Glow Journal

In episode 150 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Dimond talks once again to the founder and CEO of Conserving Beauty, Natassia Nicolao. I mentioned earlier this season that, given we’re now 7 seasons in, I wanted to go back and revisit some of my favourite beauty brand stories- I wanted to bring back previous guests from earlier seasons and look at how their brands and the beauty industry at large has evolved since we last recorded. For the uninitiated, Conserving Beauty is Australia’s first ever waterless beauty brand, the first beauty brand globally to be part of the Water Footprint network, the first Australian beauty brand to be backed by both government and impact investment funds, and the brand behind the world’s first dissolving facial wipes. Natassia launched the brand when she was just 27 years old. Since we last spoke the brand has launched into Mecca and Priceline locally as well as expanding into the UK and US markets, the latter of which is now responsible for a whopping 70% of the brand’s revenue. What I found the most interesting, however, is that the data that Natassia and her team have gathered over the last 3 and a half years has shown them that their customer is actually not who they initially thought it was, and how they’ve changed tack to make sure they’re formulating for and marketing to the right consumers. In this conversation, Natassia shares exactly how they’ve pivoted for an audience they didn’t realise was theirs’, how she’s approaching Conserving Beauty’s US launch differently from their UK launch, and why the pharmacy customer has proven surprisingly lucrative. Read more at glowjournal.comFollow Conserving Beauty on Instagram @conservingbeautyStay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

If you've been on the Insta for some time, this is essentially a 40 minute #notsponsoredjustgood. Another solo episode this week, wrapping up the year (almost- still a few guest episodes left in Season 7) with my favourite new beauty launches of 2025.We'll add the full list in these shownotes eventually but, for now, enjoy. Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

I almost ran out of P words and alliteration is important here. I promised you more solo episodes last year, and in absolutely no way have I delivered. Here's one!A little life update, then answering your questions on work, my studies, how I got into MCing, and whether or not I think PR sendouts actually move product... then into some beauty chat about prescription actives and wedding perfumes. As always, thank you to everyone who submitted questions! Stay up to date on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

In episode 149 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Dimond talks to the Naturium, Susan Yara.Two years before Hailey Bieber sold Rhode to e.l.f. Beauty, Susan Yara and her team sold Naturium to the beauty juggernaut for $355 million USD. The Naturium growth story is the kind of story you hear and think “This could be a Netflix doco.” Susan, naturally, tells it better than I do, but this may be one of the biggest beauty comebacks in recent history. Susan Yara, then a popular YouTuber, joined Naturium in a founder and CEO role in the year 2020. There was a controversy, the internet called for her to be cancelled, but against the odds the brand achieved a whopping 80% compound annual growth rate and were acquired by e.l.f. for that eye watering $355 million in 2023- just three years post-launch. This week, Naturium launches into Sephora Australia (into physical stores TODAY), with Susan still very much fronting the brand and, as she tells me, “getting to do all the fun stuff.” So. How did she do it?In this conversation, Susan shares a timeline of that 2020 controversy, whether “clean” means anything in 2025, and why your customer’s return rate is the most important stat to be looking at . Read more at glowjournal.comFollow Naturium on Instagram @naturiumStay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

In episode 148 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Dimond talks to the founder of Haléau Beauty, Eleanor Pendleton.Eleanor Pendleton knows beauty. She was the youngest Beauty Editor in Australia, taking the title at FAMOUS magazine when she was only 20 years old and has spent the better part of the last two decades in beauty publishing, largely at the helm of her own publication, Gritty Pretty. Eleanor is an unbelievable example of a journalist who has been able to not just adapt to but embrace the changing face of the media landscape of whatever we’re calling it, and to this day I really think nobody navigated that change better than Eleanor and her Gritty Pretty team- it was the gloss and the production value of a magazine, but it was digital and, most importantly, it was honest. That in mind, there are very few people I’d trust more than Eleanor to create their own beauty line. Haléau Beauty, a skin-first, Australian made cosmetics line, launches today, October 1st, and Eleanor so kindly gave me the exclusive. This is a brand that harnesses, quite literally, two decades worth of insider beauty knowledge and places it in our hands. In this conversation, Eleanor shares how she convinced advertisers to buy into Gritty Pretty when she had no product to show them, her advice for anyone wanting to break into the beauty media landscape in 2025, and why she’s chosen to document the entire Haléau launch process via Substack. Read more at glowjournal.comFollow Haléau on Instagram @haleaubeautyStay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

