Latest / Skin Anarchy / Robin Doyle, founder of Beautyologie

Transcript

Robin Doyle, founder of Beautyologie · Skin Anarchy

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Hi guys, welcome back to Skincare Anarchy.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is your host, Ecta, and I'm so so excited because I have someone who has so much experience and knowledge and insights into the industry today.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: So without further ado, I want to introduce you guys to Robin Tolkien Doyle, who is the founder of Charmed PR, but now the founder of Beautyology.com, which is brand new and super exciting.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: So welcome to the show, Robin.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: I am so excited that you're here.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um Hiya, thank you so much for having me.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so appreciative and I'm so excited to be here.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: And uh when you reached out, I was just thrilled.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you so much for having me.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I really want to get started, Robin, because I know you're just, you know, so experienced.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: You're truly a veteran in the industry, and I want to know all about your career and your journey and the you know things you've done and that have really led to this point.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: So could you just do a deep dive for us into all of that?
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um I will I will do my best.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: I really uh we have all the time in the world.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: So really, okay.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well I hope you're comfortable now.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: If at any point I hear snoring, I will know.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: I need to move on.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, no, trust me.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: I am very eager to learn.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, no, um, so yes, so I have been uh running Charmed PR, which is you know, like you mentioned, a uh it's a PR agency.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'm based in Los Angeles, California, and I've been focusing on uh pretty much indie beauty brands for uh uh throughout the most most of my career.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: I I did start out uh kind of doing a lot of representation for brands between fashion um and lifestyle.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: I did some books, uh a little bit of entertainment, but I have been um focusing primarily on beauty.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: I prior to working in the PR industry, I was um in the beauty um editorial world.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: So I was a beauty editor um for a teen magazine years back.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um and which one was it?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: So it was called Jump Magazine, it's no longer uh surprise, surprise.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but it was um at the time, it was owned by Weeder Publications, which is no longer, but that was the Joe Weeder at the time, and he is the original originator of uh muscle and fitness and shape magazine.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: So we all worked in the editorial offices together, and they were based in Woodland Hills, California.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um so yeah, and even prior to that, you know, I was um uh, you know, one of my first gigs was out of college was writing for um Bop magazine.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know if you remember like Tiger, you know, there's Tiger Beat now, but like my first, you know, for into editorial was literally like interviewing um the Backstreet Boys and Britney Stairs and all those stuff.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: So I started off Alpha Dreams, dude.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: This is so cool.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, I was like, you know, early 20s, and um I don't think I really knew what hit me.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: It was just it was awesome, it was really fun, you know, and I I freelanced too a lot.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: So I got to do a lot of red carpet um opportunities.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: I freelance for entertainment weekly and um us weekly, and I wrote a ton of you know, just for freelancing wherever I could and interviewing lots of celebrities being in LA, so it was kind of like you know, easy to do.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you're like you're just like that was easy to do, no worries.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm just a badass.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to do.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: At the time it was like, you know, um, it sounds glamorous, but you know, when you're covering like parties for the red carpet for us weekly, or you know, you're standing on the red carpet trying to interview people in front of a restaurant.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like I think I did um Vanity Fair party a bunch of times, and you're oh you know, you're up till three, four in the morning and um, you know, interviewing all these people, but it was fun at the time, you know, I was young and I like I totally dug it.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: And um so that's kind of like you know, where I first kind of got into it.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: And then I kind of got into, you know, when I got into the jump magazine world, I got, you know, I automatically became this beauty editor, and I was uh obviously writing about all kinds of products and testing all kinds of, you know, everything was coming in.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um it was like Christmas every day, and this was you know 20 plus years ago.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um and um, you know, email was obviously a thing, but it isn't like it is now.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: And um, how was it?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: How did you guys used to get pitches?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Was it like by mail?
