Inside a nondescript office building in Corona del Mar, California sits a veritable playland of entrepreneurship.
Here lies the offices of Toy Box Brands, the latest venture from Jerrod Blandino and Jeremy Johnson.
Emblazoned above rows of desks is the phrase “F–k average, be legendary.” Product samples are scattered everywhere. In Johnson’s office sits a framed flag that reads, “I can’t believe we’re still doing this.”
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“I can’t believe we’re doing this again” is more like it.
Yes, Blandino and Johnson, partners in business and life who founded Too Faced in 1998 and sold it to the Estée Lauder Cos. in a landmark deal for $1.45 billion in 2016, then the largest acquisition in Lauder’s history — are back at it.
Toy Box Brands is a cross-category incubator that taps into personal and professional know-how. The first two brands, a jewelry cleaner called Drunk Diamond and a makeup line called Polite Society, are launching in July and August, respectively, followed by a capsule makeup collection for Madonna’s upcoming tour inspired by the singer’s seminal beauty looks. (The superstar is a close pal of the duo.)
“I never thought for one second we’d ever do this again,” Blandino said of the fully self-funded venture. “We had success bigger than I ever dreamt up and created this movement in beauty and helped, in our own tiny little way, change culture through Better Than Sex.”
Blandino was referring to the blockbuster Too Faced mascara, whose combination of cheekiness and efficacy catapulted it into franchise status, along with other products like Born This Way foundation and Lip Injection Plumper Gloss. But after making their mark, the duo departed the brand last year and made haste in getting their latest venture off the ground. “June 30, 2022 was our last day [at Too Faced],” Johnson said. “On July 1, I was on the phone saying what we wanted to trademark. We had a plan.”
The impetus was the past few years at Too Faced, which Blandino found counterproductive to his creative process. “When we sold to Estée Lauder, that process was a lot different than I thought it was going to be, and it was a lot more difficult in a lot of ways. I got that burning back in me, I wanted to do it again the way we first did it: rebelliously creative, nothing’s impossible, break every rule and change the world,” Blandino said. “It was a gift that it wasn’t easy. It lit a fire under our asses and made us want to do it again.”
By getting back into the game, Blandino and Johnson join the ranks of 1990s founders who also sold and are starting again. In 2020, makeup artist Bobbi Brown debuted Jones Road, while Urban Decay’s Wende Zomnir launched her California-inspired brand Caliray the following year. Stila’s Jeanine Lobell introduced Neen, and Marcia Kilgore, who founded and exited Bliss Labs and Soap and Glory, is back at it with BeautyPie.
Now that Johnson and Blandino know the rules of the game, they’re breaking them all. “It’s keep moving forward, don’t look back,” Blandino said. “I wish [Too Faced] the absolute best, but I’m moving forward in my own direction, and trying to create another universe that I want to live in.”
In no better place is that universe exemplified than the headquarters. Blandino, who entered the office on a recent morning with a Starbucks in one hand, a Dior garment bag in another, and hair pulled back in a Washingtonian bun, has his own office next to Johnson’s, stuffed with notebooks from Hermès and a colorful bookshelf. “Those were purchased because of the colors, not because of what’s in them,” he clarified of the Tolstoy and Austen titles lining the shelves.
Johnson’s office, more subdued but not austere by any measure, counts a vintage Louis Vuitton trunk as a coffee table, vintage bookshelves from Paris, and Gucci dog bowls for the couple’s full-bred Chihuahua, Clover. The space is a reflection of both of their tastes, in addition to the roles they play in the business. “We’re a dynamic duo. We’re two sides of a coin. Together, we create one perfect human being,” Blandino said. “We do very different things, and that’s our magic. We’re not changing anything there, it’s our secret sauce.”
Sticking true to their roots, they chose to found Toy Box Brands in Orange County as opposed to Los Angeles — where the pair spends Fridays through Sundays in their Bel Air manse — since it’s the birthplace of their entrepreneurial careers.
