Jun Lim | Founder of BORNTOSTANDOUT

In episode 153 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Dimond talks to BORNTOSTANDOUT founder Jun Lim in another Australian podcast exclusive.BORNTOSTANDOUT is unquestionably one of the most interesting, and in my opinion industry-defining, brands in not just the fragrance space, but the beauty sphere at large right now.                    What’s so fascinating to me about BTSO is that it’s built on this idea of rebellion, but the brand is based in South Korea. Now you hear Korea and you think “Well, that makes sense, it’s the global capital of beauty innovation,” but as Jun puts it- “Korea is simultaneously one of the most innovative beauty markets in the world, but also the most conformist in terms of taste.” He explained to me that K Beauty is, at its core, built on the idea of perfecting a standard, not breaking one. That in mind, I had a lot of questions for Jun about how he’s gone about launching into a relatively conservative market, given so much of the brand’s iconography is tied to sex, to excess, to gluttony- it’s super sexy, which to me feels really natural, but evidently this is a brand that was never formed with solely its local market in mind. In this conversation, Jun shares how he’s managed to expand the brand to over 75 countries without diluting its DNA, why he believes specificity is what creates resonance, and how he keeps creating perfumes when he only has so many love stories to tell…Read more at glowjournal.comFollow BTSO on Instagram @borntostandout.officialStay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode 152 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Dimond talks to Fara Homidi in an Australian podcast exclusive.You know Fara Homidi’s work, regardless of if that name is familiar to you or not. Whether you’re invested in beauty and had been counting down to her namesake brand’s arrival on Australian shelves, or if you’ve had a peripheral scroll through Instagram and seen a Miu Miu campaign or an i-D cover- based on the extent to which she’s shaped 21st century beauty, I can just about guarantee you’ve seen her work. I’ve always been visually very drawn to the way Fara applies makeup and approaches beauty overall, but it’s been so interesting to listen to the way she speaks about that approach. I’d read a quote from her, years ago, in which she said she’s more interested in makeup looking “alive” than “pretty,” so I pushed her on this a bit as I wanted to hear more. She explained that, for her, it’s more about creating something for the female gaze. When Fara talks about sexy, she’s acutely aware of what women find sexy- that’s who she’s creating for. In the early 2000s, for example, when she was finding a lot of her work for magazines was being airbrushed to oblivion, her way of rebelling was to seek out teams of women- female photographers, stylists, creative directors, women who were more interested in something that looked “lived in” as opposed to this idea of “perfection.” That’s how Fara rebelled, and it’s something she’s taken through the decades with her and has since woven through Fara Homidi Beauty. While Fara was in Australia to launch the brand into Mecca, she shared what she thinks some founders miss by never having worked in consumer-facing beauty, how she strikes the fine line between artistry and consumer understanding, and how she convinced Kendall Jenner to bleach her eyebrows for the most recent cover of Vogue Paris. Read more at glowjournal.comFollow Fara Homidi Beauty on Instagram @farahomidibeautyStay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did you miss me?Season 8 of the Glow Journal podcast returns this Wednesday, April 1. We can't wait to share this season's lineup of some of the world's best beauty entrepreneurs- starting with an Australian podcast exclusive. If you love beauty, business, and the sound of my voice- you know what to do. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode 151 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Dimond talks to the founder of Supernova Body, Cici Stefanova.By virtue of my job, I’m asked pretty often which beauty brands I’m genuinely excited by or who I think both the industry and consumers should be keeping an eye on, and for the last 18 months my first answer has been Supernova Body without a second of hesitation. This brand is everything I love in a new brand- the products are genuinely innovative and fill a legitimate market gap, it’s making beauty fun and sexy and that’s what beauty is to me, and it’s led by a founder who is only in this for the right reasons. Cici actually reminds me a lot of Deciem and The Ordinary’s Nicola Kilner, who I often cite as one of my all time favourite guests, as they’re both really beautiful examples of female founders leading with kindness. Supernova Body is an active, high performance body care brand, formulated specifically to target and treat body acne, that Cici launched in 2024 following four years of product development and, in this episode, Cici very kindly gave me an exclusive on the brand’s next launch coming in early 2026… In this conversation, Cici shares how she landed Sephora UK as Supernova’s very first retailer, some of the unexpected benefits of remaining D2C and self funded for the first year, and why her exit interview from British Vogue didn’t go quite as expected.Read more at glowjournal.comFollow Supernova Body on Instagram @supernova.bodyStay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode 150 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Dimond talks once again to the founder and CEO of Conserving Beauty, Natassia Nicolao. I mentioned earlier this season that, given we’re now 7 seasons in, I wanted to go back and revisit some of my favourite beauty brand stories- I wanted to bring back previous guests from earlier seasons and look at how their brands and the beauty industry at large has evolved since we last recorded. For the uninitiated, Conserving Beauty is Australia’s first ever waterless beauty brand, the first beauty brand globally to be part of the Water Footprint network, the first Australian beauty brand to be backed by both government and impact investment funds, and the brand behind the world’s first dissolving facial wipes. Natassia launched the brand when she was