May 18, 2023 • 50 mins
Stolen ideas, make-up secrets, beauty blender tips and a millionaire dollar idea! It’s all here being exposed on Unfluenced. Plus, is there a mega partnership in the making?!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
One of the must have items in all our makeup
bags is a beauty blender. What did we do before
beauty blenders? This woman created a category, invented a tool
that is used everywhere. She's a boss. She owns one
hundred percent of her company. The founder, CEO, and creator
(00:32):
of the beauty blender joins me today on Influenced. Let's
get into it. First of all, I just want to
say something because we're for a couple of things. One,
you're my first guest on this podcast, and I am
going to tell you the story of why I did
it because it pertains to you and your business. So
(00:56):
as someone who invented the skinny girl, I invented the
skinny margarita, Like as a concept in the world, I
called it skinny girl. But I invented the skinny margarita.
And obviously it's been copied ad nauseum in every bar in.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
The world all over the world.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Do they say skinny margarita like I had been talking about,
like I sort of de influenced, I'm like, this is garbage,
this is shit. Like I'm sure you've heard about like
the way that I'll talk about some things, not everything,
but like if it's really a Gucci one hundred and
seventy five dollars palette that looks like Claire's chicklets. Like
I'm gonna say in a diaper pouch. I'm gonna say it.
So this girl, like I saw this girl being like, Hi, deinfluence.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Podcasts or something like.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I don't remember what it was, but I saw somebody
was doing a podcast about not de influencing. And it
was annoying because I kind of started this on TikTok.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I mean, other people have been doing it on YouTube.
I didn't invent it.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
But in a loud kind of way, in the modern
kind of way post Mascara Gate, which I've talked about
on here, and I was like, how am I not
doing this? Like, how am I not doing this? Bas
So I decided and literally called my producers and like,
we need to do a de influencing podcast. And then
I was like, I should have people in the beauty industry,
(02:10):
and I'm thinking of that right now because you invented
something that is so copied and it's so annoying. It
must be so annoying.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
That's my story. So that's why I like it.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
I mean, I see you like I and I think
you see me too, and I appreciate that. And yes,
it's fucking annoying.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
It's fucking annoying.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
And most people think of that a beauty blender is
like saying a band aid, which is an adhesive bandage,
and so they're calling everything a beauty blender. And I
just know what it's like to be a female entrepreneur
having invented something, and so I can imagine that that
is annoying.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
So we'll get into that.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I just have to say that as a baseline, and
I was like, when I think of the beauty blender,
I don't it's a it's an item. And I remember
like it coming into the world, and I definitely learned
how to do my makeup barely in the last year,
so I wasn't the customer for it.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
By the way, you do it very well, I have
to say.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It's I did, okay, you do.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
You're amazing. I watch your I watch your deinfluencing videos Instagram.
I'm a fan.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
I can't. I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
The thing is, well, I know you're a makeup artist,
and we're gonna get into introducing you and all that,
but sometimes I get into like the main act before
the four play.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
The thing is that.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I have a lot of respect for what you do,
and I don't say that to so many people, Like
I honestly see how it's hard what you do, Like
it's hard to do makeup because I'm okay like doing
it like this for today. And the thing I realized
is that, particularly with the eyeshadow, which is to me,
the most confusing and the most overmarketed, because there are
(03:47):
ten thousand colors and they all look good, you need
one blush palette and you could never need another. You
could do that for every eye shadow of your whole life,
so you're sort of just doing it to do it.
It's like I could buy Basil, I could buy Cilantro,
I could buy part Dale Tarragon, like throw it in
the goddamn chicken.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
It's all gonna work.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
So with the eyeshadow, I realize it doesn't really matter,
like you could kind of you could use wrong tones
like not warm or not cool.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
You should learn that.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
But I've realized, like you could play around and you
don't have to follow like the darker crease, so you
don't have to follow all the rules. But it is
hard because the game starts moving fast when you have
to get ready in like an hour for something because
you learned some of the steps and there are so
many things for each step and you really just don't
know which step you should take, and sometimes you burn
(04:33):
the sauce and like you gotta go back and like
take off, and you don't know whether start over and
throw the batch out, and you get caught up, like
I forget to put miss Garron because I've been doing
other things and it takes too long, and then like
I rush that and I never have ever gotten to
the time where I would like be able to put
lashes on. So the game starts moving fast when you're
doing makeup, and I have a lot of respect because
(04:53):
I could do it for like the podcast and it
will take twenty minutes, but like an event for red
carpet or even just to go out, I find it
to be.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Yeah. I think, I think, you know, makeup companies and
technology have advanced in a way that make it really
easy for consumer to just feel better, look better, do easy, breezy, beautiful,
you know looks. Where it gets more complicated for a
makeup artist is the venue, right. I mean, you've been
(05:23):
on TV shows, you've been, you know, in different lighting
setups and different you know, real eye eye to I,
you know, in person versus on film and camera with
you know, there's there's just there's levels.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Well there are levels, and when you walk outside, it
looks very different than when you're going to be on
TV on HD than when you're on a red carpet.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
So, you know.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
And sometimes I'll do my own makeup and then I'll
see a picture of myself, like just in Florida with
Paul because I tried so hard and I look better
with makeup. But it's like fun and now I learned,
so I want to try and then I'll look like
older and just like ashy or whatever. The powder powder
is very tricky. I just find that makeup is much
harder if you're not just doing daytime natural with SPF
(06:15):
and a little rosy glow like it's it's really, it's really.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
It is art.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
It is an art.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
It is art.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
So I give you a lot of credit because I
so when I used to when I started on TV,
I you had no money, it was broke. So I
used to go up to the makeup counter at Bloomingdale's
and like just buy you know how much do I
have to buy just for you to do my makeup?
Like that was my thing. Every time I was on
(06:43):
the house wived for the first couple of seasons. Every
time I went somewhere not for the regular show, I
just didn't do makeup. But if I went to like
something that was out major, the reunion or something, I
would just go to the counter. And I would book
a morning show in Miami, some local show, and I
I would just use whoever they gave me. And I
never really looked at myself because I always assumed when
(07:04):
I was younger, like anybody you use, it's gonna look
good because you're getting your makeup professionally done. And that's like,
that's like saying any restaurant I go to is gonna.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Be good, exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
And I was in Miami one time and I never
looked at myself. I'm not vain. So I was in
Miami one time and I did the girl just in
my makeup, no problem. And I was at the pool
later and the publicist that was with me was like,
she's like, I don't know, you might want to like change,
it's it's a lot. And I looked up and my
eye had like purple triangles on it like a Nagel
page was it was Miami makeup like with reckless abandon
(07:40):
and no guidelines.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
And I rarely.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Have a professional do it and have it be great
like it's maybe and I mean like a there's.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Also alignment, right, there's alignment. So that sounds like you
were at the mercy of what someone else thought looked good. Right,
So it's not only technical knowing where and when and
how and what's appropriate for whatever setting you're in, But
then what is that person's idea of beauty and are
you aligned with that? You know? Do they think purple
(08:11):
triangles on your eye is like the coolest schikhest thing,
But that may not be who you are so well,
But that's fine.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
That's interesting about alignment. But I also think.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
That it's about using the same written down recipe that
you've printed out to cook that you now haven't like
figured out with this person's wide jaw. People have to
know their own things that work, like I know things
that really have not worked. And I always ask different
makeup artists, like one time I had a guy x
(08:46):
off with tape like the ones on the eyeshut of
how I should really stay away from n on the
blush because I don't know, it's all just colors and
and yeah, so anyway, I find it hard. So okay,
so welcome to just be on in Fluenced. This is
a podcast about this business that I totally accidentally walked into,
(09:07):
not realizing what room I was walking into, not realizing
the utter, clutter, lying, filtering, and confusion that I was
walking into, the liberation of learning how to do your
own makeup and knowing anything, the great credibility of many
(09:29):
people in this space, like the good business that it is,
despite it being so cutthroat and people making billions of dollars,
like I found that versus other industries, the people are
pretty fair like that you're working with. So I think
that's something you should know because you're only in this
one industry, I think. And I was watching a video
and a person was talking about you, like doing a
(09:50):
video about you, Like I didn't know that you were
a person. You know, you're a sponge, a pink there's
a pink sponge. It just invent God invented it. And
so this one was talking about the inventor of the
beauty blender, and I thought, oh, that's a good guest
for just be influenced, because you've had such influence and
you've been so copied. And now I read about you
and found out that you are a makeup artist.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
That was like a big deal. And I read that
you were using this.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
You cut your own sponge with rounded ends, which is
not unlike spanks when she cut off the end of pantyhose.
And you invented what you needed to do your craft
and make and create an airbrush. Look, so that's where
I'm coming in to you with this. And you did
not sell it to another company. You own the company.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I still own the company. And let me just say this, Bethany,
it's so surreal for me to be sitting here talking
to you because I look at you in the same
way when I think of anything skinny freef you know,
with the word skinny in front of it, I always
think of Bethany Frankel because I do know that you
(11:03):
created the low calorie margarita that we all want. We
all don't want the high calorie, high sugar margarita, and
you started it. And I always spelt aligned with you
because I do recognize how many companies bars individuals have
(11:24):
taken that term and really just genericized it, right like
beauty gleunder. So I feel like there's a sisterhood here.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
I don't act fact you invented I invented something for
the same reason. It's all a problem that was annoying
me when I went out and dried drink. Yeah, so
it is. There is an alignment here.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
And.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
What an amazing accomplishment for you to have invented like
a star tool. And you know what, listen, Steve Jobs
has been copied. Everyone's been copied like it's happened. It's
a big girl panny time it happened.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
It happens.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
You're not going to be but I found the business
of it and the patent, so they wouldn't give you
a patent. You tried like you tried endlessly, right.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Of course, of course, you know, And you know, people
always are so amazed and feel like maybe I just
wasn't you know, as busy business savvy as I should
have been or something. But you know, it's a funny
thing about patents. It's not easy to get a patent
because at this point in our evolution as human beings,
almost everything has been created. Like it's very hard. Yeah,
(12:31):
it's very hard to get a patent. So yes, I
tried for many years to get a patent for beauty blender.
