Susan Yara’s journey to redefining skincare didn’t start in a lab—it started in front of a camera. From reporting news in the Bronx to becoming a trusted beauty voice on YouTube, Susan built a community before she ever built a brand. With her platform Mixed Makeup, she offered something rare: expert-backed, educational content for women who were underserved by the beauty industry’s hype-driven approach.

But Susan wasn’t just creating content. In 2019, she co-founded Naturium Skincare. Just four years later, she made headlines when she sold her company to e.l.f. Beauty for $355 million—and became one of the first content creators to successfully scale and exit a skincare brand.

In this episode, Nancy and Susan go deep on the realities of building a digital-first beauty brand: funding operations before revenue, pivoting from an influencer to a founder mindset, and how it’s so important to build authentic relationships with your community and retail partners. Susan shares the failures that shaped her, the influencer marketing tactics that actually work, and how she’s balancing life as a founder, mom, and now solo parent.

This is a story of vision, resilience, and reinvention. It’s proof that you don’t need to start with a perfect plan—you just need to start with purpose.

Timestamps:

[00:00] Introduction

[03:12] Joining Forbes and building their first video network

[04:55] Learning the power of early digital media

[06:03] Getting into beauty and lifestyle content

[07:24] Launching Mixed Makeup to serve older audiences

[08:30] Early challenges funding high-quality content

[09:45] Lessons from Susan’s failed first business

[11:15] Trying to bootstrap her own skincare brand

[12:20] How COVID shut down her original plan

[14:42] Joining Naturium and shaping brand direction

[15:55] Why Susan moved away from “clean” marketing

[17:02] Creating formulas that simplify skincare routines

[18:08] Transitioning from influencer to business operator

[19:20] Why pricing strategy matters for repeat customers

[20:22] The shift in influencer strategy that changed everything

[21:30] How nano influencers built authentic community

[22:40] Using whitelisting to amplify UGC as ads

[23:50] What brands get wrong about influencer selection

[25:02] The power of founder-creator relationships

[26:05] Getting into Target and making it work

[27:15] Building a bold pitch retailers can’t ignore

[28:30] Launching Naturium body washes with intention

[29:45] Hiring a CMO who can become your future CEO

[30:58] The expanded role of modern CMOs

[32:00] What to look for when hiring key leaders

[33:12] Why Susan sold Naturium to e.l.f. Beauty

[34:25] Balancing work and motherhood during scale

[35:40] How moving to Miami created work-life structure

[36:45] Advice for founders scaling fast or slow

[38:00] The real reason behind building a brand

Resources Mentioned:

Naturium | Website

e.l.f Beauty | Website

Mixed Makeup | YouTube Channel

Follow Susan on Instagram and X, and check out her YouTube Channel.

Follow Nancy Twine:

Instagram: @nancytwine

www.nancytwine.com

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Instagram: @makersmindsetspace

TikTok: @themakersmindset