BORNTOSTANDOUT is unquestionably one of the most interesting, and in my opinion industry-defining, brands in not just the fragrance space, but the beauty sphere at large right now.                    

What’s so fascinating to me about BTSO is that it’s built on this idea of rebellion, but the brand is based in South Korea. Now you hear Korea and you think “Well, that makes sense, it’s the global capital of beauty innovation,” but as Jun puts it- “Korea is simultaneously one of the most innovative beauty markets in the world, but also the most conformist in terms of taste.” He explained to me that K Beauty is, at its core, built on the idea of perfecting a standard, not breaking one. 

That in mind, I had a lot of questions for Jun about how he’s gone about launching into a relatively conservative market, given so much of the brand’s iconography is tied to sex, to excess, to gluttony- it’s super sexy, which to me feels really natural, but evidently this is a brand that was never formed with solely its local market in mind. 

In this conversation, Jun shares how he’s managed to expand the brand to over 75 countries without diluting its DNA, why he believes specificity is what creates resonance, and how he keeps creating perfumes when he only has so many love stories to tell…

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow BTSO on Instagram @borntostandout.official

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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You know Fara Homidi’s work, regardless of if that name is familiar to you or not. Whether you’re invested in beauty and had been counting down to her namesake brand’s arrival on Australian shelves, or if you’ve had a peripheral scroll through Instagram and seen a Miu Miu campaign or an i-D cover- based on the extent to which she’s shaped 21st century beauty, I can just about guarantee you’ve seen her work. 

I’ve always been visually very drawn to the way Fara applies makeup and approaches beauty overall, but it’s been so interesting to listen to the way she speaks about that approach. I’d read a quote from her, years ago, in which she said she’s more interested in makeup looking “alive” than “pretty,” so I pushed her on this a bit as I wanted to hear more. 

She explained that, for her, it’s more about creating something for the female gaze. When Fara talks about sexy, she’s acutely aware of what women find sexy- that’s who she’s creating for. In the early 2000s, for example, when she was finding a lot of her work for magazines was being airbrushed to oblivion, her way of rebelling was to seek out teams of women- female photographers, stylists, creative directors, women who were more interested in something that looked “lived in” as opposed to this idea of “perfection.” That’s how Fara rebelled, and it’s something she’s taken through the decades with her and has since woven through Fara Homidi Beauty. 

While Fara was in Australia to launch the brand into Mecca, she shared what she thinks some founders miss by never having worked in consumer-facing beauty, how she strikes the fine line between artistry and consumer understanding, and how she convinced Kendall Jenner to bleach her eyebrows for the most recent cover of Vogue Paris. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Fara Homidi Beauty on Instagram @farahomidibeauty

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Season 8 of the Glow Journal podcast returns this Wednesday, April 1. We can't wait to share this season's lineup of some of the world's best beauty entrepreneurs- starting with an Australian podcast exclusive.

If you love beauty, business, and the sound of my voice- you know what to do.

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By virtue of my job, I’m asked pretty often which beauty brands I’m genuinely excited by or who I think both the industry and consumers should be keeping an eye on, and for the last 18 months my first answer has been Supernova Body without a second of hesitation. 

This brand is everything I love in a new brand- the products are genuinely innovative and fill a legitimate market gap, it’s making beauty fun and sexy and that’s what beauty is to me, and it’s led by a founder who is only in this for the right reasons. Cici actually reminds me a lot of Deciem and The Ordinary’s Nicola Kilner, who I often cite as one of my all time favourite guests, as they’re both really beautiful examples of female founders leading with kindness. 

Supernova Body is an active, high performance body care brand, formulated specifically to target and treat body acne, that Cici launched in 2024 following four years of product development and, in this episode, Cici very kindly gave me an exclusive on the brand’s next launch coming in early 2026… 

In this conversation, Cici shares how she landed Sephora UK as Supernova’s very first retailer, some of the unexpected benefits of remaining D2C and self funded for the first year, and why her exit interview from British Vogue didn’t go quite as expected.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Supernova Body on Instagram @supernova.body

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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I mentioned earlier this season that, given we’re now 7 seasons in, I wanted to go back and revisit some of my favourite beauty brand stories- I wanted to bring back previous guests from earlier seasons and look at how their brands and the beauty industry at large has evolved since we last recorded. 

For the uninitiated, Conserving Beauty is Australia’s first ever waterless beauty brand, the first beauty brand globally to be part of the Water Footprint network, the first Australian beauty brand to be backed by both government and impact investment funds, and the brand behind the world’s first dissolving facial wipes. Natassia launched the brand when she was just 27 years old. 

Since we last spoke the brand has launched into Mecca and Priceline locally as well as expanding into the UK and US markets, the latter of which is now responsible for a whopping 70% of the brand’s revenue. What I found the most interesting, however, is that the data that Natassia and her team have gathered over the last 3 and a half years has shown them that their customer is actually not who they initially thought it was, and how they’ve changed tack to make sure they’re formulating for and marketing to the right consumers. 

In this conversation, Natassia shares exactly how they’ve pivoted for an audience they didn’t realise was theirs’, how she’s approaching Conserving Beauty’s US launch differently from their UK launch, and why the pharmacy customer has proven surprisingly lucrative. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Conserving Beauty on Instagram @conservingbeauty

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Another solo episode this week, wrapping up the year (almost- still a few guest episodes left in Season 7) with my favourite new beauty launches of 2025.

We'll add the full list in these shownotes eventually but, for now, enjoy.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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I promised you more solo episodes last year, and in absolutely no way have I delivered. Here's one!

A little life update, then answering your questions on work, my studies, how I got into MCing, and whether or not I think PR sendouts actually move product... then into some beauty chat about prescription actives and wedding perfumes. As always, thank you to everyone who submitted questions!

Stay up to date on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Two years before Hailey Bieber sold Rhode to e.l.f. Beauty, Susan Yara and her team sold Naturium to the beauty juggernaut for $355 million USD. 

The Naturium growth story is the kind of story you hear and think “This could be a Netflix doco.” Susan, naturally, tells it better than I do, but this may be one of the biggest beauty comebacks in recent history. 

Susan Yara, then a popular YouTuber, joined Naturium in a founder and CEO role in the year 2020. There was a controversy, the internet called for her to be cancelled, but against the odds the brand achieved a whopping 80% compound annual growth rate and were acquired by e.l.f. for that eye watering $355 million in 2023- just three years post-launch. This week, Naturium launches into Sephora Australia (into physical stores TODAY), with Susan still very much fronting the brand and, as she tells me, “getting to do all the fun stuff.” 

So. How did she do it?

In this conversation, Susan shares a timeline of that 2020 controversy, whether “clean” means anything in 2025, and why your customer’s return rate is the most important stat to be looking at . 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Naturium on Instagram @naturium

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Eleanor Pendleton knows beauty. She was the youngest Beauty Editor in Australia, taking the title at FAMOUS magazine when she was only 20 years old and has spent the better part of the last two decades in beauty publishing, largely at the helm of her own publication, Gritty Pretty. 

Eleanor is an unbelievable example of a journalist who has been able to not just adapt to but embrace the changing face of the media landscape of whatever we’re calling it, and to this day I really think nobody navigated that change better than Eleanor and her Gritty Pretty team- it was the gloss and the production value of a magazine, but it was digital and, most importantly, it was honest. That in mind, there are very few people I’d trust more than Eleanor to create their own beauty line. 

Haléau Beauty, a skin-first, Australian made cosmetics line, launches today, October 1st, and Eleanor so kindly gave me the exclusive. This is a brand that harnesses, quite literally, two decades worth of insider beauty knowledge and places it in our hands. 

In this conversation, Eleanor shares how she convinced advertisers to buy into Gritty Pretty when she had no product to show them, her advice for anyone wanting to break into the beauty media landscape in 2025, and why she’s chosen to document the entire Haléau launch process via Substack. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Haléau on Instagram @haleaubeauty

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Enter, SOMA. If the gap itself wasn’t compelling enough, consider that Georgie and Camille were given a 10 week launch timeline from Woolworths. That’s 10 weeks to strategise, formulate, package and market an entirely new brand, all while keeping that accessible price point in mind, and have it on the shelves of over 1000 Woolies stores nationwide in less than three months. 

In this conversation, Georgie and Camille share how they’re going about converting habitual supermarket shoppers who’ve been buying the same body wash for decades, the intricacies of creating body care packaging that’s fully and easily recyclable, and what happens when your product accidentally goes viral on TikTok before you’ve officially launched. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Bronte Body Care on Instagram @brontebodycare

Follow SOMA on Instagram @somapersonalcare

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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We’re increasingly seeing brands bring new sustainability initiatives to the table, but the reality is that the most sustainable thing you can do is to stop producing more things. Now that’s never going to happen, is it, so the challenge here is for beauty brands to figure out how we as consumers can still experience beauty in the way we want, without compromise, but with as minimal a footprint as is possible. 

I use the word “challenge” but that doesn’t feel like it has anywhere near enough gravitas when talking about what Lucy Vincent has achieved at sans [ceuticals]. She founded the brand in around 2007 and has always been very much ahead of the curve, across formulation, design, and sustainability, but this week has seen the launch of Perpetual- a completely waterless haircare range, housed in canisters that are designed to be held onto forever that have been crafted from waste to take existing plastic out of circulation, with refill cartons made from discarded sugarcane leaves that can be returned to the earth via compost when you’re done. 

In seven years of this podcast, I’m not sure that I’ve ever spoken to someone who has considered every single step of the supply chain so thoroughly. 

In this conversation, Lucy shares the importance of knowing how to do a number of roles within your business, why every day presents an opportunity for learning, and why your “recyclable” beauty products may not be all they appear to be. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow sans [ceuticals] on Instagram @sansceuticals

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Rach has been on the show before, back in April 2022, to talk about tbh, but this is the first time a founder has joined me for a second time to talk about an entirely new brand. I wanted to talk predominantly about Bouf today, so if you do want to hear about the tbh launch and Rach’s story as a founder, you can find that episode back in season 4.

That said, we did have over three years of tbh catch up to do and, in Rach’s words, the last 3 years have really been where everything has happened- the brand launched into over 400 Priceline stores in March 2023 and Coles later that year, merged with Boost Lab the following month to create parent company York St Brands, and rebranded earlier this year ahead of global expansion. 

Bouf, Rachael’s newest venture and the third brand within the York St stable, was developed in a similar manner to tbh- Rachael was presented with patented hair growth tech called the FGF5 protein, she looked at the clinical, tried it herself over several months, and upon seeing results, decided to take that tech to market in the form of a shampoo, conditioner, leave in treatment, hair growth tonic and a digestible hair growth supplement. 

In this conversation, Rachael shares the reason behind that now infamous Bouf launch campaign that saw brand ambassador Indy Clinton wearing a wig, the detail behind 2023’s York St Brands merger and tbh skincare’s subsequent growth, and how she and her team survived an internet hate campaign that, quite literally, captured the attention of the world. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Bouf on Instagram @boufhaircare

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Felicity’s founder story is really different to my usual guests in that she never really set out to create a “brand.” I thought this was a wonderful opportunity to show you how many different shapes the startup journey, so to speak, can take.

The short version- Felicity wanted to overhaul her health, so she started making probiotic drinks in her kitchen. Her friends and family saw a change in her skin, her hair, her energy, and her health, so she started making up batches for them. Word spread, local retailers started asking if they could stock her products, and over a decade on Imbibe is a fully fledged beauty and wellness brand with SKUs spanning ingestible and topical skincare.

There’s a lot you can take from this, but what I find the most interesting is the finding-the-right-manufacturer piece- if you set out specifically with the goal of becoming a “brand founder,” hearing the word “no” time and time again (a startup inevitability) would be really disheartening. In Felicity’s case, she didn’t necessarily want to start a brand, so hearing a “no” was kind of a straightforward “okay, well you’re not the right manufacturer.” Business wasn’t her primary motivator- her primary motivator was just getting a shelf stable version of her product to the people who wanted it.

In this conversation, Felicity shares why the hotel space has become one of her most interesting and fruitful distribution channels, the many ways inflammation can show up in the body, and why she’s always used her customers as her biggest influencers. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Imbibe on Instagram @imbibeliving

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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This is something I’d been thinking about doing for a while and, for whatever reason, season 7 feels like the right time to do it. 

I had Bree and her Frank co founder, Jess Hatzis, on the podcast back in 2018, season 1- back when I thought this would just be a miniseries on the business of beauty. What I’d been wanting to do is bring back previous guests from the first few seasons and look at not just how their brand has evolved in the 7 or so years since I last interviewed them, but also get their take on the evolution of the beauty industry as a whole since we last did a deep dive and compare their answers from then to now. 

Bree was the perfect founder to do this with. She was SO down to compare her previous answers to today’s feelings, I’ve worked with Bree and the larger frank team a lot over the last decade, I MC’d their newest launch on Monday so it has been really fun to just immerse myself in the Frank world this week. On top of that, Bree is a branding and beauty MASTERMIND. So few brands have been able to achieve what Frank has achieved, globally, so this was a really fun chat for me not just from a beauty perspective but from a marketing perspective. 

Something I loved talking to Bree about was how she knew it was time to step away from her day-to-day role at Frank Body. Bree is still on the advisory board at Frank but isn’t there day-to-day anymore, so she’s got some really beautiful insight to share on knowing when the time is right for such a big change, navigating that change, and the identity piece that comes along with it.

In this conversation, Bree shares her thoughts on how new businesses can cut through the noise on social media with a 2025 lens, why frank body has moved away from novelty launches and has moved into high performance body care, and we compare her take on the state of the beauty industry with the answers she gave me back in season 1. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Frank Body on Instagram @frank_bod

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Ficifolia Fragrances is only two and a half years old, in which time Sophie has launched 6 individual perfumes as well as the fragrance Flight Deck- a first-to-market offering that I consider one of the most a beautiful examples of thinking outside the box when it comes to converting customers, regardless of industry, that I’ve come across.

I had some questions for Soph about brand building, as that’s really the cornerstone of her professional background. She said that for her, it’s about “creating a world that people want to return to.” I made note of that while she was speaking and it’s stuck with me. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? I think this was the perfect episode to start the season with because as much as we do talk about beauty and how that space lights us up, there’s so many business nuggets in here- why your journey to starting a brand doesn’t have to be linear, why the market circuit is so beneficial for startups, we talked a bit about the natural vs synthetic debate (which, as you can imagine, I have a lot of thoughts on)… just a really juicy but fun chat about a fragrance brand that I am personally obsessed with. 

In this conversation, Sophie the importance of bringing in someone objective to assist with making decisions that may be too close to your brand, how she’s giving e-commerce customers a tactile entry point to the world of Ficifolia, and we both share some of our thoughts on beauty dupe culture. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Ficifolia Fragrances on Instagram @ficifoliafragrances

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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I'm back on mic and it feels good. It feels different, and I feel different, but it feels good.

Here's an update on why I've been so quiet on here since November, plus a little bit of a listener Q&A on ageing, botox, everything showers and switching off.

Season 7 baby, let's do it.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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To wind up an incredible incredible year I'm answering your questions- we're talking my semi-recent PCOS diagnosis, 2025 beauty predictions, New Year's Resolutions and a few more career questions for good measure.

Thank you once again to everyone who submitted such thoughtful questions. I will see you next year for Season 7 (!) of the Glow Journal Podcast!

Stay up to date on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Outside Beauty & Skincare is not your average celebrity beauty brand. I already knew this, but it just becomes more and more clear the longer you speak to Maddison for. 

Given how impressive her career has been thus far (acting opposite Nicole Kidman when she was still a teenager, then spending 4 seasons in the role of Kirby Anders in Dynasty on The CW), you’d be forgiven for assuming this is another private label brand- an existing product with a celebrity endorsement attached. But this is so far from the case here.

Outside Beauty & Skincare, which launched in January of this year, is just Maddison and her sister, Allyson. They’ve self-funded, they spent the 12 months prior to launch working through every single stage of starting a business themselves, and in just under a year they’ve brought four (five if we include the Kabuki brush) really, really beautiful sun protection products to market (with plenty more in the pipeline). 

In this conversation, Maddison shares the surprising differences in the response to Dynasty across Europe and Australia compared to the show’s home in the US, her refreshingly level-headed approach to social media (and the media in general), and why she thinks Australia’s famously strict regulations around sunscreen are a really, really positive thing.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Outside Beauty & Skincare on Instagram @outsidebeautyskincare

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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I knew this was going to be a great storytelling episode, because I was already reasonably versed in the Airyday backstory, but what blew me away in this conversation was how much actual tangible business advice Frances so openly shared. 

Frances was diagnosed with a Basal Cell Carcinoma, which led to her trying more or less every sunscreen on the market to find a formula she loved and would be happy to wear every day. When she couldn’t find one that ticked every box, she set to work on developing Airyday- an SPF wardrobe that launched in 2022 with four sunscreens. 

Beauty retail giant Sephora reached out to Frances a mere six weeks post-launch, and today, two years in, Airyday is stocked in Sephora stores nationally and through a whopping 600 clinic stockists. Frances explains that this was largely thanks to a high risk ad spend strategy that she explains far better than I can. 

In this conversation, Frances shares the realities of such major growth in such a short timeframe, how her marketing investment allowed Airyday to cut through the noise in a saturated market, and her advice on getting your brand seen by the decision makers at the country’s biggest retailers. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Airyday on Instagram @airyday.official

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Hi! Gem here. This is probably the most honest and open I’ve been about a bunch of things on the internet. This was cathartic! We're talking my studies, how I got into the beauty industry, my career prior to leaving my job and going out on my own 8 years ago, career advice... you understand.

Thank you to everyone who submitted such thoughtful questions. If you enjoyed this and would like me to do another solo ep somewhere down the line, please let me know. If you didn’t enjoy it, don’t tell me. Thanks!

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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The Augustinus Bader brand turned over $7 million USD in 2018, the year it launched. Within 2 years that figure had grown to $70 million, and this year it’s reported that sales will have topped $130 million. That is the power of Augustinus Bader, both the man and the brand, the latter having won over 120 beauty industry awards since launch, including being named The Greatest Skincare of All Time by WWD. 

Professor Bader, however, never intended to enter the beauty industry. Following over 3 decades of work in medicine and garnering global acclaim for his work with burns victims, it was in 2013 that he met French financier Charles Rosier who saw his work and began the two year process of convincing the Professor to start a skincare brand with him. 

The term “cult brand” gets thrown around a little loosely in beauty, but that truly is the status Augustinus Bader has reached. This is a man who said “yes” to developing skincare almost entirely so he could self-fund future medical innovations, but whose products have become so, so popular that he is now a frequent collaborator of Victoria Beckham and has grown the product line from 2 face creams to somewhere between 30 and 40 SKUs.

