As more consumers indulge in self-care at home, the body-care category is continuing to grow, allowing brands to seize the moment.

For 7-year-old body-care brand Billie, which was acquired for $310 million by personal care company Edgewell in 2021, the body-care surge couldn't have come at a better time. Before the acquisition, Billie solely sold direct-to-consumer. But in 2022, it launched in Walmart before expanding to Amazon, Target, Ulta and Kroger last year. In February, Billie rolled out its biggest category expansion yet with new body wash, body lotion and deodorant products.

On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Cooley talks about Billie's trajectory post-acquisition and the plans the brand has in store this year.

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Digiday Media's WorkLife is proud to present season three of The Return, a podcast about the modern workforce, with this season focused on middle management.

Last season, we heard what it’s like for Gen Z to enter the workforce for the first time in a post-pandemic world. We highlighted themes like why values are so important to Gen Zers, whether or not they are loyal to their employers, how they use TikTok for career advice, what it means to be a young professional who is a boss to older workers, and so much more.

This time, we’re hearing from the population of workers that some argue is the backbone of a successfully-run organization: middle management. They are the ones who are navigating those RTO mandates, welcoming a new generation of workers that have a different approach than those who came before them, the rise of artificial intelligence – the list goes on.

In season three of The Return, we speak to middle managers themselves to hear beyond their everyday stresses of the job, but what they need to guarantee everyone they manage has what they need to be the best at what they do. C-suite, listen up because they need your help too.

We dive into how middle management stress is a decades-long issue (there are New York Times headlines dating back to 1971), how the wrong people are being chosen to be managers which is leading to the rise of “accidental managers,” what it’s like to have hard conversations and having to be a therapist at times, where people are finding support as a middle manager, and how AI is impacting the job of a middle manager.

With a Q+A format, you will hear in-depth conversations with folks including Colette Stallbaumer, Microsoft’s general manager of Microsoft 365 and Future of Work Marketing, Rob Pierre, former CEO of advertising services platform Jellyfish, and Emily Field, partner at McKinsey & Company who co-authored “Power to the Middle: Why Managers Hold the Keys to the Future of Work,” to name a few.

Season three of The Return is hosted by Cloey Callahan, senior reporter at Digiday Media’s WorkLife, and produced by Digiday Media’s audio producer Sara Patterson.

Subscribe to the WorkLife podcast now on Apple Podcasts – or wherever you get your podcasts – to hear the first episode on Tuesday, April 23.

Tina Chen Craig started Bag Snob, her original claim to fame, in 2005. She hustled her way to the front row of New York Fashion Week when "blogger" was still a dirty word and before "influencer" was in anyone's vocabulary. Then, in 2019, she did something she never expected to do and launched a beauty product, marking her first step in building a full beauty brand spanning skin care, body care and color cosmetics.

Called U Beauty, the brand launched on Net-a-Porter in November 2019 with Chen Craig's original product, the Resurfacing Compound. Based on units sold, it's still the brand's bestseller. The product, with various sizes priced $88-$228, is a multi-tasking serum with ingredients including retinol and vitamin C. Typically, these ingredients can't be combined, but the brand's patent-pending Siren capsule technology makes the mix possible.

On this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Chen Craig goes deep on everything from starting Bagsnob.com when a "Google domain thing" cost $10 to developing UBeauty's most recent launch, its Super Intensive Face Oil.

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Running two beauty businesses without outside funding is no small feat, but Maria Hatzistefanis, founder and CEO of Rodial and Nip+Fab, is making it work. And her businesses are thriving.

Hatzistefanis launched the luxury skin-care and makeup brand Rodial in 1999, after being fired from her investment banking job in her early 20s. She went on to launch Nip+Fab in 2010. Now best known for its bestselling Glycolic Fix product range, Nip+Fab was originally meant to be Rodial's more accessible, mass-market little sister.

"My idea [for both brands] was to come up with products that would give you instant and long-term results," Hatzistefanis told Glossy. "I had a passion for researching ingredients that no one else was using."

Today, both Rodial and Nip+Fab are sold in over 10,000 stores across 35 countries. Rodial is distributed in luxury department stores, including Harrods, Selfridges and Blue Mercury, while Nip+Fab is available at Boots and JCPenney. "We have been growing double-digits year-over-year, for both brands," Hatzistefanis said. "Plus, profitability has been a driver of our business, and we've always been profitable."

On this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Hatzistefanis discussed the ins and outs of running a business for over 25 years and the next stage of growth for Rodial Group.

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Along with being the founder of 7-year-old Megababe, Katie Sturino is an influencer (803,000 followers on Instagram, 25,000 on TikTok), a body positivity advocate and the author of the book "Body Talk," published in 2021.

Megababe is best known for its first product: Thigh Rescue, an anti-chafe stick of which over 1 million units have sold. In addition to being sold at Target, Ulta, Goop, Anthropologie and Nordstrom, among other retailers, the brand launched at Walmart in early March.

"Megababe is still self-funded; we have never taken $1 of fundraising," Sturino said on this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast. "It's a different type of approach than other brands that launched at the same time. Most people will take funding and grow really big."

Also on the podcast, Sturino discusses her start in content creation, Megababe's expansion to Walmart and new categories, the brand's first big marketing investments, and her response to the current heightened fixation on weight.

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Tattoos are now big business for the beauty industry.

Since 2021, tattooing and tattoo care products have attracted both investor and strategic acquirer attention. Brands like Mad Rabbit have raised millions in outside funding to provide tattooed customers with before, during and aftercare products. According to a 2015 Harris Poll, more Americans are getting tattoos, with 29% having at least one. Specifically, 47% of millennials have one compared to over 36% of Gen Xers. What was previously associated with only select groups of people, tattoos are now more common among people from all walks of life.

