Sarah Lee & Christine Chang (CEOs, Glow Recipe) | Renegades

The Glowing beauty duo with the Recipe for success

Welcome to Renegades, a series spotlighting Asian Pacific leaders and creatives who are carving their own paths and defying stereotypes along the way.

This week, we spotlight Sarah Lee and Christine Chang, co-founders and CEOs of Glow Recipe. Sarah and Christine dive into their start at L’Oreal, how they consider sustainability and marketing into their products, and their vision for a more diverse beauty industry.

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What did you want to be when you were growing up, and how does that compare to what you do today?

Christine: What I wanted to be growing up changed every few years throughout my life, but I was especially passionate about drawing and writing. The latter did propel me to do a masters in East Asian Literature (I wanted to translate Korean novels) in between working for years at L’Oreal in Korea and the US, but I quickly learned that my real path was in beauty! I enjoy the beauty industry so much as it’s not only fast-paced and creative, but also is led by some incredible leaders, especially women leaders, and there’s such a direct connection with the customer. I love that I still get to be involved with writing and art every day through beauty marketing, education and packaging.

Sarah: I was always into beauty and knew I would have a career in beauty, even as a young girl! Growing up, I watched my mother apply her skincare routine every night and did skin DIY rituals with her. As an 8-year-old, I remember many moments of lying on the couch with my mom masking with cucumber slices. I still remember her patiently explaining that cucumbers help clarify and brighten skin. It was through hundreds of little moments like this, which I hold onto as precious memories, that she instilled in me the philosophy, that if you respect and take good care of your skin, it will respect you back. In college, I opened “Sarah Salon” and invited my friends to our home to have spa days once a month. We would give each either facials, blowouts, and manis & pedis. I was always the one amongst my friends to recommend the latest and trendiest products or services. I loved products but I also loved the transformation and the confidence it gave people. I knew that I would end up in beauty and follow my passion some day.

Your professional journey began at L'Oréal. When did you realize the next step was to create your own skincare line, and what specific gaps or opportunities did you identify in the market?

Sarah: Glow Recipe bridged the gap between clinically-effective and efficacious skincare, with sensoriality, trend-setting branding, and education. Skincare was viewed as a chore before makeup, however, we were able to drive the conversation around skincare being not only self-care, but a collection of products our community wants to keep on their shelves and share online on their social platforms. At L’Oreal, Christine and I were widely exposed to different brands and channels, which provided amazing opportunities in our career trajectories. We have a combined 20+ years working in marketing and product development across a multitude of brands. L’Oreal has a true entrepreneurial environment which encouraged us to have ownership for a variety of projects and gave us a lot of responsibility early on in our careers. We are grateful to have worked at L’Oreal as it allowed us to build a great foundation in our current role as co-founders and co-CEOs for our own brand.

Christine: We both grew up with skincare being an important part of the daily self care ritual so it was interesting to see, even within the beauty industry, that skincare was often perceived as complex and overwhelming. When we first started Glow Recipe, we wanted to demystify skincare with approachable education on ingredients and building routines. While Glow Recipe skincare launched a few years after we started the business, we always knew we wanted to create a brand that would bring together highly effective skincare products with sensoriality, evocative packaging and enjoyable textures.

Glow Recipe is committed to clean and sustainable beauty. How do you incorporate these practices into your products and brand as a whole? What challenges have you faced in doing so?

Sarah: Sustainability and clean formulations are table stakes in today’s beauty industry and these are so important to not only today’s generations, but future generations to come. Glow Recipe is certified clean + planet positive at Sephora, which requires brands to have commitments and values in clean ingredients, climate, sustainable sourcing, responsible packaging, and environmental giving. We’ve taken the steps to work with our lab partners to make sure they fully understand our criteria as we want every step of our product formulations to incorporate sustainability. One example is all our fruits being sustainably sourced and utilizing all parts of the fruits are used to minimize any waste. Transparency is a top priority at Glow Recipe and our community has always been super responsive and engaging as we share brand news around our efforts.

Christine: Since the start of Glow Recipe, we’ve had 100% recyclable glass packaging whenever possible, also partially made of post consumer recycled glass in original molds, which was a huge investment for a new brand. Since then, we’ve taken ongoing steps in our sustainability journey from moving to FSC-certified paper and printing with soy and vegetable ink to reducing carton sizes to minimize paper weight by 50%+ and partnering with Terracycle so that all parts of our packaging are recyclable. We also launched our first refillable product with Plum Plump Moisture Cream a few years ago. We’re excited to be officially carbon neutral as of 2022 as we continue to work to eliminate our carbon footprint and action our reduction plan.

Glow Recipe products are known for their innovative skincare ingredients and playful packaging. How do you ensure that your products are both effective and appealing to consumers? What role does consumer feedback play in this process?

