Smart Beauty

Smart Beauty

by Viola Levy
Fashion & BeautyBusiness
Season 4
Sasha Lord on cancelled weddings and building a fragrance brand from rock bottom
Sasha Lord is the founder of Lords Fragrance House, a bold, colourful home fragrance brand she launched during lockdown after a cancelled wedding and a personal reckoning left her with "nothing left to lose." In this episode, Sasha opens up about the loneliness of entrepreneurship, nearly quitting at the three-year mark, and why she ignored advice to tone down her bright pink and green branding. We talk about playing to your strengths, the gap in the market between beautiful packaging and quality ingredients, and why accepting help isn't a sign of weakness. Sasha also shares her creative process for blending scents inspired by her travel memories, her favourite materials to work with, and her refreshingly grounded definition of success. lordsfragrancehouse.com
S4 · E6
Jul 1, 2026
32:23
From poker to prescription skincare – building a £160m business with James Mishreki
James Mishreki went from professional poker player to building Skin+Me, a personalised prescription skincare company now valued at £160 million. But what really drives someone to keep playing when the stakes get this high? In this episode, James talks about how poker taught him to detach from outcomes and make decisions with incomplete information. We get into the weekend Silicon Valley Bank collapsed and he thought he'd lost everything — £13 million gone overnight — and the 20-30 minutes where he felt "completely lost" before the founder community rallied. He explains why he believes resilience can't be taught, and why if you have to convince yourself to start a company, you probably shouldn't. He describes going on BBC News "looking like a ghost" after two days without sleep, and why he now calls himself "addicted to company building," comparing entrepreneurship to a dopamine hit he can't quit. skinandme.com
S4 · E5
Jan 23, 2026
30:14
Why some brains are built for corporate – with Michelle Kluz, CEO of Stila Cosmetics
Michelle Kluz is the CEO of Stila Cosmetics, the 31-year-old heritage beauty brand known for its cult liquid eyeliner. Before Stila, Michelle worked at Boston Consulting Group, held multiple CEO roles including running a billion-dollar business in her mid-thirties, and founded her own athleisure brand Urban Savage after moving to Australia. In this episode, we discuss the misconception that corporate careers are rigid and soulless, why being a founder was humbling after years in senior leadership, and how Michelle's self-diagnosed ADHD means she actually thrives in complex corporate environments rather than the deep-focus work required of early-stage founders. Michelle shares the personal connection that drew her to Stila, her approach to repositioning a heritage brand, and a candid account of being told she didn't "look credible enough" for a CEO role—then turning down the same company when they came back six months later. We also get into the mental health realities of entrepreneurship that rarely get discussed. stila.co.uk
S4 · E4
Jan 15, 2026
33:53
How Dr Olivia Ahn co-created Fluus, the world's first flushable period pad
Dr Olivia Ahn is the co-founder of Fluus, the world's first flushable, microplastic-free period pad. A medical doctor turned entrepreneur, she built the company alongside her partner Aaron Koshy after they met at Imperial College London. What started as a conversation about sustainable guilt and the lack of innovation in period care became a mission to create a product that didn't force consumers to choose between convenience and the planet. In this episode, Olivia talks about her endometriosis diagnosis and how it sparked her search for better products, the toilet paper moment that led to her eureka idea, and the three technical challenges the industry said were impossible to solve. She explains how COVID forced them to build their own manufacturing machine when the industry shut down, and shares what it's really been like launching into Boots and Tesco as a small player in a market dominated by giants. We also discuss the emotional rollercoaster of building a business with your partner, learning to manage a team for the first time, and why "sanitary pad" is a banned word at Fluus. Find Fluus at wearefluus.com or in Boots and Tesco stores nationwide.