In this conversation, Professor Bader shares how he took a hospital grade burn cream and made it into a shelf stable luxury beauty brand, how his collaborations with both Victoria Beckham and Sofia Coppola came to fruition, and what exactly his patented TCF8 technology can actually do for the skin. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Augustinus Bader on Instagram @augustinusbader.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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When we talk about a founder being “ahead of their time,” Jose Bryce Smith may well be the very best example. Jose co-founded Australia’s first ammonia-free hair salon and launched one of the first ever ammonia and PPD free hair colours, but beyond being a pioneer (something Jose tells me she’s not so sure she’d ever want to do again), Jose’s story is really just one of the best I have ever heard. 

She, naturally, tells it far better than I do, but this is just an objectively great founder story regardless of whether you’ve got an interest in beauty, business, or neither. In short- she got fake clients in the salon to secure a Vogue feature, she had a Legally Blonde moment in which she bought back her business, she can claim ownership of one of the funniest first date stories I’ve ever heard, and in 2015 she lost $500,000 of product- and against all odds, O&M is now one of the biggest haircare and colour brands in the world. 

In this conversation, Jose shares how she worked to earn back the trust of hairdressers country-wide after a major manufacturing error, how a first date became her first board member, and the advice from her late father that she always comes back to. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow O&M on Instagram @originalmineral.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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In episode 136 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Dimond talks once again to the founder of The Beauty Chef, Carla Oates. 

Something of an unintentional theme over the last couple of months of the podcast has been founders who’ve truly been first to market with something- not just saying they identified a gap for something, actually identifying a gap (easier said than done in the beauty space). 

I last had Carla on the show in season 1, almost 6 years ago, but we’ve worked together several times since and I really do find her to be one of the most interesting and innovative founders in the country. For those unfamiliar with The Beauty Chef, and Carla’s story, The Beauty Chef really was the first of its kind on launch in 2009- Carla totally pioneered the “inner beauty” category that most of us are well and truly across now, but keep in mind the market looked very, very different then.

Carla is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to inner beauty as a category, but also on the business of beauty. There is, of course, a huge education piece that needs to come alongside being first to market with anything, and I’ve always found Carla’s approach to this really, really interesting. 

Since our last episode together, the range has grown to include 14 inner and 3 outer beauty products, the most recent addition being Body Protein+ which launched just last week. 

In this conversation, Carla shares how her background in fashion and beauty has shaped her own relationship with beauty and self worth, how she ensures her products always have a point of difference as the market grows saturated, and how she differentiates between a fleeting wellness trend and one worth investing in.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow The Beauty Chef on Instagram @thebeautychef.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Holly, Donna and Lori have a number of things in common- two of those things being an early wish to run a business and create something of their own, and a deep seated love of beauty. The three women met years ago, working on the corporate side of beauty, and over long conversations during lockdown they realised just how much their stories and interests overlapped. 

A few years ago, all three of them decided it was time to reevaluate what they were doing professionally and finally go after their dream- and so the seed for Glow Culture was planted. Holly, Donna and Lori had taken a particular interest in the science surrounding fermented ingredients, and while they’d seen the occasional mention of probiotics in skincare marketing, they’d never seen an Australian brand as single-minded about fermentation in that way that Korean skincare brands had. 

They felt there was a gap in the Australian market for skincare rich in fermented ingredients, as opposed to products that only contained one or two, and it would appear that their instincts were correct- less than 10 weeks post-launch, Glow Culture has already been picked up by retail giants Adore Beauty and Chemist Warehouse. 

In this conversation, Holly, Donna and Lori share why they feel Australia has been a bit of a late adopter of K Beauty trends, their take on the rise of niche and independent brands, and the pros and cons of being digitally native vs being available in physical stores. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Glow Culture on Instagram @glowculturehq.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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I’ve talked a lot recently about how my favourite brand stories to share are the ones that really are offering a solution to a problem; founders who genuinely have identified a gap for something no one else is doing. The fact that we’re now six years into this show and I’m still able to meet people like Jacqui, who truly are doing something new, feels really special.

Dr Jacqueline Beltz is a Melbourne based ophthalmologist (ophthalmology being the specialty medical field of diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases), and last year she launched OKKIYO with a mascara specifically formulated for people with eye sensitivity. That in and of itself is impressive, but her commitment to creating something accessible and inclusive extends far beyond just the formula.

The packaging of OKKIYO’s mascara is the first I’ve seen to use braille in equal hierarchy within the branding, the tube itself is a square which makes it easier to identify and negates the risk of it rolling off a bench top and the user having to rifle around to find it if they have vision impairment, the name and branding were chosen based on visibility, and even the external card packaging has been designed in a way that allows for greater readability- there’s a lot more to it, which Jacqui explains in our conversation far more eloquently than I can. What Jacqui is doing with this brand, in my opinion, really sums up all the best bits of the beauty industry- it’s innovative, it’s fun, it’s not exclusionary and, at the crux of it, it’s a really great product. 

In this conversation, Jacqui shares her take on the power of naivety when it comes to launching a brand, the importance of beauty on our confidence when we’re struggling with our health, and the pressure that comes with launching a brand with a singular SKU. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow OKKIYO on Instagram @okkiyoeyes.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Wende Zomnir is beauty industry royalty. This is the woman behind the Naked Palette, Urban Decay’s now-iconic 2010 launch that ensured this already wildly successful brand would go down in beauty history. 

Wende, alongside the tech mastermind that is Sandy Lerner, founded Urban Decay in 1996 with a distinctly grunge, “punk” if you will aesthetic. That in and of itself was revolutionary, when you consider that the most popular brands at the time were the likes of Clinique who were championing that very clean, very fresh look. Urban Decay was dark and bold and edgy, and thanks to some serious guerrilla marketing from Wende it quickly found its way into the hands of Gwen Stefani and Garbage front woman Shirley Manson. 

Urban Decay was acquired by the L’Oréal group in 2012, with Wende staying on as CCO until 2022, soon after launching her latest beauty venture- Caliray, a brand that harnesses Wende’s love of and expertise in beauty with her longstanding passion for the environment and sustainability, with industry sources estimating that the brand generated between $20 and $25 million USD in retail sales in 2023. 

In this conversation, Wende shares what it was like officially working with Gwen Stefani about 20 years after hunting her down at a music festival, what she believes it takes to create a truly iconic beauty product, and the full story behind the now infamous Urban Decay Naked Palette.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Caliray on Instagram @caliray.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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This is my favourite genre, so to speak, of founder conversation to have for a number of reasons: the first being I know both Bec and Ingrid personally, and how often in life are you given an opportunity to just ask your friends questions about their job for an hour? Never; the second reason being that LUI was developed out of a very real gap in the market; and the third is one that regular listeners will know I love, and that is that LUI exists in a space where most consumers shop habitually. 

Bec first started thinking about LUI many, many years ago upon realising that there were no razors for women that didn’t play into that bright pink, heavily airbrushed trope, and there was really nothing on the market that placed an emphasis on design, sustainability, and the overall experience of use. The idea was strong, but razors are difficult to create and businesses are difficult to grow alone so Ingrid entered the fold as co-founder in 2020, and LUI was officially launched in August 2023. LUI was self funded, all of the brand’s products were formulated with female chemists, and what began with a razor and shaving cream has already extended to a moisturiser and exfoliant with more products on the way. 

In this conversation, Bec and Ingrid share the benefits of being a direct-to-consumer brand, the power of sharing your ideas, and what it’s like being a startup playing in the same space as multinational heritage brands.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow LUI on Instagram @luibody.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Despite Rationale having been founded in 1992, Shamini and I agreed that it does still feel like an insider’s brand to an extent. Those of you have heard of Rationale likely first heard of it in 2011 and beyond, which is not a coincidence as this is when Shamini was brought on as the brand’s Marketing & Digital Coordinator. By September 2014, Shamini was Rationale’s General Manager, and by 2017 she was CEO. 

I’d met Shamini before and I just think she’s amazing, but I took SO much from this conversation- there’s obviously some gold in here given she’s a young female CEO so you can imagine the unique obstacles that alone has presented, but also on that really fine balance between keeping a 32 year old brand true to its DNA but also ensuring it feels current and modern. 

In this conversation, Shamini shares her thoughts on the intersection between AI and wellbeing, the question she asks in every job interview, and why she’s still not entirely sure she understands the plot of Pretty Woman. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Rationale on Instagram @rationale.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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I don’t really think Lindy Klim needs an introduction, however I can say fairly confidently that this interview does show a side to Lindy that I’m not so sure the general public will have seen before, despite her having spent over 25 years in the public eye. 

Lindy has founded not one but two beauty brands (Milk & Co with her ex husband Michael back in 2008, and Fig Femme in 2020), but her own relationship with beauty has taken a significant amount of work. Lindy was the only Asian girl at her school in Tasmania, an experience she talks about in this conversation, and she started modelling in her late teens which led to a really, really complicated relationship with her body- a relationship she tells me she was only really able to heal once she had children. 

Lindy’s founder story is a particularly interesting one because her brand was deemed so controversial by the press pretty much immediately upon its launch. Fig Femme is intimate care brand, and it launched with a vulva mask (think of a sheet mask you’d put on your face, but for your vulva) which led to a lot of negative press. The tide has well and truly turned since, but it was SO interesting to hear from Lindy on the mental toll it takes when you spend years and years developing a brand with the goal of removing a stigma, only to have it more or less dragged over the coals within minutes of taking it live.

In this conversation, Lindy shares why she thinks Australia has been pretty far behind the rest of the world when it comes to intimate care, how she pitched a vulva mask to a boardroom full of men in suits, and details on the five year distribution deal the brand has just signed in the Middle East.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Fig Femme on Instagram @figfemme.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Top level- at age 27 or 28, Jess Sepel and her now-husband Dean bootstrapped JSHealth Vitamins, which they launched in 2018, and it is now worth a reported $600 million, is available in 1800 retail stores in Australia, over 1000 in the UK, and has experienced 300% year-on-year growth in US. If that’s not interesting to you, I’m not sure what will be.

More interesting than that, however, is Jess’ story from childhood to now- I was a bit floored by how open and vulnerable she was. Jess tells me that she always felt what she describes as a “weird, gravitational pull towards vitamins,” collecting them as a teenager like I might have collected Lip Smackers, and while her initial interest in wellness began as innocent, she soon fell into spiral of fad diets and an obsession with her own weight.

Jess got herself healthy and well, and then started documenting her journey in the form of a blog. That blog had about 20,000 readers within a couple of weeks of going live, the blog became an e-book, then an 8 week program was launched and then, in 2018, Jess and Dean launched JSHealth Vitamins with absolutely no intention of making waves within the industry- as Jess explains, they just wanted to create a sense of community. 

In this conversation, Jess shares what she feels it is about her approach to wellness that is resonating with so many people that a bottle of JSHealth Vitamins now sells somewhere in the world every 10 seconds, how she was scammed before bringing a single product to market, and how she physically went about launching a vitamin brand into such a heavily saturated market.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Jess on Instagram @jshealth.

Follow JSHealth Vitamins @jshealthvitamins.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Jo’s story is unlike any other, and while we all know her name, I don’t believe as many people know her story as well as they probably should. Jo grew up in South East London and following a very, very early introduction to the beauty industry, she discovered her sense of smell was a bit of a superpower. She built her own brand, opened her first store in 1994 and sold that brand to Estée Lauder in 1999 while staying on as Creative Director. 

In 2003, Jo was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer, and although she beat it, she completely lost her superpower- her sense of smell. She chose to exit the brand in 2006 and, exactly one month into a five year non compete, her sense of smell returned. Following what she describes as probably the hardest five years of her life, she launched Jo Loves in 2011- her second global fragrance brand and one she describes as bringing the best parts of herself to the world. 

This was so, so special for me, I’m so grateful to have had this time to physically sit down with Jo- no one tells her story like she does and I hope you love hearing it as much as I did. 

In this conversation, Jo shares why she has her father’s work as an artist to thank for introducing the Jo Loves brand to a new generation, why we can thank a woman named Doris Hilderbaker for Jo’s love of beauty, and what happens both physically and mentally when you walk away from a brand with your name on it. 

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When I connect with someone over a love of beauty, whether it’s on this podcast or away from it, the thread or the through line always comes back to a feeling. I think it’s that feeling that separates people who truly love this industry from the people who do view it as solely superficial, and it’s also the feeling that you get from James when you listen to or sit down with him.

What drew James Vivian to beauty, initially, was how good a facial made him feel, and because he is so giving by his very nature, he wanted to be able to give that feeling to other people as well. He spent years studying beauty and the science of skin, he founded his own mobile facial business some 14 years ago, he later opened the first James Vivian skin clinic which is now one of the most popular clinics in the country, and in 2022 he launched his own skincare brand, Viviology. 

James is so, so passionate about ensuring people feel welcomed into the beauty space and feel like they belong, and I am so glad I had the opportunity to facilitate this conversation because I know the barrier to entry can sometimes feel really high, even as a consumer, but this conversation with James was a really beautiful reminder of what it’s all about and why we all love beauty in the first place- it’s about feeling good and helping others to feel the same. 

In this conversation, James shares how he’s working to ensure everyone feels at home in his skin clinic, how he launched his own skincare brand with one of the country’s biggest beauty retailers, and how he went from an Australian Idol finalist to one of Australia’s most in demand dermal therapists.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Viviology on Instagram @viviologyskin.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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We obviously talk a lot on this podcast about identifying a gap for a product and developing out of a really genuine need, and I think the Yours Only story is probably one of the best examples of that that we’ve covered across all 6 seasons.

Ash grew up, in her words, “not being able to eat any cake at birthday parties.” She’s always had many, many food allergies, and things were only heightened in her 20s when she was diagnosed with both Hashimoto’s and a salicylate intolerance. It was following prolonged exposure to mould that Ash’s health was at its worst, and for an extended period there were only 7 foods she could consume. After having to overhaul every single element of her daily routine, she realised that there were only very few skin and haircare brands that she could use- and none that she particularly wanted to use.

Ash launched Yours Only in 2020, a skin and haircare line for dramatic skin, and has cultivated one of the most incredible communities I’ve ever seen online. Ash started her founder journey with a wish to change lives and, as you’ll hear here, I really believe that’s exactly what she’s done.

In this conversation, Ashli shares how she rebuilt after losing her entire inventory in an arson attack, why she uses her customers as models, and the serendipitous story behind how she found her manufacturer.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Yours Only on Instagram @yoursonly

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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I have thought Adrian Norris to be one of the most interesting brand founders in the country for many, many years now, since he co founded fashion house Aje in 2008, and I have loved watching him enter the beauty space upon founding skincare and wellness brand IKKARI last year.

There’s so much about this brand and Adrian’s story that I love but one thing in particular that I found so interesting, and I think you will too, is Adrian’s passion for retail. It’s been a while since I’ve had a founder on who can talk to the retail experience the way that Adrian can, given that Aje and Aje Athletica currently have 48 standalone stores. One of the reasons Adrian is so passionate about the experience of bricks and mortar retail is because he is so, so customer focused, which is something he talked a lot about in this conversation. The other reason that touchpoint is important, and a factor that just blew my mind when I first heard about the brand ahead of its launch last year, was that IKKARI launched with 72 SKUs. That’s 72 individual products and 5 plus years of development, which I find so interesting at a time when we’re seeing so many brands launch with a singular hero. 

In this conversation, Adrian shares how his first ever business plan was written up out of boredom, whether Aje and IKKARI have any mystery investors, and, of course, exactly WHY he chose to launch a brand with 72 SKUs. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow IKKARI on Instagram @ikkari.australia.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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You’ve heard of Hairification- from a distribution standpoint, they’re the fastest growing haircare brand in Australia having launched into 840 Coles stores in 2023 (that’s 840 retail locations from day one) and, as of last month, hitting the shelves of all 470 Priceline stores. Quick maths- Hairification is available in over 1300 retail locations in less than a year post launch. 

Jordan has entered the beauty founder space with a really interesting skill set and perspective. He bought a tanning and beauty salon when he was 21, more or less on a whim, and fell in love with the transformative power of beauty. From there he’s spent about 15 years in the beauty industry, having been poached by Tuscan Tan for his sales skills and spending over 7 years helping to grow Bondi Sands into the best selling fake tan brand in the world. 

I’m always fascinated by how a beauty brand tackles new customer conversion in such a saturated market, and I find that education piece particularly interesting when a brand launches into grocery, a space where most shoppers are purchasing habitually. Jordan’s approach to customer conversion is clearly working- despite that already eye watering number of retail locations here in Australia, this year will see the brand’s expansion into the global retail market. 

In this conversation, Jordan shares how he identified a gap in the market and saw an opportunity, why his focus was accessibility as opposed to the luxury beauty sector, and his advice on hiring and why you often do have to start slow and scrappy. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Hairification on Instagram @hairification_haircare.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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I’ve made no secret of the fact that fragrance is probably my favourite category to talk about, particularly from a storytelling perspective. Thibaud talks about fragrance in a way that is unlike anything I’ve ever heard before and that is, again, why I’m so fascinated by this category. I love asking people how they either construct a fragrance or brief it into their perfumer, and this particular answer went so far beyond anything I could’ve imagined in that Thibaud actually doesn’t just focus on the scent- his role feels almost more like a director putting an entire scene together. 

We also had a really interesting chat about how nuanced the wider conversation around raw materials needs to be, which I think is actually true of the need for nuance when we talk about sustainability in general, not just in perfumery. Early on Thibaud told me that since childhood he’s wanted to create a cosmetic brand, and the longer we spoke for the less surprising it was to me that he’d had such clear vision from so early in his life- when you listen to him it becomes very clear that he is a founder who is in this industry because of a deep, deep love of it, which is always my favourite kind of guest.  

In this conversation, Thibaud shares why there’s no room for ego in perfumery, how you can tell if a product will be popular within about two days of its launch, and the one emotion that every Maison Crivelli fragrance is linked to- the feeling of surprise. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Maison Crivelli on Instagram @maisoncrivelli.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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What I love about talking to founders at this stage in their brand’s development (for context, Sunset Daze launched their first product, Liquid Rays, in December of 2022) is that all the really tactile bits that come with a launch are still so fresh in their minds- they’re not looking back on their launch through a wistful lens, there’s no revisionist history, the advice they can share feels as current as it is practical. 

The whole ethos of Sunset Daze is “Feel Good Beauty,” and I felt that tenfold in our chat. These are two founders who are doing this for the love of it, and they’re coming at it from a really interesting spot too (which we spoke about) in that they loved the jobs they were in pre launch, so they weren’t starting something of their own so they could escape where they were at, so rather than the process having this sense of urgency, they could actually take their time with it. 

In this conversation, Alessia and Marco share their take on staying at your job while building a brand on the side, their thoughts on self funding vs bringing on investors, and the risks of launching with a singular product rather than a full suite. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Sunset Daze on Instagram @_sunset_daze_.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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This is one of the best founder stories I’ve heard in over 5 years of hosting this podcast. 

