Tower 28 founder Amy Liu on the rush to clean makeup – Glossy

Amy Liu, founder and CEO of Tower 28, had desires of being a magnificence founder, largely as a result of she watched her father dwell out his personal entrepreneurial desires. But as a substitute, she selected to work for a few of the largest founder-led manufacturers earlier than beginning her personal clean makeup firm in 2019.
“I sought out founder-based manufacturers right here in Los Angeles, and status ones, colour, skincare. I labored at Kate Somerville, Smashbox Cosmetics, Josie Maran. And actually, with all the corporations — I went to went from greater firm to smaller firm — my function stored getting greater. The hope there was that I simply needed to see what it was like to have a seat at the desk,” she mentioned on the most up-to-date episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast.

Because of Liu’s personal persistent eczema, Tower 28 was created to transcend the proposition of clean. “I attempted to make the swap to clean magnificence, however quite a lot of clean magnificence felt prefer it was truly fairly arduous on my delicate pores and skin as a result of there are important oils and plant botanicals in it.” Moreover, there have been few clean colour cosmetics choices when Liu was conceiving of her model.
Layering a youthful and accessible positioning has been a boon for the new model — merchandise are all beneath $28. It’s ranked No. 7 at Sephora, and it’s penetrating 1% of Sephora gross sales worldwide. “One p.c of all Sephora clients are shopping for Tower 28, which is definitely a feat that quite a lot of huge manufacturers by no means get to; that’s partly due to the indisputable fact that our value level is low, so then lots of people can have the skill to strive our merchandise.”
Below are extra highlights from the dialog, which have been evenly edited for readability.
A founder-led training“I’m fairly risk-averse as an individual. I made a decision that the proper factor for me to do was to actually be taught on another person’s dime. And that’s precisely what I did. I sought out founder-based manufacturers right here in Los Angeles, and status ones, colour, skincare. I labored at Kate Somerville, Smashbox Cosmetics, Josie Maran, and actually, with all the corporations — I went to went from greater firm to smaller firm — my function stored getting greater. The hope there was that I simply needed to see what it was like to have a seat at the desk and actually see what it was like to be a founder. I believe it’s so essential to do this as a result of, the nearer you will get to one thing, the extra it demystifies it. And the leap felt somewhat bit simpler as a result of I noticed it up shut and private.”
Moving past clean“I attempted to make the swap to clean magnificence, however quite a lot of clean magnificence felt prefer it was truly fairly arduous on my delicate pores and skin, as a result of there are important oils and plant botanicals in it. In the finish, what I used to be actually searching for had been merchandise that had been each clean and secure for delicate pores and skin. But neither of [those] was good for me as a result of clean wasn’t essentially secure for delicate pores and skin. When I checked out merchandise that had been secure for delicate pores and skin, quite a lot of these weren’t clean and/or had been fairly medicinal, like [with] a dermatologist method. And I needed one thing that was extra enjoyable and funky.”
The wager of early buyers and retailers“I’ve not taken any institutional funding. I’ve raised solely friends-and-family; I’ve carried out it twice. I believe it’s been so motivational for me to elevate cash from people who find themselves not solely my buddies, however [also] individuals I trip with and go to dinner with in a non-Covid world. In addition to that, I believe I might elevate cash if I felt prefer it was the proper factor to do for the enterprise. I’m actually grateful that, with the assist of our retailers like Sephora, Credo and Revolve, we’ve been in a position to get into this level of escape velocity. We have sufficient money stream that we’re in a position to gas our personal progress, whether or not that’s shopping for extra stock, or maintaining with issues like creating content material, paying individuals, all of these issues.”
(*28*) her founder platform“From a private standpoint, I’m pretty extroverted. At the identical time, publicly, I’m actually non-public. So I’ve by no means been someone who has — actually not on Instagram — any kind of social media… All of that’s fairly international to me. I believe the factor that has actually introduced it out for me and has made it essential to me has been all the racial injustice that we’ve seen in the final yr. I believe the first time I actually began being extra public was final yr when Black Lives Matter occurred, and we responded by beginning Clean Beauty Summer School… That was actually a program round mentorship, entry and training focused at Black-owned magnificence founders. Stop Asian Hate has been one other second that has been very private to me, in apparent methods. One factor that has made me extra founder-forward is that…it’s essential to me, and it’s a part of my worth system and my groups’. It makes me comfortable that there’s something that I can do, as somebody who now does have a platform. I believe it’s the proper factor to do. For occasion, with Stop Asian Hate, very early on, we mentioned that we had been going to donate 100% of gross sales from our web site for in the future. I used to be actually shocked that we ended up donating virtually $25,000 in in the future, which for a small model like ours, is rather a lot.”