Boardroom Beauty

Kiana Murden, Senior Beauty Writer at Vogue, shares her pivot from brand management to editorial work, highlighting the importance of community and making career sacrifices. From working at P&G and Unilever after undergrad to her decision to pursue a career in PR and her transition into editorial work, Kiana stresses the value of taking career breaks and pursuing further education when the timing feels right. In this conversation, Kiana, emphasizes the importance of pursuing a path that aligns with one's passions and values. She shares her decision to pursue grad school at Columbia University as a pathway to pivot into editorial writing, highlighting the significance of timing, intention, and personal choice in career decisions. She gives us a peak into her world at Vogue and the work she is doing to evolve professionally, sharing her focus on professional maturity, gratitude, and resilience in navigating the ups and downs of a career. We chatted about the presence of black black beauty editors, the need for collective action and connectivity to push for diversity and inclusion, and lastly her insights on beauty commerce and shopping trends, such as the impact of social media and AI on consumer behavior.

In this episode of Boardroom Beauty, we collaborated with Too Smart for This Podcast by Alexis Barber, the founder of TOO Collective, a wellness brand. Because August is Black Business Month, we decided to have a chat with two of our favorite black beauty founders to give us the real on their current state of being in a world where DEI is under attack and access to capital is very limited. Desiree Verdejo is the founder of Hyper Skin, a vegan, clean, and cruelty free skincare line focused on melanated skin by treating hyperpigmentation. The lawyer-turned-beauty entrepreneur launched her brand and has had tremendous success via international retailer, Sephora.Karen Young is the founder of Oui the People, a body care line striving to elevate the standards and experiences of the body care category with the mission to have everyone feel seen within their self care routine.She has bee very vocal in recent months and gone viral for her video stating that "many of your favorite black beauty brands may close down this year" due to lack of capital. In a recent press article in Entrepreneur magazine, Karen said, "There's a marked recession within a recession that Black women founders in particular are facing," says Young. "The clawback of the capital has been visible and painful for many of us." For part 2 of this episode, head over to the Too Smart for This Podcast! Learn more about these founders and their businesses in the links below: Desiree Verdejo on IG | Hyper Skin on IG | Shop Hyper SkinKaren Young on LI | Oui the People on IG | Shop Oui the People

Daisy Boateng, a British-Ghanaian, new girl-mom, fashionista, author, and founder of The Step Up Sorority is a L’Oreal veteran. She has 14 years under her belt working in Paris, London, Melbourne, and New York City in brand management, digital, and now communications, Her track record for success and delivering strategic solutions at brands like Maybelline, NYX Cosmetics, Essie, and L’Oreal Paris has given her endless insight to share with The Boardroom Beauty Podcast. In this episode she shares everything from tips to navigating big beauty giant, L’Oreal to giving us a sneak peak of what she’s been working on in her role. Topics discussed include: Finding a unique selling point early in your career and leaning into that for personal brandingHer global role, translating brand objectives across marketsCreating brand awareness strategies for culturally relevancyThe trade offs between being a marketing generalists vs. specialist Transitioning back to work post-maternity leave and mothering via inspiration Building supportive networks and communities to uplift and serve women of color at work.

Yasmin Zeinab, the founder of ABI AMÉ, discusses the development of her innovative hero product, Summer Skin, which she launched her brand with just last year after conducting extensive market research in over 1,000 conversations with prospective customers to identify pain points and create solutions, centering her customer from the inception of the brand. Our conversation lightly touches on the importance of timing in the market and the growth potential of body care as well as where there was white space to advance the way we are caring for the skin on our bodies in the same way we care for the skin on our face.Yasmin is Parisian and has gained an engaged skincare community on TikTok with her educational content on Parisian skincare. In this episode, she shares her recommendations for must-buy Parisian pharmacy finds as we discussed our favorite French pharmacy skincare products and the differences between the French and American beauty markets, for example, importance of word-of-mouth recommendations in the French market and the regulatory differences in sunscreen formulations between the US and EU. Yasmin shares her short-term focus on strengthening relationships with the ABI AMÉ community and staying true to their product development philosophy. In the long term, she hopes to expand retail availability and sees Sephora and Credo as ideal partners.Learn more about ABI AMÉ on their Website, Instagram, and TikTok page!