I don’t want to give anything away, but there’s just so much gold in here- particularly a story Lev towards the start of our chat. I could have sat and listened to Lev and Alina talk for a full day, with ease. It was honestly a joy to just facilitate this conversation.

We recorded this towards the end of last year and I wanted to open season 6 with it because it was such a beautiful reminder of why I started this in the first place. I knew Fresh was founded in the 90s, I use a lot of their products, I was aware that a majority stake was sold to LVMH at the turn of the century, but you can’t ever truly get to the heart and soul of a brand without conversations like this. I think it’s that heart that ensures the brand still feels so current, despite the product offering including products that have remained largely unchanged since the brand’s inception in Boston thirty plus years ago. 

In this conversation, Lev and Alina share the great lengths they’ve gone to for beauty, what that historic LVMH acquisition meant for the brand, and the story behind Fresh’s now iconic oval soaps. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Fresh on Instagram @freshbeauty.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Gemma Dimond (fka Gemma Watts) returns to host Season 6 of the Glow Journal podcast from January 31.

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I met Dr Rocio Rivera on a La Mer brand trip to Singapore in July and have been trying to get her on the show ever since. 

I have had a relationship with La Mer for many years now both as consumer and a working relationship, and even I have found it to be a brand with a lot of mystery surrounding it- I’ve known the products work, I’ve seen first hand what they do for the skin, but it wasn’t until I listened to Dr Rivera speak in Singapore that I really understood the depth of research that goes into each product and just how special the story of the brand is, which is why I wanted her to relay all of that to my audience. 

La Mer was founded in around 1965 after Max Huber spent something like 12 years creating an elixir to heal serious burns he’d suffered in a lab explosion. That elixir is the La Mer miracle broth, which is found in every single La Mer product, and something I learned on the trip is that each new batch of Miracle Broth contains a drop from the previous batch so there really is this rich history woven through each product. 

What I love about Dr Rivera’s story is how she talks about beauty and what drew her to this particular area of science. She talks about how a pharmacist might only see a patient when they’re in need, likening it to a firefighter- no one is calling the fire department to say “Hi, I’m safe and there’s no fire. How do I keep it this way?” But when you work with the skin there’s this touchpoint, this human element- it’s all about how the science makes you feel. 

In this conversation, Rocio shares why her role at La Mer really is full circle, why the iconic Creme de La Mer must be applied at a specific temperature, and whether there’s any truth to the rumour that every jar of Creme is individually hand poured. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow La Mer on Instagram @la mer.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Martine Ho comes from a family of artists and performers, so where many people grow up thinking of creative pursuits as hobbies, Martine knew first hand that a career in the arts is entirely possible if you work for it. Born in Manila but largely raised in LA, Martine grew up passionate about photography and graphic design, and even told her classmates that she wanted to own a beauty brand one day. Martine became what I’d call one of the “original influencers,” sharing her personal style online well before people used social media the way we do today. 

After being scouted by American Apparel to drive and grow their digital presence, Martine moved back to Manila to exercise her branding skills on a new sunglasses line, Sunnies Studios, a brand she founded alongside a small group of her friends and family. It was during campaign shoots for the brand that Martine realised makeup artists were anglicising the models, so she started mixing lipstick shades on set to ensure they worked on diverse complexions. 

Naturally, Martine tells the Sunnies Face story better than I do but based on makeup artist demand, the brand launched in 2018 with their iconic Fluffmatte lipstick after sampling between 300 and 350 shades. Fluffmate sold out within about 10 minutes and, today, Sunnies Face sells a lipstick somewhere in the world every 30 seconds. 

In this conversation, Martine shares what a celebrity endorsement can do for a startup, the challenges of taking the brand global, and the beauty of creating a brand out of necessity. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Sunnies Face on Instagram @sunniesface.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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If you’d told a teenage Stacey Hollands that she’d one day be the founder of the country’s biggest mineral makeup brand, I don’t think she’d have doubted you for a second. What she may not have believed, however, was that in a matter of years she’d grow that brand from one that started in a linen cupboard to one worth over $20 million. 

Stacey is one of those founder who’s always known what she wanted to do, and I really do mean always. She left secondary school as early as she could to study beauty full time, she always wanted to work for herself, and having watched her father own his own businesses her entire life, she was confident that one day she would start one too. 

Having identified a gap for high performing, full coverage, cost effective mineral makeup, Stacey set to work on developing three foundations- the first products from the brand we now know as Lust Minerals. She HUSTLED. I’m talking cold calls, physically showing up at salons asking them to stock her products, and within a couple of years Lust Minerals was in 82 stockists across the country. She put her own savings into it, $10,000 of her own money, and between January 2019 and June of this year, Lust Minerals made $20 million dollars in sales. 

In this conversation, Stacey shares the pros and cons of starting as a B2B brand, how research was her therapy, and her refreshing take on the power of feedback. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Lust Minerals on Instagram @lust__minerals.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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If you’ve worked in the fashion, beauty, or lifestyle media space in Australian in the last decade, you know the name Indianna Roehrich. 

Indi started her own social media management agency, Simply Social Management , in 2015 when she was just 22 years old. I first met her a little under 10 years ago and she’s always struck me as being ahead of the curve- the concept of social media management was so new in 2015 that the majority of people still thought it was a fad, but at 22 her gut instinct was so strong and, as we now know, was also absolutely correct. 

Indi’s curiosity around blue light exposure piqued about 4 years ago, when blue light eyewear hit the mainstream. This prompted her to start looking into what blue light was doing to the skin, and upon discovering just how much it can speed up the photoaging process, she went searching for a solution- and couldn’t find one.

This week, following three and a half years of research and development, Indianna launched Tomorrow-Today Beauty with a single, meticulously formulated SKU- the Tech Protect Serum, formulated to both shield AND repair the skin from blue light exposure and designed to look after tomorrow’s face, today.

In this conversation, Indianna shares advice to business owners on why it’s worth pushing through the hard parts when your brand is in its infancy, what our devices are actually doing to our skin, and her insider tips on making the algorithms work for you. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Tomorrow-Today Beauty on Instagram @tomorrowtodaybeauty.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Katherine never pictured herself starting a beauty brand, but she has always had an interesting relationship with her hair, and that relationship was sort of a visual representation of the relationship she had with herself. Katherine has naturally curly hair but, as so many of us do, wanted hair she didn’t have so she grew up straightening it, slicking it back, whatever she could do to disguise its natural texture. Similarly, she tells me that, at that time, she didn’t really love herself- she was pretending to be totally confident, but didn’t truly feel it until she really started working on that relationship with herself as an adult. Coincidentally or otherwise, it was around this time that she started embracing her curly hair. 

Katherine founded People Haircare in 2022 out of a wish for haircare for everyone- meaning haircare for each unique hair type, at an accessible price point. The brand is physically accessible too, launching into 800 Coles stores nationally from day 1.

In this conversation, Katherine shares how she’s working to convert supermarket customers who have previously shopped habitually, why you shouldn’t wait for the first version of your product to be perfect, and just how important it is to ask for what you want. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow People Haircare on Instagram @peoplehaircare.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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This is probably the best example of serendipity that we’ve had on the show in the way that Noella, Oriele and their third co-founder Sean Harrington were brought together, each with a complementary skill set, the combination of which was precisely what the brand needed, but also with no real understanding of what they were saying yes to. By no means did the imagine that 34 years later, the brand they co-founded would be stocked in 100 countries.

Elemis was founded in 1989, in London, but all of the products and really the ethos overall feel so modern and so current. That combination of science backed formulas and botanical ingredients feels very much like something that would be launched in 2023. 

In this conversation, Oriele and Noella share just how deeply they’re looking at sustainability and traceability, how they’ve maintained a relevant brand identity 34 years into business, and what they did when the brand’s first ever clinical trial results came back to show the product did absolutely nothing. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Elemis on Instagram @elemis and @elemis_anz.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Samantha Brett has always loved beauty but, despite a brief stint as a beauty writer during an internship, she only ever wanted to be a news reporter. 

Sam worked as hard as she possibly could to achieve the dream she’d held onto since she was 14 years old, and once she got there it was a job she truly never pictured herself walking away from. That was, until, the 2019 to 2020 bushfire season. It was while reporting on those bushfires that she found herself questioning precisely what is was that she wanted from her life.

The idea for Naked Sundays came from a few places at once a few months prior. Sam’s husband was complaining about having to reapply his sunscreen while playing golf, meanwhile Sam was watching her television colleagues having cancerous lesions cut from their faces after full days reporting out in the sun with no way to apply sunscreen without ruining their makeup for camera. 

Sam pitched the idea for an SPF50+ Mist to 25 manufacturers before one finally said yes. She and her husband used money from their mortgage to fund the business, and Naked Sundays launched in January 2021 to a waitlist of over 2000 people. That’s 2000 people before they’d launched a single product. The brand hit a reported $100k in sales within 4 weeks of that launch, the brand launched into Mecca that October and sold out of three months’ worth of stock in 24 hours, and the brand was selling one product per minute by the end of that year. 

In this conversation, Sam shares how important it is to know the steps it’ll take to reach your dream, rather than expecting it to happen tomorrow, why she waited until September 2021 to leave her television job, and a world exclusive announcement of not one but two new Naked Sundays products. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Naked Sundays on Instagram @naked_sundays.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Freda Rossidis is an industry legend. Freda tells me that being a migrant to Australia, very few of her earliest memories are centred around beauty. She had no idea what she wanted to be when she grew up, she fell into hairdressing, and grew to love it over time. As that passion grew, so too did Freda’s resume, as she directed the hair styling for shows at Australian and New York fashion weeks and worked internationally on shows for Prada, Chanel, Dior and Hermes.

Her son, David, subsequently grew up in the salon environment, and found himself working in marketing and product development for a haircare brand following his studies. From there, David developed a balancing shampoo and accompanying conditioner with no real plans to turn those two products into a fully fledged brand. 

Both David and Freda tell me that, if I’d asked them 8 years ago if they saw themselves working together, it would have been a hard no. However, 2 months after David’s first two products went to market, they were featured in Esquire New York… and then in GQ, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Wallpaper Magazine. International press led to a truly unexpected surge in consumer demand, so Freda left her business and started working with David full time. 

That was in 2015. Today, Mr. Smith haircare is available in 12 countries, and what began as 2 products is now a brand with over 40 SKUs.

In this conversation, Freda and David share whether or not it’s possible to grow a business at the rate of Mr. Smith and maintain a balanced life, the advice anyone wanting to make it in the world of startups needs to hear, and some surprising stats around hairspray sales in Texas. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Mr. Smith on Instagram @mrsmithhair.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Kat had studied Healthcare Law and Health Policy at university and was working happily in the industry, occasionally picking up passion projects in interior design as a creative outlet. Upon completing an interior for her brother-in-law, she decided she wanted to sign off the project with a signature scent. She met with some people who worked in the beauty industry creating hand batches, and they helped her create a candle.

The home fragrance became so popular amongst those who had smelled it that it was suggested to Kat they she should create a body lotion with the same scent. This prompted Kat to start looking into formulation science, and the team who had helped Kat create that very first candle went on to become the very first formulators of Kat Burki Skincare. 

Kat Burki Skincare launched into Henri Bendel in New York City in August 2013 with first-of-its-kind cold pressed skincare. The subsequent four years saw the brand launch into Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus, and Mecca here in Australia, and in 2023, Kat Burki Skincare is a truly global brand. 

In this conversation, Kat shares what she had to fight to put extra money towards when her namesake business was in its infancy, how her earliest memories have shaped the brand she runs today, and why you don’t need to say “yes” to everything. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Kat Burki Skincare on Instagram @katburkiskincare.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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In 5 seasons of this show, Lauren Mackellar is the most inspiring guest I’ve had the joy of sitting down with. 

Lauren Mackellar was one of Australia’s most in demand hair stylists. In early 2022, following years of intense migraines that she’d chalked up to her work, she took herself to the emergency ward and was diagnosed with a brain tumour. She went into surgery a day and a half later.The tumour was successfully removed, however it was Stage 3 cancer so radiation needed to begin immediately. Throughout chemotherapy, Lauren was told that her hair was unlikely to ever grow back given that she had no hair follicles at this point, let alone hair. 

Unable to return to hairdressing, Lauren decided to revisit the haircare brand she had began to formulate prior to her diagnosis. She figured she had nothing to lose in trialling her own products on herself and, having sat opposite her to record this a couple of months ago, Lauren now has a thick, healthy head of hair. ROBE Haircare launches this week. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow ROBE on Instagram @robehaircare.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Imagine not just trying to get customers on board with a new brand, but getting them to entirely change the way they’ve done something for their entire life.

That is precisely the task Lizzie Waley was faced with on launched Sundae Body. 

Lizzie had had a conversation with her business partner about how bath time is so fun when you’re a kid, and by adulthood it’s totally lost its magic- likely because, realistically, your only options are a bar of soap or a liquid body wash, neither of which inspire a whole lot of play or joy. Armed with that thought, Lizzie asked a chemist if there were any other mechanisms or mediums that could be explored in the body care space, to which that chemist suggested a foam. 

Sundae Body took about 18 months to develop, beginning with a can designed to look like whipped cream and ending with a range fruit and dessert scented whipped body foams, formulated to put the fun back into showering- at any age. Lizzie pitched Sundae Body to both Woolworths and Priceline before launch and was picked up by both, meaning Sundae Body had space on over 1200 shelves before they’d launched a single product. 

In this conversation, Lizzie shares both the pros and cons of self funding a startup, the lessons learned from her first job in a call centre, and why the right distributor was key to securing space with two of the country’s retail giants. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Sundae Body on Instagram @sundaebody.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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This conversation is essentially a marketing masterclass.

One of Georgia’s earliest roles was at Remedy Kombucha. Now, we all know what kombucha is now, but keep in mind this was in 2014, before the brand was even on Instagram, so Georgia’s job wasn’t just to build the brand’s social media presence- she was more or less responsible for bringing the product to mainstream recognition. 

After helping to launch the brand in the UK, Georgia had well and truly caught what she refers to as “the start up bug,” and this is where her story gets really interesting- rather than identifying a gap for a product and then deciding to launch a brand to fill it, Georgia first decided she wanted to start a business of her own and then identified that gap. Where she landed was the oral care sphere. Given that beauty was and remains so saturated, she found space for a product at the intersection of beauty and health and wanted to develop a product that had a daily, or in this case twice-daily, touchpoint with consumers. 

Georgia launched Gem, an Australian made, premium, natural oral care brand in March 2020 following four years of product development. The brand has since been picked up by both Mecca and Woolworths stores nationally, has extended its product range to over 30 SKUs, and is launching into Boots in the UK next week. 

In this conversation, Georgia shares how she and her team manage to educate without fear mongering (no mean feat in this industry), how she got her brand on the shelves at Mecca, Woolworth and Boots, and how she got her product’s entire first run of packaging for free. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Gem on Instagram @gem.au.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Steffanie Ball’s ties to beauty come through YŌLI, a brand centred around “elevated bathing rituals” that was launched in December of last year with a range including luxury towelling (emphasis on the word luxury), a scent range and a dry body brush. You’ve likely heard of Steff’s first business, furniture and homewares brand En Gold, which began as an Instagram account selling vintage furniture and morphed into a furniture brand that celebrates the design and workmanship of century old crafts. 

What I love most about the story behind both of Steff’s businesses is the ways in which she’s reconnected with her Filipino heritage throughout the business development process. She tells one story in particular about connecting with the original maker of the vintage pieces she was selling on Instagram and how, through En Gold, he and Steff were able to give all of his former workers their jobs back that you will love.

In this conversation, Steff shares why the art of ritual is so important to her, why she believes that retail is one of the best industries within which to learn and why she insists her team all spend time in the customer care department, and how an American skateboarder (her now husband of 14 years) proposed after 2 days… 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow YŌLI on Instagram @yoli_haus.

Follow En Gold on Instagram @en._gold

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Vida Glow is the number one marine collagen brand in the world, with one unit sold every four seconds. 

Anna doesn’t hold her cards close to her chest. From sharing the brand’s Shopify launch strategy, what goes into developing packaging and sourcing ingredients, how many products Vida Glow have discontinued and the rationale behind the brand’s 2021 rebrand, Anna sincerely believes that the increasing saturation of the ingestible beauty market is only going to push the category forward- and honestly, it was refreshing to hear. 

Anna and her husband Keiran launched Vida Glow in 2014 after years of importing collagen for herself from Japan, having experienced hair loss due to a blood clotting condition which she opened up about in our chat. Realising that making the ingredient accessible here in Australia could have a positive impact on so many people, Vida Glow was born.

In this conversation, Anna shares the power of a rebrand and the strategy that went into Vida Glow’s, what to look for when purchasing ingestible beauty supplements, and the million dollar question, what collagen actually is and what it can do. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Vida Glow on Instagram @vida_glow.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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A British-born Indian who now lives with her family in Switzerland, Shirin’s mother Anju has been described as a serial entrepreneur. She studied sociology and ethnology, she worked as a social worker in the UK, and was instrumental in setting up a shelter for victims of domestic violence. 

Her interest in beauty began in the same way her daughter, Shirin’s, did, with both women being introduced to the time honoured beauty rituals of their Indian heritage from a young age. 

After relocating to Switzerland, Anju traveled to the Himalayas whilst working with an NGO and learnt about native plants from the tribal farmers she met. Inspired to combine their teachings and Swiss science with the aforementioned time honoured Indian rituals, Anju launched altitude-active beauty company ABHATI Suisse in 2015 with Shirin officially joining the brand as both co-founder and trade marketing manager last year. 

Each ABHATI Suisse purchase funds days of school for girls in India through the brand’s partnership with Educate Girls, with the brand having enabled over 530,000 school days at the time of recording. In something of a full circle moment, 1% of the brand’s revenue is given to environmental organisations like WeForest in partnership with 1% for the Planet- WeForest being one of the organisations Shirin’s mother co-founded. 

In this conversation, Shirin shares the importance of retailing through true brand builders, how her mother inspired so many people to aid the brand pro bono, and the surprising connection between ABHATI Suisse and a perfume brand with a particularly cult following.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow ABHATI Suisse on Instagram @abhatisuisse.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Violette has been a bucket list guest of mine since Season 1 as I became aware of her work at something of a pivotal time, career wise, for me. 

Violette realised she wanted to become a makeup artist at the age of 19 after applying glitter to a friends face ahead of a party. She promptly moved to New York, with no training beyond a Kevyn Aucoin library book, and began to network her way into the industry. 

Between 2012 and 2020, Violette worked as a Makeup Designer at Dior, a Product Development Consultant at Sephora, and as Estee Lauder’s Global Beauty Director, and was discovered by Vogue France in 2015. 

In 2021, Violette was named Creative Director of Makeup for heritage brand Guerlain, AND launched her own brand, VIOLETTE_FR.

