Longevity is the common thread that links both model and entrepreneur Cindy Crawford‘s skin care line Meaningful Beauty and Anastasia Soare’s Anastasia Beverly Hills. This year, the former is turning 20 and the latter will mark 25 years in business.
The two founders, both celebrities in their own right, have scaled their businesses by constantly evolving. “It’s about having a vision and being authentic. Staying the course and also being able to pivot,” Crawford said. “The business changes. We started as an infomercial, direct-to-consumer business. There was no social media, there was no digital marketing, and being able to adapt your original way of selling into these new platforms is important.”
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Meaningful Beauty is now sold at both Amazon and Ulta. Typically, the brand is packaged as a system, so with new retailers in the mix, Crawford had to pivot to launch additional products. “I don’t want to offer women so many choices that it’s confusing,” she added. “Meaningful Beauty is about meaningful products that are efficacious. So being in Ulta and Amazon, it’s this fine balance of maintaining true to what we were, which is a system, but also offering specialty product.”
Soare, on the other hand, has maintained a close relationship with her clients in her Beverly Hills salon, which helps her to iterate on new products. But a lot of her inspiration comes directly from social media. “I am passionate and that’s how I’m able to scale while also understanding the customer,” she said. “I read the comments. Our consumers are so intelligent. For instance, one of our newest launches is Brow Freeze, a product that was the result of a social media trend. Three or four years ago, soap brows were very in style because everyone wanted a laminated look. But the brows dried down and it was too flaky. I said to my daughter and I said we need to create a product that will do that, but better.”
To that end, Meaningful Beauty dipped its toe into hair care during the pandemic. “You’re not expecting your hair to change when you go gray,” Crawford said. “That was a surprise. About five years ago, I wondered if the same antioxidant that we use in our skin care, could be put into hair care. It’s empowering for women to say, I’m not alone. I don’t have to be ashamed. It’s really about offering a solution to a problem.”
Meanwhile, Crawford asked Soare if she was ever underestimated because of her gender. “I think we, as women, the biggest problem we have, is we are afraid to ask for help,” Soare said. “I grew up in a communist regime where you had to survive. There was no other way and that gave me the strength to fight.”
“Business in general for women can be challenging, maybe less now, but it was [challenging] as I was coming up into it,” Crawford added. “I don’t want to lose my femininity in the process, and I had to learn how to walk that balance in a way that was authentic to me.”
To close out the conversation, Crawford and Soare were both asked what keeps them engaged. “For me, I love what I do,” Soare said. “I love every minute, every aspect of my business. So many people have helped me get to where I am and I want to give back to other diverse young entrepreneurs. I’m still telling my story because I want to inspire others to think if she was able to do it, I can too.”
“There’s so much in our society that says that women of a certain age should fade away. And if I did that, I would be part of that message as opposed to challenging it. I’m saying, there’s no expiration date on me. I’m not going anywhere,” Crawford said. “I want to feel good about myself. I want to take care of myself, but I’m not going to feel like I have to hide because I don’t look like my daughter. I don’t want to be part of that message. So that’s the biggest thing that keeps me moving forward.”