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: It was by mail.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: We did get the but we got a lot of mail, and I was on the phone a lot, you know, which was way different.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: Now you're just like you're on your computer all the time.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: So um, you know, it kind of got me kind of really immersed in the beauty world.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I was writing the beauty RX column, and so I was interviewing lots of derms and uh answering girls' questions about, you know, what to use on their skin.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and it was just it was a great education into beauty.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: And so after a few years, I um I guess it just itched my entrepreneurial uh spirit within.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know, it just kind of like I realized that I wanted to do, um, I wanted to actually kind of create something aside from the you know journalism, journalist in me.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: I and so and I think it was also because of serving a lot of girls that were creating their own businesses.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: And so at one point I started my own hair accessories company and uh no business background at all, but I knew the beauty world in terms of magazines and I knew how to write a press release because I had read 50 million of them.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: And so um I ended up like going out, just was like, oh I'm just gonna start this hair accessories, just total ignorance, like I had no idea what I was doing, but um having fun, and so you know, one thing led to another, and this company that I had called Rapstar took off, and so for like six years, it was um sold in like 200 different uh, I don't know, stores around the country.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: I had reps.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Holy crap!
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, yeah, it was it was in Fred Siegel and Henry Bendel, and um I was still freelancing at the time for like magazines, and so I would uh I was kind of just doing both and I would wear my hair accessories when I go out and do my interviews.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: And so like I remember one time I was interviewing Beyoncé before like she was huge, and she said, Oh, I really love your headband.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I said, Wow, I made it, and so then I sent her some, and then I and then like I ended up telling the editor in Style Magazine, and they put it in, and I had 600 orders, and it was amazing.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: Why?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: So it was like so um what a story, yeah.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't like happen that way anymore.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, you know, not a lot of people can say that you you you know were able to interview Beyonce before, and that's amazing.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, I'm like starstruck, like wow, this is so cool.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a it was phenomenal.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was like I said at the time, I think I was just so in it, I didn't really get it.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: But now I'm looking back, I'm like, that was really kind of cool.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: But um so you know, so in Katu, I um I mean I'm totally rambling here, but I um no, please continue.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: I knew the I knew the PR world and I I had gotten married and I started having my kids, and it was just um, you know, it was getting a little difficult trying to continue to run a company, especially, and I'm being totally honest, at the time I had no business experience.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: So I was like, you know, producing like hundreds of different designs of these of these headbands with no real a sense of what a season was.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: And so my reps would be like coming to me saying, Okay, well, what else do you have for the next season?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I says, Well, what do you mean?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: I said, I have 300 designs and they didn't buy these.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: Why don't they buy these this time?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so I'm like, all right, not turning out to be what I thought it was gonna be.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: My headbands are like cross-seasonal, dude.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like Yeah, so at the time I had a friend of mine who was starting her online um business, and it was it was um a vegan accessories brand at the time, and she was like one of the first to do something like that.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: And she came to me and asked me if I would help her with with PR just because she knew that's what I knew and the beauty industry and accessories.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I so I gave it a shot, really, really like I never worked in a PR agency, and so I don't have that background, but um I figured let me see what I can do.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I ended up getting her, I remember getting like one of her purses in um L magazine, I think.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, she was thrilled, and I'm like, that was kind of fun, and then I just did it for a little while and I realized, you know what, I'm just gonna give it a shot.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: I've got two little kids at home, and I still need to be doing something creative and in, you know, the realm of what I'm used to doing, but I um, you know, this is something I can make my own and I can work as much or as as little as I can.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: And so I started charming R.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: And that was um over like 15 years ago.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: And so from that point, I just kept growing and just getting more clients, and it was all really word of mouth.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I've never really had to like go out and well, I mean, good work speaks for itself too, you know what I mean?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like just a work that comes from a place of true, like just inspiration.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what it sounds like.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Your whole journey sounds like you've really followed your gut, and I and I love that, you know.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's truly the hallmark of like a successful like person overall, not just a businesswoman or a businessman, you know?
