The Glossy Beauty Podcast

If you've scrolled TikTok lately, perhaps you've come across a sunscreen from K-beauty brand Beauty of Joseon. On the app, it's somewhat ubiquitous. Sumin Lee is part of a team that acquired the brand and totally reinvented it, introducing the version today's U.S. consumers know in 2019. In the five years since, it's become a hit, particularly for its sunscreens, including the Relief Sun Aqua-Fresh: Rice + B5 (SPF50+ PA++++). It not only uses advanced SPF filters that were previously unavailable in the U.S., but it's also relatively affordable, at $18. The brand has taken off not only on TikTok Shop but also on Amazon. Lee credits the sunscreen's success to both its super-lightweight texture and TikTok itself. The brand is formulated around "hanbang" ingredients, meaning the formulas feature traditional Korean herbs as key ingredients. On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, founder Sumin Lee discusses the brand's exceptional popularity in the states, especially compared to Korea, its upcoming retail expansion in the U.S. and its strategy for combatting counterfeiters.

According to market research analytics companies and retail industry trade groups, American consumers are forecasted to spend nearly a trillion dollars on holiday shopping this year.  Specifically, shoppers could spend around $1,778 each, up 8% from 2023, according to new data released by Deloitte. Meanwhile, holiday sales could grow an estimated 2.5-3.5% to reach $990 billion in sales from November 1 to December 31, up from $964.4 billion in 2023, according to the National Retail Federation.  However, how consumers will spend this money — and on what — has yet to be seen. In this special Thanksgiving crossover episode with sister publication Modern Retail, Glossy Beauty Podcast co-hosts Lexy Lebsack and Sara Spruch-Feiner are joined by Modern Retail editor-in-chief Cale Guthrie Weissman to discuss BFCM retail trends.  This includes the growing bifurcation between prestige and value shopping. For example, the new luxury experiential brick-and-mortar shops from Chanel, Dior, Laneige and Violet Grey fall in sharp contrast to the “crazy low prices” promised by Amazon’s newest site, Haul. The site seeks to compete with low-price shopping on Temu, TikTok Shop and Alibaba.  The discussion also dives into current retail challenges, like abbreviated shipping times and the forthcoming return rush, as well as the concept of “chaos shopping,” all in today’s episode.  The Modern Retail Podcast, hosted by Weissman and Gabi Barkho, senior reporter at Modern Retail, airs every Thursday.

Richard Christiansen has learned many priceless lessons since he began fundraising for his brand, Flamingo Estate, around two years ago.  This includes his surprising realization that many investors care little about the brand or the founder’s story. Instead, he said, there's a near-universal desire among the VC set for 90% margins across personal care products.  “Know your audience; they're there to look at the numbers. … No one cares about the [brand or founder] story,” he told Glossy. "I, too, spent so much time on the storytelling, but at that moment, in those meetings, it's only about the numbers.”  In the 160 investor meetings he’s attended in the past two years, he’s been told to abandon key parts of his business to increase profitability and to trade its sourcing practices — many of which reflect a hallmark of the brand — for cheaper, faster ingredients.  On the podcast, Christiansen also shares with Glossy that he has secured his dream investor and, pending contract finalization this week, will have funding for brand expansion in the coming months.  Christiansen launched Flamingo Estate in 2020, during the pandemic, by selling boxes of produce in a Los Angeles parking lot. Nearly five years later, the brand has become an in-the-know measure of luxury and has expanded to subscription produce boxes, candles, books, and personal care products available at Anthropologie, Nordstrom, Bergdorf Goodman, Forward, Mecca and many smaller retailers.  The story behind Flamingo Estate, which Christiansen shared on the Glossy Beauty Podcast three years ago, is a departure from the luxury marketing Christiansen was well known for over the past decades, but it still possesses the elevated luxury branding consumers love.  The latest in his releases is “The Guide to Becoming Alive,” out this week from San Francisco-based Chronicle Books. The 600-page coffee table book retails for $50 DTC and across the brand's retailers. Its chapters are anchored around in-depth interviews with Jane Fonda, Martha Stewart, Kelly Werstler, Chrissy Teigen, Mecca CEO Jo Horgan and many more influential people. The book includes life lessons from Christiansen's garden, anecdotes from his life and stories about growing his business.

Before the "aha" moment that led to the creation of JB Skrub, the brand she co-founded with "Modern Family" star Julie Bowen, Jill Biren worked in magazine publishing at Condé Nast for 16 years. But then, one day, she was packing her 9-year-old son up for camp and realized there wasn't a personal care brand made for him. He was too old to bring baby soap to camp, and she didn't want to send him with a synthetically fragranced men's product. And so, an idea was born. Bowen, also a boy mom, related to this struggle, and the two came together to work on a brand of body care products for tween boys. They chose to do so independently and spent eight years taking it from concept to reality, until finally launching in January of 2023 with five products: a body wash, a body spray, a face wash, a face lotion and toner pads. Recently, JB Skrub added hair care to the mix with the introduction of a shampoo. On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Biren discusses the moment she realized she'd stumbled upon a white space in the market, JB Skrub's unique motto for teaching boys good hygiene and the power of telling this rarely-spoken-to consumer that this product was, in fact, made for him.