Beautyblender Founder, Rea Ann Silva, Bootstrapped Her Way to Selling 50 Million+ Units

0:01Hey, welcome back to Female Founder World. It's Jasmine. I am the host of the show. And today I'm chatting with Rianne Silva, the founder of Beauty Blender. And everything that Rianne knows about business, she has taught herself. And you know what? She knows a lot. She has sold more than 50 million units of her invention, the Beauty Blender. And she doesn't have an MBA, but she does have 100 % ownership of her business. And it is a pretty big business, guys. I couldn't get revenue numbers, but we do know that one is sold every 17 minutes. Plus she has a bunch of other products that she's created.

0:38And Beauty Blender is stocked in Sephora, Ulta, Nordstrom, Net-A-Pot-A, Revolve, Blue Mercury, and dozens of other retailers. Plus they have more than 3 million Instagram followers. And if you just Google Beauty Blender, you'll see that they've been featured multiple times in pretty much every major beauty publication. She has built something truly mind-blowing. And she started the business back in 2003 when she was working as a celebrity makeup artist. She had the idea for the business. We're going to get into that a little bit in the episode. But I just wanted to point out that she also built this company while raising her daughter and she's a single mom.

1:13And I just think that that adds another layer of just, wow, what a woman to this story. I hope you guys love it. She shares some really great advice for entrepreneurs who are both starting out and just need like some guidance and also for people who are a little bit further along and are trying to figure out how to scale and how to just level up as a leader and a founder. I love chatting with her. Let's get into the show. You are now entering Female Founder World with your host, Jasmine Garnsworthy. Rianne, welcome to Female Founder World. It's so great to have you on the show. Well, thank you for having me.

1:50Let's give people a bit of an overview. Let's say that they haven't heard of Beauty Blender. I don't know how they could have missed it, but let's say that somebody listening to the show doesn't know what you're building. Give us the cliff notes about what you're creating over there. Well, first of all, I sure hope there are still some people that don't know Beauty Blender because I still need my market out there. So I am a professional makeup artist with over 26, seven years of makeup history in film and television and celebrity and started out a music video. I created Beauty Blender on a set.

2:21It was a challenge that I had. So Beauty Blender was a solution or a problem solver for me on that set. The show was called Girlfriends and it was the first show being broadcast and shot in high definition. So Beauty Blender is like the first high def tool. It was pretty much an experiment. Makeups look different and that's how I created Beauty Blender. I had a challenge and I created the solution to my challenge which was to make skins look beautiful and perfect in high definition. Because your story kind of starts with you as a celebrity makeup artist. I think it is important to give some context about how you got to this point in your life that you were doing this work.

3:02Can you kind of like talk us through about how you became a celeb makeup artist and what you were doing when this idea came to you? Wow. Okay. So born and raised in Southern California, which, you know, is the first benefit because it's the center of, you know, entertainment. So I went to school for fashion design, actually, at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. But I learned very quickly that really making garments wasn't as much fun to me as illustration and drawing. So I took those talents and those concepts of color and texture, and I just got a part-time job at a cosmetic counter selling makeup.

3:46And I really fell in love with makeup artistry. And I thought, wow, this is not just a way to support myself, but I actually really enjoy it. And I love fashion. So it was kind of a hybrid of bringing those two together. And shortly, because again, going back to living in California, the mecca of entertainment, my roommate happened to be a makeup artist and she was working in production at the time. And I thought, wow, I'm working in a department store, which is great, but she's working in production on sets. I'm really interested in that. So that was pretty much my introduction to the various ways that you can work as a makeup artist and, um, through just contacts and, uh, creating a lot of content at what we would call content at the time, because this was way before social media, but you had to have a book.

4:38So I had to do a lot of test shoots and create a portfolio for myself. But eventually, you know, I was able to meet somebody that wanted to take a chance on me and I ended up working and one job led to another. And then 27 years later, I was, you know, sitting in a makeup trailer on the back lot of Paramount cutting sponges, making beauty blender. I mean, that is in a nutshell. I know your story in detail. You know, we've gone back through and done a lot of research for the show, but we want to focus on, you know, growing the business. But I do really urge people to go back and listen to stories that have your, that where you go into a lot of detail about how you got to this point, because it's a really interesting story and I think it's super, super inspiring.