In this conversation, Violette shares why she’s an advocate for self-funding where possible, the value in staying true to your personal style when others suggest otherwise, and why she’d prefer it if her daughter weren’t to follow in her footsteps. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Violette on Instagram @violette_fr.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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It was a love of interaction, communication, and connection that led Lars Fredriksson to the beauty world. Having spent years in business, sales and marketing, he found himself talking to a stranger at a music industry party. Lars and this man were the only two guests who didn’t work in music, and it was this conversation that led Lars to his first role in the beauty world. 

Lars launched Verso in Sweden a decade ago- a brand built around a patented ingredient called Retinol8 and steeped in science. The brand is now available in 25 countries and the product range consists of about 25 SKUs, each of which has taken years to develop and perfect before hitting the market. 

In this conversation, which took place during Lars’ most recent trip to Australia, Lars shares why he believes everyone should use at least one Vitamin A product daily, why we really have his wife to thank for his move into the beauty space, and why we probably won’t ever be seeing a Verso neck cream on the shelves…

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Verso on Instagram @versoskincare.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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From early ambitions to become a CNN correspondent to a job as radio DJ, founding a branding agency to launching a board game, it was a job in the wellness space that really made Inge Theron feel as though she was home.

Inge spent 11 years as the Financial Times' Wellbeing, Beauty & Spa writer, a job that quite literally saw her trialling the best and, in some cases the worst, beauty and wellness treatments and trends in the world, before an idea struck her in 2013. She hadn’t just trialled, she’d studied, the wellness industry for over a decade- what if she took the very best bits and created something she knew would work?

The idea for FaceGym came to Inge in December 2013- a gym, rather than a spa, offering facial workouts instead of invasive treatments. The first FaceGym location opened in May the following year, with each workout following a “warm up, sculpting, cardio and cool down” formula. In just 8 years, that 1 location has expanded beyond 15. In 2021, FaceGym launched their own line of topical skincare products, and in January of this year, Inge opened FaceGym’s first Southern Hemisphere location at Mecca George Street.

In this conversation, Inge shares how she convinced a heritage retailer to take on her brand, how she learnt the importance of understanding the operations of your brand and not just the creative, and why she takes stock of where she’s at, both personally and professionally, every single year. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow FaceGym on Instagram @facegym.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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USE CODE GLOWJOURNAL15 FOR 15% OFF YOUR JB SKRUB ORDER.

Julie Bowen has been acting professionally since 1992, perhaps most notably spending 11 years in the role of Claire Dunphy on Modern Family. Jill Biren spent close to two decades in publishing at Condé Nast, working across titles including Vogue, GQ, and Vanity Fair. 

Both mothers of sons, Julie and Jill got to chatting at a birthday party about the changes their sons were going through as pre-teens, realising there was a glaring gap in the market for a skincare brand aimed at young men, given the existing offering was either too young, too overtly feminine, or just that bit too adult and intimidating, rather than easy and fun. 

JB SKRUB spent three years in product development ensuring each of the five formulas was perfect, with not a single corner cut and each product being certified European Union compliant for clean skincare, and launched in January of this year. Less than two months in, the brand already has multiple new products on the horizon as well as plans to launch internationally very soon. 

In this conversation, Julie and Jill share how their respective careers in show business and media have affected their personal relationships with beauty, their advice on having difficult conversations with adolescents, and Julie shares how playing the role of a mother of three prepared her for her own motherhood journey. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow JB Skrub on Instagram @jbskrub.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Despite steadily building a name for herself as one of the country’s most influential voices in fashion and beauty media, Nedahl didn’t enter the industry with a specific niche in mind. Having worked at Girlfriend Magazine as Beauty and Features Editor, Cosmopolitan Magazine as Beauty Editor, Features Editor and Deputy Editor, and as Editor of Cleo Magazine, she tells me that while she fell into beauty, over time she fell in love with it. 

Around 14 years ago, Nedahl found herself struggling to conceive and elected to switch to “natural” products in her home and beauty routines, and it was at this time that she discovered there were really no luxury options in the natural perfume space.

Still working as a journalist, Nedahl placed her idea on the backburner, however after some years wearing no perfume at all, she decided it was time to create a solution to her own problem. 

Recreation Beauty, a natural, vegan, and Australian made fragrance and beauty brand was launched in 2019 following over two years of product development, and now boasts one of the most innovative sustainability frameworks I’ve come across.

In this conversation, Nedahl shares the ways in which the media landscape has evolved across her nearly three decades in the industry and, perhaps surprisingly, the ways in which it has stayed the same, her advice for those deciding if their startup should launch wholesale or direct to consumer, and the advantages of starting a business on your own. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Recreation Beauty on Instagram @recreationbeauty.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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The wheels of Elly Seymour’s career journey were set in motion when she was a child with a very specific dream of wearing surgeon’s scrubs. Elly decided she wanted to be a cosmetic nurse when she was just a teenager, convincing her parents to allow her to study a Diploma of Makeup in lieu of Year 12. Her reason was a pragmatic one- when she turned 18 she’d be able to enrol as a nurse, and a beauty qualification would allow her to freelance on the weekend to supplement the cost of the nursing course.

In 2019, with several years and even more qualifications beneath her belt, Elly opened and funded her own clinic in a similarly pragmatic way, electing to continue working as a registered nurse in her local hospital simultaneously to save money, build relationship and maintain those acute skills.

In March 2020, only a few months in and with a client waitlist close to 150 people long, the pandemic forced Elly to close the clinic’s doors indefinitely. Where many would, understandably, have crumbled, Elly used the unknown to her advantage. She used the clinic’s social media platforms to cultivate a reputation for herself as an industry authority, she took a permanent position at the hospital, the more secure income from which allowed her to fund her next project, and underwent further study in cosmetic formulations. In August 2022, the aforementioned project came to life- Saint Louve Skincare, a topical skincare brand that she runs alongside her well-and-truly up-and-running again Louve Skin Clinic. 

In this conversation, Elly shares her take on going all in with a startup versus maintaining a secondary source of income, when and why to allocate budget to outsourcing elements of the business that aren’t your areas of expertise, and why being a forward-facing founder has been of such great benefit when it comes to brand education.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Saint Louve Skincare on Instagram @saintlouveskincare.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Michelle is, quite literally, a beauty industry icon. 

Headhunted by Estée Lauder Companies in 1993, Michelle is largely responsible for turning Crème de la Mer into a cult product before becoming Vice President, Global Communications of MAC Cosmetics, helping to increase the company’s net worth from $65 million to $1 billion in less than 7 years bringing mainstream awareness to the MAC AIDS Fund, and then spending 4 years as the CEO of St Tropez and transforming the tanning industry in that time.

Michelle launched Floral Street in November 2017, the story of which she shared back on Episode 53 of the Glow Journal podcast in 2020. 

In this bonus episode, recorded at Mecca Beauty headquarters, Michelle and Gemma chat personal fragrance, scent scaping and the changing face of sustainability in beauty. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Floral Street on Instagram @floralstreet_.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Paula was my first ever international guest back in 2018, Season 1, Episode 3, and I still receive messages about that episode to this very day. 

To celebrate 100 episodes and 4 seasons, we’re taking it back to basics and doing what Paula does best- myth busting. Should skin flake when we first try retinol? If a product makes our skin tingle, does that mean it’s working? Do you really have sensitive skin, or have you caused your sensitive skin? 

On a personal note, I want to say a sincere thank you to everyone who has listened over the last four years and every brand founder who has trusted me to tell their story. I cannot begin to put into words how grateful I am for each and every one of you. I love you!

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Paula’s Choice on Instagram @paulaschoice and @paulaschoiceau.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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It has been three years since Trinny’s last visit to Australia and her last appearance on the podcast, so I headed to her suite on her most recent trip to catch up on three years worth of beauty and business (and for Trinny and I to do our skincare routines together, which you can see on my TikTok). 

Since we last caught up, Trinny has launched an entire skincare range, which she trialled on a whopping 3600 women ahead of its launch to test and perfect the range. 

A major topic of conversation in our last episode was the strength of the Trinny Tribe, which Trinny explains really transformed into an even stronger support network for its members over the last couple of years and now consists of 34 tribes in 16 countries. Last month saw Trinny open two Trinny London pop-ups, one in Doncaster and one in Bondi, the openings of which served as an opportunity for Trinny’s Australian tribes to finally come together in person. 

In this conversation, Trinny shares just what makes the Trinny Tribe so strong, the gap she aims to fill in the skincare space, and what we can expect to see next from the brand. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Trinny Woodall on Instagram @trinnywoodall.

Follow Trinny London on Instagram @trinnylondon.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Kayla Houlihan understands first hand just how debilitating acne and inflammation can be to a person’s confidence. It was her understanding of the impact skin heath can have on one’s confidence that led Kayla to study skin, and what drove her to want to help clients in clinic. 

The idea for Tribe Skincare came to Kayla whilst running her own skin clinic in Geelong. Clients were presenting with all the signs of sensitive skin, and knowing just how many skin conditions come down to inflammation, Kayla wanted to recommend products to her clients that were suitable for sensitive skin but still delivered results. What Kayla discovered is that people with sensitive skin had very few active options- brands were creating simple cleansers and moisturisers suitable for sensitive skins, but there was almost nothing available that allowed those clients to reap the benefits of active ingredients without irritation. 

Kayla entirely self funded Tribe, launching in 2017 with just four products. Well into the brand’s first year on the market, Tribe Skincare was bringing in over $90,000 per month. Last year saw Kayla and her team completely rebrand Tribe and shift the brand from being an ecommerce exclusive to available in physical retailers. That rebrand saw a 20% increase in sales overall and a 500% increase in sales from one product in particular, and this year Kayla launched Tribe’s Vitamin C serum to a 50,000 person waitlist with one bottle selling every 4 minutes in its first 12 hours post launch.

In this conversation, Kayla shares her strategy on choosing the right influencers to partner with, why a rebrand can be a double edged sword if you already have a loyal customer base, and the surprising findings that led the brand to STOP paid advertising entirely. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Tribe Skincare on Instagram @tribeskincare.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Alpha-H was founded in a garage on the Gold Coast, in 1995, by the late Michelle Doherty. 

In the year 2000, Michelle launched Liquid Gold- a glycolic acid based resurfacing treatment the likes of which had never been seen before by the global beauty industry. Liquid Gold soon developed a cult following, elevating Alpha-H from Queensland’s best kept skin secret to a bonafide global beauty powerhouse and the authority, worldwide, in acid-powered skincare.

In July of 2020, Michelle passed away following a 2 year battle with cancer. In late 2019, Michelle was in the midst of succession planning the business and met with Tina Randello, with Tina telling me she connected with Michelle and what she was doing instantly. Tina became the Chief Commercial Officer of Alpha-H in January 2020. 

Following Michelle’s passing, Tina and the Alpha-H team spent time together discussing how they could continue to embody Michelle’s values as a business. In 2021, Tina launched The Encoreship, an Alpha-H initiative that has brought together multiple brands to offer women returning to work following a career break a three month paid work placement, enabling women to upskill and supporting their return to the workforce. 

In this conversation, Tina shares how she ensures she’s effectively communicating with consumers in a space where product education is paramount, the difference between being trend driven and trend aware, and why it’s so important to wait it out for an opportunity that feels right. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Alpha-H on Instagram @alphahskincare.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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The idea for Vintner’s Daughter came to April when she was working on her family’s vineyard. She was pregnant and, as many do, was studying the ingredients lists of each product in her existing skincare routine. April wanted a product born from a similar ethos to that of winemaking- one centred around quality and craftsmanship, and how those factors drive performance. 

Where most skincare products can be manufactured and bottled within about three hours, April was told her formula would take three weeks. What could well have been a deterrent had the opposite effect on April, as coming from a wine background she was used to working with products that take three years to create, and so Vintner’s Daughter was born in late 2013.

The brand launched with one singular product, and while the strategy was one embedded with risk, that product garnered a legitimately cult following. April’s mission has always been to create fewer products that did more, channelling all her resources into perfecting just one product at a time, and so four years after that initial launch, a second followed.

January 2023 will see the next iteration of Vintner’s Daughter’s “fewer, but better” ethos, with a third product due for release as the brand enters its tenth year. 

In this conversation, April shares her advice for founders feeling the pressure to manufacture more, cheaper and faster, a few hints as to what we can expect from the brand’s next launch, and how she’s working to change the beauty industry to one driven by joy, confidence and gratitude. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Vintner’s Daughter on Instagram @vintnersdaughter.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Hilary discovered her love of makeup in her final year of high school, and although she tells me that initial affinity for beauty may not have come from the right place, to this day she connects to the transformative energy she felt upon that discovery. 

Despite her love of makeup, Hilary studied and worked in agriculture. In 2009 the recession hit, and after being made redundant, Hilary relocated to London where her sister was living. She soon found a job on a cosmetics counter, and so her career in beauty was born. 

After returning to Australia and building up her freelance business, Hilary opened the first Hilary Holmes Makeup location in 2016 and a second only four years later. It was from within these spaces that Hilary’s now-iconic Masterclasses were born- classes designed to empower women to back their own beauty, rather than following a formula they’d grown up with in women’s magazines. 

In 2021, following years of product development and a truly serendipitous encounter with her now-manufacturer, Hilary launched Holme Beauty. The brand launched with a single SKU, and over the last 12 months Hilary has carefully and consciously expanded that range to an edit of four, with a fifth product set to launch only a fortnight from now. 

In this conversation, Hilary shares the importance of finding the right people to help you grow your business, the links she’s discovered between beauty and her own mental health, and the story behind the man she calls her “$30,000 husband.”

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Hilary and Holme Beauty on Instagram @hilaryholmesmakeup and @holmebeauty.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Dr Clara Hurst opened Perth skin clinic, Blanc, having relocated to Australia from the UK, she sought the help of a pharmacist to compound prescription skincare to her clients. That pharmacist told her that, just down the road, there was a GP prescribing the very same ingredients and having them compounded into solutions for her patients. That GP was Dr Deb Cohen-Jones. Upon realising that they shared the very same philosophies around the science of skin, their pair decided to go into business together.

The Secret, the country’s first prescription-only skincare brand, began in early 2019 as a singular cream, only available to those who had an appointment with one of the doctors. Within six months, over 300 jars of The Secret had been sold and the pair began working on new formulas. What started as one “magic cream” has since grown to a line of 13 different products. 

In 2020, Dr Clara and Dr Deb launched The Secret’s digital platform, allowing patients anywhere to complete a consultation online and have their prescription skincare compounded and sent directly to them. This year has seen The Secret introduce new sustainability practices including refillable packaging, while the coming months will see the launch of The Secret’s retail range. 

In this conversation, Dr Clara and Dr Deb share the real differences between prescription and retail skincare, how they turned a mid-pandemic launch into an ecommerce boom, and their advice to business owners trying to avoid fast trends.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow The Secret on Instagram @the_secret_skincare.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Korres began as the oldest herbal apothecary in Athens, Greece. Whilst working there, George Korres began formulating topical cosmetics for his friends and loyal customers of the pharmacy, and word quickly began to spread. Lena Philippou, now Lena Philippou-Korres, a chemical engineer, commenced work at the pharmacy in 1996 and, following consumer demand, the KORRES brand was officially launched. 

By the turn of the century, George and Lena’s tech-driven, naturally formulated skincare products had been picked up by Henri Bendel in New York and Harvey Nichols in London. Today, despite being a truly global brand, KORRES remains true to its origins and its patented Full Circle sustainable manufacturing processes. 

In this conversation, Lena shares why she feels there should be more women working in STEM globally, why she has youthful naivety to thank for the brand’s initial launch, and why it’s not enough to rely on consumer demand when it comes to new product ideas. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Korres on Instagram @korres and @korres.athens. 

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Joanna Vargas tells me that caregiving is her love language. 

Following a number of years working as an esthetician, Joanna had grown tired of seeing clients given the same facials and being sold the same products. Driven by a wish to create her own treatments and be guided by each individual’s needs, Joanna opened her first namesake spa in New York City in 2006. 

By 2011, having grown her business with little more than word-of-mouth marketing, Joanna had become something of an industry go-to and had accumulated an impressive list of celebrity clientele. Passionate about delivering good nutrition to the skin, and wanting her clients to be able to achieve and maintain spa results from home, she developed her own product line. 

Despite running a now international skincare brand with 28 SKUs, Joanna still works as a facialist 5 days a week, taking the opportunity to continue learning, to see what modern skin needs, what concerns her clients are looking to treat and, in her words, “formulating from the chair.”

In this conversation, Joanna shares the ins and outs of finding the right manufacturer, why her early memories of her grandmother have served as the inspiration for her career, and how grateful she is to be her “tattooed Latina self” in the landscape of the beauty industry.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Joanna Vargas on Instagram @joannavargas and @joannavargasnyc. 

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Natassia, 28 years old and a qualified biochemist, spent the first years of her career immersed in the beauty industry, working across brands like Swisse and Elle Macpherson’s WelleCo, counting the latter as a valued mentor. Following her time at Swisse, Natassia was one of only five offered a position at private equity fund The Foundry, a fund that exists to support the next wave of beauty brand founders. Moving to what was, in essence, a startup, was a risk, but Natassia took it upon herself to learn every facet of the business and, in her words, soak up everything she could. 

By 2021, Natassia had been working in the beauty industry for around 6 years and had began to wonder if there was anything she could contribute to the space that would make both it and the planet as a whole better. She mapped out the lifecycle of a beauty product and realised that there was a water footprint involved in, literally, every step of the supply chain. Knowing that water is a finite resource, and that most beauty products contain between 70 and 90 percent water, she asked herself “If you take water out, what are you left with?”

As Natassia explains, what you’re left with is “the good stuff.”

Natassia launched Conserving Beauty, Australia’s first waterless beauty brand, in 2021. Conserving Beauty is the first beauty brand globally to be part of the Water Footprint Network, and the first Australian beauty brand to be backed by both government and impact investment funds. April of this year saw yet another Conserving Beauty innovation reach the public in the form of the brand’s InstaMelt™ technology- a patented fabric technology that has allowed the brand to develop the world’s first dissolving facial wipes and sheet masks, with even more innovation set to hit shelves very soon.

In this conversation, Natassia shares why she believes taking on every job from the ground up is essential for future brand founders, what it truly means to take on external investment, and precisely how her brand ensures water conservation is considered at every single step of the supply chain. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Conserving Beauty on Instagram @conservingbeauty. 

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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French skincare sales, as a category, are reportedly up 25% in the last quarter, and the appetite for hard-to-find French brands and products has never been higher. In this bonus episode of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Watts discover the secrets to mastering French girl beauty. 

This episode is sponsored by French Beauty Co, Australia’s only digital destination for lovers of French beauty. To celebrate Bastille Day, French Beauty Co have curated a celebratory French beauty box, filled with best selling products from Bioderma, Nuxe, Embryolisse, Mavala, Klorane and Bachca Paris, available via frenchbeautyco.com.au until July 14. 