There were conflicts that kept coming up, and it really
you know, there are general conflicts, and then it also
depends on the person that is working at the patent office,
the patent officer that's understanding your products. So I went
(12:52):
through the process several times trying to get somebody to
really understand that, yes, there is an air cleaner that
has a phone egg shaped tip, but it's a very
different industry, different different use type of product. And the
funny thing about patents is you can keep applying every
time you've been rejected, but every time you apply it
(13:13):
costs more and more and more.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
And so if you were starting a business, Yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
At some point I had to recognize my product was
starting to be recognized amongst pros and it was starting
to get some brand acknowledgment and brand equity in that way.
So I figured, let me just lay my head low,
let me just keep trying to distribute to the makeup
artists that I know we're going to have the same
(13:38):
challenges I had. Like you and your skinny company, you
created it out of a need you wanted your own
personal way to enjoy a drink and not have so
many calories. Right, for me, it was the same. I
was a makeup artist department heading a show, one of
the first one shot in high definition, and it was
an experiment and it worked for TV, and I knew
(13:59):
they were going to be the makeup artists that were
gonna appreciate this, you know, invention. But I never thought,
you know, it would really I never really thought about
it being a consumer product. And then what a start
you have?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
What time?
Speaker 1 (14:13):
How much lead time did you have from these pink
sponges being out in the streets before everybody was copying
you like something else was on the market.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Yeah, So I had a good couple of years, Bethany,
which was very helpful because it was a very kind
of like a cult product that only makeup artists would use.
So you would see it, you know, backstage of fashion week,
you would see it on makeup counters. You know, there
was a lot of education that came along with it
that was required to make the consumer understand and like, listen,
(14:45):
you'll spend fifty bucks on a makeup brush, but you
want this product to be disposable and free, because that's
a way it's been marketed to you. Cosmetic companies would
always put like a sponge applicator in a compact or
if you even bought like a high end concealer or
a high end uh yeah, you know foundation, then we
give you a little sponge, but they never told you
(15:07):
what to do with it. Yeah, to clean it, you
know what it's for whatever. So it was a very
known product, but it was also known to be disposable
because there was a replenishment uh you know, philosophy with
it for businesses.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
So I have an idea for you, and I think
we should do a collab and I just thought of
it right now, so we'll tell you after that.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I'm doing it. Let's do it, okay. So wow.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
So so.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
The thing is that most so I'm on Beauty Talk,
and everyone there like knows what they're doing and knows
what they're talking about and speaks the same language. But
I really speak the language of the woman who doesn't know.
And I will tell you that I have a drawer
full of sponges, and it's the same thing. The game
starts moving too quickly, and I use my brush and
then I sometimes forget how to use the sponges, and
I don't always use it in the beginning, and I
(15:52):
see some people using it for different things, and I
like brushes too, And what I use the beauty blender
for for me is what I use a kitchen sponge
for cleaning up messes. Like today I put on the
rare beauty blush, which I think is overrated because it's
very influenced and it goes on with one dot and
you look like a frickin clown. So that's where the
(16:14):
beauty blender comes in because a brush isn't going to
do that. You've got a beauty blender and like it
makes it look normal.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Rushys are like little brooms. Okay, they sweep product. I'm
teaching you, Bethnany, because you are a self proclaimed novice
right or amateur, So no, no rushes. Brushes are like
little brooms. There's a learning curve. You have to learn
how to hold the brush to feel comfortable. Then you
have to learn how to blend with the brush, and
(16:41):
then there's fibers that are like little broom sweeps, right,
so you're kind of moving the product around on the
surface of the skin. So there's a whole like learning
curve there. The beauty of beauty blender is if you
can bounce it on your face, it just applies and
deposits and blends the makeup with each bounce now.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
And also pull when you kneed it off when you
need it.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
It's an amazing finisher to that point, like after you're
done with your makeup, take your damn beauty blinder and
just kind of go all over your face and make
sure everything is blended so you don't have any lines
of demarcation, meaning makeup like make up that screens makeup
is when you see the line of demarcation, so it
just blends everything. It erases everything and looks okay. Makeup
(17:21):
artistry is an art and people do different things with it.
I can tell you the best way to use it,
but at the end of the day, I know people
are gonna do what they do well.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
I think for my people, you could travel and have
only a sponge, a couple of sponges in a little
travel thing that breathes, and not if to carry all
the brushes like, you could get away with that, just
like you could also get away with just your fingers.
By the way, with many things but harder and I
drink and pretty, I think that it's.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Blatchie.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Like for the for the person who doesn't know how
to use it that well, I think it's best. It's
good good when you've screwed up or like or you
want to Like you said, is that the best? If
you if you had only if you had to say
the best use for the beauty blender? What is it for?
The number one best use for it?
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Uh, the number one best use for it is to
get a professional looking makeup application the very first time
you use it. With that, You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Is it to put the foundation on or is it
at the end to do the finishing you just said?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Because for me it feels so that's that's really tough.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Because it's a multitasker. It's good at both. It's it's
good at putting it on, it's good at taking it off.
It just depends on what your need is. You can
go in and over apply makeup and put too much on.
Like you said, the little dot was very concentrated pigment,
and then you can use a beauty blender blend it
around and then take it off. The thing about fingers
(18:51):
is fingers leave streaks and fingerprints, and.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
I don't use fingers. I was just saying, like it's
a tool, you know, and then.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Brushes are strokes. So I will tell you that beauty
blender takes the place of probably like four different brushes.
You know, it can be your powder, it can be
your foundation, it can be your concealer, it can be
your blush, it could be your finisher. The thing it
doesn't do it doesn't do your liner, it doesn't do
your eyes. It's not going to do your brows. It's
not going to do well. It can do your lips
a little bit, but you know, there's limitations. I'm a
(19:19):
makeup artist. I love brushes, but I see real value
in minimizing the kind of products that I need to
personally carry. I travel all over the place. I literally
have like three brushes and two beauty blenders and that's
all I need.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
And now, how often do you clean them? You please
use a sponge today to do your makeup. My process
would be the following I would go. I don't know,
I wouldn't have the time today to do like the
full clean, which I sometimes doing the microwave. I don't
know if that's wrong, But with baking soda.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
I wanted to do.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Carry you're a brave one. Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
It becomes completely clean with my baking soda and like
a little bit of vinegar and water like a dash,
and it's water and you put it in hot and
it becomes immaculate.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
My housekeeper taught me that, and I don't know where.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
She saw that, but it's under the sink squeezing and
it never gets everything out, even with brush cleaner, so
you have to clean it properly. But like, what do
you suggest for cleaning every day? And how often and
when you travel and that kind of stuff, like you
bring one away, it's in your bag.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
This is my process, you know. And I and again
I had to give up trying to control everybody because
I know people do what they do right, So I
can only tell you what works for me. So what
I do and the way I invented it to be
used is that you always use a beauty blender wet.
You use a damp, so you don't use it dry.
So I put it. I have these nests. I call
(20:40):
them nests, little holders for your beauty blender. I put
it on my bathroom sink next to my toothbrush. So
when I brush my teeth in the morning, before I
do my makeup, it's sitting there. I will get it wet,
clean it two seconds before I'm gonna use it with
the soap that's right there next to my toothpaste, and
(21:00):
squeeze it out, how dry it and do my makeup.
When I'm done, I sit it right there again. I
don't touch it again until I brush my teeth again,
or when I mean, I'll brush my teeth at night,
but the next morning, when I brush my teeth, you know,
then I wash it again. So it's just a reminder.
It's like when you brush your teeth, clean your blender.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
And then so everything. When do you do the deep clean?
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Well, I do a deep clean when I need to.
I mean, my makeup generally comes out. I have a
technique of rolling the blender when I wash it too,
between my hands like this, and that tends to somehow
mush And I know that's a very scientific term, but
it's like it spreads the soap around and allows everything
(21:42):
to get everywhere and rents out.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Okay, and then and then when do you how many
uses until really somebody should get rid of it?
Speaker 3 (21:50):
I think it really depends on how much and how
often that person wears makeup. Not you know, not everybody
wears makeup every day. And then there's people like me
who at the time when I was working as a
makeup artist, I might use the same sponge ten times
on the same person for continuity and different scenes or whatever,
and be watching it ten times more. So it really
(22:12):
just depends. I like I like to say, when your
sponge starts to get a little more textured, when your
beauty blender might start to rip or chere, because some
people aren't always very you know, gentle with it. But
I'm also coming out. I have a new invention that
I'm coming out with that's going to make it really
(22:34):
super practical and easy for everyone to wash not only
their beauty blenders. But I have this other thing called
power pocket puff that's really good. So that'll be that'll
be a good, uh good way for for people to
keep their tools clean.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
I think your cream bronzer is very nice, Like it's
very like the ones that I've liked are Mario because
it's creamy. I like Chanelle, like your cream bronzer is
very it's very very nice. I have to say, it's creamy.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
It's I really appreciate that, and it's it has it's
the first pH one and it's PhD. You know, it
customizes to your own pH.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
I don't think it's very nice.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
It's very nice.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
It only comes with the highlighter or you have it alone.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
No, it only comes with the highlighter.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Okay, got it? So what do you so? It's interesting?
Speaker 1 (23:36):
I often think I watch influencers talking about dupes and
talking about Elf, which is the copy product of the
Charlotte Tilbury, and then it's the spongies that I think
Charlotte Tilbury invented. And you know, like in other worlds,
if you walk outside and everybody thinks you have a
(23:57):
fake bag, they're gonna like, you know, mock you or
say it's so like and and Arimez would be very
annoyed if I was like out talking about my I
I have a relationship with them as I buy things there.
If I were talking about my fake bag, they wouldn't
want me to have the real bags. And it feels
(24:17):
like certain people are paid by Charlotte Tilbury and then
they're paid by Elf, and they talk about the Charlotte
Tilbury one. And then there's the shape tape fate knockoff,
and like everybody copies everybody and everybody's like okay with
it in a way, and like it seems unethical. And
I never use the word dupe like ever, because I
don't like that word because it means like we're buying
cheap shit knockoff, even if it's not. That's that's retraction.
(24:40):
It's not cheap shit knockoff. I just want I don't
know Charlotte Tilbury, and I think a lot of her
stuff I don't like, like, but a lot of it
I love. But I respect that she invented a lot
of stuff, like she created a lot of stuff. And
so it bothers me when everyone's out here just trying
to get the cheapest thing to copy the person it.
It's cringe to me. And no one really talks about that.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Like in any other space.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
It's not like it's not elevated to be the knockoff
person and everybody just wants And so I battle back
and forth because sometimes there's something that I find that's
inexpensive and I happen to like it better.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Than the expensive thing.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
And I don't think that just because some company did
a pink blush. It means they copy this other person.