5:20So folks go and do, go and do a little bit of research. There's another interview with Guy Raz on how I built this, where you go into that early story that I think people should definitely listen to if they're interested. I want to talk about the actual sponge though, because you, you created this like iconic egg shaped makeup sponge. Why? Like, why was that the shape? What were you doing that made you think that that needed to be created? So there was a couple of things. So the first thing is traditionally makeup artists that are trained to do makeup for film and television take, you know, what would we would call the wedge triangular sponge and cut the edges off of that sponge, kind of bevel it so that edge is softer.

6:01And the reason you do that is so the makeup that you're applying to someone else doesn't show lines of demarcation because it's not a straight line. And where that's really important is when you zoom in and when you're shooting, you do tight close-ups. You can see everything. So take it a step further. when we went from shooting film into shooting high definition videotape, you know, you could see everything. You could see every pore, every texture change, every bit of makeup on someone's skin. So I needed, like I said, I was trying, that was my challenge was to have makeup look natural like you weren't wearing it and at the same time be able to do corrective makeup and do the makeup applications for the character or whatever you were doing.

6:49So basically it was two things. It was the cutting the sponges to make the softer edge, but it was also the material. The material that I ended up using for Beauty Blender was a much softer, it's a very proprietary material that we have and very exclusive to Beauty Blender, but those two things together is really what creates Beauty Blender and why it is the egg shape. So if you look at the triangular sponge and you can imagine cutting the edges off of that triangle, you kind of get a little teardrop shape. I love the idea and just like visualizing you kind of, we can see this big company that you've kind of built now and looking back at you kind of in the makeup trailer with the scissors, cutting the sponge and figuring out what your first prototype looks like.

7:42when you were building this how did you take it from okay this is something that I can create in my trailer I can use it myself maybe I can give it to a couple of makeup artist friends what made you think this could be a business rather than just something that was for the industry

8:00so honestly Jasmine at first I wasn't thinking that way at all I was really as an artist again trying to find a solution to a challenge I had on set. And by the way, yes, I would use cuticle scissors sitting on the side of the set during takes and cutting the triangular sponges because they, you couldn't, you couldn't use them twice. You know what I mean? It wasn't very hygienic. So, but I'll tell you, I really created Beauty Blender for other professionals like myself that I knew were going to have the same challenges because we knew high def was the future and that was going to be, you know, the way that a lot of productions, if not all productions, were moving forward.

8:41It was much easier media to produce. It was a lot cheaper. So we just, I saw the writing on the wall. I knew that this was the future. So I was a single parent at the time. My whole thought was like, wow, okay, if I could create some passive income for myself, that was really not a very smart thought because there's nothing passive about this. But I thought, I'm not sitting on a set. So if I could be making money while I'm not sitting on a set and be at the same time helping my peers that I knew were going to have this challenge, it seemed like a win-win. So that was my first thought. But then I quickly realized that as I started to share my little sponges out with some of my unskeptical makeup artist friends, they were like, wow, this really is a game changer.

9:37It really does work. Let me tell you how I use it. And so I would just get all this information coming back to me from certain friends that were helping me. And I realized, you know, what would be really great would be that if I could make them in bulk, So in my hiatus, I was going to figure out how to, you know, make more than one at a time, which was very time consuming. And then I started thinking because they were time consuming. And I also started recognizing how much waste there was in this disposable kind of idea that you would use a sponge one time and throw it away. You know, these materials that we make sponges don't really disappear in our environment.

10:20So I thought, how come we don't wash sponges like we wash our brushes? You know, somehow we think it's OK to wash our brush, but we've been told that we can't wash our sponge. So it created a whole other business for me. That's when I started thinking about it like a business. I was like, wow, this could be a reusable product. This could be great for not only makeup artists, but everyday people, because the feedback I'm getting is that it makes makeup so easy. So it was just, you know, honestly, it was a very organic process. But I just was very aware because I had the desire, Jasmine, to find a way to supplement my income.