Sarah: We always look to pair powerful clinically effective actives with synergistic hero fruits in our formulations, such as our latest launch, our Pomegranate Peptide Firming Serum. Antioxidant-rich pomegranate seed oil, enzymes and extracts work synergistically with our blend of polypeptides. This serum not only helps to preventatively treat the signs of premature aging, but is clinically proven to firm, lift and smooth fine lines and wrinkles while effectively hydrating the skin. We use the entire pomegranate fruit, to minimize the waste and keep the formulation process as sustainable as possible. We also didn’t want this new launch to speak to only our more mature community, so we tested the Pomegranate Peptide Firming Serum to be effective for all ages and all skin st(ages). Whether you’re in your 20’s, 30’s, 40’s or 50’s+, our new Pomegranate Peptide Firming Serum can treat multiple skin concerns no matter what skin stage you’re in.

Christine: Treatments, including serums, are the most advanced category in skincare, and it’s also Glow Recipe’s largest category. Over the years, we’ve been able to bring together clinically effective actives, such as multi-molecular weight hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, encapsulated Vitamin C, polypeptides with synergistic fruit antioxidants like plum, watermelon, guava and pomegranate in effective treatments that also feel approachable. All of our serums are also designed to be gentle and layered with one another, making it easy to treat multiple skin concerns. Our bestselling serum, Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops, combines tone evening and brightening benefits over time with instant luminosity and makeup-priming benefits in one versatile formula. This versatility has made it a conversation starter on social platforms where our community feels empowered to share how they’ve used it in their own routines, whether as a serum, primer or mixed in with makeup. Our goal is to continue to create disruptive, innovative formulas that make clinically effective products accessible to all skin types, tones and concerns.

Your recent campaign features models who were blind casted anonymously. Why did you use this unique approach, and what’s the impact to be gained in perceptions of beauty and authenticity in the industry?

Christine: We’re passionate about celebrating all diverse forms of beauty and over the years we’ve tried to create a community where real skin acceptance is at the forefront. Our model imagery in campaigns are unretouched and a few years ago we committed to no longer using words like flawless, poreless, perfection etc in any of our social media platforms and packaging. We wanted to take this core brand value a step further and by casting campaign models completely anonymously from our community we wanted to show that everyone should be able to see themselves in a major beauty campaign. We hope the industry continues to move together and forward with real representation and challenge the idea of what traditional beauty standards are.

Sarah: We wanted to show our community that we believed in our campaign stars inner and outer Glow so much, it was important for us to share the images as widely as possible. As a digitally native brand, we’re so excited to be activating our first OOH campaign across multiple cities: NYC, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, and London. We believe that every model we casted anonymously from our community had a glow that belonged on a billboard. Our final campaign models consisted of representation across age, religion, sexual orientation, and gender expression. When we let the final models know they were selected, it was quite emotional as they all realized they received an opportunity that they would not have ever received before with this campaign.

Achieving virality is a challenge in today's saturated market. How do you market your products in a way that highlights multiple standout items rather than relying on a single "hero product?”

Christine: Virality isn’t just about a single creator creating a piece of content that has garnered millions of views, but when our entire community rallies behind a product or educational hack. We always want our community to feel empowered to show their own followers their experience with a Glow Recipe product and show their real skin journey. Over the years, we’ve built a super engaged community where they’re often posting about a new product even before it has launched. While we don’t plan for virality, engaging and involving our community has always been part of our brand ethos - from testing formulas, digestible clinical ingredient education, to getting the opportunity to be the first to receive our newest launches. We believe this has naturally led to buzz-worthy moments and conversation on social media.

Sarah: Many of Glow Recipe products are multi-benefit formulas which also means there are so many ways to educate our community about the product. For example, our Watermelon Toner and Watermelon Dew Drops first went viral as an amazing base before makeup application. We honed in on this messaging even further and started putting out content ourselves on all the different ways to use Dew Drops such as a primer, as a mixing medium, as a natural glow and as an over-makeup glow-inducing highlighter. We then focused on educating our community back to the basics - that these formulas are clinically formulated to transform skin and help you on your skincare journey.

Doing this has sustained momentum with our Toner and Dew Drops as we’re now seeing these products used in global GRWM content from creators and remain our best-selling products and continuously breaking records, years after their debut launch. Our TikTok community may have first fallen in love with these two products as versatile makeup prep, but have continued to show their followers that these clinically effective products also have powerful pore-minimizing and skin brightening benefits that truly work to visibly improve the skin. We always strive to create formulas that are lasting skincare staples in your routine.

Glow Recipe has successfully partnered with other brands and retailers to grow its business. What’s your approach to collaboration, and what advice do you have for those seeking successful partnerships?