But like when it's the spongy thing, like that's a
knock off. Didn't shut out till reinvent that.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
The pomp palm.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yeah, that little thing.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Yeah, I don't know that she invented it, but she
chose it to be the applicator for her highlighters and
the different products that she uses them for and the
two because the pomp Yeah, the success of her business
made it, you know, linked with her, and you know
(25:58):
that that happens too. You don't necessarily like in that case,
I don't I know for a faction did not create
that that pompom.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
I didn't create.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
The pomp pom applicator was actually in response to a
beauty blender. So beauty Blender was the first.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Rew I'm sick.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Now, wait a minute, that pompomp Oh, it makes sense now.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
It was in response. But beauty Blender being the first
rounded sponge applicator kind of opened the minds of a
lot of product developers that actually were ethical. Okay, they
didn't want to copy beauty Blender, but how do you
take this concept and multiply it and you know, put
(26:43):
it out in other application aspects of beauty because we
were dealing completely with just complexion. So they took that
idea and built a rounded, edgeless sponge applicator and stuck
it on a tube where you could flow the product
through the pomp pomp but still get that edgeless seem free,
(27:06):
no line of demarcation application with your product. And I'm
not saying I invented it, that's not it. It's the concept.
The idea of seamless application was kind of.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Amabeling with the sponge tip and interesting if.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
You if you look at historically the things that had
been marketed before beauty Blender, none of them were doing it.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
That's fascinating and I don't think anyone knows that, which
is amazing.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Well, you kind of have to be the the annoyed
inventor to pay attention.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Okay, so how much of the business do you own?
Speaker 3 (27:43):
You like to say, I'm a hundred percent owner of
beauty Blending. You own?
Speaker 1 (27:47):
So? Has it made you very very wealthy? Can I
ask that I do?
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Okay? You know I but you know, full transparency, I'm
a makeup artist, you know, learning to be a business person.
You know, I've spent a lot of money. I've made
a lot of money. I've made really good decisions. I've
made bad decisions. You know, it's all a part of
the stew or the fabric of where I am today.
(28:13):
You know, I live a comfortable life. I feel very fortunate,
very blessed. I don't take it for granted. I still
own my business one hundred percent. I don't know if
I'm smart or stupid.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
No, I know you've been offered to be bought, oh yeah,
all the time. And what was the reason for not
doing it? To have your first pile.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
I was making a lot of money. I mean, I
didn't need an infusion.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Of cash fair you know.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
And also what I didn't want was uh complication in
the business. Because when you bring in an investor, as
far as I know, and I talk to my friends
about this that take money and have investors come in,
you know, suddenly there's a whole group of people telling
you what you need to be doing a master It's
a complication. So, you know, I just feel like I
(29:04):
had a vision for beauty Blender. I knew what I
wanted to do, and so I didn't need anybody to
help me with that vision. I needed experts and people
to work with me to make those ideas and those
dreams and things that I wanted to make happen. But
that didn't necessarily mean I needed to sell my business
to do it.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
I'm good friends of Mark Cuban who did say to me, like,
what do you know, if you don't need the money,
you don't take the money. So Mark Cuban would agree
with you.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
I still feel today that, you know, beauty Blender uniquely
positioned me to be able to take the opportunity to
create complexion products that work perfectly with the perfect complexion tool.
So so that's that's the path, Bethany, that's the path
(29:54):
we take. And if I can, if I have a
global business of selling you know, seventeen sponges a minute
around the world, and if I can get one person
to try my makeup, it's a success.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Yes, And you are around the world the street credit ready,
which I understand do. We have a lot of similarities.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Not every product is a home run, but it's a
supporting cast. So you build the portfolio, you take the
chances on products that you believe in, and me having
the background and expertise as a complexion expert in working
with people of color and skins for over twenty years.
Gives me the credibility to be able to make great formulations.
(30:39):
So you know, the formulation stand the test of time.
If you have the correct avenue to be able to
market and distribute them so that you can tell your
story and get the education out, the formula stands and.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
You have good relationship.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
The thing is, what I love about what you are
doing is that you are level setting everything. So when
you go to TJ Max, or you go to Sophora,
or you go to Burgdors and you go buy these
different products that come in different packages and different price ranges,
(31:16):
and you're able to say, oh, this mass market is
on the level of Burgdorf. I'm not gonna say brands
or whatever, but you know that goes to show you
now that formulation is no longer exclusive to the amount
of money you charge for the product, right, so you
have to have some other benefit. That's why makeup artists
(31:40):
that start makeup brands a lot of times don't become
successful because a blush is a blush is a blush,
a lip is a lip is a lip who needs
ten thousand eyeshadow palettes When you don't even go through
one in your whole.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Life exactly exactly, like it's exact you exactly is and
it's exactly but it's but who needs to thousand pairs
of shoes and we're having fun, So you have to
just know where you stand in it, why you're doing it.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Those are different segments of society, right. Some people are collectors,
some people are realists, some people are economists, you know,
and there's different people that have different tastes. What I
hope I'm catering to is a person that understands that
my products work together to give you, to your point
a very simple and easy, corrective or beautiful kind of
(32:29):
result to make you a better you. And yes, it
is a very competitive category that I've entered, but I
also feel confident that I have the expertise myself as
an expert knowing formulation and knowing what.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
I do and the distribution and the relationships like you,
like my friend Mario.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
You know, Mario and I are pretty close. But also
you're as good as your team. I have a very
talented team, which is why beauty Blender has remained the
numbernumber one tool in the world and the original category
creator product that allows me to have a voice and
permission to go into this category.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
I root for the make the makeup artist brands, and
I also root for the big brands only because I
know that they've got the research and development money to spend,
you know, to make to really make sure that Maris
Scara is good. So I'm rooting for different people at
the same time, I'm not. I'm not like rooting for
you know, very rich celebrities to walk in and slap
(33:43):
their name on and I don't. I think it's it's enough,
it's enough, and I think people are gonna get caught
and we've seen that, like it's the pyramid scam where
you get at you want to get out the top,
and some people are getting caught in the middle because
everybody thinks they're a celebrity.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
They're going to just do a beauty brand.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
And I don't feel that there's I would feel like
an impostor and like there's no room for me and
nobody needs me in this space like as a camp
well vault.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
But I will just say this about you. I think
what you bring to the table is what people really want.
So when I say things are cyclical, I mean just
look We went from you know, magazine advertising being millions
of dollars to have a page in Vogue right to
advertise loreal Landcombe whatever it is, right and makeup art
(34:30):
has died to do those campaigns, by the way, So
I paid big attention to them because I did those.
So you know, you go from spending tons of money
in that kind of medium when magazines were the advertising
you know, venue of choice, let's say, then you got
away from it. Nobody believed in celebrities endorsing a brand
(34:51):
anymore because they knew they were just getting paid. So
that's when the influencer became popular. Then the influencers became
paid and untrusted because the exact simmers knew that the
influencers were getting paid.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
So what they don't really though, by the way, was
it real?
Speaker 3 (35:08):
I mean no, no, no, no, hold on.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
We have to do that because that's what this podcast
is about.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
When people are watching TikTok, they do not really realize
that they are being sold and that people are filtered
and that these are commercials. It is a twenty four
hour a day commercial network. And that's why I walked
into this space, and that's why I'm doing this because
back in the old days, it was these messages were
brought to you by and then it's the Super Bowl
and you watch the commercial and you kind of still
(35:34):
have an idea and you might be entertained during that commercial,
but you still have an idea that you're being sold
a car. And then it became integrations onto television shows
where someone's holding something and there's a payment and they
don't even have to really disclose that they're holding a
Coca Cola. And now my moms do not realize how
so they're starting to know. And that's why Misscaregate was
so big, because that was the first time they were like,
(35:55):
what the fuck, this is really a mascara commercial in
a magazine that people have fake lashes.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
So there's an evolution within this category. Okay, we went
from you know, paid advertising and magazines where celebrities were
being used as the face of and we go to
influencers where those influencers now are being rotated. We have
the macro influencers and now we have the micro influencers.
We have the ones that are well known and super
well known. I think people know. I think there is
(36:26):
a segment of society that actually understands these people are
getting paid to sponsor a product. I believe on TikTok
because it's one of the newer mediums, the newer platforms
that people and because the demographic is younger too, I
believe that there is a little bit of naivete there.
They don't quite get it yet, but it is. It's
(36:46):
a twenty four hour commercial. You're absolutely right. But what
the ultimate question of why I think you're so valuable
is because what you're doing and what people want is
they just want authenticity. They want the truth, and what
you do is you debunk it.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Yeah, but it's not it's so hard. I was always
gonna say you, so a couple of things, A couple, well,
a couple, Yeah, they alienated so many people, and I
don't care.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
So because it's true. No, they're not paying they're not
paying me. So I mean, so a couple of things.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
One used to be that a celebrity would never stand
at a party holding alcohol ever, publicist, put your drink
down because it's addiction and all that stuff. They used
to before Skinny Girl. For Skinny Girl, they wouldn't be photographed,
they would never allow it in a photograph. So then
my deal was so public because of Forbes. Then everybody
jumped into the category Nick im Naj Polly d, George Clooney,
(37:40):
Randy Gerber, Okay, ran into liquor. And it's the same
thing because they want they saw the paycheck I've been.
I've had justin. Timberlake's manager, I mean, I'm justin. Timberlake
came in. Charlie Sheen's manager was like, he keeps saying
to me, I want that skinny row money. Everyone's managers
was saying, we want that skinny girl money. Okay, put
that to the side. The avaline and the two girls
with the wine. All of it is because the skinny girl.
(38:02):
So I we're speaking the same language, right, same thing.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
Then I go into.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
But I go into Sephora. Okay, well I never go
I don't like going in there because I don't It's
just overpriced and I don't need anything in there and
you can get it all and it's making me want
new things and it's stupid to me. But anyway, so
I go into Sephora and it's the Hunger Games. It
is a zoo, and the girl says to me, we
have never I've worked here for eight years the girl
(38:30):
that I work with. It's never been like it is
right now, she says, because of TikTok. It's never been
like it's been right now. I've worked here for eight
years of this company. Okay, Now, my daughter watches me,
sees me. She's very smart whatever you know. She wants
the Benetton, not the Essence tint that is better and
more blendable and lighter and not such a clown face
(38:52):
that I was even influenced. And I even get influenced
by the Mere at Duxbury and the Michaela. And I
know they're being paid, and I've used the product and
I got it and I want it back. I want
it back because I'm watching them. So there's no shot
for these kids, because I am doing this, and I
still believe them, but I don't believe them.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
But I know they're paid, but I still want it.