“A big agenda of Mad Rabbit overall is continuing to push and champion self-expression and make it normal and OK for someone to express themselves in any sort of room,” said Oliver Zak, co-founder and CEO of Mad Rabbit, on the latest episode of the Glossy Beauty podcast.

Mad Rabbit launched in 2019 with $600 invested between its co-founders, Oliver Zak and Selom Agbitor. They bootstrapped the business until being cast on “Shark Tank,” where Mark Cuban invested $500,000 in the brand for 12% equity. Cuban has further invested in subsequent fundraising rounds. Mad Rabbit has raised $16 million in total funding thus far.

Speaking on the podcast, Zak detailed the marketing steps the brand took to support its 2023 launch into Walmart, the reasons why people need tattoo care in the first place and the factors driving interest in the tattoo care category.

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Love Wellness, the supplements brand created by "Laguna Beach" alum Lo Bosworth in 2016, is now eight years old. The brand's bestsellers include its Good Girl Probiotics and The Killer boric acid suppositories, both designed to support vaginal health, as well as its Bye Bye Bloat de-bloating supplement, of which 2 million bottles have sold. Last week, Bye Bye Bloat became a full-blown franchise with the launch of the brand's first true body-care products: a $14.99 Lymphatic Massage Roller, a $24.99 Firming Clay Body Mask and a $19.99 Detoxifying Body Oil.

On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Bosworth discusses the origin story and growth of Love Wellness plus the playbook she's leveraging to build a product franchise. 

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When Clinique’s 52-year-old Black Honey lipstick went viral on TikTok in 2021, it represented a major shift for both the decades-old brand and the beauty industry.

For the industry, it introduced the notion that viral TikTok moments could be a cash windfall for brands and worthy of their always-on marketing attention. For Clinique, it jumpstarted the need for the brand to act like a nimble startup and affirm its cultural currency. Since then, Clinique has been bullish on reaching younger consumers through college campus activations, building on its Black Honey fame with new products, and further developing its science-led background with new studies and liaisons with medical experts. At the helm of this growth is Michelle Freyre, global brand president of Clinique. She joined The Estée Lauder Companies in 2020 as svp and global general manager of Clinique. Previously, Freyre spent 20 years at Johnson & Johnson holding various leadership roles within its consumer health product division.

Freyre joined the latest episode of the Glossy Beauty podcast to talk about post-Black Honey virality, the significance of Gen Z’s love for skin care and the new needs states of today’s beauty customers. 

Though actor, podcaster, investor and brand founder Sara Foster never intended to launch a clothing line, it turns out she's quite good at it. Four-year-old Favorite Daughter, which she and her sister Erin Foster created in partnership with Centric Brands, was profitable by year two, she said. In 2023, the brand tiptoed into beauty, launching a duo of lip oils with Saint Jane, the "clean" beauty brand founded by Casey Georgeson. Now, with Georgeson's help, Favorite Daughter is launching its first two fragrances — one for each sister. Sara Foster's signature is called "Grecian Nights," while Erin Foster's is "Italian Summers."

"We knew we wanted the packaging to be a beautiful moment. And we knew we wanted the fragrance to be the cleanest, but with real efficacy — that's a problem with clean fragrances; they don't last," Sara Foster said, regarding the fragrance development process.

On this week's episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, Sara Foster discusses the road to launching a brand, the brand's expansion into beauty, the type of partners she wants to work with and the reason she prefers a customer event over an influencer blowout. According to Foster, beauty isn't the last new category you'll see from the brand. "I think, eventually, Favorite Daughter will be providing everything for you," she said.

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Maintaining the cultural relevancy of a 40-year-old brand is no small feat. However, Sarah Koch, svp and gm of Kendo Brands, is up to the task when it comes to OleHenriksen skin care.

“You have to be true to your core as a brand, but then you have to continue to evolve with the consumer so that you're relevant to where he or she is in their lives,” said Koch on the latest episode of the Glossy Beauty podcast.

The anti-aging brand was founded in 1983 by Ole Henriksen, a Danish esthetician who developed a collection of products that exfoliate, treat and soothe the skin. The 40-year-old brand was purchased by Kendo Brands in 2011 and relaunched in 2017. At the time of the relaunch, the portfolio was streamlined into four franchises to target the top five skin-care concerns and sharpen the focus on the brand's Scandinavian roots.

But brand relevancy is also about where the brand is found. In January 2024, the formerly Sephora-exclusive brand expanded to Ulta Beauty. Also this year, the brand plans to expand its best-selling Banana Bright franchise with an undisclosed product.

“It's the sort of launch that brings everything together — like our Scandinavian heritage, efficaciousness and joyful glow — into one product. It will be potentially game-changing for the brand,” she said.

Koch further spoke on the Glossy Beauty podcast about brand relevancy, the reason OleHenriksen won't be launching scalp care anytime soon, and the motivation for teaming with TikToker Alix Earle. 

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Kyle Leahy, Glossier's first CEO after its founder Emily Weiss vacated the role in May 2022, has had a busy first year-and-a-half in the job. She brought the brand into wholesale for the first time. brokering its partnership with Sephora, which has been a great success. She's also continued the brand's WNBA partnership, launched its first college tour and increased the cadence of its launches. But perhaps most importantly, she can be credited with the revival of the brand, which, as she said in her 2023 Glossy 50 profile, is a long-haul job: “We genuinely believe we’re on year 10 of building a 100-year brand.”

On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Leahy spoke about all of the above, in addition to what the brand did when Reddit leaked its eye cream launch and what Glossier has in common with Taylor Swift. She also addressed social media rumors regarding whether or not the brand had reformulated its bestselling fragrance, Glossier You. 

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