How a Single Mom Channeled Her Cancer Diagnosis Into a Thriving, Cruelty-Free Cosmetics CompanyAuthor:Stephanie SaltzmanPublish date:Mar 15, 2018In our long-running series, "How I'm Making It," we talk to people making a living in the fashion and beauty industries about how they broke in and found success.
The drive to succeed came out of Nicole's very real need to provide for herself and her daughter, but also from a desire to create positive change in the world. After being diagnosed with breast cancer, she felt a need to channel her hardships into something meaningful. Nicole recently took a break from "pajama day" at Beauty Bakerie HQ in San Diego, Calif. to fill me in on her remarkable story and philosophy. Read on for the highlights.I'm from South Bend, Ind., and what led to starting the business was my love for creating things. My father is an entrepreneur, and my mom's just very tenacious, so I'm those two mixed together. My personal background wasn't so much beauty, it was more art.
I think it's really interesting that you launched with a direct-to-consumer business model, which is so popular in beauty now. Can you tell me about that and how it's worked for the company? A lot of it was organic. I was in the business for the first four-and-a-half years by myself, so the way I was thinking about digital overall was it was still the path to me that was economical, the path of least resistance. It doesn't cost as much to start an online brand.