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Working Hard with Grace Beverley
Ep.33 How Viral REFY Beauty Broke All The Rules with Co-Founder Jenna Meek
Ep. 33
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Jenna Meek is a Manchester-based entrepreneur and CEO, whose passion for all things beauty led her to creating two powerhouse beauty brands. Her latest venture is as co-founder and CEO at REFY, Instagram’s hottest and most disruptive beauty brand, famous for its three-step brow collection which became an overnight social media sensation.
Jenna launched her first business SHRINE, formerly Gypsy-Shrine, from her bedroom in Manchester. A brand born out of the festival culture in 2016, Jenna set up a cosmetic glitter and gem business initially bought and sold in festival tents around the country. However, within 2 years SHRINE saw worldwide success, hosting residencies at festivals including Under the Stars and Coachella, and being stocked at global brand Topshop. After creating an entire line of festival gems and starting the ‘glitter boob’ movement, Jenna relaunched SHRINE to sell creative hair products and dyes. Most notably, Jenna created the world's first line of reusable, semi-permanent hair drops that mix when mixed with ordinary conditioner would produce a colour customised to you.
In November 2020 Jenna launched her second beauty brand REFY with model and influencer Jess Hunt. Launching with innovation at its core, REFY’s first product - the Brow Sculpt - was revolutionary, selling out within 6 weeks and becoming a firm fan favourite. After expanding its product range to include lip-liners, blush and primers, REFY is now stocked in Selfridges & Sephora across the UK, US & Canada and has online customers worldwide. The brand has also captured the attention of celebrities including Bella Hadid and Shay Mitchell and makeup artists Patrick Ta and Hugo Vango. They've since sold more than 2.5 million products, with more than 8 million visitors to their website and a 50 million GBP valuation.
Today, Jenna shares her story of how she engineered one of Instagram’s favourite beauty brands and made REFY defy the odds of entrepreneurial success.
- brief overview of Jenna’s career
- the beginning of SHRINE
- why did Jenna want to be an Entrepreneur?
- how was the idea formed in SHRINE?
- the effect of the pandemic
- how did Jenna keep up with the demand the pandemic generated
- Jenna’s decision to take on the hair industry
- how the REFY partnership first started with Jess Hunt
- why Jenna decided to start REFY
- the timeline of REFY
- what Jenna’s expansion plan looked like
- how did the 1st launch go?
- would Jenna have done anything differently?
- how Jenna hired well
- biggest hiring mistakes Jenna has made
- Jenna’s experience as a working Mother
- what is next for REFY and SHRINE?
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