5 Women-Founded Beauty Brands

Happy International Women's Day!

To celebrate, we’ve compiled a list of five women-founded beauty brands that inspire us through their quality, innovation and style. 

Glossier (Emily Weiss)

I remember watching The Hills back in the day and being super intimidated by the super-intern Emily Weiss. We all knew she was destined for success, but I always thought it would be in the fashion world. After cutting her teeth at Vogue while writing her beauty blog Into The Gloss, Weiss compiled all of the beauty knowledge she had acquired to form the “people-powered beauty ecosystem” that is Glossier.

Glossier paved the way for other no makeup-makeup brands, with a ‘you, but better’ attitude that we all fell in love with. Their boy brow and cloud paints are staples in my personal collection and in my kit. With an iconic brand identity, shopping in one of their boutiques is an experience like nothing else. g

The only thing Glossier is missing is international shipping!

Pat McGrath Labs (Pat McGrath)

The Queen. The Mother. The only person who can get away with selling merch hoodies for $155AUD.

Pat McGrath is a trailblazer for women everywhere, especially for the up and coming freelance makeup artists struggling to make it their full time job. As she hit her stride in the 90s, collaborating with future Vogue editor Edward Enninful at i-D magazine, she still maintained her work as a receptionist in order to keep herself afloat.

That hard work paid off, with her beauty brand now the top selling beauty brand at Selfridges with the company being valued at $1 billion dollars. An artist with very little formal training, her love of fashion, texture and colour has been key to her success and to the identity of her beauty brand.  

10/10 recommend her eyeshadow palettes – a splurge well worth it!! Not so much her hoodies though.

Huda Beauty (Huda Kattan)

Huda Kattan proved that influencers deserve to be taken seriously in the beauty industry. Forbes has described her as one of the “ten most powerful influencers in the world of beauty,” and with 50 million Instagram followers I think they might be right!!

After studying makeup and collecting a number of high profile clients, Kattan began a beauty blog that would soon be the inspiration for her brand – Huda Beauty. Beginning with false lashes (that Kim Kardashian wore, no less), Huda Beauty has grown to include everything from perfume to foundation. 

Kattan campaigns for a number of social causes, including creating a petition for beauty brands to disclose whenever images have been retouched (aka all the damn time.)

Go-to (Zoe Foster Blake)

I was at a beauty trade show one weekend, with amazing presentations by brand owners and makeup artists all day long, but NONE got the crowd like Zoe Foster-Blake did. Her charisma, warmth and approachable honesty has made her a beauty icon with her Go-To Skincare line taking the world by storm. 

She made what we all want – “uncomplicated skincare that actually works.” Much like Glossier’s Weiss, Foster-Blake applied the knowledge she had learnt through her years as a beauty writer to make products that were accessible and fun. Though, in my opinion, her personality is just as important to the brand as her products are. She seems like she could be your best friend - relatable and self-deprecating which is a great marketing technique if you are as authentic as she is.  

Beauty Blender (Rea Ann Silva)

Much like Hoover and vacuum, the ‘beauty blender’ has become synonymous with a makeup sponge - a testament to the cultural impact that Rea Ann Silva’s Beauty Blender brand has had. Much like other makeup artists who can’t find the perfect product, Silva would “jerry-rig” available things to suit her needs. 

With the rise of HD film and TV, the need for flawless looking skin was on the rise. The classic option was to use an airbrush machine, but they are bulky and low-key annoying. Silva realised that misting her sponges with water and patting it on the skin worked just as well. After her high profile clients began nicking her custom sponges, she realised that maybe there was a market for it. The rest is history!

(Small disclaimer – we recommend Beauty Blenders for personal use only. It is difficult to completely sanitize a Beauty Blender so you do not want to reuse them on multiple people!)

Us!! (Victoria Ha and Van Park)

Are we allowed to add ourselves to the list?! Match My Makeup was co-founded by sisters, our CEO Victoria Ha and cosmetic physician Dr. Van Park. 

Combining their love for beauty with a real gap in the market, Victoria and Van developed a scientific method to match complexion products including foundations, powders and concealers. Ten years of research, innovation and trans-pacific flights (Victoria was based in Silicon Valley during the early days of the brand) have led to the Match My Makeup you know and love today. 

On the back of our recent shade finding quiz being launched, Victoria and Van have a whole bunch of AMAZING new developments coming out this year and we cannot wait to share them with you!!

Isaac Newton once said that “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants,” and we hope that reading about these trailblazing giants you’ve been inspired to continue to grow the beauty industry that we are all so lucky to be a part of.