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?!
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 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 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.
The world all over the world.
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.
Podcasts or something like.
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.
I mean, other people have been doing it on YouTube. I didn't invent it.
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, 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.
That's my story. So that's why I like it.
I mean, I see you like I and I think you see me too, and I appreciate that. And yes, it's fucking annoying.
It's fucking annoying.
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.
So we'll get into that.
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.
By the way, you do it very well, I have to say.
It's I did, okay, you do.
You're amazing. I watch your I watch your deinfluencing videos Instagram. I'm a fan.
I can't. I'll tell you.
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.
The thing is that.
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 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.
It's all gonna work.
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.
You should learn that.
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 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 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.
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 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.
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.
So, you know.
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 and a little rosy glow like it's it's really, it's really.
It is art.
It is an art.
It is art.
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 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 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.
Be good, exactly.
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 and no guidelines.
And I rarely.
Have a professional do it and have it be great like it's maybe and I mean like a there's.
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 triangles on your eye is like the coolest schikhest thing, But that may not be who you are so well, But that's fine.
That's interesting about alignment. But I also think.
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 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, 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 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 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.
That was like a big deal. And I read that you were using this.
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.
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 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 taken that term and really just genericized it, right like beauty gleunder. So I feel like there's a sisterhood here.
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.
And.
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.
It happens.
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.
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, 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 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 costs more and more and more.
And so if you were starting a business, Yeah, and.
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 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 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?
What time?
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.
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, 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 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.
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.
I'm doing it. Let's do it, okay. So wow.
So so.
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 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 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.
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 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.
And also pull when you kneed it off when you need it.
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 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.
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.
Blatchie.
Yeah.
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?
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.
Is it to put the foundation on or is it at the end to do the finishing you just said?
Because for me it feels so that's that's really tough.
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 is fingers leave streaks and fingerprints, and.
I don't use fingers. I was just saying, like it's a tool, you know, and then.
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 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.
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.
I wanted to do.
Carry you're a brave one. Okay.
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.
My housekeeper taught me that, and I don't know where.
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.
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 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 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.
And then so everything. When do you do the deep clean?
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 to get everywhere and rents out.
Okay, and then and then when do you how many uses until really somebody should get rid of it?
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 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 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.
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.
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.
I don't think it's very nice.
It's very nice.
It only comes with the highlighter or you have it alone.
No, it only comes with the highlighter.
Okay, got it? So what do you so? It's interesting?
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 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 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. 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.
Like in any other space.
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.
Than the expensive thing.
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.
The pomp palm.
Yeah, that little thing.
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 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.
I didn't create.
The pomp pom applicator was actually in response to a beauty blender. So beauty Blender was the first.
Rew I'm sick.
Now, wait a minute, that pompomp Oh, it makes sense now.
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 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, 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.
Amabeling with the sponge tip and interesting if.
You if you look at historically the things that had been marketed before beauty Blender, none of them were doing it.
That's fascinating and I don't think anyone knows that, which is amazing.
Well, you kind of have to be the the annoyed inventor to pay attention.
Okay, so how much of the business do you own?
You like to say, I'm a hundred percent owner of beauty Blending. You own?
So? Has it made you very very wealthy? Can I ask that I do?
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. 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.
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.
I was making a lot of money. I mean, I didn't need an infusion.
Of cash fair you know.
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 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.
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.
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 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.
Yes, And you are around the world the street credit ready, which I understand do. We have a lot of similarities.
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. 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.
You have good relationship.
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, 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 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.
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.
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 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.
I do and the distribution and the relationships like you, like my friend Mario.
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.
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 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.
They're going to just do a beauty brand.
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.
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 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 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.
So what they don't really though, by the way, was it real?
I mean no, no, no, no, hold on.
We have to do that because that's what this podcast is about.
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 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, what the fuck, this is really a mascara commercial in a magazine that people have fake lashes.
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 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 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.
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.
So because it's true. No, they're not paying they're not paying me. So I mean, so a couple of things.
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, 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. So I we're speaking the same language, right, same thing.
Then I go into.
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 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 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.
But I know they're paid, but I still want it. And then and and my daughter.
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, 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.
I need this thing. I need this glow. I am fifty two years old.
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.
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.
Rights as bag cannot possibly cost fifty thousand dollars.
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 with the consumer that attracts people that that they want to watch them. It's the price they want to watch them.
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.
Yeah, you're one hundred percent right.
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. 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 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.
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 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, 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 and put it in their brand and they by the.
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.
It's a bet.
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.
So I was, I agree with you. And everybody's good at something else, they're not good at eyeshadow.
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.
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 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. 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.
They're gonna make real big money. I don't know how many more are gonna.
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 that weekend, and you're gonna touch yourself up on that stage even though you're eight months pregnant.
We it's too bad.
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.
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.
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.
They think they talk about it.
Oh Hollywood added, Yes, good press, bad press accomplishes the same thing. Awareness is awareness is awareness.
In this space, it does.
They could talk bad about a Tart Influencia trip, and they're going to buy the Tart stuff.
So I'm going to have some.
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.
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.
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 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.
I don't know the inside baseball about any of this.
Yeah, but your intuition is spot on.
You think I know a decent amount about what I'm talking about, like with all this time.
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.
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.
You know, honestly, it's really really really moved to.
An island and live in a hut somewhere probably.
But you won't need any makeup.
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, 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.
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 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 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.
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.
Keep in touch with me if you want to talk about anything. I'm here and I'm fascinated and listen.
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.
Awesome. Nice to talk to you. Thank you so much. This is a great launch for this show. Amazing.
Thank you so much. It was so great to meet you, and I'm so honored to be your first guest.
I'm honored to It's perfect. You blend in perfectly.
Thanks.
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.
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.
That was amazing. This could be a good podcast. Like that was an.
Interesting, fiery, passionate conversation with the woman who invented the beauty blender, like she's a legit, unfluenced beauty guest.
I feel so major right now. I'm excited