History of Cult Makeup Brands

Share your career path!
I was in advertising and marketing and I always knew I wanted to do something entrepreneurial. Most of the accounts I worked on were popular-culture oriented, so I loved all of that. But I've always loved makeup, too. I'm from Texas — it's in your blood when you're from Texas — and I've always loved doing makeup on my friends. In fact, at 13 I got sent home from school for wearing too much makeup.

I met Sandy Lerner, and she wanted to start a makeup company [Urban Decay]. It was the perfect storm for me — something entrepreneurial, and it tapped into this whole fascination I had with what was happening in the marketplace, trends, and makeup.

What product have you developed that you are most proud of and why?
I might say I'm most proud of . . . gosh it's so hard because I love all of them — they're all like my children. But maybe our Original Eyeshadow Primer Potion? I think it has changed the way people looked at primer. It made it a necessity versus a weird thing that strange makeup-obsessed people use. It was the first primer that really showed people how long your makeup could last, and I had a lot of fun developing it. It was the first one that was a complete concept and the first product I ever created that was a real star product. You know we really put a lot of straight-up promotion behind it, and talked about it, educating people about it.