And then and and my daughter.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
She doesn't want the beauty pie or the shark, the
tarp shaped tape. What she wants to Charlotte Tilbury one.
She wants the rare beauty one. She looks like a clown.
She wants to contour. She doesn't even know what contouring
is I'm like, do you know what contouring is? I
don't know what am like, Brinn, you're thirteen, you don't
need contour. So the influence is it's real, it's intense,
(39:36):
it's I'm saying, it's not commercials. It's rabid, it's money.
It's crazy. And that's why I walked in because I
thought all my makeup that I've had the people gave
me is shit.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
I need this thing. I need this glow. I am
fifty two years old.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
I didn't know they were filtered. I didn't know that
the people, the Meredith, the Michaela, I didn't know they
were filtered.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
When I say everybody, I'm actually talking about like a
segment of society like yourself, that knows they're being sold too,
but wants it anyway. You know what I mean. Yes,
So that's what I'm done.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Rights as bag cannot possibly cost fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
I say everybody knows, I mean a segment of people
that understand that that's a paid person, and it's usually
you know, like a Meredith or a Michaela, somebody that
has some sort of character, beauty, personality, something that resonates
(40:38):
with the consumer that attracts people that that they want
to watch them. It's the price they want to watch them.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
You walk into Vegas, you're going to lose money, which
is what's the fort is. It's Atlantic city, but it's
the lights in the ye and everything.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Yeah, you're one hundred percent right.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
And and I think that walking into this being a
wealthy woman who has other businesses that is no in
this space and doesn't need to be and would never
screw up my whole apple cart for lying about a
lip glass. But if a brand wants to use my content,
they're going to pay me. And I won't say anything
that I don't actually love because I don't need to.
(41:14):
And we've proven that I've alienated so many brands from
what I've said that I'm not looking for business. I mean,
if I get it, fantastic, big brands have reached out
to me, and if I love them, yeah, I would
do something. But I think that walking in agnostic and
a person who can afford to buy the drug store
or the expensive it's been a unique position that I
(41:34):
just wandered into. And I'm fascinated by your business and
I'm fascinated by you, which is why you're the first
person I've had on and I do think that no
one can speak to the beauty industry like a makeup
to a beauty product and what people need to wear
over the day and all that like a makeup artist.
So we shouldn't be investing as much in celebrity brands.
In my personal opinion, is a.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
Makeup artist these days when you talk about quality products
and why companies that are the bigger companies like fass Day, Latters,
the Lorels, the LVMH, how they can they can you know,
buy smaller brands, bring them under their umbrella, continue to
(42:16):
keep hopefully the brand DNA going. But at the same
time they they as you know, they buy products or
brands rather in every demographic. So that's why now we
have mass market products that have formulations like high end
prestige products because the owners are going to the same places. Yeah,
(42:41):
So I think one of the things about dupes and
copycats is, you know, there's trade dress issues Like what
I find egregious right now is you mentioned Elf, which
actually I kind of respect Elf more than some of
these other companies that are coming out because they created
their own brand and then they just copied individual products
(43:02):
and put it in their brand and they by the.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Way, it's funny you say that, because I don't mind
if someone gets inspired by something but does it in
their own way. And that Elf thing that they did
with that liquid, I'm having her on. I think that's
another guest the ceo that elf halo, glow hilt filter
or whatever it is to copy the Charlotte Tilbury thing.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
It's a bet.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
It's a great container and it's a great foot and
it's like feels substantial and like it's exciting and so like, okay,
you know, you can't hate the player hate the game.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
So I was, I agree with you. And everybody's good
at something else, they're not good at eyeshadow.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
I read an article this last week in the trades. There's,
you know, the demographic of like let's say millennials or
gen z that don't really care if someone has infringed
a trade dress issue.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Like if I were a big brand I had any power,
I wouldn't want to work with Mikayla if she's working
with Charlotte Tilbury and then going to talk about the
art shade tape in the exact same way, like that
spongy thing, Like I would feel like, wait a minute,
you're pitching the knockoffs. I'm giving you an air Mes
deal and you're pitching air Mez knockoff. Like I'd be annoyed,
Like you could talk about a different product but not
(44:13):
that one, and there's no you know. But the biggest
thing I want to say to you is that I
watched Rihanna put do a touch up on stage, and
I watch j Lo come in and she wants so
badly to get that Rihanna money and that Kylie money,
and they all are so hungry for that big beauty money.
(44:34):
They have all run in and it's so obvious and
the only one that's really been able to land it,
you know, Kylie landed. It seems like they're having some struggle.
I don't know if that's totally sustainable. And she has
a different audience, and fenty has totally landed it, and
Selena has has nailed it.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
They're gonna make real big money. I don't know how
many more are gonna.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
Gaga is doing a decent job at it too, but
I feel like hers is a slightly more authentic and
I can't figure out why, and like people just running
in for the money, but everybody's managers are telling them,
go get that beauty money. Rihanna, We're gonna do the
super Bowl only if you're allowed to take all your
influencers on a trip. Get them tickets, because they're gonna
sell us one hundred million dollars in beauty products after
(45:15):
that weekend, and you're gonna touch yourself up on that
stage even though you're eight months pregnant.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
We it's too bad.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
You're gonna print money and never have to work for
the rest of your life and your kids, kids' kids' lives.
Like that, I see it, and that people don't see that.
People do not see They just don't make that connection
and they don't make it.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
They don't look at it from that back door of business,
you know. They look at forward fasing, you know, it's
so cool.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
No, and they also TikTok and social media doesn't look
at We don't like mascarrogate and that she wore fake
lashes and so, but what we're gonna do is non
stop talk about it and get them fifty five million
views and make them more money. Like they think they're
talking negatively about something that's making them more money.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
They think they talk about it.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
Oh Hollywood added, Yes, good press, bad press accomplishes the
same thing. Awareness is awareness is awareness.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
In this space, it does.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
They could talk bad about a Tart Influencia trip, and
they're going to buy the Tart stuff.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
So I'm going to have some.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
I'll probably have someone on from Tart and all these brands,
and I think this is going to be a good conversation.
I really do like this was a very good conversation.
Like I realized, there's a lot to talk about here
that's relatable to everyone, from business to just the you know,
a woman putting her makeup on.
Speaker 3 (46:29):
Yeah, I would love to talk to you. I find
you so smart, Bethany. I watched you. I watched you
for many years, and I'm very admirable about the humanitarian
stuff that you do. Thank you, it's awesome. Thank you.
Well you've used your voice to help people, which I
really appreciate.
Speaker 1 (46:47):
Well, just know that I'm by no means an expert,
and you are an expert, and you have created something
that change in industry. And I don't know anything about
the trades, and I don't know anything about who owns
what com And like someone said on a TikTok that
land home owns NIX and someone's or in my comments
because I worked with one of them and the other
and they were like, oh, I guess because I really
(47:08):
don't know like insider stuff, and I don't want to
because then I would be like inside, I like being
out here kind of just only talking about what I observe,
if that makes any sense, Like this is all just
stuff that I'm telling you that I've learned from observing.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
I don't know the inside baseball about any of this.
Speaker 3 (47:26):
Yeah, but your intuition is spot on.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
You think I know a decent amount about what I'm
talking about, like with all this time.
Speaker 3 (47:31):
I mean, if you haven't learned, if you have avoided
learning and you still profess the things you profess, I
would say, yes, your intuition is very good.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
Great because I respect you and your art a lot,
and your business also. So you are like you know,
you are smart, you are kind, you own one hundred percent,
and you invented it. So you're probably a triple threat.
So it's exciting to watch what you do next.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
You know, honestly, it's really really really moved to.
Speaker 3 (48:02):
An island and live in a hut somewhere probably.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
But you won't need any makeup.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
You can make a mattress out of your sponges, you
won't need any makeup. Amazing, Well, I appreciate the like, amazing, heated,
awesome conversation. I got so excited. It's like no one
to talk. I have no one to talk about this.
That's why I needed to do this podcast. And I
was like talking. I was like really exasperated, excited because
I don't have anyone to talk about this because my
friends don't even know what the hell I'm talking about,
(48:27):
and like I'm in this this world of social media
is it's like a planet that and then beauty in
that planet. It's like a little a little town in
that planet. So no one knows what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (48:37):
Yeah, it's a it's a it's a very powerful little planet,
totally very influenced. So you know what though, too, I
have to just tell you, I was last night. I
had a crazy day yesterday, and so I knew we
were going to talk today. So I wanted to listen
to your podcast, just like the last couple ones, Like
(48:58):
I listened to you yet your podcast before. But honestly,
I don't have a lot of time, right, so I
was like, let me, let me, let me just like
I really I want to be prepared for her. I
like her so much. And I have to say, you
were cracking me the fuck up with grins, sports adventures
(49:18):
and motherhood because I have two kids that played sports
and you're you're so sput on with the fucking snacks
and the parents and the like I'm not good enough
and trying to like do things in the summer.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
I had to catch up. Yeah, I'm catching up now. Yeah. No,
it's a ship show and I have one. You were amazing.
We now know each other.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
Keep in touch with me if you want to talk
about anything. I'm here and I'm fascinated and listen.
Speaker 3 (49:47):
I'm I'm open to collaborations right now. It's one of
our initiatives for twenty three twenty four. Okay, you know,
if you're serious about it, I mean I can we
can talk and not talk about that too.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
Awesome. Nice to talk to you. Thank you so much.
This is a great launch for this show. Amazing.
Speaker 3 (50:06):
Thank you so much. It was so great to meet you,
and I'm so honored to be your first guest.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
I'm honored to It's perfect. You blend in perfectly.
Speaker 3 (50:16):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
This is a good podcast. I'm so excited. She was amazing,
and like I thought, I don't know what I thought
I was gonna talk about.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
I thought it was gonna be like a short This
is like a second podcast to another podcast. So I
thought that was gonna be like just like a short
thing to have somebody to talk about in this podcast.
Because I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
That was amazing. This could be a good podcast. Like
that was an.