10:57I was a very, very busy makeup artist. I had kind of reached a ceiling with what I could make. I had an agent on the East Coast, an agent on the West Coast, and I was a part of Local 706. I was working. I mean, I was doing everything. And I still felt like as a parent, I wanted to be able to provide certain things to my child that, you know, hopefully would be able to happen without me sitting on a set. So, and I love to be, I miss sitting on sets today. I love being a makeup artist, but you know, there was a time I just automatically realized like this is something maybe that other people would like, and I need to figure out how to produce it, manufacture it, monetize it and spread it out into the world.

11:41When you were building this in the early days, it was very much pre-social media. I think a lot of the founders that we talk to now, they're building brands and their their go-to strategy is influencer gifting and probably TikTok. That's what they're doing, maybe a bit of press. What were you doing to get traction in the early days when that wasn't really available to you? Right. So the big game changers for makeup artists that were creating makeup lines at the time was advertising or coverage in magazines, right? So, you know, if, you know, a celebrity, and this happened very many times for me too, if a celebrity is, you know, promoting a movie, they get a lot of attention from beauty editors and say, for example, the beauty editor wants to say, what's in your bag, right?

12:33So I knew that if I could get my beauty blender into the personal bags of my clients, number one, because I had top tier clients, that people, people would see it. And because it was so unusual, there was nothing that looked like this. You know, there was nothing on the market and it was bright pink. I knew it would grab the attention of the editor and say like, what's that? You know, and so it would be, it would have some visibility. So that was one, that was one way. The other way was through my peers. The other makeup artists that really believed and understood that it's not just a cute little egg-shaped sponge, but it's a very, very, you know, kind of uncomplicated, but complicated tool.

13:13Because, you know when you think about high definition you think about texture you think about lines of demarcation you think about shooting makeup artists understood the benefits of this product so it was you know beauty editors it was my clientele it was the support of other makeup artists and also the pro stores so as a makeup artist when you are working on a show a film or a television and you're the department head you are in charge of purchasing all the products for your show, you create what we call POs, production orders, with stores that are professional retail stores, like a friend's, Namy's, or Nigel's, that sell to other makeup artists that work on set because they'll go out and shop and get a variety of things for you.

14:00So you're not going from store to store to store to store to buy things. So they all knew me very well. So when I told them I had a product, they were so supportive. They, they were my first stores. They were the first stores. So they would put beauty blender in their stores. Other makeup artists would see them and go, Oh, that's that thing. You know? So it was, it was like a marketing attack from like four different directions, but all very focused, very much pre social media because they're just, there wasn't any social media that. I think that really, I think that really speaks to like a couple of things.

14:33One is you're, you're definitely still leveraging the power of like the influencer and the expert in like whatever space that you're in. And the other one is also the power of just building a network. Even if you don't know if you're any way entrepreneurial minded, even if you're not building a business right now, having that strong network and that community around you of having people that will have your back when you do launch something is just so powerful. Yeah, no community is everything. And, you know, being a person of character is also, I believe, I mean, I hope, I hope people feel that way about me, you know, you never know, but I, I try to live my life in that way where I do what I say I'm going to do.

15:12I don't, I don't BS, you know what I mean? I think that, I think it's super important to have your community support you in any way, even, you know, pre-social media, super important. Now during social media, even more important, you know, like I would say even more important because news travel, super fast. Yeah, no, absolutely. What were some of those moments along, you know, as you've been building the business that you think really brought Beauty Blender into the mainstream?

15:46I mean, you know, Jasmine, I have been so fortunate. There's so many, I have to think, you know really honestly there was the pro phase of my journey which is super important because when you see a product in the hands of a makeup artist not so I mean it's a little different now because people are paid to use products but before that wasn't happening so when you saw makeup artists use something you knew it worked they weren't doing it you know for any other reason, unless they were under contract with a brand or something. But, you know, normally, if you were looking backstage at Fashion Week, or if you were, you know, able to talk to a makeup artist that just won an Oscar, like they're not, they're not selling products, they're talking about the things that work for them.

