Business Desk: The Beauty Playbook Everyone Is Copying
Fat Mascara
The episode explores the profound impact of K-beauty's second wave on the global beauty industry, featuring insights from Michelle Lee. The
Key takeaways
- K-beauty's second wave is fueled by the synergy between TikTok Shop for discovery and Amazon for transaction.
- The Korean business model emphasizes 'failing fast' and rapid iteration to stay ahead of trends.
Main topics
- K-beauty business strategies
- Digital commerce and Amazon discovery
Notable quotes
It's not a trend... It's a category.
Conclusion
The episode serves as a strategic guide for brands looking to adopt th
Transcript preview
Speaker 3 (0:00) This episode is made possible by our friends at Front Row, a growth partner helping brands lead on marketplaces and win in commerce. With a world-class team that's already scaling some of the biggest names in global beauty on Amazon across the U.S. and EU, and with a growing presence in Seoul, Front Row is bringing that same expertise directly to K-beauty brands looking to grow globally. Speaker 3 (0:26) Hey, everyone. Welcome to Fat Mascara. Today, I am with the fabulous Michelle Lee, the Chief Brand Officer from Front Row, and she is also the former Editor-in-Chief of Allure. Michelle is really, I mean, she is just a beauty phenomenon. She's also the preeminent expert on all things K-beauty in my mind, and really, she just gives so much wisdom in this episode. I really think you're going to enjoy this. We're talking about all things K-beauty in this episode. We're talking about why K-beauty is just this topic that we talked for quite a bit on this, but I felt like we could make this a double feature. We're going to be talking about virality, if it really is all it's cracked up to be. We're going to be talking about misconceptions about K-beauty. We're going to be talking about what makes K-beauty, K-beauty. And I think you're going to be really surprised with the answer. The beauty trend that people are not talking about yet. I'm just going to let Michelle take it away because honestly... This episode answered so many questions, but also left me with some new ones. So Michelle, we're going to have to have you back. Absolutely love talking to her. Thank you so much, Front Row, for welcoming me into your gorgeous office and just giving us so much access to all this information. Thank you so much, guys. Enjoy the episode. Speaker 3 (1:42) Hey, Michelle. Hi, how are you? I'm good. Welcome to Fat Mascara. I'm so happy to be here in your home, your place of work. I know. Doesn't it feel very homey? I have to say this office is gorgeous and you look great. We are here. on a beautiful, beautiful sunny day. And I've seen you in so many different capacities. I mean, we both have an editorial background. We're both doing all kinds of different things. For those who don't know me, I'm the former beauty director of Harper's Bazaar, Teen Vogue, and Retailer Moda Operandi. And I am sitting across from the multi, multi, multi-talented. Michelle Lee. So Speaker 2 (2:20) nice to see you. I was trying to remember, I was on Fat Mascara years ago. I'm sure it was when I was at Allure, but I'm like, so much has happened for both of us since then. Speaker 3 (2:28) Yes, we've done a lot of different things. And I want to talk to you here at Front Row about a topic that has, I mean, since we were both on the purely editorial side, K-Beauty has... I was thinking about this on the way here. There is no other phenomenon in beauty that I can even create a parallel to. It's not a trend. Sometimes people say K-beauty trend and I cringe because it's not a trend. You could call it a category, but that doesn't even really feel accurate because it's not like we're talking about devices or lip gloss. It's a region, but it's also inspired other brands who are not from. Korea. So it's something much bigger. And that's what I want to dig into. And it's a phenomenon that other brands are really looking to, to inform the success of their own business, either formulate, how they distribute, how they ideate. It's really just a spectacular phenomenon. And you really are preeminent expert here. Michelle, are you in Seoul a lot now? I think. I saw on Instagram you're going back and forth. Speaker 2 (3:37) I am in Seoul so much. I call it sort of home away from home at this point. For the past year and a half, I've been there pretty much every other month. And so I'll go for quite a while, usually about 10 days at a time. And so most of my time has been spent meeting with lots and lots of brands. I obviously do all the skin clinics too while I'm there. Sounds fabulous. But yeah, so we're in the process right now, a front row of setting up a Seoul-based operation. And we are so highly invested in K-beauty and just where we really think it's going to go that we think there's a big opportunity in us helping brands to really establish themselves here in the U.S. and then also in Europe. So with Korean brands, the time zone difference can be really tricky. So we really think it's important to have boots on the ground, to be able to have face time with the brands that we're working with, but for them to also to be able to tap into the power of the global front row team as well. Makes Speaker 3 (4:28) sense. As you mentioned, you were the former editor. and chief of Allure. You are now chief brand officer at Front Row, which we're going to talk a little bit more about. How do these things all really converge in your day to day? So Speaker 2 (4:41) it's Speaker 3 (4:41) a Speaker 2 (4:41) question I get asked a lot, and I'm sure you do as well, right, when you move careers. So for me, my college major was actually in magazine journalism. I think now it's like so specific, right? And I'm like, magazine journalism doesn't even really exist anymore. Speaker 3 (4:56) Mine was too. Was it too? Magazine journalism? I did magazine journalism and art history, two degrees that when people, you know, I tell them that, they're like, what did you think you were going to do? And I'm like, I'm doing it right now, guys. Exactly. Speaker 2 (5:10) All right. But tell me more magazine journalism. We're offline about that. So when I think about now, one of the greatest things I've been able to do has been able to think about. What are the skills and the things that I have as a journalist and as someone in beauty? And how do you actually move that into something else? And I actually did Hilary Kerr's podcast a couple times, Second Life, where I'm like, I feel like I'm on my third or fourth life at this point. But yeah, I think that through the years, I