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Glow Journal
Jamie O'Banion | Founder and CEO of BeautyBio
Season 2
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In episode fifty two of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Watts talks to the founder and CEO of BeautyBio, Jamie O’Banion.
I sincerely believe BeautyBio to be one of the most exciting beauty brands in the world right now, and one I watched closely for years ahead of their highly anticipated launch into Australia this week.
Jamie is the daughter of a dermatologist, something she calls an “unfair advantage” and something that has shaped her entire beauty ethos. Jamie didn’t just receive an education in skin- she lived it. As she tells me in this conversation, one of her very earliest beauty memories was travelling with her father as he helped file the patent for microdermabrasion. An early curiosity about skin and science saw Jamie take a job alongside her father at his clinical skincare laboratory, with the pair working to develop and manufacture new ingredients and raw materials for some of the world’s largest skincare brands. Jamie watched brand after brand purchase bulk ingredients, use them in tiny, tiny quantities in their products, so small they barely had an effect on the skin, but still claim that the ingredient was in their product in an effective capacity. Having grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of transparency in the beauty industry, she decided to launch her own brand- and so, Beauty Bioscience was born.
One of the things that I find so exciting about BeautyBio is that transparency. Jamie is so passionate about empowerment through education and the democratisation of information, which is something that really came across in this conversation and something that is evident in everything the brand does. Her strategy is certainly working- in 2016, the same year BeautyBio launched their now cult GloPro microneedling and LED tool, the brand hit $30 million in sales- in a triple digit growth from the year prior.
This episode was, of course, recorded remotely with myself in Melbourne and Jamie in Dallas which does of course mean something of a disparity in audio quality, so if you would prefer to read the interview OR even follow along like a podcast with subtitles, you can do so by accessing the complete transcript on glowjournal.com.
In this conversation, Jamie and I discuss how the idea of “seeing is believing” gives consumers a higher intent to commit to your product, what it means to be a truly omnichannel business, and how a vase full of M&Ms may well be responsible for BeautyBio’s now cult status.
You can read this interview now at: glowjournal.com/interview-beautybio-founder-jamie-obanion
Follow Beauty on Instagram at @beautybio
Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemkwatts and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com
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