Glow Journal

In episode 163 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Dimond talks to the founder of FUCA Skincare, Jess Armstrong.

In April 2023 at 35 years old, Jess Armstrong was diagnosed stage 2 breast cancer. Within 10 days of that diagnosis, Jess had started what would become 18 months of active cancer treatment including 6 months of weekly chemo.

Jess describes being in the thick of cancer treatment as “the lowest part of your life confidence wise,” so discovering that the extreme skin sensitivities that came with her treatment meant she could no longer use the beauty products that had become so ingrained in her self-care routine meant yet another hit.

Jess very quickly discovered that the skincare offering for those in her position was, more or less, Sorbolene. Having worked in beauty her entire adult life, she suddenly felt totally disconnected from, and uninspired by, an industry she’d loved so much- so she decided to work on filling the gap herself, whilst in active cancer treatment.

Jess launched FUCA, short for F U Cancer, in late 2024- a beauty brand challenging the both notions that skincare suitable for those undergoing cancer treatment and skincare that feels fun and beautiful are mutually exclusive, AND the idea of airbrushed “perfection” that perpetuates so much of beauty marketing today.

In this conversation, Jess shares what she ACTUALLY finds aspirational in 2026, how hand delivering her resume and waiting in the L’Oréal Groupe reception for 3 hours served as her ticket into the beauty industry, and how she managed to land FUCA a spot on the shelves at Mecca before launching a single product.

Read more at glowjournal.com
Follow FUCA on Instagram @fuca.organic

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com
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In episode 162 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Dimond talks to founder and CEO of Glasshouse Fragrances, Nicole Eckels.

One of my favourite types of brand founders to speak with are those who quite literally pioneered an entire category. Despite having known Nicole Eckels for several years now and having had her on the show back in 2020, it still fascinates me that prior to Glasshouse Fragrances’ launch in 2005, the home fragrance category didn’t really exist here in Australia.

I encourage you to go back to Season 2 to listen to the Glasshouse origin story, but in the 6 years since that recording, an almost incomprehensible amount has taken place within the Glasshouse Fragrances universe- perhaps the most interesting being the fact that Nicole launched the brand into her native United States, with it becoming the number two fragrance brand at Bloomingdale’s within 3 years.

What I wanted to chat to Nicole about is how different this launch felt. In Australia, in 2005, Glasshouse was a category pioneer. Launching into the US some 15 years later meant the category not only existed, but was heavily saturated, so the key wasn’t just creating beautiful products- it was creating a brand universe. If you’re launching into a busy market, you need to be connecting with your consumers on an emotional level or risk becoming an object that falls by the wayside.

In this conversation, recorded on Nicole’s most recent trip back to Australia, Nicole shares the keys to building a brand universe beyond a product offering, the unexpected ways a global pandemic permanently transformed her company, and how she won the US market nearly 20 years into business.

Read more at glowjournal.com
Follow Glasshouse Fragrances on Instagram @glasshousefragrances

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode 161 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Dimond talks to beauty industry icon and Paris-based hairstylist David Mallett.

There are few things, not just professionally but in life in general, that I find more inspiring than speaking to someone who knows exactly what it is they are supposed to be doing on this earth. David Mallett is one of those rare and extraordinary people.

David tells me that he’s known that his purpose was to work in hair, specifically in the fashion space, since he was about 4 years old- and he was right. When we think about some of history’s most iconic style moments and imagery, so much of what we’re referencing comes from a world that David was and still is at the centre of. So much of the imagery that now defines the way we remember 90s fashion and beauty, for example, David helped create.

What fascinates me about brands and businesses like David’s is the idea that his salon clients and the consumers of his brand aren’t just buying a haircut or a serum- they’re buying into David’s specific visual language. How do you preserve that DNA as the business and brand expand across locations, retailers, and continents?

In this conversation, recorded on location at Mecca Bourke St, David shares why he’s sceptical about the idea of “organic growth” when it comes to building a business, why he’s not a fan of nostalgia, and how Lenny Kravitz is partially responsible for his big break

Read more at glowjournal.com
Follow David Mallett on Instagram @davidmallett

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com
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In episode 160 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Dimond talks to founder and CEO of Tower 28, Amy Liu.

Amy Liu says it’s never been easier to start a beauty brand, but it’s never been harder to stay.

Since its launch in 2019, Tower 28 has become one of the industry’s biggest modern success stories, however Amy tried launching three businesses prior to creating something that stuck.

Amy’s background is in growing beauty brands from the inside, and while we all know the industry has changed over the last couple of decades, she explains that the fundamentals have remained largely unchanged. The sales funnel is the same- it’s just the levers that have evolved. When we look at the influence having shifted from print editors to digital creators, for example, it certainly feels like the barrier to success has never been lower, but it’s a question of how a brand captures virality. Sure, a brand might go viral today, but how do you capture that moment and sustain it?

The answer is understanding the difference between brand awareness and conversion, and it’s something Amy could teach a masterclass in, having grown Tower 28 from a 3 SKU startup built for sensitive skin to a global brand carried by Sephora across multiple markets and MECCA in Australia and New Zealand.

In this conversation, Amy shares how she landed on Tower 28’s visual identity, the slightly unconventional way she reached out to her first round of investors, and why she feels the key to launching a successful brand is to understand your own "unfair advantage.”

Read more at glowjournal.com
Follow Tower 28 on Instagram @tower28beauty

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com
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In episode 159 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Dimond talks to the founders of AKT, Ed Currie and Andy Coxon.

Ed and Andy are West End performers. They’ve spent years under the brightest of lights, dancing, sweating, wearing costumes shared across casts for, in the case of a show like Les Mis, years upon years, that are so delicate they can’t be deep cleaned. We know how inextricably linked scent is to our confidence- they needed something that worked, that was formulated with performance at the fore, and that made people smell (and, probably more importantly, FEEL), amazing.

AKT has done what I had, as someone who’s worked in beauty for over 12 years, thought impossible, and that is create an effective, sexy deodorant. There are sexy deodorants on the market and I hate them, there are clinical protection formulas out there that I don’t feel in any way inspired by, but there’s nothing like this. Every element in a little wink to their shared history, which really tickles me from a branding perspective. They brief their fragrances in like a script, the typography is inspired by the letters on theatre marquees, and each fragrance is named as if it were a scene.

In this conversation, recorded at Soho’s Laughing Around Studios, Ed and Andy share what happens when you set out to create one product and somehow end up building an entire brand, how they physically raised the money to develop AKT, and how they learned the importance of using their own voice instead of trying to play the role of professional,

Read more at glowjournal.com
Follow AKT on Instagram @akt_ldn.

Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at hello@gemkwatts.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.