In this conversation, Emilie shares what it is about the French approach to beauty that sets it apart from the rest of the world, why she believes pharmacy skincare is finally having its moment globally, and exactly what French women do (and don’t!) include in their beauty routines. 

You can shop the French Beauty Co range, including the limited edition French Beauty Box, at frenchbeautyco.com.au.

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Beauty has been something of a constant thread woven throughout Susanne Kaufmann’s life. Growing up in the westernmost part of Austria, Susanne’s earliest memories are of the beauty rituals she shared with her grandmother of a weekend as a child. Her family owned a hotel, with Susanne growing to become the fifth generation hotelier to run the retreat, and in the mid 90s she saw an opportunity to bring more guests to the hotel.

That opportunity lay within the hotel’s spa. 

Susanne elected to completely redevelop the spa, transforming it into a destination in and of itself. She had loved the ritual of beauty since her early childhood, so she set to work ensuring the hotel’s spa was one of the very best in the world. It was in 2003 that Susanne sought to add yet another point of difference to the spa’s offering by launching a signature line of 24 products, formulated only to be used in-house during spa treatments. Soon thereafter the products garnered international press coverage, with Susanne fielding interest from some of the the world’s biggest beauty retailers. 

Today, almost 20 years after its launch, the Susanne Kaufmann brand consists of over 80 different products, each crafted from natural ingredients found within the hotel’s surrounds, and is sold everywhere from Harrods and Selfridges in London to Galeries Lafayette in Paris and Mecca here in Australia. 

In this conversation, Susanne shares why sustainability means so much more to her than just packaging, the importance of listening to one’s body, and what she refers to as “the new luxury.” 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Susanne Kaufmann on Instagram @susannekaufmann_. 

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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With a background in fashion, Evah Jackson has always had a fascination with aesthetics. In 2014, she co-founded Harpers Project, one of the country’s largest online homewares stores and one of the very first to really capitalise on the power of social media. 

A few years post-launch, Evah and the Harper’s Project team decided to extend their furniture offering into home textiles and began exploring fibre options. It was at this point that they became aware of the amount of bacteria that could be found on our regular face and body towels, and so they started to look into new, antibacterial options. 

Resoré was launched in 2020 after over two years of development, bridging the gap between beauty and homewares and featuring a blend of fibres that had never been blended before. 

Before the brand had even launched, they had secured Rosie Huntington-Whiteley to front their very first campaign, and contracted both Rosie and internationally renowned skin specialist Melanie Grant as brand ambassadors. Now, roughly two years in, Resoré can be found in the world’s very biggest beauty retailers- Mecca, locally, as well as Harrods, Bloomingdales, Poosh and Saks Fifth Avenue internationally. 

In this conversation, Evah shares her tips on how to decide on the right ambassadors for your brand and how to lock them in, the pros and cons of launching tactile businesses online rather than in a bricks and mortar store, and what exactly is living on our regular bath towels. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Resoré on Instagram @resorebody. 

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Randi Christiansen has always been interested in the intersection of business and beauty. 

Having studied business at university and taking a particular interest in entrepreneurship and small business growth, Randi found herself in a role at Estée Lauder Companies, where she would remain for next 15 years.

Despite being a major multinational, Randi was able to bring her passion for small business to the company, working primarily across the La Mer and Tom Ford brands. While these are both household names today, when Randi commenced work on them they were very much in their infancy, so she was able to combine her startup mindset with the resources of a multinational business. 

It was during her time at Estée that Randi met and began working with beauty journalist Nick Axelrod, and over cheap beers at an airport the two began to brainstorm a business idea on a paper napkin. They wanted to bring a facial skincare ethos to the body care market, the latter market being around one fifth a size of the former, but they didn’t just want to create a brand for the sake of it- they only wanted to create what felt crucial, essential, and necessary. 

And so, Nécessaire was born. Having launched at the very end of 2018 and being certified climate neutral since January of 2019, Nécessaire is now a true global brand and, as of May 24, is finally available in Australia at Mecca.

In this conversation, Randi shares the unexpected benefits of bringing on investors when developing a brand, why she thinks having a journalist on board is essential in launching a successful business, and the importance of having a truly clear brand DNA. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Nécessaire on Instagram @necessaire. 

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Rachael Finch grew up in Townsville as an athlete, with little to no interest in beauty until she was about 15. It was at this age that she was encouraged to enter a modelling competition, which she won, and subsequently spent the next four years travelling for her new career- first to Brisbane, and then internationally, an experience she describes as changing her perception of the world.

Modelling, she tells me, changed her relationship with her body and what she was putting in it, a relationship she has spent the ensuing years working on. Rachael won Miss Universe Australia in 2009, aged 20, at a time she tells me she was still just going with the flow with very little idea of where her new found profile might take her- nor who it would introduce her to. It was in the following year that she competed on Dancing With The Stars and met her now-husband and business partner. The pair eventually ran a dance studio together and learnt the importance of playing every role within a business, including that of cleaner, during a time Rachael tells me they were struggling to make ends meet. 

By around 2017, with Rachael having found a love for dance and harnessing her longstanding love of movement and her evolving understanding of wellness, she and her husband launched two businesses- Body by Finch and B.O.D. by Finch, a digital wellness platform and activewear brand respectively. It was from here that the groundwork for Kissed Earth was laid. 

Prompted by feedback from the Body by Finch community, Kissed Earth was launched in 2019 following two years of fully self-funded product development. What began as a tight edit of health supplements has since grown into a brand encompassing products for both inner and outer beauty. 

In this conversation, Rachael shares her advice on turning personal partnerships into successful professional ones, what collagen can realistically do for the skin, and the realities of product development timelines and why it’s worth waiting to get things right. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Rachael Finch on Instagram @rachael_finch.

Discover Kissed Earth at kissedearth.com.au

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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In 2019, Rachel Tyers was working in marketing for a B2B company that sold medical devices. It was during this time that Rachael was made aware of a patented topical skincare lab sample and, having struggled with acne for the better part of a decade, decided it was worth trying. Rachael read studies, learned the science behind the formula, and saw real results in her own skin, so she and her mother brainstormed ways to raise capital and pitched for the rights to the product. That patented acne solution was then formulated into tbh Skincare’s first product, Acne Hack. 

tbh Skincare launched online in March 2020, and within a month the brand had hit $10k in sales despite the bulk of the country plunging into lockdown. Rachael had belief in the tbh science and was aware that the brand’s marketing strategy would be make or break in terms of cutting through the heavily saturated skincare space online, so she persisted in implementing a number of marketing devices to get the product into the right hands- she sought influencer collaborations from people she genuinely felt her product could help, she began selling bundled products to increase basket size, and she seeded samples out to consumers so that she had a bank of real before and after photos to advertise with. Within 18 months, tbh Skincare had hit almost $1 million in sales. 

Beyond that marketing strategy, what I found sets Rachael apart is that she’s entered the beauty space with a personal need. Rather than entering the sphere wanting to create a brand and go from there, Rachael had identified a problem that she had spent her whole adult life struggling with, discovered a solution, and wanted to make that solution available to others. 

In this conversation, Rachael shares how she made a digitally-native lockdown-launch work in her favour, the art of meaningful collaboration and how to do it well, and why it’s sometimes worth slowing down the rate of product release. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow tbh Skincare on Instagram @tbhskincare_.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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In this bonus episode of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Watts is joined by by pharmacist and Medical Communications Manager at L’Oreal Australia, Rachel McAdam. Rachel’s role sees her provide L’Oreal brands with insight into consumer skin health needs from a formulations perspective, so I thought she would be the perfect person to answer the questions YOU submitted on all things Vitamin B5.

I’m so often asked really specific questions about the skin (and, in this case, about very specific ingredients and what they can and cannot do for the skin), but given that I’m an educated consumer and not an expert, I insist on taking those questions to those who can correctly and ethically answer them for you. 

For complete transparency from the outset, this episode is sponsored by La Roche-Posay Australia, however all of Rachel’s views are her own and, as per all of our Ask An Expert interviews you will hear absolutely no specific product recommendations throughout this interview.

In this conversation, Rachel answers your questions on Vitamin B5- from what it is and what it can actually do for the skin, through to the ideal percentage you should be looking for in your skincare, why we’re hearing so much about it in the leadup to winter, and exactly how and where you can work it into your skincare routine.

Read this episode transcript at glowjournal.com

You can discover more about La Roche-Posay at laroche-posay.com.au, or on Instagram @larocheposayaunz. 

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Larry King’s earliest ambition was to work in the film industry, a dream that saw him spend much of his early life watching many, many movies.

It’s a task he encourages his staff to partake in today, often setting them projects so they can understand the references to films and movie stars of eras passed that he weaves into his hairstyling work across runways, red carpets and editorials. 

Larry’s first job was at Toni & Guy’s Cambridge salon as a 17 year old, although it wasn’t until he was in his 30s and had built up both his reputation and his celebrity clientele (a list that includes Jared Leto, Gigi Hadid, Tom Holland and Chris Hemsworth) that he began to think about opening his own space. 

The Larry King flagship salon was opened in South Kensington in 2017 and had received countless accolades within mere months of that opening, with Larry explaining that friendship and an ethos based upon treating all clients with an equal amount of respect are the qualities that set the salon apart. 

In 2018, Larry and his wife Laura debuted Larry King Haircare, a sustainable haircare line developed to help consumers create their dream hair, and from April 14, Larry King Haircare will be available in Australia via Adore Beauty. 

In this conversation, Larry shares how he taps into emerging hair trends, the difference between runway and red carpet hair styling, and the advice and assignments he gives to his assistants and to anyone wanting to succeed in the hair industry. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Larry King on Instagram @larrykinghaircare

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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This summer saw La Roche-Posay and Skin Check Champion’s ‘House of Healthy Skin’ tour the east coast of Australia, providing 1342 individuals with a free skin check. Over 80% of those people had never had their skin checked before, so we took to Instagram to find out why before I passed your skin check questions onto the expert.

For complete transparency from the outset, this episode is sponsored by La Roche-Posay Australia, however all of Dr McDonald’s views are her own and, as per all of our Ask An Expert interviews you will hear absolutely no specific product recommendations throughout this interview.

In this conversation, Dr Cara answers your questions on skin checks and sun protections- from how to physically book a skin check if you’ve never had one before and a run down of what we can expect in our appointment, through to what we should be keeping an eye out for on our own skin, how often we should really be getting our skin checked, and what level of sun protection is actually necessary as we head into winter.

Discover more about La Roche-Posay, including the complete Anthelios SPF50+ sunscreen range, at laroche-posay.com.au or on Instagram @larocheposayaunz.

Find Dr Cara McDonald at completeskinspecialists.com.au or in Instagram @drcara_dermatologist.

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Cousins Greg Gonzalez and Joe Cloyes quite literally grew up in the beauty industry. 

What began as a hair salon, owned by their grandparents, grew to a line of professional aesthetics products that the family manufactured for and distributed to spas and salons right across the US. Greg and Joe grew up in the brand’s factory, playing amongst the packaging peanuts as children before coming to work for the family business full time upon graduating from college. 

As their shared interest in the beauty industry grew, so too did their fascination with the wellness space and, in particular, the growing superfood movement. Youth To The People began as an idea, a kale based Superfood Cleanser, and was built out to a sustainably produced, vegan, three step skincare routine, created entirely in house.

Youth To The People launched in 2015, and in December of 2021, L’Oréal finalised their acquisition of the brand as it clocked up a reported $50 million US in sales for the year. 

In this conversation, Greg and Joe share the incredible story behind their grandmother’s brand and how she recovered after being left with nothing, why they felt it was worth taking an initial financial hit in pursuit of creating a sustainable company, and what the L’Oréal brand acquisition will (and won’t) change for Youth To The People.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Youth To The People on Instagram @youthtothepeople

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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This episode, sponsored by Grown Alchemist, sees us celebrate the Clean Start Program- a program designed to help consumers refresh and reset their skin. Committed to helping you on your journey to truly healthy skin, Grown Alchemist want to support your Clean Start. For a limited time, select any Grown Alchemist to give your skin its Clean Start- you’ll receive 10% off 1 product, 20% off if you purchase 2 products, 30% off 3 products and 40% off 4 products. The more products you purchase, the more Grown Alchemist will be able to support your skin and wellbeing journey. 

To herald the launch of the Clean Start Program, I spoke to Jeremy about all things clean beauty and sustainability. To learn more about the Grown Alchemist story and the business side of beauty, you can hear more from Jeremy on Episode 35 of this podcast. 

In this conversation, Jeremy shares what clean and biocompatible beauty really mean to Grown Alchemist, more on the body’s natural ability to heal itself and what we can do to ensure its able to function at its best, and what the future of sustainability looks like for the brand. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Grown Alchemist on Instagram @grownalchemist

Discover more at grownalchemist.com/au/

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Trigger Warning: Pregnancy loss.

Keira Rumble is as resilient as it gets. At age 20, at roughly the same time she realised she had very little interest in her job, she was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. Out of necessity she began making changes to her diet and lifestyle, but wasn’t seeing nor feeling a marked change to her health. Upon discovering that the supposedly healthy protein balls she’d been snacking on boasted the sugar equivalent of a donut, she tried her hand at making her own. 

It turns out she had a knack for it. Keira started posting her recipes online, and when she realised her blog following had expanded well into the overseas market, she turned those recipes into a protein ball business- a business she very openly deems a failure. 

Failure aside, Keira had already started conceptualising not one, but two new businesses- a skincare brand and a range of collagen-rich snacks. She pitched the former to Sephora, a few minutes after receiving a phone call from her doctor to inform her that she was, at that very moment, suffering from a miscarriage. The pitch, understandably, didn’t go according to plan, with Sephora suggesting Keira revisit her skincare idea after launching the collagen snacks.

So that’s exactly what she did.

With no physical product or prototype, Keira cold-pitched Krumbled Foods’ first product, Beauty Bites, to Priceline. Within 8 months of launching, Beauty Bites were stocked in Priceline, Coles and Urban Outfitters, she was about to complete the Sephora Accelerate Program, and she was preparing to launch Habitual Beauty with nine SKUs across two categories- all while dealing with multiple pregnancy losses. 

Keira launched Habitual Beauty about a day before New South Wales and Victoria went back into covid lockdown, and a week after giving birth to her son, Hunter. Today, Habitual Beauty is available in store and online at Sephora, and is about to launch into the UK.

In this conversation, Keira shares why she is currently reviewing her company’s employment contracts to make the workplace better for all women, her take on competition, and why she feels launching a brand across multiple categories at once is an asset, not a hindrance. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Keira Rumble on Instagram @krumble, @habitualbeauty.co and @krumbledfoods.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Away from our regular brand founder conversations, I am asked so many highly specific questions about the skin. Given that I am an educated consumer and by no means an expert, it would be extremely unethical for me to even attempt to address your skin concerns which is why I insist on taking those questions to a medical doctor. This Ask An Expert series is giving you, the Glow Journal audience, unprecedented access to medical doctors, professors and dermatologists and, while the series is sponsored by Candela Medical, doctors legally and ethically have to remain completely objective in interviews like this. For this reason, this series is giving you, the listeners, completely unbiased expert answers to your most specific skin questions- questions that I cannot answer myself. 

In this episode, we’ve taken the questions YOU asked about skin resurfacing to Dr Lim - from what laser resurfacing actually does, how it works, and the difference between resurfacing and a peel, through to whether or not it can really do anything for acne scars, pigmentation, fine lines and wrinkles.

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/ask-an-expert-skin-resurfacing

Follow Candela Medical on Instagram @candelamedicalanz

Follow Dr Davin Lim at @drdavinlim and @101.skin

Discover more at candelamedia.com

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Sally Obermeder always wanted a job that allowed her to have a chat, which is why she abandoned her early ambitions of a career in dentistry in favour of a role in finance. After a decade in investment banking Sally realised that her heart wasn’t in it, and decided to take a leap of faith in the direction of an industry she’d long dreamt of working in- television. 

Sally spent close to four years training, learning, applying and auditioning for work as a television presenter, and despite being told by a teacher that she would “100% never get a job in television,” she eventually landed her dream job- a presenting role that saw her interview upwards of 200 international celebrities and become one of Australia’s most recognisable television personalities. 

Everything changed in 2011. At 40 weeks pregnant, Sally was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. She gave birth the next day, and commenced chemotherapy when her first daughter was one week old. 

Sally’s experience can’t be minimised to a three minute podcast intro so I’ll allow you to listen for yourself, however I would like this opportunity to thank Sally, again, for sharing her story. 

Sally, of course, recovered, and took the time to decide what she wanted to do next. She returned to television, however she wanted to do something more, something that would allow her and her sister, Maha to work together. The pair launched SWIISH as a blog in October 2012 and later began working on a book together. Not one publisher elected to back said book, so the pair self-published. That book, Super Green Smoothies, went to number one overnight, is still number one in its category, and has since been republished 20 times. 

The success of the book saw Sally and Maha transform SWIISH into an e-commerce destination, with the pair eventually developing their own brand of wellness supplements. Today, the SWIISH brand consists of 12 supplements, a topical beauty range and a clothing line, all of which are shipped to over 70 countries worldwide. 

In this conversation, Sally shares the freedom that comes with not needing approval from others in pursuit of your dreams, her experience with cancer and the reality of accepting that you may not survive, and how Taylor Swift has earned her some serious popularity points on the home front.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Sally Obermeder on Instagram @sallyobermeder, @swiishbysallyo and @swiishwellness

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Holly has always had a realistic understanding of what it takes to build a beauty business. Holly’s parents owned small businesses themselves, and Holly’s mum actually created her own simple skincare products so that she could set her daughter up with a skincare routine as a pre-teen. 

They passed their learnings onto Holly, who entered the beauty industry after completing her studies and launched a skincare brand with her mother and her aunty. This brand took the trio all over the world however it simply wasn’t commercially viable, so Holly went back to the drawing board and channeled her passions for business, beauty and nature into developing her own colour cosmetics line- Eye of Horus. 

The brand began in 2011 as a single mascara that Holly would sell at local markets, unsure if she would ever extend the line. It was when she received a two page, hand written letter from a customer who had been through chemotherapy and hadn’t been able to find a mascara that worked for her, until finding Eye of Horus, that Holly knew she was in the right place.

Holly then expanded the line to include an eye pencil and a liquid eyeliner (with the popularity of both products soaring following a genius spot of guerrilla marketing at a trade show, the story of which Holly shared in our chat), with a full colour cosmetics line and, more recently, a facial oil, launching across the ensuing years. 

Today, other than continuing to grow the brand, Holly is focused on working towards a circular economy, elevating her brand’s sustainability initiatives, and maintaining the kinds of relationships she founded her brand on at the local markets over 10 years ago. 