Speaker 1 (50:42):
Interesting, fiery, passionate conversation with the woman who invented the
beauty blender, like she's a legit, unfluenced beauty guest.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
I feel so major right now. I'm excited
One of the must have items in all our makeup
bags is a beauty blender. What did we do before
beauty blenders? This woman created a category, invented a tool
that is used everywhere. She's a boss. She owns one
hundred percent of her company. The founder, CEO, and creator
(00:32):
of the beauty blender joins me today on Influenced. Let's
get into it. First of all, I just want to
say something because we're for a couple of things. One,
you're my first guest on this podcast, and I am
going to tell you the story of why I did
it because it pertains to you and your business. So
(00:56):
as someone who invented the skinny girl, I invented the
skinny margarita, Like as a concept in the world, I
called it skinny girl. But I invented the skinny margarita.
And obviously it's been copied ad nauseum in every bar in.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
The world all over the world.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Do they say skinny margarita like I had been talking about,
like I sort of de influenced, I'm like, this is garbage,
this is shit. Like I'm sure you've heard about like
the way that I'll talk about some things, not everything,
but like if it's really a Gucci one hundred and
seventy five dollars palette that looks like Claire's chicklets. Like
I'm gonna say in a diaper pouch. I'm gonna say it.
So this girl, like I saw this girl being like, Hi, deinfluence.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Podcasts or something like.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I don't remember what it was, but I saw somebody
was doing a podcast about not de influencing. And it
was annoying because I kind of started this on TikTok.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I mean, other people have been doing it on YouTube.
I didn't invent it.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
But in a loud kind of way, in the modern
kind of way post Mascara Gate, which I've talked about
on here, and I was like, how am I not
doing this? Like, how am I not doing this? Bas
So I decided and literally called my producers and like,
we need to do a de influencing podcast. And then
I was like, I should have people in the beauty industry,
(02:10):
and I'm thinking of that right now because you invented
something that is so copied and it's so annoying. It
must be so annoying.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
That's my story. So that's why I like it.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
I mean, I see you like I and I think
you see me too, and I appreciate that. And yes,
it's fucking annoying.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
It's fucking annoying.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
And most people think of that a beauty blender is
like saying a band aid, which is an adhesive bandage,
and so they're calling everything a beauty blender. And I
just know what it's like to be a female entrepreneur
having invented something, and so I can imagine that that
is annoying.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
So we'll get into that.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I just have to say that as a baseline, and
I was like, when I think of the beauty blender,
I don't it's a it's an item. And I remember
like it coming into the world, and I definitely learned
how to do my makeup barely in the last year,
so I wasn't the customer for it.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
By the way, you do it very well, I have
to say.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It's I did, okay, you do.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
You're amazing. I watch your I watch your deinfluencing videos Instagram.
I'm a fan.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
I can't. I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
The thing is, well, I know you're a makeup artist,
and we're gonna get into introducing you and all that,
but sometimes I get into like the main act before
the four play.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
The thing is that.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I have a lot of respect for what you do,
and I don't say that to so many people, Like
I honestly see how it's hard what you do, Like
it's hard to do makeup because I'm okay like doing
it like this for today. And the thing I realized
is that, particularly with the eyeshadow, which is to me,
the most confusing and the most overmarketed, because there are
(03:47):
ten thousand colors and they all look good, you need
one blush palette and you could never need another. You
could do that for every eye shadow of your whole life,
so you're sort of just doing it to do it.
It's like I could buy Basil, I could buy Cilantro,
I could buy part Dale Tarragon, like throw it in
the goddamn chicken.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
It's all gonna work.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
So with the eyeshadow, I realize it doesn't really matter,
like you could kind of you could use wrong tones
like not warm or not cool.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
You should learn that.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
But I've realized, like you could play around and you
don't have to follow like the darker crease, so you
don't have to follow all the rules. But it is
hard because the game starts moving fast when you have
to get ready in like an hour for something because
you learned some of the steps and there are so
many things for each step and you really just don't
know which step you should take, and sometimes you burn
(04:33):
the sauce and like you gotta go back and like
take off, and you don't know whether start over and
throw the batch out, and you get caught up, like
I forget to put miss Garron because I've been doing
other things and it takes too long, and then like
I rush that and I never have ever gotten to
the time where I would like be able to put
lashes on. So the game starts moving fast when you're
doing makeup, and I have a lot of respect because
(04:53):
I could do it for like the podcast and it
will take twenty minutes, but like an event for red
carpet or even just to go out, I find it
to be.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Yeah. I think, I think, you know, makeup companies and
technology have advanced in a way that make it really
easy for consumer to just feel better, look better, do easy, breezy, beautiful,
you know looks. Where it gets more complicated for a
makeup artist is the venue, right. I mean, you've been
(05:23):
on TV shows, you've been, you know, in different lighting
setups and different you know, real eye eye to I,
you know, in person versus on film and camera with
you know, there's there's just there's levels.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Well there are levels, and when you walk outside, it
looks very different than when you're going to be on
TV on HD than when you're on a red carpet.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
So, you know.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
And sometimes I'll do my own makeup and then I'll
see a picture of myself, like just in Florida with
Paul because I tried so hard and I look better
with makeup. But it's like fun and now I learned,
so I want to try and then I'll look like
older and just like ashy or whatever. The powder powder
is very tricky. I just find that makeup is much
harder if you're not just doing daytime natural with SPF
(06:15):
and a little rosy glow like it's it's really, it's really.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
It is art.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
It is an art.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
It is art.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
So I give you a lot of credit because I
so when I used to when I started on TV,
I you had no money, it was broke. So I
used to go up to the makeup counter at Bloomingdale's
and like just buy you know how much do I
have to buy just for you to do my makeup?
Like that was my thing. Every time I was on
(06:43):
the house wived for the first couple of seasons. Every
time I went somewhere not for the regular show, I
just didn't do makeup. But if I went to like
something that was out major, the reunion or something, I
would just go to the counter. And I would book
a morning show in Miami, some local show, and I
I would just use whoever they gave me. And I
never really looked at myself because I always assumed when
(07:04):
I was younger, like anybody you use, it's gonna look
good because you're getting your makeup professionally done. And that's like,
that's like saying any restaurant I go to is gonna.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Be good, exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
And I was in Miami one time and I never
looked at myself. I'm not vain. So I was in
Miami one time and I did the girl just in
my makeup, no problem. And I was at the pool
later and the publicist that was with me was like,
she's like, I don't know, you might want to like change,
it's it's a lot. And I looked up and my
eye had like purple triangles on it like a Nagel
page was it was Miami makeup like with reckless abandon
(07:40):
and no guidelines.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
And I rarely.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Have a professional do it and have it be great
like it's maybe and I mean like a there's.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Also alignment, right, there's alignment. So that sounds like you
were at the mercy of what someone else thought looked good. Right,
So it's not only technical knowing where and when and
how and what's appropriate for whatever setting you're in, But
then what is that person's idea of beauty and are
you aligned with that? You know? Do they think purple
(08:11):
triangles on your eye is like the coolest schikhest thing,
But that may not be who you are so well,
But that's fine.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
That's interesting about alignment. But I also think.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
That it's about using the same written down recipe that
you've printed out to cook that you now haven't like
figured out with this person's wide jaw. People have to
know their own things that work, like I know things
that really have not worked. And I always ask different
makeup artists, like one time I had a guy x
(08:46):
off with tape like the ones on the eyeshut of
how I should really stay away from n on the
blush because I don't know, it's all just colors and
and yeah, so anyway, I find it hard. So okay,
so welcome to just be on in Fluenced. This is
a podcast about this business that I totally accidentally walked into,
(09:07):
not realizing what room I was walking into, not realizing
the utter, clutter, lying, filtering, and confusion that I was
walking into, the liberation of learning how to do your
own makeup and knowing anything, the great credibility of many
(09:29):
people in this space, like the good business that it is,
despite it being so cutthroat and people making billions of dollars,
like I found that versus other industries, the people are
pretty fair like that you're working with. So I think
that's something you should know because you're only in this
one industry, I think. And I was watching a video
and a person was talking about you, like doing a
(09:50):
video about you, Like I didn't know that you were
a person. You know, you're a sponge, a pink there's
a pink sponge. It just invent God invented it. And
so this one was talking about the inventor of the
beauty blender, and I thought, oh, that's a good guest
for just be influenced, because you've had such influence and
you've been so copied. And now I read about you
and found out that you are a makeup artist.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
That was like a big deal. And I read that
you were using this.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
You cut your own sponge with rounded ends, which is
not unlike spanks when she cut off the end of pantyhose.
And you invented what you needed to do your craft
and make and create an airbrush. Look, so that's where
I'm coming in to you with this. And you did
not sell it to another company. You own the company.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I still own the company. And let me just say this, Bethany,
it's so surreal for me to be sitting here talking
to you because I look at you in the same
way when I think of anything skinny freef you know,
with the word skinny in front of it, I always
think of Bethany Frankel because I do know that you
(11:03):
created the low calorie margarita that we all want. We
all don't want the high calorie, high sugar margarita, and
you started it. And I always spelt aligned with you
because I do recognize how many companies bars individuals have
(11:24):
taken that term and really just genericized it, right like
beauty gleunder. So I feel like there's a sisterhood here.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
I don't act fact you invented I invented something for
the same reason. It's all a problem that was annoying
me when I went out and dried drink. Yeah, so
it is. There is an alignment here.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
And.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
What an amazing accomplishment for you to have invented like
a star tool. And you know what, listen, Steve Jobs
has been copied. Everyone's been copied like it's happened. It's
a big girl panny time it happened.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
It happens.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
You're not going to be but I found the business
of it and the patent, so they wouldn't give you
a patent. You tried like you tried endlessly, right.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Of course, of course, you know, And you know, people
always are so amazed and feel like maybe I just
wasn't you know, as busy business savvy as I should
have been or something. But you know, it's a funny
thing about patents. It's not easy to get a patent
because at this point in our evolution as human beings,
almost everything has been created. Like it's very hard. Yeah,
(12:31):
it's very hard to get a patent. So yes, I
tried for many years to get a patent for beauty blender.
There were conflicts that kept coming up, and it really
you know, there are general conflicts, and then it also
depends on the person that is working at the patent office,
the patent officer that's understanding your products. So I went
(12:52):
through the process several times trying to get somebody to
really understand that, yes, there is an air cleaner that
has a phone egg shaped tip, but it's a very
different industry, different different use type of product. And the
funny thing about patents is you can keep applying every
time you've been rejected, but every time you apply it
(13:13):
costs more and more and more.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
And so if you were starting a business, Yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
At some point I had to recognize my product was
starting to be recognized amongst pros and it was starting
to get some brand acknowledgment and brand equity in that way.