“Our dream team is here and we built Too Faced here,” Blandino said. “A lot of people that we have worked with before wanted to come back, and we put our little team back together. Almost all of them live here.”
That team is 17 members strong, and is expected to reach 30 when the pair starts their rapid fire of brand launches. “In the next eight to 10 years, we’ll probably do 16 brands,” Johnson said, adding that five are on the docket for the coming years.
“Between [private equity] and strategics, we’ve been in business for 26 years and we learn from each one of those experiences to build out Toybox to be a very robust global brand powerhouse, I call it,” said Johnson. “We’re planning maybe two brands a year, and two brands is a lot in our first year.”
That’s where the company gained its moniker. It’s meant to be a treasure trove packed with all of their businesses. “We have the toy box, and we’re filling it up with all of our companies,” Johnson said.
For Blandino and Johnson, the goal this time around is for each new brand to garner a cult following from small sects of consumers rather than cast a wide net. Blandino’s strategy is the same irreverent approaches to product positioning he took with Too Faced. “When you’re in a big corporation, there’s this pressure to not make anything ‘too much.’ Somebody might not like it. And I think that’s good — I don’t want everyone to like it, because then they won’t want it,” he said.
“I never look at numbers, I don’t want to be basic, I don’t want to just be another. I want people to not like what I’m doing. Hopefully more like it than not like it, but I don’t want everyone to like it, I want some people to love it,” he continued.
He learned that ethos from Leonard A. Lauder, chairman emeritus of Lauder, Johnson said. “There’s nothing comparable,” Johnson said of his time working with the patriarch. “It’s his heart. He’s like us, we’re like him, we only want to create amazing products and excite a customer. That’s what he wants you to do, too.”
“You have to give people products that give them that ‘wow’ — we’re not going to launch anything that’s not gonna shake you up. We have to be disruptive,” Blandino said. “We’re only coming out with products that we can be disruptive with. I’m not even doing products that we know will sell or that are selling, it’s all about how we do it differently, how do we put a spin on it.”
The key, Blandino contended, is emotional connection. That, he said, is what’s changed about the landscape. “You can’t be a me-too brand, you can’t just be a copycat. Everyone wants something special, and they want to feel themselves in your brand. That’s what’s really changed — they need to feel connected to you on levels beyond the product.”
Enter Diamond Drunk, Toy Box’s debut brand, which launches July 25 directly on its website with four different scents of its nontoxic daily jewelry cleaner for $75 each. Additional products will include a cashmere jewelry towel and cleaning concentrate refills, available on subscription for $48 every four months.
“Gems and jewels are really emotional, whether it’s a gold ring that your grandmother gave you, or something you bought for yourself,” Blandino said. “Jewelry tends to be a manifestation of love, and it marks moments, reminds you of people, and we want to take care of them.”
Inspiration struck when Blandino, a self-professed diamond enthusiast, found only lackluster options for cleaning his baubles. (Ask him how many carats he wears on any given day? “I don’t count,” he retorts, waving his left hand, which contains a very large emerald-cut diamond ring. “A lady never counts. But my ring’s 33.”
“Jeremy has been so loving and so wonderful, and we’ve worked with Cartier and Chanel Fine Jewelry, and I’m supposed to go on Amazon and just buy some who-knows-what?” he said. “I was asking Cartier and Chanel to make a jewelry cleaner, and I was begging someone else to do it for me, because everything’s toxic and it doesn’t need to be. No one was picking it up, and Jeremy said we should just do it ourselves.”
There are nuances to the brand which Blandino likened to beauty. “It’s a beauty ritual for your jewelry. When I wash my face and I go to bed, I take my jewelry off and put it in this cleaner, and when I wake up, I rinse it off, put it on and get ready. Just like I cleanse my face, I do that with my jewelry. That’s what Diamond Drunk is.”