Former Mecca execs Georgie Gilbert and Camille Peressini had access to just about every luxury body care brand on the market. They’re also both mums- realistically, are you buying and using a high end body wash in the shower with your husband and kids? No, you’re doing a supermarket run and picking up something there. Both Georgie and Camille knew, however, that the supermarket body care offering was uninspiring. The products didn’t look or feel luxe, the scents were generic, and it felt like the accessible options weren’t formulated or designed with beauty consumers in mind. Enter, SOMA. If the gap itself wasn’t compelling enough, consider that Georgie and Camille were given a 10 week launch timeline from Woolworths. That’s 10 weeks to strategise, formulate, package and market an entirely new brand, all while keeping that accessible price point in mind, and have it on the shelves of over 1000 Woolies stores nationwide in less than three months. In this conversation, Georgie and Camille share how they’re going about converting habitual supermarket shoppers who’ve been buying the same body wash for decades, the intricacies of creating body care packaging that’s fully and easily recyclable, and what happens when your product accidentally goes viral on TikTok before you’ve officially launched. Read more at glowjournal.comFollow Bronte Body Care on Instagram @brontebodycareFollow SOMA on Instagram @somapersonalcareStay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

In episode 146 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Dimond talks to the founder of sans [ceuticals], Lucy Vincent. We’re increasingly seeing brands bring new sustainability initiatives to the table, but the reality is that the most sustainable thing you can do is to stop producing more things. Now that’s never going to happen, is it, so the challenge here is for beauty brands to figure out how we as consumers can still experience beauty in the way we want, without compromise, but with as minimal a footprint as is possible. I use the word “challenge” but that doesn’t feel like it has anywhere near enough gravitas when talking about what Lucy Vincent has achieved at sans [ceuticals]. She founded the brand in around 2007 and has always been very much ahead of the curve, across formulation, design, and sustainability, but this week has seen the launch of Perpetual- a completely waterless haircare range, housed in canisters that are designed to be held onto forever that have been crafted from waste to take existing plastic out of circulation, with refill cartons made from discarded sugarcane leaves that can be returned to the earth via compost when you’re done. In seven years of this podcast, I’m not sure that I’ve ever spoken to someone who has considered every single step of the supply chain so thoroughly. In this conversation, Lucy shares the importance of knowing how to do a number of roles within your business, why every day presents an opportunity for learning, and why your “recyclable” beauty products may not be all they appear to be. Read more at glowjournal.comFollow sans [ceuticals] on Instagram @sansceuticalsStay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com

In episode 144 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Dimond talks to the founder of Imbibe, Felicity Evans. Felicity’s founder story is really different to my usual guests in that she never really set out to create a “brand.” I thought this was a wonderful opportunity to show you how many different shapes the startup journey, so to speak, can take.The short version- Felicity wanted to overhaul her health, so she started making probiotic drinks in her kitchen. Her friends and family saw a change in her skin, her hair, her energy, and her health, so she started making up batches for them. Word spread, local retailers started asking if they could stock her products, and over a decade on Imbibe is a fully fledged beauty and wellness brand with SKUs spanning ingestible and topical skincare.There’s a lot you can take from this, but what I find the most interesting is the finding-the-right-manufacturer piece- if you set out specifically with the goal of becoming a “brand founder,” hearing the word “no” time and time again (a startup inevitability) would be really disheartening. In Felicity’s case, she didn’t necessarily want to start a brand, so hearing a “no” was kind of a straightforward “okay, well you’re not the right manufacturer.” Business wasn’t her primary motivator- her primary motivator was just getting a shelf stable version of her product to the people who wanted it.In this conversation, Felicity shares why the hotel space has become one of her most interesting and fruitful distribution channels, the many ways inflammation can show up in the body, and why she’s always used her customers as her biggest influencers. Read more at glowjournal.comFollow Imbibe on Instagram @imbibelivingStay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com