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's amazing.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Please continue though.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: I just like you know, kind of I mean, thank you very much.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, I've been very fortunate to be able to work with incredible brands and great um, you know, brand owners um that really I feel like we make, you know, it's a real team effort.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I and I love working with smaller brands, which is 95% of what I've always done.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I have that real, I guess just because I've I you know was a an entrepreneur out of, you know, and I do have that beauty background.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I feel I guess I have that, I have can empathize a lot with small brand owners when it's when they're starting businesses because I totally I was there, so I get it and I understand what it takes and how expensive it can be and how hard it is, especially you might be really savvy in one aspect of business, but you don't know anything else about PR marketing.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: And for me, it was like I knew all about PR, but I didn't know about fashion seasons, apparently.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: But um so we all start somewhere, you know.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so um, so yeah, so you know, so then I've just you know, for the last 15 years, I've been um super fortunate to be um working my butt off with all these great brands that I've been helping um over the years.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so you know tell me some of them.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: I want to know about some of them.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: So well, right now I'm working with this really cool uh clean.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: I know I use the word clean, but it's it's an um it's an EWG verified skincare and color cosmetics brand called Semois.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_02: And they launched three a little over three years ago, and they're geared towards like uh the Generation Z and the young millennial market.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um and it's a really great brand.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: They're available in Target, uh, CBS, uh, Walmart Canada, Amazon, and Liza Koshi, who is uh the YouTube celebrity, she's uh their band brand ambassador.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: And the brand is all about really what I love about the brand so much is that they're really into the education of the brand and getting out to young girls about the importance of knowing what the ingredients are in the product they put on their skin at a young age and how it impacts their health.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: And so, which, you know, has definitely been the evolution over the last several years in beauty in general, but especially when you're targeting these young girls because you're getting them at their beauty um journey from the very beginning, right?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: So when you get them at that age and you teach them, you know, to use this, not this, then they know and it takes them, you know, they can take that with them.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's like it's really is about, you know, changing the way a generation thinks, you know, that's very true.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: I I love that.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, that's very inspirational work, honestly.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, is that really when you pick your clients, like, is that something that, you know, like what do you use as your benchmark?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: So you know, like yeah, like the last few years, you know, obviously I want to work with somebody who's cool and and I get, you know, I don't want to work with jerks.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, obviously, we've all had our experiences with crazy clients.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: I could probably write a book um about insanity, insane stories, like crazy stories.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: But um, so and then this is gonna take me into beautyology.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I think really it actually even started with, you know, maybe a little bit before beauty with uh with same law, I should say, but just like the whole shift into glean clean, green, blue, beauty, just sustainable uh development and um more thoughtful formulations that you know in the education aspect about it, um, because you know, I did have another client prior to that for years, and it was uh not it was not clean, it was full of chemicals, and um I I didn't actually to be honest, I wasn't a hundred percent on I didn't get it in the very beginning because I worked with them like this was eight, nine years ago.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: And so, but I guess as time went on, I started to really learn, you know, and in in educating the media and and in light of what was going on in the world, I was learning myself and I was really waking up and thinking, you know what, this is not something I really want to align myself with because I don't feel good about it.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: At the end of the day, I wouldn't put it on myself and I don't want to be promoting this to the public and telling them to use it because I don't Yeah.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, at some point it's like, you know, the ethics and the gut, you know, gut intuition kicks in, you know what I mean, for people who have a vision and and you are driven by something deeper than just I need a job, you know what I mean?
