Brook Harvey-Taylor decided the beauty business was for her pretty early on. Pairing her unique vantage point as a rural-raised ranch dweller with her burgeoning passion for ethical innovation, she launched Pacifica Beauty in 1997 with a range of fragrances that has since expanded to encompass a comprehensive, cruelty-free beauty regimen. Here, the 2023 CEW Female Founder Honoree looks back — and ahead.
What has your trajectory been like in beauty?
I grew up on a little cattle ranch in Montana, and it was an experience that cemented my core values, which led to cementing Pacifica’s core values: Compassion for humans, animals and the planet. Because our brand started in Portland, Oregon, we’ve always been on the fringe of beauty industry culture — I like to say the brand grew up with the Portland spirit behind it. We work tirelessly to promote our values, and I’m proud that that’s how we’ve chosen to move through the world.
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What’s one thing about founding and building a female-led business that nobody tells you?
Oh, tons of things. I don’t know why, but I’m still surprised at sexism. Even right now, we’re conducting a search for an open role, and I’m like, “Why aren’t we we seeing more women? Why are we quite literally only being served up white men for a beauty industry role?” Especially considering a large part of our consumer base identifies as female, we want to make sure that we represent who we serve, and so it still surprises me sometimes that we haven’t advanced more as a society around these issues.
Which steps are you taking within your organization to ensure that women’s voices are being heard?
I’m a staunch feminist; one thing I’ve been thinking about a lot is getting clear on equality versus equity. As a leader, it’s important for me to reframe the conversation as not just being about women and men as equal to one another, but addressing how to get my team the resources that they, as individuals, need, rather than just matching it to one standard of what a white man would need. We’re not all white men and we’re not going to be white men — we should each be celebrated and treated with equity.
What has made you feel the most accomplished in your roles as the founder and CEO of Pacifica?
Every year, there’s something new that makes me excited, and makes me feel more like I’ve been accomplishing my goals. We work remotely, so when my team has an all-company get-together and I see everyone’s faces — that’s incredible to me. That there are people who have been on this journey for five, 10, 12 years — the most exciting part of what I get to experience, is that they’re here, and we’ve done a lot of what we set out to do. We used to have to explain to people what vegan beauty meant — today, everybody knows what vegan beauty means, and I think there’s a moment right now where we’re being tasked to redefine what Pacifica can continue to do to push the envelope in our industry, in using better ingredients, in our packaging, and in moving forward.