In this conversation, Holly shares why it’s important to recognise your own weaknesses as a business owner and hire accordingly, how starting with a solid foundation can allow your brand to be fluid without straying from its values, and how a shirtless man at a beauty expo helped Holly prove that a little budget can go a long, long way. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Eye of Horus Cosmetics on Instagram @eyeofhoruscosmetics

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sunday Riley is honest about failure- so much so that she credits several missteps with the success of her namesake brand. 

Sunday Riley was launched in 2009, in the middle of the Global Financial Crisis, with Sunday herself explaining to me that often perfect timing doesn’t come wrapped up neatly with a bow. The “right time” may well be disguised as chaos. 

The brand’s price point began somewhere significantly higher than where it sits now. Sunday pushed to have it lowered, and while many told her she was making a huge mistake, she explains that she’d rather go down doing what she feels is right. She allowed herself to be led by intuition which proved to be the right call, with Barneys opting to pick up the brand before its launch, despite a recession. A few years later the brand was picked up by Sephora, where it failed miserably (in Sunday’s words)- so much so that the retailer forgot the brand existed and left it off the store map.

A failure of such epic proportions was precisely the motivation Sunday needed. She made a promise to Sephora that Sunday Riley would become the number one skincare brand, in the number one store, within the season. At the time, they were sitting at number 55. Within a few months Sunday Riley did become the stores highest selling skincare brand, and despite absolutely no marketing budget, several of the brand’s products hit global cult status- which is where they remain today, 12 years later. 

In this conversation, Sunday shares the importance of removing ego in business and acknowledging where you’ve gone wrong, how intuition led to her pulling multiple best-sellers from the shelves and, in several cases, reformulating, and how she built her business from the corner of working car garage. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Sunday Riley on Instagram @sundayriley

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season 4 begins January 19. See you in 2022!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Away from our regular brand founder conversations, I am asked so many highly specific questions about the skin. Given that I am an educated consumer and by no means an expert, it would be extremely unethical for me to even attempt to address your skin concerns which is why I insist on taking those questions to a medical doctor. This Ask An Expert series gives you, the Glow Journal audience, unprecedented access to medical doctors, professors and dermatologists and, while this episode is sponsored by Candela Medical, all of Dr Gan’s views are entirely his own and, as per any interview with a doctor, you only hear generalised advice allowing you to make your own, informed, decisions.

In this episode, we’ve taken the questions YOU asked about superficial scarring to Dr Gan - from how soon after an injury you should visit a dermatologist to prevent a scar and if it’s ever too late to fade scarring, through to treatments for cuts from sports, burns from hair curlers and scratches from pets, and whether or not topical products can really help to fade superficial scars.

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com

Follow Candela Medical on Instagram @candelamedicalanz

Discover more at candelamedia.com

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pia’s first memories of beauty centre around strength, rather than aesthetics. Raised by her mother, grandmother and, as she tells me, really her entire community, Pia grew up identifying beauty with strength and getting it done- an ethos she’s taken into her own adult life. 

Another ethos that has taken Pia from her teens right through to now is this idea of natural beauty, and an understanding that your beauty lies within the things that make you uniquely you. Despite winning the now infamous Dolly Magazine Model Search at the age of 14, Pia tells me that she grew up feeling different, as a Latina going to both school and castings with girls who didn’t share her body shape nor the colour of her skin, her eyes and her hair. Her modelling career saw her walking in fashion shows with the likes Helena Christensen and Linda Evangelista, and it was at this point, the height of the 90s, that she began to appreciate the aesthetic of the time- pared back, natural beauty. 

As a model, an actress and a mother, Pia had identified a gap for a true beauty multitasker, and as she began researching native Australian ingredients she came across the humble macadamia, the benefits of which you’ll hear more about in our conversation- and so, Macabalm was born. A mere 12 months following the brand’s launch in Australia, Pia is already working on the brand’s US launch. 

In this conversation, Pia shares the lessons she has learnt around the comparison trap and why she’s passing those lessons on to her teenaged sons, the challenges she’s faced as a brand launching with a single SKU, and how a pest controller could have undone the years of work she put into gaining Macabalm’s organic certification. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Macabalm on Instagram @macabalm

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I’m so often asked really specific questions about the skin (and, in this case, about ingredients and industry trends), but given that I’m an educated consumer and not an expert, I insist on taking those questions to those who can correctly and ethically answer them for you. In the name of transparency this episode is sponsored by CeraVe, however as per all of my expert interviews, the goal is not to sell you something specific. For this reason, you’ll hear Rachel recommend ingredients, rather than brands, and offer more general advice, giving you the tools you need to make your own, educated purchasing decisions. 

In this episode, Rachel answers your questions on skincare trends- from which products are actually necessary in a healthy skincare routine and what percentages of trending active ingredients are actually going to make a difference to the skin, through to the rise of trends like “singular ingredient” serums and “skinimalism,”- and whether or not those trends are worth engaging with. 

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com

Follow CeraVe on Instagram @cerave_a

Discover more at cerave.com.au

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Emily Parr’s career in beauty began when her career in the wellness space saw her headhunted by Salma Hayek.

Having worked in fashion and health PR respectively, Salma Hayek’s brand was Emily’s first beauty client. This led Emily to found Poke PR in late 2012, an agency that would go on to both represent and grow the likes of Drunk Elephant and Glow Journal’s friends The Beauty Chef, Summer Fridays and Briogeo- all of which were brands that Emily cold-emailed and pitched to herself. 

Emily garnered a reputation for being the industry’s champion of female-founded, founder-led, clean beauty brands, and is largely responsible for the narrative shift beauty media made away from the term “natural” and replaced with the word “clean.” 

It was in 2018 that a chance encounter at an industry function saw Emily meet the man who would later become her HoliFrog co-founder, with HoliFrog soon becoming the go-to brand for a product many cosmetic formulators had dubbed “the beauty industry’s afterthought”- cleanser. 

What did begin as a line of facial cleansers has since expanded to serums and a moisturiser, with 4 new launches hitting shelves in the next 12 months. 

In this conversation, Emily shares the art of the cold email, some truly interesting points on media’s shift to digital and what that means for the beauty industry, and the importance of knowing the difference between telling a brand’s story vs. sharing a selling point.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow HoliFrog on Instagram @holifrog

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this Ask An Expert episode, host Gemma Watts is joined by National Clinical Operations Manager for Candela Medical ANZ, Kirsten Cachia. Professional skin clinics are finally back open and the festive season is almost upon us, so we’ve received an influx of questions recently regarding skin treatments for everything from hair removal and skin tightening through to pigmentation and spider veins. 

This bonus episode is sponsored by Candela Medical, however Kirsten is not here to push specific products, treatments or brands. As per the rest of this Ask An Expert Series, I’ve sought qualified experts to give you objective answers to your questions so that you can take that information and make your own educated decisions regarding which treatments are right for you. 

In this episode, we’ve taken the questions YOU submitted on all things laser and IPL to Kirsten- from the real difference between laser and IPL and if it’s even worth undergoing a hair removal treatment so close to summer through to what’s involved in pigmentation and spider vein treatmments and whether or not laser treatments are really permanent. 

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/laser-and-ipl-basics

Follow Candela Medical on Instagram @candelamedicalanz

Discover more at candelamedia.com

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the year 2003, standalone brow brands were few and far between. It was in that year, however, that Natalie Plain watched as lash products dominated the beauty market and noticed a gap for dedicated brow products. 

Natalie had long held an understanding of the role brows play in the overall beauty picture. Having naturally bushy brows as a child, a teenage Natalie had begged her mother to take her to Beverly Hills to have them professionally shaped. The results, she tells me, were transformative- on her confidence above anything else.  

By 2003 Natalie had been a White House intern and was working as a journalist, and upon noticing that the lash market was exploding yet so few people were developing products for the brows, despite them being mere millimetres away, she decided it was she who could fill that white space- and so, Billion Dollar Brows was born.

What began as a single SKU has since grown to a full colour cosmetics line and, today, Billion Dollar Brows is available in 32 countries. 

In this conversation, Natalie shares the importance of focus groups, why an early understanding of Google Ad Words played a key role in her brand’s launch, and her advice on dealing with emerging competitors when you’re first to market. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Billion Dollar Brows on Instagram @billiondollarbrows

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this Ask An Expert episode, host Gemma Watts is joined by Dermal Clinician and founder of Victorian Dermal Group, Derya Koch. Events are, at long last, on the horizon again, and skin clinics have finally reopened their doors, so we have received an overwhelming number of questions from brides-to-be asking how best to prepare their skin ahead of their wedding day.

This Ask An Expert episode is sponsored by Candela Medical, however Derya is not here to push specific brands and products. As per the rest of this Ask An Expert Series, I’ve sought qualified experts to give you objective answers to your questions so that you can take that information and make your own educated decisions regarding which treatments are right for you. 

In this episode, we’ve taken the questions YOU submitted on wedding skin to Derya- from exactly what you should be doing a year, six months, and a week before your wedding day and how late is too late to start those preparations in order to see results, through to what to do if a pimple or an irritation flares up on your big day and the DIY treatments you should absolutely avoid the night before your wedding. 

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/wedding-skin-prep

Follow Candela Medical on Instagram @candelamedicalanz

Discover more at candelamedia.com

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michèle grew up with more of a love for the outdoors than a love for beauty- although, in a sense, it was the former that brought her to the latter. 

Michèle’s love of the outdoors led to a desire to be an adventurer- an archeologist, specifically, as she tells me one of her earliest wishes was “to discover something.” She found herself naturally drawn to science, completing her studies at medicine and pharmacy schools before taking a job within the beauty industry and discovering a passion for product development.

What led to the development of Cosmetics 27, however, was something different entirely. That aforementioned love of the outdoors saw Michèle injure herself skiing, and amidst her search to find a product to heal the subsequent scar, she was introduced to a plant with regenerative properties that had, at the time, not been used to even a tenth of its potential. 

That plant became the base of her first product, the now-cult Baume 27, fulfilling her desire for discovery and fascination with creation, and despite having no initial plans to bring the product to market, it now sits at the core of the Cosmetics 27 brand. 

I have long used and loved the Cosmetics 27 brand, but what I found to be just as remarkable as the products was Michèle’s willingness to acknowledge and reflect on decisions that she deems to be failures, as well as the way in which she talks about independent brands and multinationals coexisting in the beauty space, with each brand (and, more importantly, each idea) pushing those around them to do better. 

In this conversation, Michèle shares how social media trends might be affecting our skin’s balance, the ways in which the barrier to entry to the beauty industry has been lowered, and why remaining an independent brand is both freeing and a hurdle. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Cosmetics 27 on Instagram @cosmetics27

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Despite officially launching in 2013, Goldfaden MD technically begun in Dr Gary Goldfaden’s dermatology practice about 40 years ago. 

Lisa, his daughter, spent the early part of her working life in arts and education, while Lauren, his daughter-in-law, spent hers working on ad campaigns for the likes of Coca Cola, Voltswagen and Burger King. While both had an interest in beauty and understanding of the “clean” movement that was beginning to build momentum, it wasn’t until friends of the family started asking for access to Dr Goldfaden’s clinical formulas that Lisa and Lauren realised they had family ties to a brand worth developing. 

Goldfaden MD was the very first brand to bridge the gap between “doctor brands” and “clean beauty”. The formulas spoke for themselves, however having been told by multiple parties “I don’t believe in this concept,” the real challenge for Lisa and Lauren was convincing retailers that Goldfaden MD was worthy of shelf space. 

Worthy it proved to be, and what began as one hero product was swiftly built out into an entire portfolio, with every single product designed to address the most common skin concerns that Dr Goldfaden was finding himself presented with in-clinic. 

In this conversation, Lisa and Lauren share how a former fraternity brother is largely to thank for Goldfaden MD’s inception, the lessons from their respective careers in education and advertising that have helped them build a successful business, and the importance of finding designers, copywriters and vendors who understand and align with your brand. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Goldfaden MD on Instagram @goldfadenmd

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this Ask An Expert episode, host Gemma Watts is joined by Dermal Therapist Ginny Bucchi. Ginny specialises in skin rejuvenation and tattoo removal, and has performed over 2500 PicoWay treatments, on all skin types, since 2017, so we took the opportunity to ask her YOUR questions on cosmetic tattooing and tattoo removal. 

This Ask An Expert episode is sponsored by Candela Medical, however you won’t hear Ginny recommending specific brands or products. As per the rest of this Ask An Expert Series, we’ve sought qualified experts to give you objective answers to your questions so that you can take that information and make your own educated decisions regarding which treatments are right for you. 

In this episode, we’ve taken the questions YOU submitted on cosmetic tattoo removal to Ginny- from exactly how much pain to expect and how many treatments are actually necessary, through to how the tattoo removal process really works and, of course, the best way to choose your cosmetic tattoo artist and your tattoo removalist.

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/cosmetic-tattoo-and-tatoo-removal

Follow Candela Medical on Instagram @candelamedicalanz

Discover more at candelamedia.com

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Terry de Gunzburg tells me that the rose is in her DNA.

Terry’s earliest memorable connection to beauty is her grandmother’s homemade rosewater. Terry herself spent her childhood applying rose petals to her cheeks to mimic the effect of blush, and today, the rose sits at the heart of one of her most iconic beauty creations- Baume De Rose. 

In her very early 20s, during a seasonal break between leaving medical school and commencing art school, Terry decided to take a four week course in cosmetics as nothing more than a creative outlet. In week four, in a moment of both desperation and serendipity, Terry was sent to a Vogue Paris photoshoot when no other makeup artist was available. It was on that day that Terry decided her future was in beauty.

In 1985, Terry was approached by her a man she describes as her hero, Yves Saint Laurent, and became the brand’s Creative Director of beauty. It was here that Terry created a product that, quite literally, changed the way countless products were designed and used thereafter. A product that none of her colleagues wanted to launch, and a product that she spent three years convincing them was worth their time- Touche Éclat.

In 1998, Terry created her own business, a line of couture, made-to-order cosmetics and opened a boutique in Paris. Demand was overwhelming and waiting lists were years long, so she expanded and developed that line into the brand we now know as By Terry. 

In this conversation, Terry shares the mistake that led to the creation of the now-iconic Baume De Rose, how she developed the first ever skincare in powder form, and the ways in which the beauty industry has changed since her time working with Linda Evangelista, Kate Moss and Guy Bourdin.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow By Terry on Instagram @byterryofficial

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the name of transparency this episode is sponsored by Synergie Skin, however this conversation is not, at all, about pushing products onto you. Terri’s background is, of course, in chemistry and biological science and her passion really lies within skin education, so the goal here isn’t product placement- as per all of our bonus episodes, it’s about giving you the objective information you need in order to make informed decisions around your skincare. 

In this episode, we’ve taken the questions YOU submitted on the stages of skin and passed them on to Terri- from how early is too early to start using retinol and why we associate acne with our teen years, through to why so many of us are still experiencing acne as adults and whether or not there’s a topical solution for wrinkles and a loss of elasticity. 

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/the-stages-of-skin

Follow Synergie Skin on Instagram @synergieskin.

Discover more at synergieskin.com

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Three Warriors’ existence really stems from founder Corbin Halliday’s 2014 hospitalisation. 

Corbin had grown up in Tasmania with dreams of making it as an actor in Hollywood. Upon finishing school he moved to Sydney and began auditioning, and was subsequently signed to an agency in Los Angeles. Within months of landing in Hollywood, Corbin realised he didn’t actually enjoy acting at all- so he moved back to his home town of St Helens and went back to the career drawing board. 

Corbin started working as a hairdresser and became a very successful one, however he was forced to give it up upon falling ill in 2014. He began experiencing daily migraines, nerve pain, and blood pressure so high he was on the precipice of a stoke. After four years of tests and treatment, Corbin finally received a diagnosis that he shared more on in our conversation. 

It was during those four years that Corbin decided to change his lifestyle and, in turn, the products he was using daily. Discovering a gap for a legitimately organic, natural, vegan and cruelty-free tanning product, Corbin began working with a biochemist friend to bring the Three Warriors salon tanning solution to life. 

Within six months of the brand’s 2017 launch, hype and demand led Corbin to develop a range of at-home skin and tanning products and, as he reveals in this episode, there are several new products on the horizon. 

In this conversation, Corbin shares the deeply moving story behind the Three Warriors name, the trials and tribulations of receiving organic certification, and how a water damaged apartment was really the catalyst that led to this red-headed boy from Tasmania launching a tanning brand. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Three Warriors on Instagram @threewarriors

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jenna Lyons has always been a creative- but a younger Jenna did not imagine she’d end up in beauty.

Jenna was 6 feet tall by the time she was 13 and had a genetic disorder that affected her teeth and left her with bald spots, scars and no eyelashes. She shares that she was teased for the way that she looked, however after learning how to sew in a Home Economics class, she discovered she had a flare for design. Upon seeing one of her designs, the most popular girl in school complimented her on her taste and her talent, a moment that Jenna explains “changed everything,” and a future in fashion suddenly felt like a path she could take. 

Jenna studied at Parsons School of Design before graduating and taking a role at J Crew. She began as an assistant designer in menswear, then womenswear, worked her way up to Vice President of Women’s Design, was appointed Executive Creative Director in 2008 and, in 2010, became President of the brand. 

In 2017, after 27 years with the brand and having been credited by the New York Times as “the woman who dresses America,” Jenna Lyons left J Crew. 

Given the link between fashion and beauty, Jenna found herself consulting on a beauty project and began to research the industry itself. She had long been fascinated by false eyelashes, given she has about 10 lashes herself, but had never been able to find false lashes that still made her feel like herself- lashes that were pared back and allowed her to look like herself, only amplified. Recognising a white space, Jenna called makeup artist Troi Ollivierre and the pair began work on LoveSeen.

LoveSeen’s collection of lashes were created by gathering 21 men and women, aged 17 to 72, with the team physically building each lash set onto their faces. 973 zoom calls, 2 trains, 6 planes, 10 cars, 22 cases of prosecco, 34 sample rounds, 1 global pandemic and 18 months later, LoveSeen launched with 14 unique sets of lashes- and this month, the brand finally arrives in Australia. 

In this conversation, Jenna shares what it was like making the move to a startup after over a quarter-century at one of the biggest brands in the world, her advice for anyone growing and building their own team, and why hitting 98% of a goal simply isn’t enough. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow LoveSeen on Instagram @loveseen

Follow Jenna on Instagram @jennalyonsnyc

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Away from our regular brand founder conversations, I am asked so many highly specific questions about the skin. Given that I am an educated consumer and by no means an expert, it would be extremely unethical for me to even attempt to address your skin concerns which is why I insist on taking those questions to a medical doctor. This Ask An Expert series is giving you, the Glow Journal audience, unprecedented access to medical doctors, professors and dermatologists and, while the series is sponsored by Candela Medical, doctors legally and ethically have to remain completely objective in interviews like this. For this reason, this series is giving you, the listeners, completely unbiased expert answers to your most specific skin questions- questions that I cannot answer myself. 