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like something more meaningful.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's something that's a it's a universal trait in individuals.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I I can see why you would say that, you know, it it's very, very interesting indeed.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm sorry, I interpreted.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah, so to be completely transparent.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so when I started working with Seymour, it was it was just it was phenomenal.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: It was wonderful education for myself, as well as you know, me being able to like get this information out into the public.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so I love that.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, from that point on, I was just very, very particular with the kind of brands that I was gonna work with.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: And at one point, um, I worked with a it was actually a documentary, it's not really a beauty brand, but it was called Toxic Beauty, and it was a documentary that came out a couple of years ago, and it was Canadian, and it was basically this documentary that uh this woman, Phyllis Ellis, put out um about the Johnson and Johnson uh case regarding talc and baby powder and oh wow, and it was just riveting, and I happened to see it, and um I just was blown away.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so I I literally reached out to them and I said, Is there any, you know, if there's anything I can do to help?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I brand named same wand, and we're totally aligned with the same values, and you know, maybe there's some kind of collaboration we could do or whatever.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: And and you know, make a long story short, I ended up connecting with the producer of the film, and she brought me on to help kind of spread the word about the the the documentary because they didn't have any PR in the United States.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: So um, I was just like, this is so wonderful because for a while I was really feeling like I needed something more like a challenge.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to do something better and fulfilling.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: And so I was just thrilled that they wanted me to come aboard.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: And so we got tremendous press.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we got an amazing story, we got Vogue to cover it, we had Hollywood Reporter, Shape, you name it.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: I mean like Harper's Bazaar.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: It was wonderful.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: Like we had so much media attention brought to this film that like no one would have known about before.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: And um, it really made waves in the industry so much so that like, you know, I think it was like a year ago, it was right when the pandemic happened.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: And so it was like, you know, I wonder if like they did it on purpose because nobody even heard about it.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: But like Johnson and Johnson like took talc Latin products off the shelves in the United States because they were getting so much backlash.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, that's real change.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_02: It was really uh, you know, interesting to see the power of you know the press and yeah, that's that's like really getting something done.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, truly bravo.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this that's amazing, Robin.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like, seriously, like that's you know that's it wasn't really just me, but it was a part of every aspect of it.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: So that was really amazing.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so and in that point on, I um, you know, the pandemic was about to happen, but we didn't know it.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I had, you know, this also sounds kind of you know silly, but I um I had always wanted to go to India.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so I um at this point.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone should always should want to go to India.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: I am from India and by playing.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Are you really?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, from India.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know that.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_02: Where are you from in India?
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm from Haryana.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: My family is from Haryana, which is not Punjab, by the way.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to make that, yeah.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's north, north India, very north India.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: Girl, I did not know this.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: So, anyway, to make a long story short, I took like this amazing trip in March, right?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: And uh something I'd always wanted to do.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I also was like part of it was just like, I need to get away, I need to clear my head, I need to figure out like what's my next, you know, step here, because I just don't know if I want to keep going and promoting all this consumerism.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I just I've been doing it for so long.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: And the be the PR world has dramatically changed over the last, you know, it's very fast-paced, as you know, and it's just it can be super stressful and um it's just ever changing and evolving.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: And like I never want, I never had like this big agency, I never wanted to.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I kind of like run everything.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: I wear all my all the hats.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: I have a couple of girls that help me here and there with stuff, but it's it's me.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: And so um, you know, I just was like, okay, what else can I do?