S4 · E3
Dec 11, 2025
27:55
Breaking the poo taboo with We Are Regular's Holly Brooke & Joely Walker
Holly Brooke and Joely Walker met in a Leeds nightclub at 16. Nearly two decades later, they've launched We Are Regular — a supplement brand on a mission to break the stigma around constipation. In this episode, we talk about Holly's 17 years of chronic gut issues, what she learned from five years working with Caroline Hirons, the weird male audience they've attracted on TikTok, and why Northern women seem to have a particular knack for building brilliant businesses. It's honest, it's funny, and yes — we talk about poo. A lot. weareregular.com | @weare.regular
S4 · E2
Dec 3, 2025
32:49
Bestselling author Roxie Nafousi on launching her new perfume line Alia
In this episode, Viola is joined by Roxie Nafousi – bestselling author, manifestation coach, and founder of fragrance brand Alia – to talk about her pivot from books to beauty, and why it's been so much harder than she expected. Roxie opens up about why she chose fragrance as her next creative outlet and how scent bypasses the conscious mind to connect with us on a more primitive, subconscious level. She discusses the meaning behind Alia – "to rise higher" in Arabic – and how launching the brand was about reclaiming her Iraqi heritage after years of hiding it due to racist bullying at school. She's candidly honest about the production challenges she faced, from shipping delays to an infamous "sesame oil" incident the day before her campaign shoot. She also talks about the reality of building a business as a single mother, working with half the resources and twice the stress, why gratitude is essentially evidence gathering – and one of the fastest ways to shift your mindset. And her biggest lesson about manifestation: that we can only manifest what we believe we're worthy of receiving. aliasenses.com
S4 · E1
Nov 24, 2025
33:52
Season 3
Live from British Beauty Week: The Princess and The Witch Panel Talk
This episode is a live recording from British Beauty Week 2025, where we hosted a panel discussion at Tallulah Lingerie exploring the beauty archetypes of the princess and the witch, and what they reveal about women, aging, power, and self-expression. Pia Long is a Finnish perfumer, author of co-founder of her own fragrance house Eau de Boujee, and author of 'Demo Accords' with nearly 17 years of experience creating fragrances. @perfumer.pia Giselle La Pompe-Moore is the author of "Take It In," founder of the CD Lab consultancy, and has been a practicing witch for 20 years. (Vogue described her as "The woman redefining spirituality for the millennial crowd".) @gisellelpm Maria Sotiriou is the founder of Silke London and a hairstylist with over 37 years of experience in the industry. @silkelondon Lorelei Winston is a glamour witch, women's personal stylist and former ballerina and burlesque performer. @extraordinarymagicbylauralei We discuss why society is fixated on the princess/witch binary and who benefits from it. Giselle explains the "witch wound" and how ancestral trauma affects women's visibility today. Lorelei shares the Scottish origins of the word "glamour" (it literally means to cast a spell). Pia talks about how the male gaze shifts as women age and the liberation that can come with it, while Maria spoke about the power of beauty sleep and reclaiming our "princess energy". The panel explores beauty rituals as intention-setting and self-love, the difference between beauty as personal expression versus beauty marketed to insecurities, and why we need to stop judging other women's beauty choices. A huge thanks to The British Beauty Council, all the panellists and attendees, Tallulah Lingerie for hosting and our sponsors Yardley London, Kohl Kreatives, Silke London, Dr Organic and Fluus.
S3 · E20
Nov 13, 2025
40:54
The Inkey List's Colette Laxton on building a £100M skincare brand
In this episode, Viola sits down with Colette Laxton, co-founder of The Inkey List, the skincare brand that's completely changed how we talk about ingredients. Colette and her now-husband Mark Curry launched the brand in 2018, and within six months they'd secured a global partnership with Sephora. They've since hit over £100 million in revenue by making science-backed skincare affordable and actually explaining what's in the bottle. But what makes this conversation so compelling is how brutally honest Colette is about what it actually took to get there - from the brands they tried to launch before Inkey, to burning out four years in, to navigating sexism in boardrooms where she felt her opinion didn't count. It's a refreshingly unfiltered conversation about building a legacy brand, staying calm while your house is (metaphorically) burning down, and why you have to be "a bit of a psycho" to be a founder. theinkeylist.com
S3 · E19
Nov 3, 2025
34:33
Serial entrepreneur Andraya Kenton on self-worth and why authenticity always wins out
What does it really take to build three successful brands whilst raising a blended family of seven? In this episode, I'm chatting with serial entrepreneur Andraya Kenton, founder of multi-seven-figure jewellery companies Celeste Starre and MeMe London, and her newest beauty venture Luna Roca, a chic volcanic lava rock facial roller that's reimagining the traditional blotting paper. Andraya shares her journey from going "completely blind" into the jewellery industry to launching a beauty brand inspired by a dinner conversation in Bali, and why she believes the secret to success is believing you're worthy of it. We dive into her partnership with stepdaughter Tabby, why she prioritises customer satisfaction over viral TikTok videos, and how living in Bali has shaped her approach to business and spirituality. Andraya has very kindly offered Smart Beauty listeners an exclusive 20% discount across all three of her brands: Luna Roca, Celeste Starre and MeMe London. Just use code SMARTBEAUTY20 at checkout. lunaroca.com celestestarre.com meme.london
S3 · E18
Oct 29, 2025
32:35
How mushrooms became big news in beauty and wellness – with Dr Catalina Fernandez de Ana
Once the preserve of pizzas and Nintendo games, mushrooms are popping up everywhere at the moment (mushroom coffee anyone?). In this episode, we sit down with Dr Catalina Fernandez de Ana, Founder and CEO of biotech-based wellness company Hifas da Terra, to explore why mushrooms are so therapeutically powerful – and how they help train our immune systems to respond faster. Dr Catalina shares compelling clinical evidence from cancer trials and rare disease treatments, explains exactly how mushrooms work at a cellular level, and addresses the quality concerns plaguing the wellness industry. We also discuss the paradigm shift towards food as medicine, why integration with conventional healthcare matters more than alternative approaches, and what the future holds for mycotherapy as a standard care tool. Whether you're curious about the science or considering mushroom supplements, this conversation cuts through the wellness noise with evidence-based insights. hifasdaterra.co.uk
S3 · E17
Oct 15, 2025
27:58
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