Milan Crawford joins the Boardroom Beauty Podcast as the Head of Social for Shea Moisture. Her recent work has entailed leading up highly visible activations for the brand as they continue to bring innovative products that solve the unique needs of their targeted clientele and much more. In this episode Milan shares where her personal passions align with her professional career, her perspective and expertise on all things social and creator-led content, and much more. Tune into this episode to hear her shed light on the following:The challenges and responsibility that comes with her role as a purpose driven marketerThe process of bringing the new Bond Repair Collection to marketThe impact of insights-driven strategies in product development and the importance of addressing the specific needs of the target audience.The mission of Shea Moisture to serve the black community and the focus on inclusivity and education in natural hair careThe important role the community plays in telling the Shea Moisture brand storyEmpowering content creators through long-lasting partnerships

Tatiana Pile joins Boardroom Beauty Podcast to give us a debrief on all of the industry buzz. As a Managing Editor at Glossy, her role is to cover the evolving nature of the beauty and wellness industry at their intersection of business, tech, and pop-culture. In this episode with Tatiana we discuss: The challenges of being an underrepresented beauty editor in the trade publication space Fenty’s expansion into the hair care category and celebrity beauty brands Beauty’s commitment (and lack thereof) to heritage months Beauty’s return to Youtube after Jackie Aina’s first GRWM in two yearsThe opportunity for beauty to lean into sports marketing 

Hannah Harris is a Los Angeles-based marketer, creator, and advocate known for her work at the intersection of beauty, culture, and community. Currently working in Brand Marketing at Summer Fridays, her beauty aareer started in 2020 when Hannah founded Brown Girl Hands, turning an online community addressing the lack of diversity on our social media feeds into a content studio working with Glossier, Merit, Summer Fridays, Allure, Sephora, and Essie, you name it. The youngest honoree on Glossy's "Top 50 Fashion and Beauty Changemakers" list in 2020, Harris was a finalist for the Fashion Scholarship Fund and Chairman's Award in 2021 and was named to Ulta Beauty's "MUSE 100" and received the inaugural CFDA x Coach Dream It Real Scholarship in 2022. She has been profiled in British Vogue, Elle UK, The Cut, and Nylon, among other publications. Harris also serves on the Equity Committee for the Fashion Scholarship Fund, an organization that oversees Virgil Abloh's Post-Modern Scholarship, of which she was an inaugural recipient.In this episode Hannah share's the making of Brown Girl Hands and her perspectives on inclusion via brand, content marketing, and community.

Kewanna (KiKi) Donaldson has been Glossier’s Senior Manager of Brand & Product Marketing at Glossier since the pandemic, a very pivotal and critical time for the brand. With her leadership, she’s supported major brand initiatives from the expansion of their brick & mortar presence, bringing product innovation to life, and sustaining the strength of their core via reanimation. KiKi’s background in sports and hospitality taught her what experiential excellence entails. She is a people-first marketer storyteller and committed to the mission. In this episode, we explore the brilliant  mind of KiKi as she shares her career and personal beauty journey. In this episode we discuss: ✨Her life as a Product & Brand Marketer✨Inclusion via retail expansion ✨What good leadership looks like ✨Glossier’s goal to become a 100-year-old brand✨Showing up authentically at work ✨Her Top Shelf & what beauty means to her

The Black Beauty Club Co-Founders, Tomi Talabi & Asmeret Berhe-Lumax, give us the build to their current success in co-founding an international black beauty community. The Black Beauty Club is a community born from the pandemic, originating on the Clubhouse app. It has since flourished into in-real-life events and forums as well as an active online community. The purpose of The BBC community activations are to "drive insightful thought leadership & cultural conversations around the Black Beauty space". Topics discussed are alway timely, relevant, and often requested by their members. Engagement and trust have been paramount factors to the growth and advancement of the organization. With a mission "to galvanize and quantify our economic and cultural impact as businesses and consumers to drive a stronger ecosystem", Co-Founders Tomi & Asmeret have become subject matter experts in the unique opportunities within the black beauty space including: the state of funding, community engagement, representation in brand leadership, and culture. Tune in Tomi & Asmeret their insights & thought leadership surrounding black beauty topics (community, founder funding, corporate representation, brand failures, and more) as well as the evolution and mission story behind The Black Beauty Club!