50 and Limitless: Reflections on Building a Beauty Empire with Toni Ko, Founder of NYX Cosmetics

Superwomen with Rebecca Minkoff

Rebecca Minkoff

Society & Culture

4.8 • 543 Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2023

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Toni Ko, beauty mogul and founder of NYX Cosmetics, just turned 50 this year. She's changed her perspective on life and her experiences, but she's not ready to put away her lipstick just yet. After climbing Mount Kiliminjaro, in a full face of makeup, it seems she is just getting started. Toni Ko was born in South Korea and immigrated to the United States with her family when she was 13 years old. She grew up in the beauty business working in her mother’s cosmetic store selling perfume. Toni founded NYX Cosmetics in 1999 at the age of 25. In its first year alone, NYX Cosmetics earned $2 million. NYX quickly became successful and in 2014 was acquired by L’Oréal. Falling into a deep depression after the acquisition, Toni did what she knew best and founded several new companies. Today, Toni runs Bespoke Beauty Brands, a company that helps launch new beauty brands. Thanks for listening! Don't forget to order Rebecca's new book, Fearless: The New Rules for Unlocking Creativity, Courage, and Success. Follow Superwomen on Instagram. Social Media: ⁠@tonikokoko⁠ ⁠@nyxcosmetics⁠ Links: ⁠Bespokebeautybrands.com⁠ Big Ideas: How turning 50 changes your perspective on life The importance of having a business mindset and thinking outside the box Learning the importance of not putting limits on yourself Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, welcome. Today's guest is Tony Coe, the founder of Nick's Cosmetics. Tony has long been one of the more powerful forces in the beauty industry and has generated over one billion in retail revenue during her career. She's incredibly business savvy, but also spunky and an open book. And I think
0:22.4	Tony is an incredible example of what it takes to make it and how starting from nothing
0:27.7	ends in an exit to over reportedly, not confirmed, 500 million to L'Oreal. We talk about her next
0:35.5	beauty venture and how she manages a crazy insane life,
0:39.6	including climbing to Mount Kilimanjaro. Take a listen. Tony, welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited
0:47.6	to interview you today. Hi, Rebecca. Thanks for having me. I'm so happy to be on.
0:54.2	So I've been a longtime fan. I feel like we have friends that I've always been trying to introduce me to you. So I was so excited when I got the opportunity to interview you. So let's talk about makeup. What got you interested in makeup?
1:11.6	Were you always interested as a young girl?
1:14.5	Yes, for sure, especially watching my mom get herself ready every morning.
1:19.9	My mom is currently 78 years old and she still does not leave the house without being completely made up from head to toe.
1:31.5	And I just loved makeup.
1:41.5	I was not allowed to wear makeup when I was in my early teen years, like 14-ish. But I went to Kmart.
1:46.5	We had Kmart back then, and I bought makeup, and and I hid those under my backpack and I wore makeup every day.
1:47.6	My mom just didn't know that I was wearing them.
1:50.5	Oh my gosh.
1:51.1	So would you take it off before you got home?
1:53.3	Yeah.
1:53.5	I had a bar of soap with a black eyeliner.
1:58.0	It was a mapeleine black eyeliner and a face powder by a cover girl and like a
2:02.9	lip, a very light color, uh, lip gloss, lipstickish item and along with a small bar of soap and I wash
2:10.6	my face at school before coming home. Oh my goodness. The fact that she didn't see like the tingees
2:16.0	of black makeup or any hint,
	...

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