So I figured, let me just lay my head low,
let me just keep trying to distribute to the makeup
artists that I know we're going to have the same
(13:38):
challenges I had. Like you and your skinny company, you
created it out of a need you wanted your own
personal way to enjoy a drink and not have so
many calories. Right, for me, it was the same. I
was a makeup artist department heading a show, one of
the first one shot in high definition, and it was
an experiment and it worked for TV, and I knew
(13:59):
they were going to be the makeup artists that were
gonna appreciate this, you know, invention. But I never thought,
you know, it would really I never really thought about
it being a consumer product. And then what a start
you have?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
What time?
Speaker 1 (14:13):
How much lead time did you have from these pink
sponges being out in the streets before everybody was copying
you like something else was on the market.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Yeah, So I had a good couple of years, Bethany,
which was very helpful because it was a very kind
of like a cult product that only makeup artists would use.
So you would see it, you know, backstage of fashion week,
you would see it on makeup counters. You know, there
was a lot of education that came along with it
that was required to make the consumer understand and like, listen,
(14:45):
you'll spend fifty bucks on a makeup brush, but you
want this product to be disposable and free, because that's
a way it's been marketed to you. Cosmetic companies would
always put like a sponge applicator in a compact or
if you even bought like a high end concealer or
a high end uh yeah, you know foundation, then we
give you a little sponge, but they never told you
(15:07):
what to do with it. Yeah, to clean it, you
know what it's for whatever. So it was a very
known product, but it was also known to be disposable
because there was a replenishment uh you know, philosophy with
it for businesses.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
So I have an idea for you, and I think
we should do a collab and I just thought of
it right now, so we'll tell you after that.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I'm doing it. Let's do it, okay. So wow.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
So so.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
The thing is that most so I'm on Beauty Talk,
and everyone there like knows what they're doing and knows
what they're talking about and speaks the same language. But
I really speak the language of the woman who doesn't know.
And I will tell you that I have a drawer
full of sponges, and it's the same thing. The game
starts moving too quickly, and I use my brush and
then I sometimes forget how to use the sponges, and
I don't always use it in the beginning, and I
(15:52):
see some people using it for different things, and I
like brushes too, And what I use the beauty blender
for for me is what I use a kitchen sponge
for cleaning up messes. Like today I put on the
rare beauty blush, which I think is overrated because it's
very influenced and it goes on with one dot and
you look like a frickin clown. So that's where the
(16:14):
beauty blender comes in because a brush isn't going to
do that. You've got a beauty blender and like it
makes it look normal.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Rushys are like little brooms. Okay, they sweep product. I'm
teaching you, Bethnany, because you are a self proclaimed novice
right or amateur, So no, no rushes. Brushes are like
little brooms. There's a learning curve. You have to learn
how to hold the brush to feel comfortable. Then you
have to learn how to blend with the brush, and
(16:41):
then there's fibers that are like little broom sweeps, right,
so you're kind of moving the product around on the
surface of the skin. So there's a whole like learning
curve there. The beauty of beauty blender is if you
can bounce it on your face, it just applies and
deposits and blends the makeup with each bounce now.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
And also pull when you kneed it off when you
need it.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
It's an amazing finisher to that point, like after you're
done with your makeup, take your damn beauty blinder and
just kind of go all over your face and make
sure everything is blended so you don't have any lines
of demarcation, meaning makeup like make up that screens makeup
is when you see the line of demarcation, so it
just blends everything. It erases everything and looks okay. Makeup
(17:21):
artistry is an art and people do different things with it.
I can tell you the best way to use it,
but at the end of the day, I know people
are gonna do what they do well.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
I think for my people, you could travel and have
only a sponge, a couple of sponges in a little
travel thing that breathes, and not if to carry all
the brushes like, you could get away with that, just
like you could also get away with just your fingers.
By the way, with many things but harder and I
drink and pretty, I think that it's.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Blatchie.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Like for the for the person who doesn't know how
to use it that well, I think it's best. It's
good good when you've screwed up or like or you
want to Like you said, is that the best? If
you if you had only if you had to say
the best use for the beauty blender? What is it for?
The number one best use for it?
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Uh, the number one best use for it is to
get a professional looking makeup application the very first time
you use it. With that, You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Is it to put the foundation on or is it
at the end to do the finishing you just said?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Because for me it feels so that's that's really tough.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Because it's a multitasker. It's good at both. It's it's
good at putting it on, it's good at taking it off.
It just depends on what your need is. You can
go in and over apply makeup and put too much on.
Like you said, the little dot was very concentrated pigment,
and then you can use a beauty blender blend it
around and then take it off. The thing about fingers
(18:51):
is fingers leave streaks and fingerprints, and.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
I don't use fingers. I was just saying, like it's
a tool, you know, and then.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Brushes are strokes. So I will tell you that beauty
blender takes the place of probably like four different brushes.
You know, it can be your powder, it can be
your foundation, it can be your concealer, it can be
your blush, it could be your finisher. The thing it
doesn't do it doesn't do your liner, it doesn't do
your eyes. It's not going to do your brows. It's
not going to do well. It can do your lips
a little bit, but you know, there's limitations. I'm a
(19:19):
makeup artist. I love brushes, but I see real value
in minimizing the kind of products that I need to
personally carry. I travel all over the place. I literally
have like three brushes and two beauty blenders and that's
all I need.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
And now, how often do you clean them? You please
use a sponge today to do your makeup. My process
would be the following I would go. I don't know,
I wouldn't have the time today to do like the
full clean, which I sometimes doing the microwave. I don't
know if that's wrong, But with baking soda.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
I wanted to do.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Carry you're a brave one. Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
It becomes completely clean with my baking soda and like
a little bit of vinegar and water like a dash,
and it's water and you put it in hot and
it becomes immaculate.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
My housekeeper taught me that, and I don't know where.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
She saw that, but it's under the sink squeezing and
it never gets everything out, even with brush cleaner, so
you have to clean it properly. But like, what do
you suggest for cleaning every day? And how often and
when you travel and that kind of stuff, like you
bring one away, it's in your bag.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
This is my process, you know. And I and again
I had to give up trying to control everybody because
I know people do what they do right, So I
can only tell you what works for me. So what
I do and the way I invented it to be
used is that you always use a beauty blender wet.
You use a damp, so you don't use it dry.
So I put it. I have these nests. I call
(20:40):
them nests, little holders for your beauty blender. I put
it on my bathroom sink next to my toothbrush. So
when I brush my teeth in the morning, before I
do my makeup, it's sitting there. I will get it wet,
clean it two seconds before I'm gonna use it with
the soap that's right there next to my toothpaste, and
(21:00):
squeeze it out, how dry it and do my makeup.
When I'm done, I sit it right there again. I
don't touch it again until I brush my teeth again,
or when I mean, I'll brush my teeth at night,
but the next morning, when I brush my teeth, you know,
then I wash it again. So it's just a reminder.
It's like when you brush your teeth, clean your blender.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
And then so everything. When do you do the deep clean?
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Well, I do a deep clean when I need to.
I mean, my makeup generally comes out. I have a
technique of rolling the blender when I wash it too,
between my hands like this, and that tends to somehow
mush And I know that's a very scientific term, but
it's like it spreads the soap around and allows everything
(21:42):
to get everywhere and rents out.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Okay, and then and then when do you how many
uses until really somebody should get rid of it?
Speaker 3 (21:50):
I think it really depends on how much and how
often that person wears makeup. Not you know, not everybody
wears makeup every day. And then there's people like me
who at the time when I was working as a
makeup artist, I might use the same sponge ten times
on the same person for continuity and different scenes or whatever,
and be watching it ten times more. So it really
(22:12):
just depends. I like I like to say, when your
sponge starts to get a little more textured, when your
beauty blender might start to rip or chere, because some
people aren't always very you know, gentle with it. But
I'm also coming out. I have a new invention that
I'm coming out with that's going to make it really
(22:34):
super practical and easy for everyone to wash not only
their beauty blenders. But I have this other thing called
power pocket puff that's really good. So that'll be that'll
be a good, uh good way for for people to
keep their tools clean.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
I think your cream bronzer is very nice, Like it's
very like the ones that I've liked are Mario because
it's creamy. I like Chanelle, like your cream bronzer is
very it's very very nice. I have to say, it's creamy.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
It's I really appreciate that, and it's it has it's
the first pH one and it's PhD. You know, it
customizes to your own pH.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
I don't think it's very nice.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
It's very nice.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
It only comes with the highlighter or you have it alone.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
No, it only comes with the highlighter.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Okay, got it? So what do you so? It's interesting?
Speaker 1 (23:36):
I often think I watch influencers talking about dupes and
talking about Elf, which is the copy product of the
Charlotte Tilbury, and then it's the spongies that I think
Charlotte Tilbury invented. And you know, like in other worlds,
if you walk outside and everybody thinks you have a
(23:57):
fake bag, they're gonna like, you know, mock you or
say it's so like and and Arimez would be very
annoyed if I was like out talking about my I
I have a relationship with them as I buy things there.
If I were talking about my fake bag, they wouldn't
want me to have the real bags. And it feels
(24:17):
like certain people are paid by Charlotte Tilbury and then
they're paid by Elf, and they talk about the Charlotte
Tilbury one. And then there's the shape tape fate knockoff,
and like everybody copies everybody and everybody's like okay with
it in a way, and like it seems unethical. And
I never use the word dupe like ever, because I
don't like that word because it means like we're buying
cheap shit knockoff, even if it's not. That's that's retraction.
(24:40):
It's not cheap shit knockoff. I just want I don't
know Charlotte Tilbury, and I think a lot of her
stuff I don't like, like, but a lot of it
I love. But I respect that she invented a lot
of stuff, like she created a lot of stuff. And
so it bothers me when everyone's out here just trying
to get the cheapest thing to copy the person it.
It's cringe to me. And no one really talks about that.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Like in any other space.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
It's not like it's not elevated to be the knockoff
person and everybody just wants And so I battle back
and forth because sometimes there's something that I find that's
inexpensive and I happen to like it better.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Than the expensive thing.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
And I don't think that just because some company did
a pink blush. It means they copy this other person.
