Beautyblender: Rea Ann Silva

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2022

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Working as a Hollywood makeup artist in the early 2000s, Rea Ann Silva designed a sponge that reshaped the face of beauty. She'd been looking for a technique to simplify makeup touch-ups without worrying about the smudges or streaks that were easily detected on HDTV. Her solution? A teardrop-shaped sponge—hand-cut from a foam wedge—that could apply makeup from any angle, and absorb just enough water to be extra-efficient. Actors and fellow makeup artists raved about the sponge, so Rea Ann cold-called an industry insider—who almost hung up on her before agreeing to listen to her idea. That call led to a fruitful partnership that helped Rea Ann launch Beautyblender in Hollywood pro shops, then Ulta and Sephora. Today, the bright pink teardrop sponge is at the center of a multi-million-dollar beauty brand, available in over 50 countries.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:07.0	Download the app today.
0:09.0	When you leave home, can you ever really go back?
0:12.0	Made a version!
0:13.0	Soccer legend Leo Messi and I both left Argentina as kids.
0:17.0	You know you're that piece of a puzzle that doesn't fit anywhere.
0:20.0	To so many immigrants, football is a way to reconnect.
0:23.0	Listen to the last cop in the embedded podcast feed
0:26.0	to hear the latest collaboration from MPR and Fuduro Studios.
0:32.0	I called them and I said my name is Rian and I'm a makeup artist.
0:37.0	And I have an idea and they were like, I could just, I could hear the sigh in the end of the phone.
0:45.0	You know, she was trying to basically get off the phone with me and I said,
0:49.0	I said, well, who designs your makeup sponges? You never had a makeup artist help you design a tool to apply makeup for your companies.
0:59.0	And she said, well, now actually we never have.
1:01.0	And I said, okay, so then maybe you want to listen to me? Maybe you want to hear my idea.
1:13.0	Welcome to How I Built This.
1:15.0	A show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists and the stories behind the movements they built.
1:25.0	I'm Guy Raaz and on the show today, how a Hollywood makeup artist figured out a better way to apply makeup with a teardrop shaped sponge
1:33.0	and grew that idea into beauty blender, a multi-million dollar cosmetics brand.
1:46.0	If you happen to walk into a big box electronic store in the early 2000s,
1:51.0	you might remember being slightly blown away by the new televisions on display because at the time,
1:57.0	HDTV was just getting popular and when you looked at those sets, even from across the store,
	...

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