305)
We’re joined for the fourth (and final time) today by Simon Driscoll from UXB Skincare. Who’s been sharing his startup journey with us all year – and what a year it’s been!
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DTC brand 0 to 7 figures in 3 years via content and email with Shivraj Bassi from Innermost (episode 301)
Shivraj Bassi is the Founder and CEO at Innermost. Originally Innermost sold their nutritional products B2B, but in 2019 shifted their focus to DTC. The combined DTC and B2B operation is now 3 years old and achieving a 7-figure run rate.
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ID your seasonality, getting ready for Q4, Facebook Ads and Klaviyo with Simon from UXB Skincare (episode 288)
Simon Driscoll is the founder and sole person at UXB Skincare a business he founded in 2018 with a mission to develop affordable skincare products that really make a difference to customers skin. The business runs on a Shopify store and mostly sells to the UK.
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Using pop ups to achieve 500% YoY growth with Blomma Beauty’s Karen MacDonald (episode 279)
Karen MacDonald is the founder at Blomma Beauty. She founded the business in 2018 to help customers find all natural and organic beauty products. Karen’s clearly found a successful formula as the business is growing at 500% year on year.
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Running and micro influencer marketing campaign with Shannon Fitzsimmons from O So Curly (episode 275)
Shannon Fitzsimmons is the founder at O So Curly, an online store selling tools and accessories for curly hair. Shannon started the business in 2015 and is now getting over 100 order per month. We discuss the nuts and bolts of how to run influencer marketing campaigns as well as a host of other subjects.
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Simon Driscoll from UXB Skincare is Back to update us on his Growth in Q1 and plans for Q2 (episode 273)
Simon Driscoll is the founder and sole person at UXB Skincare a business he founded in 2018 with a mission to develop affordable skincare products that really make a difference to customers skin. The business runs on a Shopify store and mostly sells to the UK.
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Competitive advantage and selecting suppliers with Matt Edmundson of Jersey Beauty Company (episode 266)
Matt Edmundson is the CEO of the Jersey Company, a group of health, wellness and beauty companies that deliver products and services to over 120,000 loyal customers in the UK and Europe. The group includes the eCommerce business Jersey Beauty Company – which went online in 2006 and since then they have achieved global sales…
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Luxury brand eCommerce and international growth with Freddie Sawkins from Czech & Speake (episode 264)
Freddie Sawkins is a director at Czech & Speake and manages eCommerce, and international development. Czech and Speake an international luxury retail brand and family run business. Launched in 1978 Freddie joined in 2017 to establish and grow the eCommerce business in the UK and around the world. They now turnover £2m per year.
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Plotting a 3 month Growth Strategy with Simon Driscoll from UXB Skincare (episode 255)
Whilst we’re really focused on growth this month, of course we all have to focus on growth and achieving our goals month in month out – you can’t forget about it once January’s over. So in this episode I’m chatting to someone who’s relatively early in their business journey, and who contacted me to see…
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Deborah Lippmann’s Mark Lippmann discusses running a multimillion dollar business and Apple Pay (episode 038)
Mark Lippmann is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder at Deborah Lippmann. Deborah Lippmann, the eCommerce business, sells a makeup range focused on nails designed by Deborah Lippmann herself – one of the most sought-after manicurists in the world. Mark is in charge of the eCommerce side of the business (amongst more) and has grown it…