But like when it's the spongy thing, like that's a
knock off. Didn't shut out till reinvent that.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
The pomp palm.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yeah, that little thing.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Yeah, I don't know that she invented it, but she
chose it to be the applicator for her highlighters and
the different products that she uses them for and the
two because the pomp Yeah, the success of her business
made it, you know, linked with her, and you know
(25:58):
that that happens too. You don't necessarily like in that case,
I don't I know for a faction did not create
that that pompom.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
I didn't create.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
The pomp pom applicator was actually in response to a
beauty blender. So beauty Blender was the first.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Rew I'm sick.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Now, wait a minute, that pompomp Oh, it makes sense now.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
It was in response. But beauty Blender being the first
rounded sponge applicator kind of opened the minds of a
lot of product developers that actually were ethical. Okay, they
didn't want to copy beauty Blender, but how do you
take this concept and multiply it and you know, put
(26:43):
it out in other application aspects of beauty because we
were dealing completely with just complexion. So they took that
idea and built a rounded, edgeless sponge applicator and stuck
it on a tube where you could flow the product
through the pomp pomp but still get that edgeless seem free,
(27:06):
no line of demarcation application with your product. And I'm
not saying I invented it, that's not it. It's the concept.
The idea of seamless application was kind of.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Amabeling with the sponge tip and interesting if.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
You if you look at historically the things that had
been marketed before beauty Blender, none of them were doing it.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
That's fascinating and I don't think anyone knows that, which
is amazing.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Well, you kind of have to be the the annoyed
inventor to pay attention.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Okay, so how much of the business do you own?
Speaker 3 (27:43):
You like to say, I'm a hundred percent owner of
beauty Blending. You own?
Speaker 1 (27:47):
So? Has it made you very very wealthy? Can I
ask that I do?
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Okay? You know I but you know, full transparency, I'm
a makeup artist, you know, learning to be a business person.
You know, I've spent a lot of money. I've made
a lot of money. I've made really good decisions. I've
made bad decisions. You know, it's all a part of
the stew or the fabric of where I am today.
(28:13):
You know, I live a comfortable life. I feel very fortunate,
very blessed. I don't take it for granted. I still
own my business one hundred percent. I don't know if
I'm smart or stupid.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
No, I know you've been offered to be bought, oh yeah,
all the time. And what was the reason for not
doing it? To have your first pile.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
I was making a lot of money. I mean, I
didn't need an infusion.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Of cash fair you know.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
And also what I didn't want was uh complication in
the business. Because when you bring in an investor, as
far as I know, and I talk to my friends
about this that take money and have investors come in,
you know, suddenly there's a whole group of people telling
you what you need to be doing a master It's
a complication. So, you know, I just feel like I
(29:04):
had a vision for beauty Blender. I knew what I
wanted to do, and so I didn't need anybody to
help me with that vision. I needed experts and people
to work with me to make those ideas and those
dreams and things that I wanted to make happen. But
that didn't necessarily mean I needed to sell my business
to do it.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
I'm good friends of Mark Cuban who did say to me, like,
what do you know, if you don't need the money,
you don't take the money. So Mark Cuban would agree
with you.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
I still feel today that, you know, beauty Blender uniquely
positioned me to be able to take the opportunity to
create complexion products that work perfectly with the perfect complexion tool.
So so that's that's the path, Bethany, that's the path
(29:54):
we take. And if I can, if I have a
global business of selling you know, seventeen sponges a minute
around the world, and if I can get one person
to try my makeup, it's a success.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Yes, And you are around the world the street credit ready,
which I understand do. We have a lot of similarities.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Not every product is a home run, but it's a
supporting cast. So you build the portfolio, you take the
chances on products that you believe in, and me having
the background and expertise as a complexion expert in working
with people of color and skins for over twenty years.
Gives me the credibility to be able to make great formulations.
(30:39):
So you know, the formulation stand the test of time.
If you have the correct avenue to be able to
market and distribute them so that you can tell your
story and get the education out, the formula stands and.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
You have good relationship.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
The thing is, what I love about what you are
doing is that you are level setting everything. So when
you go to TJ Max, or you go to Sophora,
or you go to Burgdors and you go buy these
different products that come in different packages and different price ranges,
(31:16):
and you're able to say, oh, this mass market is
on the level of Burgdorf. I'm not gonna say brands
or whatever, but you know that goes to show you
now that formulation is no longer exclusive to the amount
of money you charge for the product, right, so you
have to have some other benefit. That's why makeup artists
(31:40):
that start makeup brands a lot of times don't become
successful because a blush is a blush is a blush,
a lip is a lip is a lip who needs
ten thousand eyeshadow palettes When you don't even go through
one in your whole.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Life exactly exactly, like it's exact you exactly is and
it's exactly but it's but who needs to thousand pairs
of shoes and we're having fun, So you have to
just know where you stand in it, why you're doing it.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Those are different segments of society, right. Some people are collectors,
some people are realists, some people are economists, you know,
and there's different people that have different tastes. What I
hope I'm catering to is a person that understands that
my products work together to give you, to your point
a very simple and easy, corrective or beautiful kind of
(32:29):
result to make you a better you. And yes, it
is a very competitive category that I've entered, but I
also feel confident that I have the expertise myself as
an expert knowing formulation and knowing what.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
I do and the distribution and the relationships like you,
like my friend Mario.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
You know, Mario and I are pretty close. But also
you're as good as your team. I have a very
talented team, which is why beauty Blender has remained the
numbernumber one tool in the world and the original category
creator product that allows me to have a voice and
permission to go into this category.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
I root for the make the makeup artist brands, and
I also root for the big brands only because I
know that they've got the research and development money to spend,
you know, to make to really make sure that Maris
Scara is good. So I'm rooting for different people at
the same time, I'm not. I'm not like rooting for
you know, very rich celebrities to walk in and slap
(33:43):
their name on and I don't. I think it's it's enough,
it's enough, and I think people are gonna get caught
and we've seen that, like it's the pyramid scam where
you get at you want to get out the top,
and some people are getting caught in the middle because
everybody thinks they're a celebrity.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
They're going to just do a beauty brand.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
And I don't feel that there's I would feel like
an impostor and like there's no room for me and
nobody needs me in this space like as a camp
well vault.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
But I will just say this about you. I think
what you bring to the table is what people really want.
So when I say things are cyclical, I mean just
look We went from you know, magazine advertising being millions
of dollars to have a page in Vogue right to
advertise loreal Landcombe whatever it is, right and makeup art
(34:30):
has died to do those campaigns, by the way, So
I paid big attention to them because I did those.
So you know, you go from spending tons of money
in that kind of medium when magazines were the advertising
you know, venue of choice, let's say, then you got
away from it. Nobody believed in celebrities endorsing a brand
(34:51):
anymore because they knew they were just getting paid. So
that's when the influencer became popular. Then the influencers became
paid and untrusted because the exact simmers knew that the
influencers were getting paid.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
So what they don't really though, by the way, was
it real?
Speaker 3 (35:08):
I mean no, no, no, no, hold on.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
We have to do that because that's what this podcast
is about.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
When people are watching TikTok, they do not really realize
that they are being sold and that people are filtered
and that these are commercials. It is a twenty four
hour a day commercial network. And that's why I walked
into this space, and that's why I'm doing this because
back in the old days, it was these messages were
brought to you by and then it's the Super Bowl
and you watch the commercial and you kind of still
(35:34):
have an idea and you might be entertained during that commercial,
but you still have an idea that you're being sold
a car. And then it became integrations onto television shows
where someone's holding something and there's a payment and they
don't even have to really disclose that they're holding a
Coca Cola. And now my moms do not realize how
so they're starting to know. And that's why Misscaregate was
so big, because that was the first time they were like,
(35:55):
what the fuck, this is really a mascara commercial in
a magazine that people have fake lashes.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
So there's an evolution within this category. Okay, we went
from you know, paid advertising and magazines where celebrities were
being used as the face of and we go to
influencers where those influencers now are being rotated. We have
the macro influencers and now we have the micro influencers.
We have the ones that are well known and super
well known. I think people know. I think there is
(36:26):
a segment of society that actually understands these people are
getting paid to sponsor a product. I believe on TikTok
because it's one of the newer mediums, the newer platforms
that people and because the demographic is younger too, I
believe that there is a little bit of naivete there.
They don't quite get it yet, but it is. It's
(36:46):
a twenty four hour commercial. You're absolutely right. But what
the ultimate question of why I think you're so valuable
is because what you're doing and what people want is
they just want authenticity. They want the truth, and what
you do is you debunk it.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Yeah, but it's not it's so hard. I was always
gonna say you, so a couple of things, A couple, well,
a couple, Yeah, they alienated so many people, and I
don't care.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
So because it's true. No, they're not paying they're not
paying me. So I mean, so a couple of things.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
One used to be that a celebrity would never stand
at a party holding alcohol ever, publicist, put your drink
down because it's addiction and all that stuff. They used
to before Skinny Girl. For Skinny Girl, they wouldn't be photographed,
they would never allow it in a photograph. So then
my deal was so public because of Forbes. Then everybody
jumped into the category Nick im Naj Polly d, George Clooney,
(37:40):
Randy Gerber, Okay, ran into liquor. And it's the same
thing because they want they saw the paycheck I've been.
I've had justin. Timberlake's manager, I mean, I'm justin. Timberlake
came in. Charlie Sheen's manager was like, he keeps saying
to me, I want that skinny row money. Everyone's managers
was saying, we want that skinny girl money. Okay, put
that to the side. The avaline and the two girls
with the wine. All of it is because the skinny girl.
(38:02):
So I we're speaking the same language, right, same thing.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
Then I go into.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
But I go into Sephora. Okay, well I never go
I don't like going in there because I don't It's
just overpriced and I don't need anything in there and
you can get it all and it's making me want
new things and it's stupid to me. But anyway, so
I go into Sephora and it's the Hunger Games. It
is a zoo, and the girl says to me, we
have never I've worked here for eight years the girl
(38:30):
that I work with. It's never been like it is
right now, she says, because of TikTok. It's never been
like it's been right now. I've worked here for eight
years of this company. Okay, Now, my daughter watches me,
sees me. She's very smart whatever you know. She wants
the Benetton, not the Essence tint that is better and
more blendable and lighter and not such a clown face
(38:52):
that I was even influenced. And I even get influenced
by the Mere at Duxbury and the Michaela. And I
know they're being paid, and I've used the product and
I got it and I want it back. I want
it back because I'm watching them. So there's no shot
for these kids, because I am doing this, and I
still believe them, but I don't believe them.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
But I know they're paid, but I still want it.