He custom molded the cage to fit rings, brooches and necklaces, without having them clang against each other, and each refillable canister comes with a crystal coaster to not damage marble countertops – all pain points Blandino found in his own experiences.
The product will come in four scents, each named after milestones in the couple’s lives. One is Malibu Rain No. 95, the year they met; Alchemist Rose No. 98, when they founded their first business; Forbidden Fruit No. 8, when they got married, and Lemon Drop No. 22, for when they founded Toy Box Brands. The formulas are 99.5 percent clean, vegan and cruelty-free, Blandino said, and “it’s not going to hurt the planet.” The company expects the brand to reach $15 million in first-year retail sales.
Education will play a key role in Diamond Drunk’s launch strategy. “Jewelry is some of the dirtiest things you own,” Blandino said. “It touches doorknobs, handrails, phones, whatever. You should be cleansing your jewelry daily, not just to take care of it, but for health reasons, and no one’s teaching you to do that.”
It’s also a different type of business than what they’ve ever done before, Johnson said. “We were lucky enough that we have some great relationships and a couple of retailers interested, but we wanted to go down our own path,” he said. “Direct-to-consumer, we know nothing about.”
To him, that’s part of the fun. “We were always product-first at the beginning of our careers, and that’s what it is now. Build the most amazing product, the consumer will come,” he said. “We’re back to our roots here, and that’s why it feels so good.”
Johnson and Blandino are back to their roots in more ways than one. Toy Box’s second brand, a makeup brand called Polite Society that will bow in 750 Ulta Beauty doors on Aug. 27, is well within their wheelhouse. Blandino said he’s taken cues from Too Faced, but Polite Society represents an evolution of the past, not a reincarnation of it.
“It’s a version of me that’s a little bit more restrained, less embellished, but just as fabulous. It’s also more emotional. I want to feel things, I want you to feel emotionally attached to the way we’re offering it to you,” he said. “It’s not cutesy, cupcake-y. I love things that smell, there’s an aesthetic I love with pastel-washed colors, things that look soft, and I’m taking that with me. But when you look at Polite Society, it looks very different, it’s more sleek and more modern.”
The line meets Ulta’s Conscious Beauty standards, and features skin care ingredients, too. The foundation, for example, includes willow bark extract — a natural alternative to salicylic acid. “Let’s be as glamorous as you dare to be, or as natural, without any pressure or judgement. That’s the beauty of Polite Society, it is natural, sustainable. For me, I didn’t ever see myself in any of those brands — they’re wonderful, but either too sheer or natural-looking. Where’s the glitz? Where are the actives? I also want coverage. Natural doesn’t have to be boring. There’s room for a really fabulous, kick–s clean line.”
The products include a face palette, a mascara, lip gloss and a foundation. The latter two feature names like B.I.G. Mouth Lip Plumping Lip Gloss and More Than a Pretty Face Skin-Caring Foundation. The blush palette? “Go Flush Yourself!” Prices range from $27 to $42. According to the company, global retail sales will reach between $45 million and $50 million in its first year.
The launch strategy is rooted in starting with essentials, then expanding the assortment from there. “When we first launched Toy Box, I thought, what am I known for and what will people expect from me?” Blandino said. “What do I do and know more about than other people? Mascara, lip plumper and foundation. I thought we should start with things that you use every day that you need to replenish that are going to draw you to the brand. Then, once they’re married to it, how do we expand it from there.”
Blandino said it’s also a return to some much-needed fantasy in beauty. “Beauty has gotten so serious and so heavy,” he said. “I want to invite people who are looking for positivity or fun, who are looking for glamour. We want to invite them all in our car and take them on a trip. If you’re looking for trouble, if you’re looking to be cruel, I don’t want you.”
The branding has the same cheeky tone as Too Faced did. Products carry the tag line “Polite as f–k,” and on the no-list of ingredients, “negativity” is listed alongside “parabens.”
“Negativity is just as toxic as parabens — like all the trolls we’ve had to deal with over the last several years. We’re not having any of that,” he said.
