Core Concepts

The euphoria of scoring an order from a big-box retailer can quickly fade when reality sets in. Advice from those who’ve been there to emerging brand founders: Don’t count on making money in your first few years and...

Ulta3 Cosmetics and Salon launched in 1990 with five stores around the Chicago suburb Naperville, Ill. Fast forward more than 30 years later and the company now known as Ulta Beauty has become the largest destination...

It’s pretty tough to be a direct-to-consumer brand today. From establishing differentiation to building awareness, negotiating supplier fees and prioritizing how to allot limited resources, emerging founder-led digitally native brands face consistent challenges....

In 2021, there’s been a bull market for beauty and wellness businesses. With the year wrapping up, acquisitions of Youth To The People, Sol de Janeiro, Ouai, and Billie by L’Oréal, L’Occitane, Procter & Gamble, and Edgewell Personal Care respectively, have been...

Here’s a controversial take given the beauty industry rat race to reduce environmental impacts: Plastic is an unbeatable packaging material for certain products. Of course, the downside is that plastic packaging produces billions of units of waste each...

The pandemic has dramatically shifted the marketing and public relations landscape. Confronting the shifting landscape, indie beauty brands have had to find new ways to boost awareness. Exactly how are they doing that? According to brand founders and...