16:36So, you know, that was that was a very important first phase for me. But I would say the next most impactful relationship was my relationship with Sephora. I mean, Sephora is the, you know, the mecca of all things, personal care, beauty, you know, they do it all. So those two things were really, really important. I would also say certain publications like Allure, Best of Beauty. Beauty Blender is a 14-time winner of Best of Beauty and Allure magazine. And like, you know, Sephora is like the Bible of retailers for beauty. Allura magazine was the, and still is to this day, the, you know, the, the Bible for beauty, you know, if, if you got their stamp of approval, then, you know, that's, that's a huge introduction to masses of people.

17:29Yeah. It definitely means something if you can get, if you can get into one of those best of beauty roundups, because the, I do think that the beauty editors at Allura, like one of the Allura and Birdie, I think if you're building a beauty business, they're kind of like two publications now that are really standing out as being like vetted by experts and and being able to get coverage in those publications seems to like really move the needle for people yeah so those are those are really important um outlets now but you know when i was starting beauty blender it was allure in style vogue um you know there were there were like that that like fashion and beauty are like sisters right so yeah it kind of crossed over So how does that translate with the platforms now?

18:12Yeah. So that's what I want to ask you about. Like, how does that translate now when you think about who the influential people are to have using your product and you're adding new SKUs all the time? It's not just the beauty blender. You know, you've got a full cosmetics company now with multiple SKUs across the brand. how do you think about launching a new product or getting traction for a new product in the current landscape? Because things are quite different to when you first launched the company and even quite different to three or four years ago. Like the digital landscape has just completely shifted.

18:45Yeah, no, for sure. I'll tell you, you know, it's one thing to have a hero product, a successful product, because it kind of almost, if you listen to your product, if you listen to your consumers, you will know what your brand extensions should be. And, you know, it's different for every product and every brand. But, you know, because social media is so transformative, meaning, you know, people react very quickly now to whatever you do, you can, if you listen, you know kind of the direction to go for a brand extension. My biggest challenge wasn't a brand extension, like what is the next tool? What is the next color?

19:26What is the next use for a product like Beauty Blender? For me as a makeup artist, my biggest challenge was not the next brand extension, but moving into the next category. So Beauty Blender created a category of tools that didn't exist before, but I wanted to enter the complexion category where, you know, there's heritage brands that sell and create beautiful foundations like Estee Lauder or L 'Oreal, like, you know, you can name all of the big brands. So for me, it was switching the category, which was the biggest challenge because people, you know, a certain amount of people, I hope there's not all the people in the world don't know Beauty Blender yet.

20:05I still hope I have, you know, consumers out there, but for everybody that knew Beauty Blender, you know, trying to convince them that, you know, Beauty Blender is the perfect complexion application tool. And now I'm going to create the perfect complexion formulation to use with that tool. That message and that connection is, is, you know, where we live now. This is like, this is the communication that we have going on all the time now, because as simple or as organic as you think that connection might be, there are different categories and people think differently about the two different categories.

20:43Okay. I want to know how do you actually do that? Because, you know, we look at multiple brands who have done a similar thing. The team at the, I think it's called Mighty Patch, they just, the company was just acquired for something like$600 million or something wild. And they started with just a pimple patch and then they moved out into a full acne care line, which was, you know, a similar kind of customer, but like quite different. And I'm wondering how brands like you and like them actually make that transition of moving out of that hero product into a totally different category. so every brand does it differently jasmine and i will say when you're a small brand and you enter a transaction and you sell your company to an investor that infuses your business with a lot of cash and generally a lot a lot of companies the way they do it is through paid media they just attack social media you know they're just throwing money at social media so that you're you're seeing all these sponsored, you know, posts about them.

21:45And so it becomes an awareness game. I still own Beauty Blender 100%. So I, I don't have that luxury. I don't have a financial partner to just throw money at me and then me to throw money at social media. So we have to be very strategic. And what I realized, it's so interesting. What I realized when I created Beauty Blender, you know, pre-social media, I could literally, you know, I thought I was the biggest asset, being a makeup artist and this tool being developed on set with a pro makeup artist. I thought that was like my superpower, right? I thought that's going to make everybody just really understand that this tool is proven.