The audience is one he and Johnson know well, focusing on Millennials and Gen Z. “It’s anybody who’s looking for incredible, efficacious makeup that want to feel something and feel like themselves, but also feel rebellious,” Blandino said. “It’s my core customer — Gen Z, Millennial. I’m always speaking to the same person in my head.”
The mascara is 83 percent natural, and like the egg-shaped foundation bottle, has rounded beveled edges that prevent it from rolling off flat surfaces. For the More Than a Pretty Face Skin-Caring Foundation, the egg shape is “a symbol of new life, new beginnings, and Easter is my favorite holiday,” Blandino said. “It’s matte, it’s heavier, it’s substantial, it won’t roll off your table. And the mascara won’t either, plus it’s easier to hold in your hand because it’s more ergonomic. There’s a few things I know how to do very well.”
Also in that camp is the lip plumper, B.I.G. — “an acronym for blueberry, infinity pepper and ginger,” Blandino explained. “It’s on the cusp of, ‘is it a drug, or is it makeup?’”
The lip plumper, for example, features before-and-after shots on an iPhone. That was a deliberate sign of transparency, Blandino said. “We did it on a phone with no retouching, no smoke and mirrors. We don’t need to. That’s the whole idea, the products are so good.”
In August, the brand will launch in 850 Ulta Beauty doors. Johnson credited the partnership to Ulta’s ongoing success — net sales increased 12.3 percent to $2.6 billion in its first fiscal quarter of 2023, as reported by WWD — and its reinvention of the luxury wheel.
“Ulta is really shaking it up right now with what they’re doing with more prestige brands,” Johnson said. “They have high-end and mass as well, and mushing it all together — that’s the new way the customer is shopping.”
Maria Salcedo, senior vice president of merchandising at Ulta Beauty, said that mix is performing well. “[Our brand partners] understand that Ulta Beauty exists to disrupt the status quo and we’re always seeking new ways to delight our guests with the exciting products and experiences we offer. Luxury at Ulta Beauty is an excellent example of this and is proving to be a valued addition to our guests’ journey.”
Polite Society will be merchandised in a 3-foot display “with opportunity to grow,” Salcedo said. “We’ll also support the launch through our marketing and owned channels to ensure guests can easily discover the brand.”
Salcedo is bullish about the brand, noting that momentum is high in makeup across products and prices. “Beauty enthusiasts crave newness, and their desire for the latest must-haves is driving trial and discovery for makeup spanning TikTok viral solutions, innovative formulas, to vibrant, expressive colors and more. We’re seeing an increased interest in mass and masstige brands for those seeking to experiment and try something new for the season, while prestige loyalists continue to stock up on tried-and-true favorites.”
The expectation is for Polite Society to jibe with its shoppers’ expectations, particularly among the Gen Z cohort. “Polite Society offers the fun, expressive, quality products with the added benefits of clean ingredients, vegan and cruelty-free formulas, which are important values for our conscious-minded guests,” Salcedo said.
“To win in makeup, brands must reflect the wants and needs of beauty enthusiasts, and more importantly, their values,” she continued. “This is especially true for Gen Z as they expect the products they use to align with their lifestyle choices.”
Further down the line, Toy Box has more businesses planned. A hot sauce company geared toward women is on deck, “because all these amazing women bring hot sauces with them everywhere. There’s rooster heads and skulls and all this boy s–t all over every bottle,” Blandino said. “Why isn’t it being done differently?”
Jewelry cleaner, hot sauce, makeup: for Blandino, it’s all a part of the same emotion-led vision. “The brands have to be emotional and have to connect with you on an emotional level, even something as simple as a diamond cleaner. Beauty, hot sauce, these are things that you feel connected to. If someone uses a certain hot sauce or a certain lipstick, they almost feel territorial about it. It’s something that people identify themselves with,” he said. “I want you to feel a part of yourself within the brand, and it has to be somewhere where there’s a need.”