Where Beauty Meets Brains
Elements by Madge Takes a Smart Approach to
Building Esteem
by Pam Losefsky
Is it really better to look good than to feel good? Meg Thompson and Karen Wood (BBAs ’01) believe that looking good helps young people feel better about themselves, gives them more confidence and consequently leads to higher self-esteem and greater success. “When you feel good about how you look, it helps you on the inside too,” Karen says. And this philosophy is the foundation on which they are layering their cosmetics enterprise, so to speak.
Good friends with shared entrepreneurial ambitions, when the
two graduated from McCombs in 2001 they actually took very
different turns. Karen, a finance major, headed to New York to
take a job as an analyst for investment bank UBS. Meg graduated
from the Business Honors Program but had no interest in pursuing
a functional business role or being confined to a cubicle.
Instead, she looked toward the opposite coast for something she
considered a little more exciting and avant-guard.
Working an office job for a production company in Los Angeles, Meg rubbed elbows with talented photographers, set designers and fashion stylists, and she saw how people were transformed at the hands of skilled make-up artists. Intrigued, the honors student decided to go back to school—this time to the Make-Up Designory, a six-week trade institution that would teach her the basics of color palettes, contouring and shading.
While a far cry from the rigors of the honors business curriculum, the Make-Up Designory’s beauty program is what launched Meg’s career as a freelance make-up artist. Having adroitly escaped cubicle life, she was now hobnobbing with Victoria’s Secret models, meeting celebrities and touring with pop groups. She’d definitely found a career that interested her, and it turned out to be much more than that. Meg’s newfound passion proved to be the impetus for the reemergence of her entrepreneurial dream.
Blending Meg’s growing experience in the cosmetics field and Karen’s penchant for numbers, the two friends, who’d kept up a transcontinental brainstorm on new business concepts, finally arrived at their big idea—a classic make-up line for the younger set. “I was frustrated with the options available for the teen market,” says Meg. She felt that the trendy and glittery make-up targeted to teens was sending the wrong message. “We wanted wearable colors for a classic and beautiful look, not bright, flashy colors,” says Meg. “It’s about just being your best person, not some sort of stage actress.”
Joined by Meg’s older sister Katherine, a marketing executive
with Docupak, the team tapped into
their networks of established and influential family and friends
to find an investor and good advice. What they have learned is to
look for help in unexpected places. “We found that if you show
someone you respect them and value their opinion, they’re going to
help you,” Meg says.
And in some ways, being young and naïve has been an asset. “We don’t know what we’re in for, so we can’t really be afraid of it,” Karen laughs.
They’ve been having a lot of fun with the business, but make no mistake, breaking into the industry has taken shear determination. “I think the reason why people don’t start new make-up lines every day is because the industry is very secretive and there are only a few companies in the U.S. that do the filling and manufacturing,” says Meg. “We are still learning the secrets—people don’t like to share them, and I think that’s the biggest barrier to entry.”
Working out of a 400-square-foot office at the foot of the Hollywood sign, Meg and Karen are still in start-up mode, handling all aspects of the business themselves—from the most complex to the most menial. And with the first shipment of product—a complete kit including moisturizer, make-up, a set of application tools, instructions for using everything and a convenient carrying case—arriving in April, they’ve also been on the road attending trade shows and preparing to sponsor a multi-city conference for teen girls this fall.
The team’s best-learned lesson of their entrepreneurial endeavor is one that can be applied—just like their clean, classic make-up—in any situation: “You need to surround yourself with people who are positive about what you want to do,” says Karen. “If you have to listen to people telling you how hard it is all day long, you would never do it.”
Elements by Madge can now be found in a variety of boutiques and through an interactive web site: www.madgecosmetics.com. –Pam Losefsky
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