Sarah: One of the most meaningful and successful partnerships we have is with Sephora. Our relationship with Sephora is very strong - we are so thankful to have found a retailer partner who is truly aligned on our core values and supports what we stand for as a brand. We would not have been able to grow as quickly as we did had we not partnered so closely with Sephora and received such incredible and enthusiastic support from their team. They are a true brand incubator and a platform where indie brands can thrive as they have a deep understanding and experience of nurturing and developing brands. They help boost brand awareness, support with their marketing levers, and with select brands, they are quite deeply involved with the brands in terms of product, go-to market strategy, and multi-year plans to roadmap the future together.

Christine: A recent collaboration that was incredibly fun for the team was the Glow Recipe x Barbie kit. We partnered with Mattel to create a limited edition tin that captured the fun, irreverent aesthetic of both brands that housed our bestselling Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops and Watermelon Glow Pink Juice Moisturizer. Our community resonates most with brand partnerships and collaborations that feel authentic to Glow Recipe. The new take on Barbie this year was a cultural moment that spoke to women being perceived in a multidimensional way and breaking outside of norms. We felt there were strong parallels to the multi-faceted Glow Recipe brand ethos where we try to provide an experience to customers that spans both clinical efficacy and sensoriality - that you can be both without compromise.

As Asian Pacific women founders, how are you actively contributing to the success and growth of future generations of entrepreneurs, especially those from similar backgrounds? What steps are you taking to ensure a diverse and inclusive landscape in the beauty industry and beyond?

Christine: We’re so excited to be in a position to mentor future entrepreneurs.In 2020, Glow Recipe launched our Community Mentoring Initiative with a commitment to create a customized and comprehensive mentoring program to support and partner with small businesses in the beauty and wellness space. Not only do we personally provide mentorship to these entrepreneurs, but also have key leadership team members across marketing, content, finance, PR, creative, sales and digital strategy involved in mentoring as well.

Sarah: This year, we decided to take this one-step further and open up the mentorship program to only women of color, as we know that women of color receive the smallest funding from investors. Our 2023 mentorship program entrepreneurs include Adeola Olaoluwa of The Frontal Queen, Jenny Chang of Mochiglow, and Nikita Charuza of Squigs Beauty. Many of our past mentee’s have grown into flourishing brands that we continuously cheer on! One of our past mentee’s include Christina Tegbe of 54 Thrones - we’ve loved mentoring her at the beginning of her journey and it’s been so amazing to watch her brand grow!

What are you currently working on that’s exciting you the most?

Sarah: We’re so excited to continue to focus on Glow Recipe’s global expansion as we get ready to expand into new markets. We’re so incredibly proud to finally be available at Sephora France starting in October and have plans to roll out across other EU countries over the next few years. We’ve always dreamed of going GLOW-bal and excited to bring the dew to our community across the world. I’m so excited to travel to Paris for this launch and meet with our community there.

Christine: This holiday season, we’ve partnered with Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals to create 3 limited edition kits - featuring artwork created by Children’s Miracle Network patients. We’re so proud of the final design with their drawings. As part of our 2023 partnership with this incredible organization, we're grateful to use our platform to make an impact by donating $100K in product and $50K in monetary donations and supporting CMN Hospitals Dance Marathon fundraisers throughout the year and as the lead sponsor of their 2023 Leadership Conference.

Lightning Round

Daily habit

Christine: I text my daughter a funny message every day after she gets on the school bus.

Sarah: Spritzing the Watermelon Glow Ultra Fine Mist as soon as I wake up - it awakens me while hydrating and refreshing my skin.

Most productive time of the day

Christine: Nighttime, when the house falls quiet.

Sarah: Early morning, after my baby goes back to bed, and I’m sitting at my desk with a cup of matcha.

Favorite beauty tip

Christine: Serum cocktailing. Depending on how my skin feels that day, I like to mix and match serums to slather on before sealing everything in with a moisturizer.

Sarah: Dabbing a drop of Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops on the high points of my face a boost of natural, dewy glow. I get compliments every time!

Favorite Glow Recipe product

Christine: Pomegranate Peptide Firming Serum - it’s my daily morning and night routine must-have for smooth, buttery, supple skin.

Sarah: I can’t live without our Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops - I use it as a serum to treat my hyperpigmentation as well as a glow booster under or over my makeup.

Best entrepreneurial tip

Christine: Cultivate a network of like-minded people around you that can act as your sounding board and personal advisory. I’ve gotten so much support from fellow entrepreneurs over the years who inspire me with their courage and generosity.

Sarah: Stick to your vision. Don’t be afraid to say no or proactively pivot, all within your vision. One of the best business decisions we made was to pivot and prioritize developing our own own brand, and our laser-focused approach to keep our expansion plan ‘narrow and deep’ allowed us to grow fast and strengthen relationships with our retailer partners around the world.

Fun fact

Christine: I went to a boarding school in Australia for high school. I was able to visit Australia this year for our Mecca popup in Melbourne, and it felt like a homecoming to see old friends there!

Sarah: I’m an adventure junkie! Skydiving, scuba diving, and skiing are some of my favorite hobbies!