In this episode, we’ve taken the questions YOU submitted on pregnancy skincare to Dr Rudd - from why so many women experience melasma or “pregnancy mask” during pregnancy and the link between pregnancy and hormonal acne, through to which ingredients and treatments are best avoided during pregnancy and whether or not there’s a legitimate way to fade stretch marks. 

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/ask-an-expert-pregnancy-skincare

Follow Candela Medical on Instagram @candelamedicalanz

Follow Dr Alice Rudd at @skindepthdermatology

Discover more at candelamedia.com

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Delport’s 15 plus year career with REN really began upon contracting malaria following a year of charity work in Kenya. 

David had moved to London as an 18 year old, waltzing right into Harrods and asking for a job in beauty. From there he was headhunted by Trish McEvoy, and later industry icons Laura Mercier and NARS where his passion for beauty only grew- however, after some years in artistry and education, David felt burnt out and compelled to take a year’s leave from the industry or risk growing disillusioned by it. 

He spent that year in Kenya working with a charity and conducting field research relating to HIV studies and health care within East Africa, before contracting malaria and being forced to return home to the UK to recover.

In 2005, while looking for part time employment, as this was all he could commit to due to ill health, a friend introduced him to the REN brand. David fell in love with the brand, became hooked on the products, and was then invited to work casually with the brand. As his health improved, David’s capacity to work increased, and he worked his way up through sales and education roles before becoming REN’s Global Brand Ambassador. 

In this conversation, David shares what it was like learning about eyebrows from the woman who tamed Madonna’s brows, why elevating others has long been the key to his success, and why his earliest memory of beauty could have got him into a LOT of trouble.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow REN and David on Instagram at @renskincare and @david_renskincare.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Year round, acne is without question the subject I’m most frequently asked about- however, given that acne is a medical condition, these questions are always best reserved for an expert. In the name of full disclosure, this episode is sponsored by La Roche-Posay Australia, however as per all of my expert interviews, the guest doctor is never here to push specific brands and products. For this reason, you’ll only hear Dr Jo-Ann recommend ingredients, as opposed to products, giving you the tools you need to make your own educated purchasing decisions. 

In this episode, Dr Jo-Ann See answers your questions on acne- from the difference between whiteheads and blackheads and whether topical, “off the shelf” treatments can actually help to clear stubborn breakouts, through to hormones, birth control and their impact on the skin and why acne can still affect us well beyond our teenage years. 

You can read this interview now at glowjournal.com/your-acne-questions-answered

Follow La Roche-Posay on Instagram @larocheposayaunz

Discover more at laroche-posay.com.au

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.” 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Milk Makeup on Instagram at @milkmakeup.

Follow Zanna Roberts Rassi on Instagram at @zannarassi

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I’m so often asked really specific questions about the skin and, given that I’m an educated consumer and by no means an expert, I insist on taking those questions to a legitimate expert- someone truly qualified to answer your questions. In the name of transparency this episode is sponsored by CeraVe, however as per all of my expert interviews, the doctor is NOT here to sell you anything and must remain completely objective when answering your questions. For this reason, you’ll hear Dr De Cruz recommend specific ingredients (rather than products) and offer more general advice, giving you the tools you need to make your own, educated purchasing decisions. 

In this episode, Dr De Cruz answers your questions on winter skincare for the body- from why dry skin, irritations and conditions like dermatitis and psoriasis tend to flare up in the winter and how to keep your skin protected from both cold air and dry indoor heating, through to the impact your winter shower habits are having on your skin and whether or not you really need to moisturise your body every single day. 

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com

Follow CeraVe on Instagram @cerave_a

Follow Dr Ryan De Cruz at @drryandecruz and @southerndermatology_melb

Discover more at cerave.com.au

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Barbara Sturm knew, from the age of four, that she would grow up to be a doctor. She’d watched her grandmother, a pharmacist, and her mother, a lab doctor, at work, and entered into the field of orthopaedics through what she describes as a love of helping people.

Dr Sturm explains, however, that she’d always had an interest in beauty (and in beautiful things), so a move into aesthetics felt natural. It was then that she took her work in orthopaedics, specifically a treatment she helped pioneer in which the blood from a patient is re-injected into the joints to remove inflammation, and translated that science into the field of aesthetics- and so, what we now know as the Vampire Facial was born. 

Dr Barbara Sturm’s signature clinical treatments and prescription plasma-based creams developed what can only be described as a cult following, so to ensure that her work could reach a global audience (rather than exclusively those who could visit her clinic) she began to work on her own consumer brand. 

Dr Barbara Sturm’s line of molecular cosmetics was launched in 2014, taking the in-clinic experience and turning it into one of the most innovative, and celebrity-loved, brands of today. 

In this conversation, Barbara shares how the now-infamous “vampire facial” actually works, why she so strongly believes that inflammation is the root cause of almost every skin ailment, and how Kobe Bryant played a role in establishing Dr Sturm’s now-signature clinical treatment. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Dr Barbara Sturm on Instagram at @drbarbarasturm.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Away from our regular brand founder conversations, I am asked so many highly specific questions about the skin. Given that I am an educated consumer and by no means an expert, it would be extremely unethical for me to even attempt to address your skin concerns which is why I insist on taking those questions to a medical doctor. This Ask An Expert series is giving you, the Glow Journal audience, unprecedented access to medical doctors, professors and dermatologists and, while the series is sponsored by Candela Medical, doctors legally and ethically have to remain completely objective in interviews like this. For this reason, this series is giving you, the listeners, completely unbiased expert answers to your most specific skin questions- questions that I cannot answer myself. 

In this episode, we’ve taken the questions YOU submitted on overall skin rejuvenation to Dr Welsh - from whether or not over the counter products can actually help with pigmentation and if gentle skin resurfacing is at all possible from home, through to the link between sensitive skin and redness and if clinical skin treatments really are a permanent solution to our skin woes.

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/ask-an-expert-rejuvenation-and-sun-damage

Follow Candela Medical on Instagram @candelamedicalanz

Follow Dr Belinda Welsh at @drbelindawelsh

Discover more at candelamedia.com

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There are few brands, and in-store experiences, as universally recognisable as Lush. Having now spoken to Rowena and knowing just what went into Lush’s creation, it’s unsurprising that the brand is the icon that it is today.

Rowena is surprised, however, telling me that she and her five Lush co-founders hadn’t expected that the brand would explode in the way that it has- and she certainly didn’t expect that, as of 2020, Lush would boast some 951 stores globally. 

Rowena has always loved beauty and, after completing her studies as a beauty therapist in the early 1980s, she took a job at a beauty clinic in Dorset. It was here that she would meet all five of her future Lush co-founders, a group she tells me each had completely different skills. She also tells me that she believes this is the secret to Lush’s success- that, and the fact that all six of them really do get along. 

Lush was launched in 1995, and despite opening stores in London, Croatia, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand and Ireland within only a few years, Rowena describes the brand’s growth as “really organic”- another part of the Lush story that she believes was integral to its success, explaining that if they’d launched with the intention of going “zero to sixty” too quickly, they’d likely have failed. She tells me that what they really wanted to create through Lush was fun, theatre, experience and an escape through beauty, and that is precisely what they have done.

In this conversation, Rowena shares the catalyst that led to the inception of Lush (and a wild coincidence that took place on the very same date as our interview), how Lush led the sustainability charge by launching packaging-free products over 25 years ago, and why OVER staffing their stores may have been one of the best business decisions they ever made. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Lush on Instagram at @lush and @lush_ausnz.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Born in Columbia, Tata Harper grew up surrounded by beauty. Her grandmother would host a weekly spa party at home, with Tata helping her mix together facial treatments, hair masks and body scrubs for her family and guests. This would take place every weekend, for a full morning, and it’s a tradition that has helped shaped Tata’s own beauty philosophy. A philosophy she maintains to this day

Despite that early interest in beauty and, later, in fashion, Tata studied engineering and worked as an industrial engineer before moving to the US in the year 2000. In 2005, Tata’s stepfather was diagnosed with cancer- a diagnosis that prompted Tata to begin looking at her own health and, in turn, her lifestyle. 

Tata grew conscious of what she was putting on her skin each day and began looking for a natural alternative to the luxury brands to which she’d grown accustomed. Given that this was some 15 years ago, no such high-end alternative existed- so Tata set out to create one.

The Tata Harper brand launched in 2010, and has been cited by many guests on this very podcast as being the first brand of its kind- the first truly luxury natural beauty brand. A pioneer, and intent on remaining one, Tata Harper is one of few brands that formulate, quality control and pack all of their products in-house (in Tata’s case, that’s on her farm in Vermont), at a time when in-house formulation and manufacturing are far from the norm. 

In this conversation, Tata shares why it’s important to tread carefully when it comes to seeking investment, the challenges across time, money and effort that sustainable manufacturing can present, and what physically qualifies a product as high end. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Tata Harper on Instagram at @tataharperskincare.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Victoire’s founder story is a little different to that of our previous guests.

Buly was founded in Paris by its namesakes, father and son Claude and Jean-Vincent Bully in 1803 and saw success throughout the 19th century with its line of perfumes and scented vinaigrettes. The shop was lost in a riot amidst a revolution some years later but, in 2014 after over a century of sleep, Buly was resurrected by Victoire and her husband, Ramdane Touhami. 

Both Victoire and Ramdane are bonafide creative visionaries. Victoire served as the Public Relations Manager for iconic French concept store Colette, physically launching the store in 1997, while Ramdane is credited with the revival of 1643-founded candle maker Cire Trudon after the brand lay dormant for over 350 years.

It’s almost serendipity that Victoire is now at the helm of Buly, given her early affinity for 19th century French history, which you’ll hear more about in this conversation. Despite that century of sleep, the Buly portfolio now consists of 700 products.

In this conversation, Victoire shares what she and her husband have learned about beauty throughout their travels, how Buly crafted the very first water-based perfume formula and, of course, how she and her husband brought a heritage brand back to life some 100 years after its demise. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Buly 1803 on Instagram at @officine_universelle_buly.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There are very few people who have experienced the the media’s shift to digital in the same way Laney Crowell has. Laney was, quite literally, at the epicentre of the change. 

Upon graduating from college, Laney moved to New York to pursue her dream of working in magazines. After working at both Lucky and Elle, Laney became aware of the direction in which fashion and beauty were heading, and subsequently took a role at digital publication StyleCaster as it launched in 2008. 

The success of that launch led to Estee Lauder head hunting Laney and, quite literally, presenting her with a list of roles asking “Which one do you want?” She then became Executive Director of Online Global Communications for Estee Lauder, and was responsible for the launch of all of the brand’s social media channels and influencer marketing department. After five years at Estee, Laney left and launched her own her blog, The Moment, focusing on clean beauty. Listening to feedback from her growing audience, and drawing on her own experience, Laney realised there was a space in the market for a clean colour cosmetics brand that felt fun to use but also really performed. Saie launched only 18 months ago, and in that time the brand has won over 10 prestigious beauty awards and is now stocked in some of the world’s largest beauty retailers, including Sephora, Goop and Cult Beauty. 

In this conversation, Laney shares why she feels growing pains are both necessary and unavoidable, the difficulties she faced when raising funds for the brand, and how chasing an editor down the street led to her first industry role. 

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Saie on Instagram at @saiebeauty

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Away from our regular brand founder conversations, I am asked so many highly specific questions about the skin. Given that I am an educated consumer and by no means an expert, it would be extremely unethical for me to even attempt to address your skin concerns which is why I insist on taking those questions to a medical doctor. This Ask An Expert series is giving you, the Glow Journal audience, unprecedented access to medical doctors, professors and dermatologists and, while the series is sponsored by Candela Medical, doctors legally and ethically have to remain completely objective in interviews like this. For this reason, this series is giving you, the listeners, completely unbiased expert answers to your most specific skin questions- questions that I cannot answer myself. 

In this episode, we’ve taken the questions YOU submitted on caring for the neck and hands to Dr Manoharan - from which facial skincare ingredients are safe for use on the hands and neck and whether the old adage that the hands and neck age first is truth or a myth, through to whether or not topical skincare can do anything to firm loose skin on the neck and how best to treat visible veins and dark spots on the hands. 

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/ask-an-expert-hands-and-neck

Follow Candela Medical on Instagram @candelamedicalanz

Follow Dr Shobhan Manoharan at @drshobhanmanoharan

Discover more at candelamedia.com

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2014, both working full time office jobs, Em and Ellie knew that solariums were set to close given increased awareness of the health repercussions of UV tanning. Determined to maintain the bronze glow they’d grown accustomed to year round, they took a spray tanning course with little intention beyond tanning themselves and their friends. 

It was the very moment when their best friend Nadia Bartel (now a co-owner in the business alongside Em, Ellie and Bec Judd) posted about their mobile tanning to her hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers that Ellie and Em found themselves trust into the world of business. They started receiving enquiries upon enquiries, often driving to and from tanning appointments before and after work (and during their lunch breaks) purely to meet demand. They soon relocated their appointments to their own bathrooms and, eventually, quit their desk jobs to focus on their new business full time- and so, Spray Aus was born. 

After a year or two of using formulas by other brands, Ellie and Em got in touch with a manufacturer to develop their own professional tanning solution. Today, the Spray Aus offering consists of professional tanning formulas, a home tanning range and accessories, three standalone studios with more on the way, and almost 12 months ago to the day, the brand was picked up by Mecca for distribution across Australia and New Zealand. 

In this conversation, Ellie and Emily share why it’s important to trust your gut during the hiring process, how to determine whether or not your “side hustle” business model is sustainable enough to leave your job for, and the peaks and troughs of learning while physically in the deep end.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Spray Aus on Instagram at @sprayaus

Discover Spray Aus at sprayaus.com.au

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the name of full disclosure, this episode is sponsored by CeraVe, however as per all of my expert interviews, the guest doctor is never here to push specific brands and products. For this reason, you’ll only hear Dr Rodrigues recommend ingredients, rather than products, giving you the tools you need to make your own objective, educated purchasing decisions. 

In this episode, Dr Rodrigues offers expert advice from how to choose the right products for your skin and whether or not cleansing morning and night is even essential, through to which ingredients to look out for (and avoid!) and how to make sure your cleanser is really doing its job.

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/are-you-cleansing-properly

Follow CeraVe on Instagram @cerave_au

Discover more at cerave.com.au

Follow Dr Michelle Rodrigues on Instagram @mrodriguesmd and @chroma_derm

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Miranda Kerr is a household name, so while an introduction may seem redundant, there was so much about her that came up in our conversation that added yet another layer to what was already a really incredible founder story. 

Miranda says that she has always treated every job as though it may be her last, even to this day- an attitude I found so refreshing from one of, quite literally, the most successful supermodels on the planet. It’s that attitude that saw Miranda put almost all of her money made from modelling into savings, so that when she eventually started her own business, she was able to self-fund.

It was in 2006 that Miranda Kerr became the very first Australian to sign a contract with Victoria’s Secret, and it was in that same year that she began thinking about and subsequently planning the launch of KORA Organics. She launched the brand in 2009, when she was just 26, and today, 12 years on, she still owns 95% of the business.

Miranda tells me that, despite being frequently approached by external investors, she intends to remain in her current position to nsure the brand doesn’t lose its integrity, and continues to reinvest in the brand rather than drawing from it- a brand that is now stocked in over 200 countries. 

In this conversation, Miranda shares some lessons learned during the Dolly Magazine model search, why we may have her grandmother to thank for the entire KORA line, and why the brand’s latest launch has caused Katy Perry to throw out all her other moisturisers. 

You can read this interview now at glowjournal.com

Follow Miranda Kerr on Instagram at @mirandakerr

Follow KORA on Instagram at @koraorganics

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I knew Jaye Edwards as a brand founder and the man behind some of this country’s most renowned, and easily its most recognisable, hair salons, but admittedly I hadn’t realised just how far he’d come to get where he is now. 

Jaye grew up in a really small town, and knowing he didn’t quite fit in there or in the schooling system, he left home at only 15, moved to Sydney, and fell into an apprenticeship at a hair salon. At around 21, he bought into the salon he was working at- and subsequently lost everything, to the tune of $50,000. 

Where most would have thrown in the towel, Jaye tells me his ethos was to “fail fast, learn a lot and move on,” and so he opened the very first Edwards and Co salon soon thereafter. Today, Jaye sits at the helm of the eight Edwards and Co locations across Australia and his namesake brand, Jaye Haircare (which has just launched into Mecca), with Jaye constantly adapting his business model, making him, sincerely, one of the most progressive founders I’ve had the pleasure of chatting to. 

Usually when I say something like “even if you don’t have an interest in beauty, this conversation will have something for you,” it’s because I think anyone interested in business in general can take something from it- but in this case, I really think what Jaye has to say is relevant for everyone, even if your interests lie in neither business nor beauty. I think Jaye’s story is one of really incredible resilience, and also a poignant reminder that you don’t have to have it all figured out from day one in order to be successful. Granted Jaye discovered a love for hair and beauty really young, but his story still felt so different from many of our other guests in that despite suffering such great loss, he came back, and everything he has now, he created for himself. 

In this conversation, Jaye shares how he and his team physically and mentally made it through the events of the last year, how he managed to maintain the Edwards and Co DNA when opening a location within another brand’s space, and why he walked out of his first job during his lunch break.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Edwards And Co on Instagram at @_edwardsandco

Follow Jaye Haircare on Instagram at @jayehaircare

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the name of transparency this episode is sponsored by Aesthetics RX, however this conversation is not, at all, about pushing products onto you. Nicola has decades of experience in beauty and is so passionate about an holistic approach to skin health, so the goal here isn’t product placement- as per all of our bonus episodes, it’s about giving you the objective information you need in order to make your own informed decisions. 

In this episode, we’ve taken the questions YOU submitted on the visible signs of ageing and passed them on to Nicola- from whether or not topical skincare can actually do anything for skin firmness and what’s really causing fine lines and wrinkles, through to the best course of action for age spots and pigmentation and how young is too young to be using retinol.

USE CODE GEMMA AT CHECKOUT FOR A COMPLIMENTARY 15mL C SERUM WITH ANY PURCHASE ON aestheticsrx.com.au

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/anti-ageing-myth-busting

Follow Aesthetics RX on Instagram @aestheticsrxskincare

Discover more at aestheticsrx.com.au

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aerin Lauder needs no introduction and no words can really do this woman justice- but I’ll try my best. 

Aerin Lauder is, of course, the granddaughter of the late Estée Lauder. She is the Founder and Creative Director of her eponymous brand AERIN, and the former Senior Vice-President and Creative Director, now Style and Image Director, of Estée Lauder. 

I had written, initially, that Aerin is “beauty industry royalty,” but on reflection I feel that title almost negates the decades she has spent working for the Estée Lauder companies. It doesn’t do her justice, and I’m not sure that any title really would. It’s Aerin who has managed to strike that incredible balance between staying true to the heritage brand’s history and DNA, while ensuring it feels fresh and relevant to this very day. 

