Ever wondered who’s behind the viral sticky primer you’ve seen on your FYP, or been at the dermatologist and found a skincare product you loved? Might’ve been from Milk Makeup or Obagi, the two brands under the Waldencast beauty umbrella (for now!).
In Ep. 148 of Earned, Conor Begley sits down with Michel Brousset—founder and CEO of Waldencast, a company whose mission is to acquire, accelerate, and scale beloved beauty and wellness brands including Milk Makeup and Obagi. To start, Michel recounts his successful corporate career, from his early days at Procter & Gamble to transitioning to L'Oréal, and shares how this journey inspired him to found his own company, Waldencast, with the hopes of making a meaningful impact in the beauty industry. We discuss the challenges of leaving a stable corporate role to build Michel’s own legacy, as well as the strategic approach he took when Waldencast acquired Obagi and Milk Makeup. Michel emphasizes his commitment to fostering a company culture that champions inclusivity, sustainability, and transparency, before diving into his long-term vision for the company, and why he values steady, sustainable growth over short-term spikes and market fluctuations. To close the show, Michel shares some great personal travel and skincare tips (which you’re going to want to write down).
We’ve included a couple of highlights from the episode below, but be sure to check out the full video above, or tune into the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen!
The following interview has been lightly edited for concision.
Conor Begley: You talked about EMV. You know both Milk Makeup and Obagi are on fire there. They're both growing over a hundred percent year-over-year. It seems like that's been a very intentional investment over the last couple of years in particular. What made you decide to lean in there so heavily? What have you seen in terms of the impacts to the business overall, from working with all these influencers and investing in social media?
Michel Brousset: For us, the influencers are a community. So to me it's no different than talking to our community. Let's take Milk Makeup as an example. That's where we derive inspiration, that's where we derive input, that's where we derive where we come from, and that's the community we serve. So if you start with a premise of “I have a brand and products that exist to serve a community,” whether it's our consumers of Milk Makeup or whether it's dermatologists for Obagi, then it becomes a very natural way of engaging with them, investing with them, and getting better and better at serving that community. So it's not like, here's a media channel and we could do print or we could do influencer. It's just a choice in the marketing budget.
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