The beauty and wellness company announced Thursday that it was forming a creative council, which will serve as an advisory board for future incubations and acquisitions.
The council, whose mission is to identify trends and cultural shifts that will impact the incubatorâs roster of companies including Milk Makeup and Obagi, is made up of six members with experiences ranging from beauty and retail, to design and branding. The council counts beauty industry veteran Roger Schmid, Mona Kattan, founder of Kayali fragrances and Huda Beauty, Jyothi Rao, senior advisor at Boston Consulting Group, Brooke Wall, founder and chairperson of The Wall Group, Piers North, Of The Northâs creative director, and Geoff Cook, partner and head of growth at Base Design, as members.
âThe vision was to put together a variety of people that are disruptors in the industry,â said Hind Sebti, Waldencast founder and chief growth officer. âThey have shown to ⦠be macro-trend led in terms of how they built their business.â
The council will meet three times a year and will advise on high-level brand-led initiatives instead of product categories and price points. The group will be led by Mazdeck Rassi, Waldencast global brand director and founder of Milk Studios and Milk Makeup, who will interpret and relay the councilâs suggestions to key stakeholders, including brand founders, teams and investors.
While beauty incubators particularly have a reputation of playing with trends and creating brands of the moment with little focused strategy, Rassi said brand founders with strong communities and purpose-driven labels will be pivotal to the future of Waldencast.
âMicro-trend driven ideas are driving everyone towards the same place ⦠and thereâs no differentiation,â said Rassi. âWe wanted to create a group that had a different timeline, five to 10 years, that ideates around creativity and where things are going in terms of culture.â
Rassi added that although the beauty market is saturated with trend-driven brands, labels that embrace cultural moments, including sports, music, identity, fashion and entertainment, will continue to innovate and occupy a unique place in the market. Brands that donât evolve with the culture are likely to stagnate, said Rassi.
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