started at Allure in 2015 as editor-in-chief, and I was there for six years. I left and I went to Netflix, which I'll talk a little bit more about why I think that's still relevant to the whole K-beauty thing. But basically in my days now at Front Row, we are an amazing growth agency that we work with a lot of incredible beauty and wellness brands across every single type of facet, whether it's brand building, generating demand, and then especially driving scale across marketplaces. So Amazon, TikTok shop, and D2C specifically. I think the way that I put on my editorial hat in a lot of ways is I think about I am obsessed, as I'm sure you are too, with brands, right? Like I always say, I love founders so much because going back to that first year at Allure in 2015, it kind of culminated in that same time period that a lot of indie brands were just starting up. And so I remember I actually went to, I think it was their first ever pop-up for Tatcha. And I met Vicky from Tatcha when she was still just getting the brand up and running. And so meeting founders like that and seeing what it took to build those brands and to make them long-lasting brands. has always been something that I'm just fascinated with. And I, to this day, I'll have brand founders come up to me who maybe they're just starting out and I love their stories so much. I don't Speaker 3 (6:50) know Speaker 2 (6:50) if you know Remy from Sorelli, but like I was talking with him recently and there's just something about his brand that I feel like is so special that I said to him, I was like, I just want good things for you. That's a Speaker 3 (6:59) brand that feels very different than anything I've seen in just the assortment and Speaker 2 (7:04) the spirit of it. Completely. So taking, I guess, what I've known about the world of editorial and beauty and then leading that into an agency like Front Row, it boils down to that love and that knowledge of brands, the love and knowledge of the entire industry and what it takes to succeed, what maybe some brands have done wrong, and then also brand storytelling. So I think that as we think about some of the brands that are the most successful, even outside of beauty, like Skims, right? Skims does an amazing job of capturing culture and lifestyle and community and thinking about what audiences want. And they're able to translate that into buying products. Rode is also incredible at doing that. And so I think as editors, we kind of ingest a lot of this information by... learning, by researching, by reporting, by interviewing, by meeting with brands and founders and executives and other people. And it's amazing actually how much over time you just have all this in your head. When Speaker 3 (8:00) I think about the word editor, I think we take for granted, like I've said for years, you know, I'm an editor, I'm an editor. Well, what does an editor do? It's really being thoughtful about choosing. It's not line editing. I was talking about this to a friend the other day. We're talking about editor. I was like, it's not about line editing. It's not about. copy and grammar. It's about reading the room, understanding the moment, knowing that if five people come to you with five different ideas, which is the best one and how do you shape that? So with you and talking about all these different brands, it's okay, which brand speaks to the moment? Who should work with what? Which products speak? It's putting that all together. And I would say that It really, those skills translate to all kinds of environments, whether it's film or commerce or food. Or I can understand why editors in this moment are popping up in places that aren't necessarily where magazine journalism, where we thought when we graduated that day, we thought we were going to be writing for the rest of our lives. And now it's just a different. Speaker 2 (9:05) Absolutely. I think that a lot of brands initially thought, oh, editors, you can write for our brand blog or other things, right? But actually our skills are so applicable to so many different things. And so again, at Front Row, I think we are amazing. brand shepherds were able to really take brands and think about what it takes in this modern day to help them grow. And understanding what's the story here? That's the head. It's like, what's the headline? What's the story? Exactly. And so I think what's really interesting is that, especially probably for both of us towards the later part of our careers, so much of it was kind of balancing that left and right brain, right? As digital kind of came on board, it's like you have to balance that data, but then also the creative. And so I think what Front Row does in a really great way is we do balance those. things, that it is taking all the tech and all the data, but also, again, having that ultimate love of the brands to make sure that we're helping them grow in a smart way. And so bringing this all, I guess, back around to Korea. So again, thinking about I started at Allure 2015. It also was around that same time that that first wave of K-beauty was really hitting in a big way. So we had... BB cream, cushion compacts, double cleanse, the 10-step Korean skincare routine, etc. And so suddenly everyone's talking about snail mucin and all the things. And so I don't know if you know Devin Abelman. She was one of our writers at the time. She was obsessed and would go to Korea all the time. And she just became like the person constantly out of lore who was pitching ideas about K-beauty. And so at some point I was like, Devin, run with it. Please go and do it. And I still look back at some of those stories that she did. I'm like, it was really groundbreaking because not a lot of people were covering it at the time. And so when I think about how I have been sort of immersed in K-beauty for more than 10 years, I've definitely made a great study of it, specifically in how it manifests itself here in the U.S. There was a span of, I would say, probably about four or five years, if you remember, though, that everyone was kind of like, oh, I think K-beauty Speaker 3 (10:54) is Speaker 2 (10:54) dead. Right. Like, so some of the brands made it and then a whole huge number of them did not. So Speaker 3 (10:59) when I think about K-beauty, I mean, with Fat Mascara, which started around the time about 10 years ago that K-beauty was really booming in like a big commercial way. So we had Alicia Yoon in 2017. I remember her talking about Peach and Lily and it felt really novel. We had Charlotte Cho 2018. We had David Yee when he had his blog, if I can call it a blog, which became like a full-blown brand in 2018. And this is