Britain's beauty industry is worth more than £30 billion, growing at four times the rate of the national economy – and until recently, the government was still classifying it alongside dry cleaners and funeral parlours.
That gap between perception and reality is precisely what Millie Kendall has spent her career trying to close. The entrepreneur and co-founder of the British Beauty Council has worked in almost every corner of the industry – from shampoo girl at thirteen to brand founder to policy advocate – and few people understand its contradictions better. An industry where 86% of businesses are owned by women, and yet the top jobs still tend to go to men. An industry that outsizes automobile manufacturing but receives none of the same political attention. An industry that has thrived through financial crisis, pandemic and the cost of living squeeze, but still can't quite shake the charge of being frivolous.
In this episode, Georgina Godwin speaks with Kendall about the forces reshaping beauty right now: the rise of aesthetics and what it means for the future of makeup; why fragrance is quietly becoming the category to watch; what heritage brands get wrong in their panic to compete with challengers; and why biotechnology – creating ingredients in labs rather than sourcing them globally – may be the industry's shrewdest hedge against geopolitical instability. Kendall is also blunt about the fight to regulate the aesthetics industry, the limits of social media, and why the lipstick effect, far from being a marketing myth, tells us something true about how people cope.
Sharp, funny and unexpectedly political – this is the business of beauty, taken seriously at last.
Visionary is brought to you by Here East, London's home of innovation and creativity.
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