22:30But what I realized very early in my journey with Beauty Blender is that being a professional makeup artist pre-social media, when we weren't used to tutorials and we weren't used to everybody being a makeup artist, when I told people I was a makeup artist and I worked in Hollywood and I worked on film and television and I developed this tool on set and I started to go into my whole thing about it, I would see like spirals in their eyes. It was too much. So that's probably part of the reason why I didn't name the sponge Rianne Silva. I named it Beauty Blender, you know, so that it would take on a life of its own and it would take me out of the equation as a makeup artist.

23:10So when I would put Beauty Blender into the hands of salespeople, they did a much better job at selling the tool, but not talking about how it was created through being a makeup artist. So I fast forward that now to entering the category of complexion and, you know, beautiful complexion products that I'm making now, I realized that now I have to talk about my makeup career. I have to actually talk about who I am and what my background and my expertise is. And it's a different time in our world. And we have, because of the beauty of social media, everybody has normalized makeup artistry and it's not intimidating to people anymore.

23:52So now I can say, yeah, I was the makeup artist, you know, My first film was Friday, then set it off, and I worked with all these people. Then people are really interested. They're not intimidated anymore. Before, it was like, oh, that's a professional tool. I don't need a professional tool. I just need to put this makeup on my face. There's a different kind of education that we as a culture now have that it was too much before, and now we can talk about it. I think those are the big differences, and I think that's how companies do it. Yeah, that definitely makes sense. I need to talk about the fact that you still own 100 % of the company.

24:30So this has been completely bootstrapped the whole way through. Oh, yeah. Wow. I completely missed that. That's incredible. I feel like - I don't know if I'm smart or if I'm dumb. I really don't know if I'm smart or stupid. Really. Seriously, I don't know. There is no way that you're stupid if you've been able to build this by bootstrapping. That's incredible. I think a lot of the founders in our community have this issue where they have been trying to get funding and they can't, and they would like to not be bootstrapped, but that is the only way that they're going to be able to grow the business, at least for a point in time.

25:05What lessons have you learned as you've been bootstrapping this company? Because wow, that is an incredible achievement. Yeah. I mean, so many lessons. Like you can only imagine, right? I mean, I am at my core a makeup artist. I'm not, you know, a finance whiz. I'm not a business background person. So there's been so many lessons. I would say one of the biggest lessons for me really, and I'm sorry, I'm just really trying to give you the most honest answer. I'm thinking about it, is learning about the finances of the business. and how important planning and forecasting are to being able to manage your money and spend it in the right ways so that the money goes to growing the business.

25:56So many times, and I can tell you in the past, I've had great ideas, wild things I want to do, and Beauty Blender fortunately was very successful, so I had the money to throw at these ideas, and I realized over time that not every great idea is a productive idea, and not every, you know, marketing, everything you throw marketing at is going to actually, you know, give you a return on your investment. So I think just, you know, I've been very lucky to find really smart people to work with me. And it's kind of, it's kind of been like an MBA in business for me while like an earn and learn at the same time, like I've been able to really learned a lot through some of the smart people that I have working for me.

26:45But some of the biggest lessons have definitely been financial, have also been about your vision and your passion isn't always what the consumer is feeling. And you have to be okay with that. You know, a lot of artists, we are, you know, Erykah Badu has a saying in one of her songs is like, I'm an artist and I'm sensitive about my shit. You know, I mean, it's like, it's so true. Like, Like I had really passion for certain ideas and my team would just be like, oh, Rianne, I don't know about that. I don't know if it's going to work. You know, so you have to be open-minded. You have to, you know, really listen to the people that you have hired that you believe know more than you.

27:25That's been a big lesson for me. How do you determine between what's a good idea and what's something that, you know, isn't going to work commercially? Because, again, a lot of founders in the community are building for themselves. They are the, you know, they feel like they are the customer, whether or not they are, as the business grows is a different story. And they're coming to this from just like pure passion and love and interest in the space. And maybe they don't, most of them don't have MBAs. They didn't go to business school. This is their first time running a business. So how do you make those, like, how do you juggle that?