It’s anyone’s guess when Jaimee Lupton will make a guest appearance as an investor on “Shark Tank.” After all, with six beauty brands under her belt — Monday Haircare, Osana Beauty, Being Haircare, Châlon Pairs, and most recently, Daise and Laura Polko Los Angeles — all established in less than six years, she’s an aspiring entrepreneur’s dream reference. Not to mention, she’s honed quite a skillful eye for finding underused market space.
The latest example of this is a foray into one of the market’s newest — thus, vastly underutilized — opportunities: affordable Gen-Alpha beauty offerings. “There are limited brands formulated for that Gen Alpha consumer,” Lupton tells Fashionista. Her solution? Daise, a fragrance-forward body-care line formulated specifically for the beauty- and skin care-obsessed tween.
Launched in January and available to shop online and in-store at Ulta Beauty, items include four body products — wash, mist, spray and scrub — a bath bomb and lip balms. Pricing ranges from $2.99 to $7.49. The entire line promotes product “playability” as seen by the layer-friendly scents, fun, pastel-colored packaging and unexpected textures (the body wash, for example, has a whipped, shaving cream-like foam).
Photo: Courtesy of Daise
“That Gen Alpha girl is at the beginning of her beauty journey, and there are few brands that really speak to her,” Lupton explains. “There are brands obviously for her older sister or her mom, but not a true beauty brand created for that 12-year-old in terms of formulation, product offering and in how we market to her — they’re 100% digitally native. We are creating a brand that’s really speaking to that consumer where they are.”
Formulation-wise, Lupton thought heavily about working with gentle-enough ingredients for young skin. (And trust, a quick trip to Sephora or a TikTok search will prove just how much young shoppers heed the best ingredients.) As such, Daise chooses not to formulate with acrylates, phenoxyethanol, parabens, phthalates, silicone, aluminum, lead, microbeads or benzyl alcohol.
While Daise is squarely aligned with the Gen Alpha girl, Lupton’s other new venture, Laura Polko Los Angeles, aims to reach millennial beauty enthusiasts. Co-founded by Lupton and celebrity hairstylist Laura Polko, the professional-quality hair-care line is for the “low-maintenance person” looking for affordable “quality” and “high-performance hair products,” says Polko. The label debuted in Target with a range of everyday essentials, including shampoo, conditioner and a hair mask that address moisture retention, volume, color protection and repair. All products are less than $15.
Photo: Courtesy of Laura Polko Los Angeles
While the brand marks Lupton’s sixth major beauty endeavor, it’s Polko’s first. She admittedly calls the experience “scary” but “exciting” and she’s “grateful” to have collaborated with Lupton through it all.
“It’s great to work with someone who gets it — someone who communicates quickly, knows how to make things work, understands social media and has a deep knowledge of how to build a brand,” Polko says of Lupton.
Both were deeply involved in creating Laura Polko Los Angeles, with Lupton having a significant hand in development, including product formulation and securing patents. She also helped with the market-ready brand building. “Her contributions have been essential in bringing this vision to life,” Polko continues. “With Jaimee by my side, I feel really proud of what we’ve created, and I’m confident in it.”
Photo: Courtesy of Laura Polko Los Angeles
Nearly five years into her entrepreneurial journey, Lupton has gained a formidable reputation in the beauty and body-care industry. But it’d be a lie to say that starting a beauty brand — multiple, at that — was a part of her original career plan: “I definitely fell into it,” Lupton confesses. In 2013, the New Zealand native graduated from Auckland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Communication Studies. She quickly went into public relations, working at Black Communications (a Sydney, Australia-based luxury agency) for about five years.
In 2019, Lupton moved back home with an itch to branch out independently. While observing market white space, she noticed a lack of luxury-quality hair care at an accessible price point, so in 2020, she and her partner Nick Mowbray co-launched Monday Haircare.
The brand had been in the works for a while, but nothing could have prepared Lupton for the pandemic-induced international shutdown that was enforced a week after Monday Haircare’s launch. As “insane” as the situation was, it was a blessing in disguise, says Lupton: Within six weeks, Monday Haircare sold six months’ worth of stock. With everyone forced to be home, consumers were more enticed by the “beautiful packaging,” compelling social media content and under-$15 pricing. The following year, it launched on Target, Ulta, Walmart, Amazon and CVS. To date, the brand sells in 43 countries, 160 retailers and over 71,000 doors. “I’ll be honest, we didn’t know a lot,” Lupton reflects. “But now we’ve taken stock and really understand what the Gen-Z and millennial beauty consumer wants.”