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I need to figure this out because I am not, I am not happy.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I um want to, you know, I feel like I have learned a lot in this industry and I want to be able to figure out what can I do that I really feel passionate about.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so um when I, you know, I kind of went on this trip, and then um it's not like you know, oh, it just it didn't all like come at me at once, but I feel like I had this like idea when I was there and it's felt like something happened.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I know it sounds super cheesy because everyone says, Oh, you go to India and you get enlightened, and you you know, you isn't this seriously, it's like the movie, right?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh or something, but something happened where I'm like, I was meant to get away.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: I was meant, you know, because everyone needs to just like get out of it.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: You need clarity, yeah.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I I didn't have it, and so this was like the first trip I was able to go and be like a totally like autonomous human being without my kids, without my husband.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: No one was telling me to, you know, make them a sandwich or wash their clothes or do their dishes, or I mean, it was like I don't know, I don't even want to, I didn't want to come home.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I mean, you know what's interesting?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna like, you know, fun fact, but like back in the day, like in India, and you know, I it's interesting you mentioned like people think of that.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like you go to India and you get enlightened, but I think it's the vibe because back in the day, like when there were kings and stuff there, the princes would take these, like, you know, like they would leave their home and go out into the wilderness for years, like seven, eight years.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, like this whole idea of like getting away is kind of in that country.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I I can see why, you know what I mean?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: I just wanted to like mention that because I think, like, you know, somewhere like that, it brings you peace, it makes you see real humanity.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: You see humanity, yeah, yeah.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_02: And uh even though my trip was cut short because the country was literally shutting down because of coronavirus, and I had to flee literally five days before I was supposed to come home, um, I still had an amazing experience.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_02: And so when I came home, I realized, you know, this is what I want to do.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: I want to create some kind of a site where I am able to, you know, use my knowledge of the beauty industry and PR and brands and stories, but do it in a way that really kind of touches upon, like you said, the humanity behind uh the industry.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: And the fact that like there's obviously it's just and being a publicist, and also I should mention, I know this I'm digressing, but um, you know, I still do some freelance writing for online magazines, and so I do receive so I am kind of like teetering on both ends where I receive a lot of press releases from it from other publicists regarding their brands, and I'm constantly pitching the press too.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: So I see all the brands coming in, and I you know, so it's just it's double exposure.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: I see it's like so overwhelming.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: The beauty industry is so huge, and everyone is launching a new brand every five seconds, it seems like.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_02: And so I'm like, the world totally does not need another beauty brand.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: I don't care what anyone says.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um got these like compelling stories you know what i mean like these like reasons and i'm i'm all i always get caught up you know well i mean that's good you know that's that's good marketing and that's what it takes to get people to pay attention and it's really hard because there's so much of it and so these editors you know there's only so many of them and they can only retain so much and see so much so it's I get it it's hard for them to be able to differentiate between what would be a great you know product and what wouldn't and especially when they're smaller indie brands they don't have the financial back end to be able to really you know sometimes make the splash that a lot of these bigger brands get to do so it's hard so um so beautyology kind of it started off as a blog that I was just writing um you know when I came back and I was still working ferociously with my brands I thought everyone was gonna like collapse because of the pandemic but that is totally not obviously what happened in the beauty industry.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: I know the beauty industry like flourished like it was insane I was like oh my god I'm gonna get fired everyone's gonna fire me I'm I don't know I'm gonna do and then I'm like you're not gonna fire me oh okay yeah it's work from home yeah I mean and I yeah so you know that was you know it was still it was still a busy time even though you know I was I've you know home everyone's home but um so yeah so beauty turned into a blog and then I was just like I said was writing and and reaching out and just you know doing some research on things that I was really interested in and I started really um kind of coming across the same stories over and over again that I found to be super interesting to me.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_02: And this was through a lot of it was on Instagram and it was a lot of small beauty brands that were formulated with ingredients that you know they would say they would talk about fair trade and they would really get into like the ethical transparent supply chain of how they worked and how they formulated these brands and who these people were that they actually worked with um in the various you know developing countries around the world that they who they were actually sourcing these ingredients.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: I thought it was super interesting because in the way you know for most part the beauty industry is all about you know that's obviously ingredients is a huge thing and everyone talks about oh this ingredient is great for this and that the other and this is clean and it's not toxic.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: But like where is it coming from and like who is you know who's who's the human being behind it that's actually you know like sourcing the ingredient and how are they being treated and and like you know are you are they being treated well?