just 27 years old. Since we last spoke the brand has launched into Mecca and Priceline locally as well as expanding into the UK and US markets, the latter of which is now responsible for a whopping 70% of the brand’s revenue. What I found the most interesting, however, is that the data that Natassia and her team have gathered over the last 3 and a half years has shown them that their customer is actually not who they initially thought it was, and how they’ve changed tack to make sure they’re formulating for and marketing to the right consumers. In this conversation, Natassia shares exactly how they’ve pivoted for an audience they didn’t realise was theirs’, how she’s approaching Conserving Beauty’s US launch differently from their UK launch, and why the pharmacy customer has proven surprisingly lucrative. Read more at glowjournal.comFollow Conserving Beauty on Instagram @conservingbeautyStay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've been on the Insta for some time, this is essentially a 40 minute #notsponsoredjustgood. Another solo episode this week, wrapping up the year (almost- still a few guest episodes left in Season 7) with my favourite new beauty launches of 2025.We'll add the full list in these shownotes eventually but, for now, enjoy. Stay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I almost ran out of P words and alliteration is important here. I promised you more solo episodes last year, and in absolutely no way have I delivered. Here's one!A little life update, then answering your questions on work, my studies, how I got into MCing, and whether or not I think PR sendouts actually move product... then into some beauty chat about prescription actives and wedding perfumes. As always, thank you to everyone who submitted questions! Stay up to date on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode 149 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Dimond talks to the Naturium, Susan Yara.Two years before Hailey Bieber sold Rhode to e.l.f. Beauty, Susan Yara and her team sold Naturium to the beauty juggernaut for $355 million USD. The Naturium growth story is the kind of story you hear and think “This could be a Netflix doco.” Susan, naturally, tells it better than I do, but this may be one of the biggest beauty comebacks in recent history. Susan Yara, then a popular YouTuber, joined Naturium in a founder and CEO role in the year 2020. There was a controversy, the internet called for her to be cancelled, but against the odds the brand achieved a whopping 80% compound annual growth rate and were acquired by e.l.f. for that eye watering $355 million in 2023- just three years post-launch. This week, Naturium launches into Sephora Australia (into physical stores TODAY), with Susan still very much fronting the brand and, as she tells me, “getting to do all the fun stuff.” So. How did she do it?In this conversation, Susan shares a timeline of that 2020 controversy, whether “clean” means anything in 2025, and why your customer’s return rate is the most important stat to be looking at . Read more at glowjournal.comFollow Naturium on Instagram @naturiumStay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode 148 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Dimond talks to the founder of Haléau Beauty, Eleanor Pendleton.Eleanor Pendleton knows beauty. She was the youngest Beauty Editor in Australia, taking the title at FAMOUS magazine when she was only 20 years old and has spent the better part of the last two decades in beauty publishing, largely at the helm of her own publication, Gritty Pretty. Eleanor is an unbelievable example of a journalist who has been able to not just adapt to but embrace the changing face of the media landscape of whatever we’re calling it, and to this day I really think nobody navigated that change better than Eleanor and her Gritty Pretty team- it was the gloss and the production value of a magazine, but it was digital and, most importantly, it was honest. That in mind, there are very few people I’d trust more than Eleanor to create their own beauty line. Haléau Beauty, a skin-first, Australian made cosmetics line, launches today, October 1st, and Eleanor so kindly gave me the exclusive. This is a brand that harnesses, quite literally, two decades worth of insider beauty knowledge and places it in our hands. In this conversation, Eleanor shares how she convinced advertisers to buy into Gritty Pretty when she had no product to show them, her advice for anyone wanting to break into the beauty media landscape in 2025, and why she’s chosen to document the entire Haléau launch process via Substack. Read more at glowjournal.comFollow Haléau on Instagram @haleaubeautyStay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Former Mecca execs Georgie Gilbert and Camille Peressini had access to just about every luxury body care brand on the market. They’re also both mums- realistically, are you buying and using a high end body wash in the shower with your husband and kids? No, you’re doing a supermarket run and picking up something there. Both Georgie and Camille knew, however, that the supermarket body care offering was uninspiring. The products didn’t look or feel luxe, the scents were generic, and it felt like the accessible options weren’t formulated or designed with beauty consumers in mind. Enter, SOMA. If the gap itself wasn’t compelling enough, consider that Georgie and Camille were given a 10 week launch timeline from Woolworths. That’s 10 weeks to strategise, formulate, package and market an entirely new brand, all while keeping that accessible price point in mind, and have it on the shelves of over 1000 Woolies stores nationwide in less than three months. In this conversation, Georgie and Camille share how they’re going about converting habitual supermarket shoppers who’ve been buying the same body wash for decades, the intricacies of creating body care packaging that’s fully and easily recyclable, and what happens when your product accidentally goes viral on TikTok before you’ve officially launched. Read more at glowjournal.comFollow Bronte Body Care on Instagram @brontebodycareFollow SOMA on Instagram @somapersonalcareStay up to date with Gemma on Instagram at @gemdimond and @glow.journal, or get in touch at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.