Photo: Courtesy of Monday Haircare
Monday Haircare’s growth quickly snowballed into the launch of other brands: In 2024 alone, Lupton launched Osāna Naturals, a wellness-focused hair- and body-care line; Châlon Paris, a premium hand and body label; and Being Haircare, an inclusive hair brand. The range of brands and their offerings perfectly illustrates where Lupton finds her success: “Addressing different customer needs and demands.”
“There’s so much white space in the market […] and there’s huge retail demand to have truly accessible brands on the shelf,” she explains. “There are different needs in each sector and we’re able to bring our unique way in which we launch brands in those categories.”
Lupton’s secret to staying ahead of the curve on untapped opportunities involves data. Social media, especially TikTok, has been a major point of reference for her. She also receives insight from her network of retailers, who will approach her “when they see an opportunity within their retailer for a brand,” she notes.
That close wholesale relationship speaks to how Lupton’s been able to scale so much, so fast: She’s now in the position to skip the direct-to-consumer phase altogether and receive immediate shelf space with a specific retailer. (Being Haircare, for example, was exclusively made for Walmart upon launch.)
“The spend to acquire [retailers] and get in front of them is huge. We can’t compete with their foot traffic […] so we’ve joined them,” she says of the strategy. “That is our secret sauce: Launching as if we’re a D2C brand, but partnering with the scale of retail.”
Apart from the wholesale element and outsourced PR, everything is conducted in-house. Product development, design and supply chain are all handled by a team that works across every brand. (Marketing is the only area that has designated brands.) The in-house set-up creates a lot of “efficiency” and helps with “innovation and speed to market,” Lupton shares.
Photo: Courtesy of Daise
Of course, with this structure, brands must avoid unintentionally cannibalizing each other when operating under similar categories. Lupton acknowledges there are risks, but she sees this as more of an “advantage.”
“You do have to be careful […] and there will be some overlaps, but I actually think it helps because you learn,” she explains. “We’ve learned so much with Monday Haircare and we take those key learnings and cross-pollinate them onto our other brands.”
Admittedly, not every entrepreneur has the luxury of an in-house production set-up, nor do they all have the capital to take on wholesale partnerships. (Lupton declined to comment on financials ahead of this interview.) In those situations, the beauty founder suggests it’s best to pursue retail when you have “a strong pitch” they can “back” and a fool-proof supply chain. “It’s very detrimental to retail to have empty shelf space, so you need to have your pipeline ready,” she says. “You can’t launch and it suddenly not be on the shelf.”
While many facets of Lupton’s business operations have fallen into place organically, obstacles still come with the territory. For her, staying “truly dedicated” can be a challenge, not to mention the creative burnout she’s susceptible to while juggling multiple labels. It’s why she emphasizes surrounding herself with a “passionate” team is a crucial part of propelling things forward. Handling the work/life balance is another daily struggle. It’s probably best, then, that Lupton sees “balance” as a “myth.”
Photo: Courtesy of Being Haircare
“I love the quote from Betty Friedan where she says, ‘You can have it all, but not at the same time.’ I compartmentalize a lot: When I’m working with the team, I’m working with the team. When I’m with my daughter, I’m with my daughter. When we’re working on pipeline brands, I’m really focused there […] It is really hard to do everything at once. But [these launches] won’t be forever as well. You have to make sacrifices now to make these brands truly a success.”
Ultimately, there’s no one formula for successful entrepreneurship. Every founder faces their own path to discovering what works for them and what doesn’t — Lupton is no different. So, what advice does she have for aspiring entrepreneurs? “At the end of the day, it is about just giving it a go,” she says. “Once you start, you’ll look back in five years and not believe where you are. That is definitely the beauty entrepreneurial journey I’ve been on. […] Putting your foot in front of the other and compounding effort into something speaks volumes at the end.”
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Source: Fashionista.com