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: Are they you know because there's questions that I just didn't have the answers to but when I started finding some of these other brands I was fascinated because you look I got to learn about you know different people in Peru that you know were being ethically they were being you know they were getting compensated by fair wages and they were being treated humanely and they were creating this amazing brand and they all work together and that and it's all about you know sustaining and and and saving the rainforest but at the end of the day they're being able to you know make enough money just like you are you know you or I would make enough money we want to be able to like pay our rent and and go dinner on a Friday night or send our kids to school like these things that we take for granted when we get paid you know we call it a minimum wage or whatever our salary is but like minimum wages in other parts of the world are not sometimes take you anywhere.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_02: So you know you've kind of called you know like well what's a fair wage and how do you figure that out and so a lot of these brands were doing that and they were then showing the um you know like the outcome well this you know because of so and so was able to work for our brand he's now you know able to build a house and provide for his family right so these kinds of stories I was just getting more interested in and then it brought me back to one of my very first clients um that I've worked on and off with since like for over 10 years and that is the fabulous Rahama Wright from Shea Leen which I'm gonna connect you with you got to talk to her she oh wow from Shay Aline which is a um a Shea butter brand and she she's based in um on the east coast she is she's been doing this for since she got out of college she went to um she was in the Peace Corps and then she went to Ghana she just she ended up creating a cooperative for women in a certain part of Ghana where they are able to where they source the shea nuts off the shea trees and she saw a total disconnect where they would you know get the the seeds and then they would ship them off to these major corporations in the states that would then turn them into butter and put them in ingredients.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_02: But they were she was seeing that they had these women that you know were you know collecting these seeds they weren't actually given the opportunity to um do the labor making these these seeds into butter which is a whole job and a labor initiative on its own and so because of that she was she's been now she's working with over 800 women and and she's able to give them you know not even living wages but five times the living wage in in Ghana and these women are flourishing and they're starting their own businesses and that is real world.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: And you know it's phenomenal so like that it brought me back to that and I thought you know what this is amazing and this is what she was fighting for all these years ago and like but it's the world it's not just happening in Ghana it's happening in all the developing countries.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's happening in 90% of the world yeah like it's it's literally like you know we uh mentioned India earlier and it's like you know I tell people all the time you know I was born in India and I saw like you know I was old enough when I before I came over to the States where I saw my grandparents living in a village you know in the rural India.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: I saw you know living off of land literally like you don't have extra belongings.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: You have you know my father had one suit and you know what he used to do?
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: He used to go to the tailor and buy more fabric and elongate it from high school all the way through the end of graduate school.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: So you know I've seen that you know what I mean I've I've seen what you're talking about and it's a really big problem because the governments of these countries are also tied in with the money stream.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like there's no representation really for these like small communities of people that are being you know like utilized in this whole industry.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I I I love what oh my God I love everything you're saying.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah it's true.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: I mean I think especially now more than ever and obviously you hear all these you know everyone left and right's coming out oh this was my pandemic project and this that and the other and everyone's like when you know they went in and they like tried to um you know what you know figure out like what is you know what's truly important to me and and obviously this time gave that to a lot of people and you know I'm one of them but I really feel like you know um we're also we all you know we've all like literally live in a bubble and especially this last year we were literally all living in our own you know apartments or whatever we you know houses and so you know not a lot of people know what's going on in we're not like the most like you know in the United States I feel like maybe more so than in other parts of the world but like we're really into like the United States like we don't a lot of people don't know what's going on in other parts of the world.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_02: And you know when you go and you see these things firsthand it's really eye-opening and it's really you know it makes it made me really want to you know try to change something here and try to you know educate people more in like you know this is really happening and you know it is crazy and yeah I did go to India and I did you know see this and there are you know millions of poor people living in huts and and they do work and they live under floors and they work 17 hours a day and they make this much money and it's horrible and this is why you know so um you know this is not a new conversation by any means especially in the fashion industry as like lately more I think was like a few weeks ago it was like Fashion Revolution week and it was the anniversary of the collapse of the Rana Plaza and so you know everyone's you know the whole slow fashion movement is huge and being transparent with like you know who's making your garments and how they're being treated and all that stuff.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_02: So you know I feel in a sense this is definitely that same idea but it's it's for the beauty industry.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't um and so I you know having not I haven't seen a lot of this conversation or heard of this conversation so much um in the media.