Occasionally, we use affiliate links on our site. This in no way affects our editorial decision-making. Susan Yara has worn almost every hat in the beauty industry. After graduating from the University of New Mexico with a degree in journalism, she worked as a broadcast reporter and beauty editor (hey, girl!). From there, she successfully pivoted to content creation, building a loyal following through her educational YouTube channel Mixed Makeup. If you were deep into beauty YouTube between 2014 and 2019, you couldn't miss her. In 2019, Yara pivoted again — something the Seoul, Korea-born, New Mexico-raised entrepreneur is great at. She founded ingredient-focused skin-care brand Naturium alongside beauty incubator The Center. In 2023, Naturium sold to E.l.f. Beauty for a reported $355 million, making her one of the first-ever beauty creators to successfully build and sell a brand at that scale. This past May, Yara continued to build her portfolio by (re)launching fragrance-forw...
For years, the narrative around the beauty business has been one of accessibility: It has never been easier to start a brand. Social media lowered the barrier to entry, direct-to-consumer made distribution easier and a strong point of view or the right TikTok mention could turn a single product into a viral hit. But scaling a beauty brand is a different story. “It’s never been easier to launch a beauty brand, yet at the same time never been harder to grow one,” says Will Henderson, founder of the brand Skincare Generics. Converting attention into a scalable business, he adds, requires operational and financial infrastructure that many emerging brands simply do not have. Across skin care , fragrance and cosmetics, founders are navigating a new reality defined by rising costs, constrained supply chains, stricter retail expectations and a widening gap between independent brands and well-funded competitors. Growth is still possible, but it now requires far more than a strong product. I...