beauty
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COSMETOLOGIST: Beauty needs proof.
COSMETOLOGIST describes a business built around salon qualifications and professional referrals. Its proposition puts a useful question in the mirror: what does a beauty credential actually prove?
HairCareAmerica: the business behind the bottle
A shampoo purchase can lead to a beauty routine, a rewards membership or a selling business. HairCareAmerica shows how MONAT puts all three behind the same storefront.
Agencias MOTTA S.A.: The business behind the shelf
A perfume distributor became a route into Panama for everyday goods. Agencias MOTTA S.A. shows how manufacturing, retail relationships and warehouse discipline can become one business.
REVOLVE figured out what comes after the photo
The party gets your attention. The buying system makes the money. Inside a fashion retailer that turned customer feedback into a $1.23 billion business.
Procter & Gamble. Built to be bought again.
A nearly abandoned detergent experiment reveals how P&G works: solve an ordinary problem, make the answer familiar, then earn the next purchase.
Kohl’s needs a reason to visit. Then a reason to stay.
Amazon returns bring people through the door. Sephora gives them a destination. Kohl’s next challenge is making the rest of the shopping trip earn its place.
Macy's is learning to think smaller
The store that taught America to shop is pruning its footprint and putting people back on the floor. Its turnaround asks a deceptively simple question: how much department store do customers actually want?
Dillard’s knows what to keep
A department store can sell more and keep less. Dillard’s offers a useful lesson in the opposite ambition: protecting the value of what passes through the till.
ShopHQ turned off the TV. Kept the pitch.
The home-shopping veteran went dark, then returned with a smaller operating model and a familiar proposition: let someone show you why a product matters.
Vacation made sunscreen worth remembering
A sunscreen that smells like a swimming pool. A perfume that smells like sunscreen. Vacation built a business by making the sensible thing feel like the fun thing.
Hypefast builds the business behind the brand
A beauty compact. A baby outfit. A warehouse. Hypefast is connecting the things shoppers see with the machinery they don’t - and learning that a smaller portfolio can make a stronger business.
Thrive Causemetics and the $25,000 eyeliner that took its time
Before the teal mascara became familiar, Karissa Bodnar had an apartment full of eyeliner and dwindling savings. Her beauty business grew by solving a small, stubborn problem - then giving each sale a second purpose.
Nutrafol Turned the Wait for Hair Into a Business
Hair grows slowly. Nutrafol built a company around that inconvenient fact, pairing life-stage supplements with clinical research, professional referrals and a reason to keep showing up.
MAËLYS Found a Business Below the Neck
A booty mask opened the door. Targeted formulas, direct customer data and a reluctant romance with retail turned MAËLYS into a business built around the skin beauty used to overlook.
FEKKAI bought back its name. Then it brought back the cream.
A salon built a haircare business on the promise of good taste. Its second act reveals the awkward art of changing a brand without changing what customers love.
Seventeen Magazine sold advertisers on teenage girls. Then the girls changed the rules.
A fictional reader helped Seventeen sell a real market. Eight decades later, the teen media brand offers a lesson in listening to the people you hope to influence.
INNBEAUTY PROJECT asks the $50 question
Two beauty-industry veterans put clinical skincare in a brighter bottle and gave it a smaller price tag. Then a moisturizer helped them outgrow the audience everyone thought they had.
WONDERSKIN made blue lips a business
A lip stain that looks wrong before it looks right gave WONDERSKIN a built-in demonstration. Turning that little surprise into a lasting beauty business took rather more than a viral video.
Ellis Brooklyn: The Perfume Brand That Outgrew “Clean”
Bee Shapiro started with two scented lotions and a journalist’s eye for an omission. Her fragrance company now offers a more interesting lesson: how to change your vocabulary without losing your point of view.
Arcaea’s $78 million bet on a different kind of scent
Extinct flowers became perfume. Underarm microbes became a design problem. Arcaea is turning biology into ingredients for beauty brands - and stories for its own.
BrandLink Communications knows the value of being in the room
A poolside launch, a celebrity client list, and one disastrous email reveal the business behind BrandLink Communications: finding the people who make a brand worth talking about.
Infinity Creative Agency knows who should be in the picture
Adee Drexler built a business connecting fashion and beauty brands with the people who make them desirable. The interesting part is how much work happens before anyone takes a photograph.
A-Frame Agency puts the people behind the look in the picture
The hairstylist, the makeup artist, the person responsible for those nails: A-Frame represents the creatives behind celebrity images, then helps turn their expertise into a business of its own.
Son of Noise knows what happens after the invitation
A fragrance sample. A creator who actually likes it. A shop with someone managing the line. Son of Noise connects the glamorous promise of brand marketing to the work that makes it happen.
Insight Media wants a creator’s name on the label
A 57-piece Aéropostale collection reveals the ambition behind this talent management firm: turn an audience’s taste into something that can live on a store shelf.
Be Social saw a business on both sides of the post
Ali Grant built an agency for brands that needed creators, then for creators who needed a business partner. Its evolution into The Digital Dept. shows how much work sits behind a seemingly effortless post.
The Wax Bar made room for a beer before the Brazilian
A Seattle esthetician listened when clients wished their waxing appointment came with a drink. The business she built makes an unusually good case for paying attention to the waiting room.
NO AFFILIATION makes a business of the right company
A singer, a lingerie label, a fashion magazine: the interesting work happens between them. Inside the Los Angeles agency that brings talent management, brand partnerships, and publicity into the same conversation.
The A List knows who gets you in the room
A Beverly Hills agency built its business around celebrity access. Its party for Hollywood assistants offers a useful clue to how that access actually works.
Walker Drawas knows who gets you through the door
Celebrity access is only the beginning. The agency behind campaigns for REVOLVE and other consumer brands connects the guest list, the product and the reason anyone should care.