Chelsea Scott: Why Passion And Global Exploration Trump Traditional Corporate Ladders In Beauty

As a part of our series about “Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Chelsea Scott.

At 17, Chelsea stepped off a plane in Italy, got a job at a lipstick factory and — whooosh! — just like that, she knew travel and beauty products were her passion. While visiting so many other cultures around the world, Chelsea developed two other obsessions, one for the different traditions of wellness and the other for innovative products, especially when it comes to skincare. Which explains why she fell so hard for South Korean beauty practices on her first trip there in 2016. She met the innovators at the leading brands that combine science, innovation and technology with natural ingredients. The idea for The Beauty Spy was sparked on that trip — to find and bring to our U.S. customers extraordinary beauty products from around the world that are not easily accessible here, even with the global reach of the internet. Chelsea and her team of Beauty Spy Special Agents would seek out the items that would truly make a difference in our Western beauty regimes by working on all sorts of skin types and skin shades. In the four years since, they have made it their personal mission to uncover these beauty treasures — whether on return trips to South Korea or in Japan, Australia or wherever we spot the next important trend — and bring them back to share with beauty lovers here at home.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Thank you for having me. I blame — in the best way possible — my career on Carla, my best friend in high school! She was here from Italy on a student visa, which was expiring after our graduation. After many hours of debating, arguing and crying, I finally convinced my dad to let me go to Italy with her. There was one catch, which was that while my dad gave me some money for the trip, he said when I ran out, I was on my own. After a few months I could barely afford gelato, but didn’t want to go home. I needed to find a job. I didn’t speak Italian, so with the help of a bilingual dictionary, I went job-hunting. I happened upon a large cosmetics manufacturing facility and somehow convinced them to let me work there. I was assigned to taking lipsticks off the assembly line and placing them in tubes for the equivalent of about $1.50 an hour. It took me four years to save enough to get back home, but it sparked my lifelong passion for the beauty business.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Sure, I remember it like it was yesterday! When I was 30, I was VP of product development at a large skincare manufacturer. One day the owner comes by my desk and says, “Do you want to go on QVC to sell our skincare line?” I was taken aback because honestly, I wasn’t familiar with and had no understanding of how TV shopping channels worked back then and I had zero on-camera experience. However, I said “Sure, let’s try it.” I said that because it was ingrained in me at a very young age to not let fear hold you back from trying new things and to experience as much as possible. That moment changed the trajectory of my entire career.

Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?

I spent many years working for large companies, which gave me great experience in product development. I would watch these products I had created go on to be enormous successes. I was proud of that, but at a certain point I realized these products are most successful when I am passionate about them; what if I could simply be the one to share them? Once I decided to create my own brands it gave me an outlet to focus on projects I was truly passionate about. There was an enormous sense of freedom and creativity beyond what I’d had when I worked for others.

None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I have always tried to surround myself with incredible people who share my same passion and work ethic. However, the one person who helped me get to where I am today is my big brother Preston. We started working on business together 30 years ago. I attribute the success I have enjoyed over the years to his support, ideas, belief in our mission and partnership.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The global beauty industry today has grown to more than a half a trillion dollar business. Can you tell us about the innovations that you are bringing to the industry? How do you think that will help people?

One of our companies, The Beauty Spy, is dedicated to scouring the globe for unique beauty products that are not readily available in the US. This enables us to not only give our customers a chance to try products they would never have otherwise known about, but it also reflects our mission to focus on products that will allow our customers to develop skin and hair care routines that are easier, faster and more affordable than what they’ve traditionally done. To make sure we deliver on that promise, we have a team of agents who have their pulse on seeking out the most innovative products that truly work. One example is the first light-therapy facial mask that requires no batteries or electricity! The Ariul L.E.D. Lumi Mask simply harnesses the light from your windows and light fixtures to give you the benefits of LED light therapy. Additionally, it can aid in the skin’s overall texture, tone, brightness and elasticity, at a price that won’t break the bank. Another favorite is a liquid hair treatment called Moremo Water Treatment Miracle 10, formulated with ingredients called SR- 21 Complex, which is three types of keratin and 17 amino acids. It transforms damaged hair in 10 seconds! We love that because we understand that no one has time to waste. Again, it’s all part of our mission to help our customers have not only great beauty days, but a great beauty life.

Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the modern beauty industry?

There were so many changes the beauty industry, like most, had to make in 2020 because of the pandemic. One of them is something I’m now really excited about, which is the shift to social media for live presentations. Being able to demonstrate the products and experience them via video instead of seeing something on a shelf and not understanding its benefits is just phenomenal! Also, the focus on innovation is incredibly compelling; it allows us to deliver hair and skin care formulations that are sourced from nature and adapted and elevated by science. That combo can provide superpower benefits! Finally, I’m thrilled with the awareness by consumers of clean beauty products. It’s inspiring when customers are educated about ingredients and aware of what should and shouldn’t be in their products.

Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to improve the industry, what would you suggest?

One is that the focus of the beauty industry still skews very young; women over 40 need to continue to find their voice and use it to demand what they need. At our company we have begun working with influencers over the age of 40 to encourage the growth of this sometimes-forgotten customer. Then, it continues to be concerning that the US still does not have a blanket ban on animal testing. I would also like to see more transparency about ingredients and their benefits on skincare packaging.

You are an expert about beauty. Can you share a few ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”?

I know it sounds like a cliché, but it truly is about how you feel inside that makes everything look better on the outside. I am all about doing something that uniquely provides those moments when you can take a breath and feel your inner calm and strength. It can be as simple as meditating or taking a walk or getting away for an hour to get a pedicure with a pop of color that makes you happy when you look at your toes. I think our external beauty is aided by those times when we give ourselves permission to take a moment for ourselves, despite all the chaos around us.

Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, Can you please share “Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry”. Please share a story or an example, for each.

1. Have a brand statement and live by it: By that I mean, know exactly what you want the customer to experience when using your product, and not only communicate that at every opportunity, but use it to guide your mission. We spend a lot of time developing our brands’ mission statements and use them as a constant guide to make sure we’re staying on track with what we’ve promised. They help us build our customer loyalty.
2. Be passionate: If you can show energy and passion when speaking about a product or service, there’s a much better chance that your listener will buy it. In 2016 when we had the idea for The Beauty Spy, I had a meeting with Mindy Grossman, the president of HSN. I will never forget, my presentation was on an iPad and displayed all these crazy products from around the world. I was sure she would say, this is going to be a challenge, how are you going to get all these goods here, what about language barriers, etc. However, she didn’t say any of that. Instead she said, “You seem incredibly passionate about this concept, let’s give it a go.” Our first Beauty Spy show was on HSN in 2017 and we debuted a unique lipstick we discovered on a trip to Asia. It contains a real peony flower and the color changes with your body’s pH level so the shade is unique on everyone. We sold out of 2,500 units in eight minutes!
3. It’s not about your product, it’s about what the product does for them: As founders of a product or service, we tend to want to tell people everything about what we created. However people only care about how it’s going to help them solve a problem! So, stick to concise points about how your product is going to delight and inspire them, save them time and money, fix an issue. One of my first times on-air was with the performer Frankie Avalon, who, yes, sang the song Beauty School Dropout in the 1970s movie Grease! I was supposed to speak as the beauty expert on his tanning product. When we went live, I rambled, telling the audience everything I had studied about every ingredient in that tanner, but none of the simple ways it would make them feel or look great. After the show Frankie said, “Maybe just tell them the benefits.” Next show I focused on saying things like, “A tan makes you look healthier; it can help to hide varicose veins; it makes you glow.” And we had a hit on our hands.
4. Be unique: The beauty industry is inundated with hundreds of new launches a month, so it’s easy to think, C’mon, do we really need another mascara? Well, that depends if your mascara does something new and different. If so, then yes, we need it! A few years back I was using root cover ups that were either sprays or came in powder compacts. I thought there needed to be a better way to deliver the coverup, as the existing formulas were very messy. Our Truhair product development team set out to modernize this category by creating the first brush-on root cover, making it quicker, easier and less messy for people to color their hair, even on the go. Truhair’s Color & Lift Root Cover Powder has gone on to be the best-selling root cover on TV!
5. Do not give up: It may take many attempts before you reach success. We started a TikTok account during the pandemic and one of our co-founders, Ryan Sullivan, really got behind this new platform. He spent hours creating content demonstrating our unique products. They were incredible but would only get a few thousands likes at most. I told him, This is crazy, it’s too much of a time investment. Why can’t our videos just go viral like other brands? He said, “We need to forge ahead, be consistent and stick with making good content that helps people and it will happen.” Sure enough, a few weeks later he created a video on our Neogen Pore Mousse that showed how easily it cleans out your pores and it was a hit! Over 3 million views in a few days, which led to features on InStyle.com, Total Beauty and The Insider. We sold thousands of cans a day and sold out of it!

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

If I could inspire a movement, it would be about honesty and transparency in our beauty products. I’d love to see the labeling of key ingredients on the front panel, including the percentage levels. This way consumers could understand what is going on their skin, truly make educated choices and avoid costly mistakes.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” by Oscar Wilde. When you create something that is successful, others will try to replicate it. This ate away at me for years. If I made a new skincare product, as soon as it was a hit another brand would copy it. I lost a lot of sleep over the years worrying about that. I finally accepted that these imitations mean we are doing a good job and need to keep innovating. It’s not helpful to constantly look back at others. Concentrate on always staying ahead of the curve.

How can our readers follow you online?

Check us out at TheBeautySpy.com and if you love talking about all things beauty, you can always drop me a message at chelsea@thebeautyspy.com Instagram: @chelseabeautyspy Facebook: Chelsea Scott.

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.