And then and and my daughter.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
She doesn't want the beauty pie or the shark, the
tarp shaped tape. What she wants to Charlotte Tilbury one.
She wants the rare beauty one. She looks like a clown.
She wants to contour. She doesn't even know what contouring
is I'm like, do you know what contouring is? I
don't know what am like, Brinn, you're thirteen, you don't
need contour. So the influence is it's real, it's intense,
(39:36):
it's I'm saying, it's not commercials. It's rabid, it's money.
It's crazy. And that's why I walked in because I
thought all my makeup that I've had the people gave
me is shit.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
I need this thing. I need this glow. I am
fifty two years old.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
I didn't know they were filtered. I didn't know that
the people, the Meredith, the Michaela, I didn't know they
were filtered.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
When I say everybody, I'm actually talking about like a
segment of society like yourself, that knows they're being sold too,
but wants it anyway. You know what I mean. Yes,
So that's what I'm done.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Rights as bag cannot possibly cost fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
I say everybody knows, I mean a segment of people
that understand that that's a paid person, and it's usually
you know, like a Meredith or a Michaela, somebody that
has some sort of character, beauty, personality, something that resonates
(40:38):
with the consumer that attracts people that that they want
to watch them. It's the price they want to watch them.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
You walk into Vegas, you're going to lose money, which
is what's the fort is. It's Atlantic city, but it's
the lights in the ye and everything.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Yeah, you're one hundred percent right.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
And and I think that walking into this being a
wealthy woman who has other businesses that is no in
this space and doesn't need to be and would never
screw up my whole apple cart for lying about a
lip glass. But if a brand wants to use my content,
they're going to pay me. And I won't say anything
that I don't actually love because I don't need to.
(41:14):
And we've proven that I've alienated so many brands from
what I've said that I'm not looking for business. I mean,
if I get it, fantastic, big brands have reached out
to me, and if I love them, yeah, I would
do something. But I think that walking in agnostic and
a person who can afford to buy the drug store
or the expensive it's been a unique position that I
(41:34):
just wandered into. And I'm fascinated by your business and
I'm fascinated by you, which is why you're the first
person I've had on and I do think that no
one can speak to the beauty industry like a makeup
to a beauty product and what people need to wear
over the day and all that like a makeup artist.
So we shouldn't be investing as much in celebrity brands.
In my personal opinion, is a.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
Makeup artist these days when you talk about quality products
and why companies that are the bigger companies like fass Day, Latters,
the Lorels, the LVMH, how they can they can you know,
buy smaller brands, bring them under their umbrella, continue to
(42:16):
keep hopefully the brand DNA going. But at the same
time they they as you know, they buy products or
brands rather in every demographic. So that's why now we
have mass market products that have formulations like high end
prestige products because the owners are going to the same places. Yeah,
(42:41):
So I think one of the things about dupes and
copycats is, you know, there's trade dress issues Like what
I find egregious right now is you mentioned Elf, which
actually I kind of respect Elf more than some of
these other companies that are coming out because they created
their own brand and then they just copied individual products
(43:02):
and put it in their brand and they by the.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Way, it's funny you say that, because I don't mind
if someone gets inspired by something but does it in
their own way. And that Elf thing that they did
with that liquid, I'm having her on. I think that's
another guest the ceo that elf halo, glow hilt filter
or whatever it is to copy the Charlotte Tilbury thing.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
It's a bet.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
It's a great container and it's a great foot and
it's like feels substantial and like it's exciting and so like, okay,
you know, you can't hate the player hate the game.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
So I was, I agree with you. And everybody's good
at something else, they're not good at eyeshadow.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
I read an article this last week in the trades. There's,
you know, the demographic of like let's say millennials or
gen z that don't really care if someone has infringed
a trade dress issue.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Like if I were a big brand I had any power,
I wouldn't want to work with Mikayla if she's working
with Charlotte Tilbury and then going to talk about the
art shade tape in the exact same way, like that
spongy thing, Like I would feel like, wait a minute,
you're pitching the knockoffs. I'm giving you an air Mes
deal and you're pitching air Mez knockoff. Like I'd be annoyed,
Like you could talk about a different product but not
(44:13):
that one, and there's no you know. But the biggest
thing I want to say to you is that I
watched Rihanna put do a touch up on stage, and
I watch j Lo come in and she wants so
badly to get that Rihanna money and that Kylie money,
and they all are so hungry for that big beauty money.
(44:34):
They have all run in and it's so obvious and
the only one that's really been able to land it,
you know, Kylie landed. It seems like they're having some struggle.
I don't know if that's totally sustainable. And she has
a different audience, and fenty has totally landed it, and
Selena has has nailed it.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
They're gonna make real big money. I don't know how
many more are gonna.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
Gaga is doing a decent job at it too, but
I feel like hers is a slightly more authentic and
I can't figure out why, and like people just running
in for the money, but everybody's managers are telling them,
go get that beauty money. Rihanna, We're gonna do the
super Bowl only if you're allowed to take all your
influencers on a trip. Get them tickets, because they're gonna
sell us one hundred million dollars in beauty products after
(45:15):
that weekend, and you're gonna touch yourself up on that
stage even though you're eight months pregnant.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
We it's too bad.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
You're gonna print money and never have to work for
the rest of your life and your kids, kids' kids' lives.
Like that, I see it, and that people don't see that.
People do not see They just don't make that connection
and they don't make it.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
They don't look at it from that back door of business,
you know. They look at forward fasing, you know, it's
so cool.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
No, and they also TikTok and social media doesn't look
at We don't like mascarrogate and that she wore fake
lashes and so, but what we're gonna do is non
stop talk about it and get them fifty five million
views and make them more money. Like they think they're
talking negatively about something that's making them more money.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
They think they talk about it.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
Oh Hollywood added, Yes, good press, bad press accomplishes the
same thing. Awareness is awareness is awareness.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
In this space, it does.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
They could talk bad about a Tart Influencia trip, and
they're going to buy the Tart stuff.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
So I'm going to have some.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
I'll probably have someone on from Tart and all these brands,
and I think this is going to be a good conversation.
I really do like this was a very good conversation.
Like I realized, there's a lot to talk about here
that's relatable to everyone, from business to just the you know,
a woman putting her makeup on.
Speaker 3 (46:29):
Yeah, I would love to talk to you. I find
you so smart, Bethany. I watched you. I watched you
for many years, and I'm very admirable about the humanitarian
stuff that you do. Thank you, it's awesome. Thank you.
Well you've used your voice to help people, which I
really appreciate.
Speaker 1 (46:47):
Well, just know that I'm by no means an expert,
and you are an expert, and you have created something
that change in industry. And I don't know anything about
the trades, and I don't know anything about who owns
what com And like someone said on a TikTok that
land home owns NIX and someone's or in my comments
because I worked with one of them and the other
and they were like, oh, I guess because I really
(47:08):
don't know like insider stuff, and I don't want to
because then I would be like inside, I like being
out here kind of just only talking about what I observe,
if that makes any sense, Like this is all just
stuff that I'm telling you that I've learned from observing.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
I don't know the inside baseball about any of this.
Speaker 3 (47:26):
Yeah, but your intuition is spot on.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
You think I know a decent amount about what I'm
talking about, like with all this time.
Speaker 3 (47:31):
I mean, if you haven't learned, if you have avoided
learning and you still profess the things you profess, I
would say, yes, your intuition is very good.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
Great because I respect you and your art a lot,
and your business also. So you are like you know,
you are smart, you are kind, you own one hundred percent,
and you invented it. So you're probably a triple threat.
So it's exciting to watch what you do next.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
You know, honestly, it's really really really moved to.
Speaker 3 (48:02):
An island and live in a hut somewhere probably.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
But you won't need any makeup.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
You can make a mattress out of your sponges, you
won't need any makeup. Amazing, Well, I appreciate the like, amazing, heated,
awesome conversation. I got so excited. It's like no one
to talk. I have no one to talk about this.
That's why I needed to do this podcast. And I
was like talking. I was like really exasperated, excited because
I don't have anyone to talk about this because my
friends don't even know what the hell I'm talking about,
(48:27):
and like I'm in this this world of social media
is it's like a planet that and then beauty in
that planet. It's like a little a little town in
that planet. So no one knows what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (48:37):
Yeah, it's a it's a it's a very powerful little planet,
totally very influenced. So you know what though, too, I
have to just tell you, I was last night. I
had a crazy day yesterday, and so I knew we
were going to talk today. So I wanted to listen
to your podcast, just like the last couple ones, Like
(48:58):
I listened to you yet your podcast before. But honestly,
I don't have a lot of time, right, so I
was like, let me, let me, let me just like
I really I want to be prepared for her. I
like her so much. And I have to say, you
were cracking me the fuck up with grins, sports adventures
(49:18):
and motherhood because I have two kids that played sports
and you're you're so sput on with the fucking snacks
and the parents and the like I'm not good enough
and trying to like do things in the summer.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
I had to catch up. Yeah, I'm catching up now. Yeah. No,
it's a ship show and I have one. You were amazing.
We now know each other.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
Keep in touch with me if you want to talk
about anything. I'm here and I'm fascinated and listen.
Speaker 3 (49:47):
I'm I'm open to collaborations right now. It's one of
our initiatives for twenty three twenty four. Okay, you know,
if you're serious about it, I mean I can we
can talk and not talk about that too.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
Awesome. Nice to talk to you. Thank you so much.
This is a great launch for this show. Amazing.
Speaker 3 (50:06):
Thank you so much. It was so great to meet you,
and I'm so honored to be your first guest.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
I'm honored to It's perfect. You blend in perfectly.
Speaker 3 (50:16):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
This is a good podcast. I'm so excited. She was amazing,
and like I thought, I don't know what I thought
I was gonna talk about.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
I thought it was gonna be like a short This
is like a second podcast to another podcast. So I
thought that was gonna be like just like a short
thing to have somebody to talk about in this podcast.
Because I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
That was amazing. This could be a good podcast. Like
that was an.
Speaker 1 (50:42):
Interesting, fiery, passionate conversation with the woman who invented the
beauty blender, like she's a legit, unfluenced beauty guest.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
I feel so major right now. I'm excited
Host
Bethenny Frankel
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