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's kind of what sparked me to then turn beautyology into this e-commerce site where I was um you know I really wanted to kind of create a destination online where like all of these like-minded brands with the same mission could all kind of come together under this one um umbrella I guess and then you know be able to illuminate these stories too about the brands and the brand owners and how they came you know how they got their inspiration to start and do what they do and then also you know you've been diving deeper into highlighting stories about the people they work with in different parts of the world and you know the success stories for these these individuals so that you know when you go to buy your next you know cream or shampoo or whatever you think for five seconds and you go wait where's my money going towards yeah exactly gonna help somebody or is it just going to go back into the corporate you know pockets of PNG or you know whatever you know so that's what I'm trying to create here with Budyology.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: So really you're in the business of spreading knowledge that's what you do yeah you spread awareness knowledge yes I mean yes so now I'm like you know trying to now you know and obviously I wanted to create a you know some type of a revenue stream here with Budyology for myself obviously but with also all of these brands and then the people that work with the brands and so to you know make them prosper further and be able to really you know help these people all over the world.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_02: I mean each brand that I have has a really unique and different story.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_02: And um one of the things that I really wanted to create with BDology is not just have you know a bunch of brands all from the same region.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_02: And so um I started I just launched it and so I have about 16 brands right now and I have another five or six that I'm gonna be adding to the site shortly and I'm really excited to say that they are from deaf you know different parts of the world.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: So I've got you know brands from Guatemala um and I have you know obviously brands from Africa and South Africa Bangladesh and Sri Lanka Morocco um so they all have different ingredients and they all tell a different story and um you know and they all kind of connect with um you know people in these in these developing countries in uh different ways as well for instance I work with this soap brand called 700 rivers and um the woman who runs it is based in the United States she's of uh background is from Bangladesh and she um works directly with women in uh Bangladesh and helps them get out of the sex trade and is able to get employment through the soap company and because of that you know it it's you know she started brand and she you know I found her again I found her in this I found her on social media and um you know I just fell in I was just drawn to her story and how she's um you know been uh able to take this dream of hers and make it a reality by giving employment to um you know a group of women in Bangladesh and so you know that's just one story it's so um I mean you know you make such an interesting point too because this whole time I've been thinking you know women everywhere it's a it's a global phenomenon where women are naturally drawn to beauty.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: What woman doesn't want to be involved in some way with you know a beauty product whether it's trying it or making it or harvesting something for it that like that that feeling that we all the way that we all connect as women with this idea of beauty is there globally.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: So when you have you know groups of people who are involved in for example like the harvesting of the shea nuts you know there's still women that are probably curious where is this going to go?
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: And also you know why take away from the culture where you're harvesting from you know it for me it's like it's not just about like telling people where the these ingredients came from like you said I think I'm echoing what you said but it's important to understand how would the people of that like that land and nation um process this ingredient.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: And like preserving that culture.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that could also really lead to a lot of you know just monetarily like making sure that you know if they're involved if people get involved and you inspire them they're going to do better work.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know it's gonna expand you as a company.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I I love everything that you've explained.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: I just think that you know there's very very few people doing it you know so I mean more power to you that I think it's it's beautiful.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah so you know I want to ask you a question though I want to ask you um in terms of you know with these brands that you work with have you ever had a situation where you know they've approached you and they they want your advice like how can we give back you know what what can we do?
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_02: Have you had anything like that happen um yeah you know it's interesting obviously that's such a huge part of PR in general especially when and it's um you know more and more brands now um are getting have already realized that there has to be some type of a give back initiative especially if you're launching a new brand like if you don't have something tied to your brand then you're just hurting yourself in the long run.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_02: Whatever it is, I mean you try to make it authentic as possible whether it's you know you're an LGBTQ brand and you want to give back to your community or you are all about cruelty fee products and you want to work directly or you know give part of your proceeds to some kind of an animal conservation um you know whatever is I think you know you need to have something um tied to your brand so that people make so you feel like there's you know some humanity behind it.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_02: But um you know obviously brands you know I've had brands that I've worked with for years and they didn't really have anything specific.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_02: And so you know the typical PR strategy is to always tie something to something for a particular upcoming holiday or some kind of an event that you know is going to be a huge media hit.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_02: And so um you know you've heard it a million times it can be called greenwashing or pink washing or whatever it is like you know like oh breast cancer awareness in October you know like if you are not a brand that really is into breast cancer awareness but you have something pink well then like let's you know I know this this isn't sound like the greatest thing in the world but people do it all the time and I've done it for my clients you know let's connect with a great uh charity that we feel strongly about that like is you know willing and wanting to work with you know the brand and then you know let's try to do some media promotion where we like offer or maybe we create a brand a product you know specifically for this initiative and then we decide we want to give like a percentage of the proceeds to their cause you know a lot of brands do that.