Aerin is a force, an icon and a leader, just like her grandmother, and I am eternally grateful for the generosity with which she shared both her and her family’s stories. 

In this conversation, Aerin shares some of her favourite memories and lessons from her grandmother, the pressure that comes from having your name attached to such an iconic brand, and her advice for anyone looking to start their own business. 

You can read this interview now at glowjournal.com

Follow Aerin on Instagram at @aerin

Follow Estée Lauder on Instagram at @esteelauder

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Indie Lee grew up with a clear vision, a literal checklist, of how she wanted her life to look- two children, two yellow labradors, a beautiful home and fast-paced corporate job. She had ticked every one of those boxes before realising that she was, in her own words, “a passenger of her own life,” checking boxes rather than living. 

Indie decided to take a step back and leave work to spend more time with her children, but being a classic Type A, her idea of slowing down somehow led to her working in AND BUILDING a 750 square foot greenhouse. In summer 2008, Indie was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, meaning she could no longer work in her beloved greenhouse. She was dealt another blow later that year, in the form of a brain tumour, with one doctor telling her she had just 6 months to live. 

“When you’re given six months to live, you decide how you want to live your life,” Indie tells me, so she revisited her passion for nature and set to work on her brand, Indie Lee. Indie’s tumour was successfully removed on April 22nd 2009, Earth Day, a day Indie describes as her rebirth. By the end of that year, Indie had officially launched her brand. Today, over 10 years on, that brand is sold all over the world. 

In this conversation, Indie and I discuss her belief in karma and how she refused to enter surgery with any loose ends, how it feels to be forced to step away from something you deeply love, and her surprising first request when she came out of her operation. 

You can read this interview now at glowjournal.com

Follow Indie Lee on Instagram at @indie_lee

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special bonus Ask An Expert episode I’m joined by Dr Deshan Sebaratnam. A Fellow of the Australasian College of Dermatologists, Dr Deshan holds an academic appointment as Conjoint Senior Lecturer with the University of New South Wales, has presented his research internationally and has had his research published in both local and international medical journals. With experience and an interest in all facets of dermatology including medical, surgical, cosmetic and paediatric, I felt that Dr Deshan was the ideal doctor to objectively answer YOUR questions on visible and dilated capillaries and spider veins.  

Away from our regular brand founder conversations, I am asked so many highly specific questions about the skin. Given that I am an educated consumer and by no means an expert, it would be extremely unethical for me to even attempt to address your skin concerns which is why I insist on taking those questions to a medical doctor. This Ask An Expert series is giving you, the Glow Journal audience, unprecedented access to medical doctors, professors and dermatologists and, while the series is sponsored by Candela Medical, doctors legally and ethically have to remain completely objective in interviews like this. For this reason, this series is giving you, the listeners, completely unbiased expert answers to your most specific skin questions- questions that I cannot answer myself. 

In this episode, we’ve taken the questions YOU submitted on capillaries and spider veins to Dr Deshan - from the myth that is “broken” capillaries and if topical skincare can actually do anything to make them disappear, to whether or not spider veins are hereditary and why pregnancy seems to make them so much more apparent. 

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/ask-an-expert-capillaries-and-spider-veins

Follow Candela Medical on Instagram @candelamedicalanz

Follow Dr Deshan Sebaratnam (and check out the videos mentioned in this episode) @dr.deshan

Discover more at candelamedia.com

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amanda Chantal Bacon has known she had purpose since she was a child- it just took her some time to really hone in on what, exactly, that purpose was. 

She’s lived a few different lives. She grew up around fashion, something she felt disillusioned by, and was diagnosed with a chronic illness around the age of 5- the repercussions of which she was still feeling well into her 20s. She lived in New Zealand, Italy, Argentina and her native United States, working as a teacher, a writer and a chef. 

It was while she was working in the fine dining space that her autoimmune condition was as its worst, so she took some time out to revisit what she knew as a child- that she had purpose, she just needed to find out what it was.

Amanda embarked on something of a “wellness” journey, and in 2011 Moon Juice was born- a business that began as a juice bar in Venice, California (before words like “organic,” “raw” and “cold pressed” were a part of global vernacular) but soon became more of an immersive wellness brand, producing and selling supplements, foods and the now iconic “dusts” that consumers could take home and work into their own routine. 

Amanda had never, ever considered entering the beauty space with Moon Juice, despite its growing link to the wellness industry. What prompted her to rethink that stance was a beauty-editor-approved, cult skincare product that had visible benefits for Amanda’s skin, but would’ve flared up her autoimmune condition with repeat use. The solution, it seemed, was to develop a clean alternative, and in 2018 Moon Juice’s skincare line was created.

In this conversation, Amanda shares how a 2015 viral story online saw her ridiculed globally and, in turn, her business boom, the value in slipping behind the scenes of your company, and how a Chinese Soup served as the inspiration for one of her brand’s most popular skin serums.

Read more at glowjournal.com

Follow Moon Juice on Instagram at @moonjuice

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At 21, Charlotte Knight moved from London to Dublin and, with little experience in nails and no experience in business ownership, opened Dublin’s first ever nail bar- she went into a hair salon for a blow dry, mentioned her idea to the owner, and came out with a business plan. 

People travelled across the country just to see Charlotte, with the young entrepreneur and manicurist soon finding herself in demand backstage at London, New York and Paris Fashion Weeks and on photoshoots as a session nail technician. It was during this time, as a session artist, that Charlotte first began sketching that now iconic little black bow-adorned bottle, mixing colours, and dreaming of what would become Ciaté London. 

Ciaté launched in 2009, landing in stores at the height of world’s nail art movement, but it was in 2012, when the brand released its Caviar nails collection, that things changed almost overnight. Prior to the launch of Caviar, Ciaté had 4 staff and were stocked in about 50 stores. Post Caviar, the brand found themselves in over 4000 stores across 35 countries. 

Nail art and, more specifically, the home manicure trend had hit fever pitch but, given the cyclical nature of the beauty industry, global nail polish sales crashed a mere two and half years after that launch. Armed with data, a plan, and one of the most creative business minds I’ve ever come across, Charlotte spearheaded the launch of an entirely new product skew for Ciaté London- makeup. 

Today, Ciaté is one of the most celebrated brands in the world across both nails and makeup, and this year will see the brand release not one but two high profile collaborations, both of which Charlotte offered up a few big clues about during our chat. 

In this conversation, Charlotte and I discuss the expectations and subsequent pressure that comes with releasing multiple global first-to-markets, how showing a boardroom the colour of her knickers led to one of her brand’s many successful launches, and why we shouldn’t expect a Carol Baskin for Ciaté collection anytime soon.  

You can read this interview now at glowjournal.com

Follow Ciaté London on Instagram at @ciatelondon

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Visibility” is a word that came up a few times during this particular conversation with Maeva. Maeva explains that her relationship with her own hair was largely influenced by visibility. Maeva had spent the bulk of 20 years using a chemical hair relaxer to straighten out the natural texture of her hair, explaining that the bulk of the hair education we receive in mainstream culture is designed for straight hair. It wasn’t until a trip to the US, during which her hair relaxer exploded in her luggage, that she decided to move back towards her natural hair texture. She wasn’t alone in embracing what’s called the “natural hair movement,”- at that time, there’d been over a 40% decline in hair relaxer sales over a five year period. 

A simple, effective, modern beauty offering for women of colour wasn’t particularly visible either. In a time that Maeva has coined “pre-Fenty,” there were even fewer brands catering to woman of colour than there are now- and there were absolutely no simple, effective, fun nor modern options in the haircare category. 

Confident in her idea to simplify wash day for women with textured hair, Bread Beauty Supply was born- a now six month old, award winning brand that launched into US Sephora, making it only the eighth black-owned beauty brand to be picked up by Sephora, and just the third in the hair space. It was during the development process that Maeva made visibility work to her advantage. She explains the exposure we have to other founder stories online today meant that she felt she could do it too, without fear- and that’s exactly what she’s done. 

In this conversation, Maeva and I discuss how she secured investment from the same fund who invested in Emily Weiss’ Glossier and Kim Kardashian’s Skims, the challenges of launching a brand through an overseas retailer in 2020, and the makeup look her aunt in West Africa bestowed on her in childhood that may well be making a comeback. 

You can read this interview now at glowjournal.com

Follow Bread on Instagram at @breadbeautysupply

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Ere was born in Mexico and grew up watching her mother and grandparents mix lotions and potions in their kitchen. Ere is passionate about healing, and after studying nutrition she fell in love and moved to Australia in 1999 to be with her now husband. Ere had always loved mascara, as she explains to me the only real difference between Mickey and Minnie is eyelashes, but quickly noticed a gap for a great natural mascara, or really any natural colour cosmetics, here in Australia. From there, with next to no budget, she set to work on the first iteration of her own mascara, and soon thereafter Ere Perez cosmetics was born- a brand that Ere grew piece by piece and now has offices in two continents and is stocked in over 30 countries.

This conversation was pure joy from start to finish, one of those chats where you get a pain in your jaw by the end of it from grinning for too long, which is precisely the energy take well into the summer break. Ere tells me in this episode that “The human body is the most perfect thing in the world,” and that we’re “made so beautifully,” and I think that is the perfect note to end this season on.

On that note and in news that will shock literally everyone who knows me, I am actually allowing myself time off for the holidays this year, but we will be back to open Season 3 on January 20. 

In this conversation, Ere shares why putting truth and your heart into your work really is the most important thing a person can do, how she physically managed to get her business off the ground with one product and no budget almost 20 years ago, and how missing out on a parking space some decades ago may well have changed the course of her entire life. 

You can read this interview now at glowjournal.com

Follow Ere Perez on Instagram at @ereperezcosmetics

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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In this special bonus Ask An Expert episode I’m joined by Kirsten Cachia, Clinical Educator at Candela Medical. Laser hair removal has been one of our most highly requested subjects this year so, for our final Bonus episode this season, we are finally answering your questions. Kirsten is Candela Medical’s Clinical Educator and an undisputed expert in all things laser, and although this episode is sponsored by Candela, you won’t hear Kirsten recommending any specific products, machines or treatments. As per the rest of this Ask An Expert Series, I’ve sought experts to give you objective answers to your questions so that you can take that information and make your own educated decisions regarding which treatments are right for you. 

In this episode, we’ve taken the questions YOU submitted on laser hair removal to Kirsten- from why we’re told we need to remove our fake tan and whether or not laser can actually work for those with blonde hair or dark skin, through to why hormonal changes have been known to reverse the effects of laser hair removal and what you should actually expect on the day of your treatment. 

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/ask-an-expert-laser-hair-removal

Follow Candela Medical on Instagram @candelamedicalanz

Discover more at candelamedia.com

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Born just outside of Stockholm, Jan shirked very early ambitions to play either tennis or gold professionally in favour of more artistic pursuits, moving Paris to model- during which time he secured a contract with Chanel.

From there, Jan became an interior designer, fashion designer and leather accessories designer, respectively. It was during his time designing leather handbags that Jan truly fell in love with the art of parfumerie. Inspired by the way 18th century glove makers used to scent their products, Jan met with renowned perfumer Jerome Epinette and fell deeply in love with the process of developing fragrances. 

It was then, Jan tells me, that he realised THIS, parfumerie, was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life- and so, Vilhelm Parfumerie was born, a fragrance house placing as great an emphasis on design as it does on scent. Vilhelm is, genuinely, unlike any brand I’ve come across, somehow striking a balance between futuristic and 1920s inspired- something Jan tells me is completely intentional. The early part of this year saw Jan relaunch the brand into the US market, and today, a mere 5 years after launch, Vilhelm Parfumerie is available in 24 countries. 

This episode was, of course, recorded remotely, as is the nature of 2020, so if you would prefer to read the interview I have made the complete transcript available on glowjournal.com. 

In this conversation, Jan and I discuss his early affinity for fragrance as inspired by his grandfather, the relevance the idea of Pierre Cardin in a spaceship has to his brand, and why he feels perfume houses globally NEED to start focusing on their carbon footprints. 

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/interview-vilhelm-parfumerie-jan-ahlgren

Follow Vilhelm on Instagram at @vilhelm_parfumerie

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Nancy, a former vice president at Goldman Sachs, tells me her very earliest memories of beauty all take place in the kitchen with her mother and grandmother, mixing their own beauty products using a KitchenAid. Nancy tells me that, even as a child, she was aware that there were very few options in the beauty sphere for women of colour like herself, so mixing her own formulas allowed her to have some control, rather than having to rely on whatever products were on the shelf. 

Nancy revisited this idea and this passion in 2010. She’d been working in a high powered position in finance for upwards of seven years when her mother suddenly and tragically passed away, an incident that made Nancy really closely examine the way she was living her own life. 

“We owe it to ourselves to align our passions with our careers,” she tells me, and so she revisited that early passion for beauty and began work on her own business- Briogeo. A clean, natural and INCLUSIVE haircare brand, Briogeo is now stocked globally (including in Mecca here in Australia) and reportedly hit something to the tune of $65 million USD in retail sales last year- less than six years after the brand’s 2014 launch. 

In this conversation, Nancy and I discuss the perils of formulating haircare that’s ACTUALLY natural, her advice for new brand founder on securing investment, and why she has Alicia Silverstone in Clueless to thank for her first foray into entrepreneurship. 

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com

Follow Briogeo on Instagram at @briogeo

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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In this special bonus Ask An Expert episode I’m joined by dermatologist Dr Andreas Fox. Qualified from Oxford University, Dr Fox worked as a consultant plastic and aesthetic surgeon for some of London’s largest and most prestigious hospitals before moving to Sydney to pursue a career in non-invasive medical aesthetics. With over 20 years of experience, Dr Fox was who I felt was the ideal doctor to objectively answer YOUR questions and bust some myths around on cellulite, skin firming and skin tightening. 

Away from our regular brand founder conversations, I am asked so many highly specific questions about the skin. Given that I am an educated consumer and by no means an expert, it would be extremely unethical for me to even attempt to address your skin concerns which is why I insist on taking those questions to a medical doctor. This Ask An Expert series is giving you, the Glow Journal audience, unprecedented access to medical doctors, professors and dermatologists and, while the series is sponsored by Candela Medical, doctors legally and ethically have to remain completely objective in interviews like this. For this reason, this series is giving you, the listeners, completely unbiased expert answers to your most specific skin questions- questions that I cannot answer myself. 

In this episode, we’ve taken the questions YOU submitted on cellulite and skin firming to Dr Fox - from what cellulite actually is and whether or not topical creams, scrubs and body brushing can do anything to reduce its appearance, through to what can be done to tighten the skin post c-section and if laser treatments can (or cannot!) work to firm, lift and tighten the body.

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/ask-an-expert-cellulite-myth-busting

Follow Candela Medical on Instagram @candelamedicalanz

Discover more at candelamedia.com

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Emma Lewisham skincare was, in a sense, born from grief. Following the passing of her mother, Emma tells me that she realised that, in her words, “no one is invincible,” which prompted her to examine her own health which, after a visit to her doctor, led to her taking a close look at her topical skincare. 

Emma had grown accustomed to high performance, clinical grade skincare, and couldn’t find anything that could replicate the results she was used to in the natural skincare realm. From there, Emma sought out the world’s best biochemists, even bringing one out of retirement, and began to develop her own brand.

There are many, many things that are impressive about this brand, which you will hear me gush over during this conversation, but it’s Emma Lewisham’s approach to sustainability that quite literally blew me away. Emma is working towards an entirely circular business model, and her brand’s sustainability initiatives don’t feel like something that have just been tacked on- every single detail, every element of the supply chain has been considered and pored over. 

Visit emmalewisham.com/pages/transparent-beauty for some really, really transparent information on the brand’s sustainability initiatives. If you have the time, I really do encourage you to read through these documents as I sincerely believe that they are going to adjust and set a new pace for the rest of the beauty industry. This conversation with Emma really prompted and inspired me to look at my own consumption, and I truly believe the Emma Lewisham brand are swiftly becoming the world’s leaders in sustainable beauty. 

In this conversation, Emma and I discuss how her brand has garnered the reputation of “the La Mer of natural skincare,” how she’s managing to balance both sustainability and results without compromise and why a circular business model is the way of the future. 

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/

Follow Emma Lewisham on Instagram at @emmalewisham

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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So many listeners and glowjournal.com readers have reached out to me of late with questions about heightened skin sensitivities. As you know, I am an educated consumer and not an expert, and I firmly believe questions of this nature should be posed to those who really are qualified to answer them- so, I’ve enlisted the help of Dr Leona to get to the bottom of those skin irritations. 

For complete transparency from the outset, this episode is sponsored by La Roche-Posay Australia however all of Dr Leona’s views are her own and, as per all of our Ask An Expert interviews you will hear absolutely no specific product recommendations throughout this interview. 

I took to Instagram to ask you exactly what you wanted to know about sensitive skin, and I’ve taken your questions to the expert. In this conversation, Dr Leona answers your questions- from the difference between sensitivities and allergies and how to determine if you are in fact allergic to a skincare product, to how we can prevent and combat mask related breakouts, and the link between rosacea and sensitive skin.

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/sensitive-skin-and-maskne

Follow La Roche-Posay on Instagram at @larocheposayaunz

Find out more about La Roche-Posay at laroche-posay.com.au

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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Michelle Feeney has been described as one of the most powerful women in global beauty- and rightly so. 

In 1993, Michelle was headhunted by the team at Estée Lauder and, after 10 interviews (including one with Leonard Lauder himself), was given a senior role with the company. Lauder had hired Michelle at a time when they were beginning to acquire other brands and, in 1994, they tasked Michelle with developing a launch strategy to turn a pot of moisturiser into a global cult product. That moisturiser was Crème de la Mer. 

In 1998, Estée Lauder Companies acquired MAC Cosmetics and, given that Michelle had already proven her ability to turn a great product into a legitimate icon, she became MAC’s Vice President of Global Communications, leading the growth of the brand and launching into 40 countries. When Michelle took on that role, MAC was a $65 million company. Less than 7 years later, it was worth $1 billion. Michelle is also largely responsible for spearheading and bringing mainstream awareness to the MAC AIDS Fund, signing the likes of Elton John and Mary J Blige to front the Fund’s campaign. That initiative saw Michelle sit on a board in the United Nations and hand $750,000 over to Kofi Annan. 

Beyond Estée, Michelle spent 4 years as the CEO of St Tropez, quite literally transforming the way the entire world viewed self tanning and turning the brand into the market leader. In 2017, Michelle founded Floral Street- an award winning, “quintessentially British” fine fragrance brand with sustainability and eco-responsibility at its very core.

In this conversation, Michelle explains why it’s so important to stay open to opportunity rather than having a concrete plan, what the beauty industry can do to ensure it doesn’t lose its creativity and what it really takes to turn a product into an icon. 

You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/

Follow Floral Street on Instagram at @floralstreet_

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

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