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um they you know some brands do it because that's how they truly feel and there's you know and they might have you know let's say you know breast cancer survivors they run the business or they know people in their in their lives or their families that's been affected by the disease and so they want to you know do something to give back.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_02: You know unfortunately there's a lot of brands that just decide to do something like that just because they want to get more pressed they want to make money that's exactly that's what I want to I'm just like you know I can't yeah I I just listen can I be honest anymore I won't do it anymore.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_02: I won't I just can't press the return button on the keyboard anymore.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like well it's just it at one point it becomes like it turns from like inspirational to just complete BS I'm sorry but like that's the truth of it you know no that I was just gonna say like you know that's the thing like for me you know just with this podcast it's like skin cancer awareness month or it was or something right and I was like I made it a point to say it should be skin cancer awareness year every freaking year.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like I don't need to like post a thing to say hey yeah I'm I'm behind of course I'm behind it.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: You as a brand you should be behind anything that's humanitarian you know and and good like that should just be in your DNA.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's not and if you're having to think about what you can do to benefit the world and you're you're really thinking hard on it and it's not coming together then you need to think about why you what are what are you doing as a human being you know what I mean like what is your purpose and I I feel very strongly about that.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think brands just don't have like there's no excuse anymore to not do something impactful and meaningful.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_02: Amen girl it's true.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_02: It really is and uh but yeah I mean there are there's millions of brands that are coming out every day and they they do have these amazing initiatives and they're you know and it's wonderful it's also overwhelming too to try to be able to differentiate between all of them.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so you know for me at least with Biology I kind of try to to pick my lane and stay in it because I know that I can veer off and easily kind of get sidetracked because there is so much involved it's not just you know um you know ethically sourcing these ingredients and taking care of the people that work for you but you know that you could go off on sustainable packaging and recyclability and you know making sure that you are cruelty free and are you vegan and are you you know how are you taking care of the environment and there's so many and there's so many brand and there's so many sites you know there's all these amazing beauty sites out there about clean beauty and sustainability you've got your credo you've got your detox market falling it goes on and on and on and on.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't end.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_02: So you know for me I'm like there's I don't want to compete with all these other big huge brands because I'm I'm me I'm one person I'm totally transparent.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is my company I have no funding I'm doing this all on my own and um out of the pure passion that I have for beauty but also that I have for uh you know the principles of fair trade and what that means and um and so you know if I want I just want to stick to that and hopefully uh people will will come and find it eventually um and who you know share this this ideology and this mission that you know the purpose of beautyology which is to just you know inspire conscious beauty lovers um and you know and human beings that understand I mean Robin you really did go to India and gain enlightenment I mean honestly like you're one of the few people I've spoken to that really gets it and no I honestly I mean this is huge and it's not just something I know you speak of it like you know you're do you do it day in and day out but you know for everyone listening out there like you really should gain some inspiration here because honestly if you're not doing something like that's really meaningful I mean it just it makes it's a moot point to make money because what what is the purpose of it?
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I love what you're doing and I think it's beyond just you know a podcast or anything it's it's really good work.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I truly you know very very very well done you know from just a person who wasn't born in America you know yeah well thank you and I can't tell you how much that means to me I really it's awesome so yeah well this has been amazing Robin and everyone listening go to beautyology.com and really check out the site um I'm but by the way you're coming back on the show I'm I'm just telling you right now like I'm gonna bug you all the time like you know so it's I I want to talk more about this and I want everybody to really get in on this conversation because it's really you know probably one of the most meaningful things I've I've heard in this space.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: So anyways um you know I hope you guys like the episode leave some comments leave some questions and I'll be back next time.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much Robin thank you so much for having me okay guys so I hope you love that episode please make sure to hit subscribe if you're tuning in to us on any podcast platform we are available on so many different platforms so wherever it is that you're tuning in just go hit subscribe you will be immediately notified when we publish new episodes this way you're able to tune in to amazing insights from experts brand founders industry leaders authors all the wonderful people that we host and that's very important for me because I love to hear from you guys and really understand what you love and what you want to hear more of.
• 43:10
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• 43:18
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• 43:24
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• 43:34
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• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: So check us out leave us a comment leave us a review and we'll be back next time with another episode.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.