Chief Executive Natalie Plain is looking for a “perfect partner” to help shape the future of her Billion Dollar Brows business.
“We need someone who understands [me] and this category,” said Plain, who founded the company in 2004 with her husband, Robert.
The Irvine-based brow cosmetics firm is off on a strong footing. Ranked No. 64 on this week’s list of Women-Owned Business (see page 16), it will debut this month at Sephora stores in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. The India and Indonesia markets will follow in September, bringing the total to 37 countries.
In Australia the brand is sold at Mecca Maxima’s 30 stores, and KLM Beauty distributes it in the U.K. market, targeting mainly aestheticians and other industry professionals.
Billion Dollar Brows is sold domestically at professional salons and spas and at more than 1,200 Kohl’s department stores around the country.
“We are their go-to brow brand, which is a huge milestone for our company,” Plain said.
The former White House intern—she shared a cubicle with Monica Lewinsky—started Billion Dollar Brows as an e-commerce venture, selling just one product, an eyebrow conditioner she named Brow Boost.
Inspiration
The inspiration for the venture came from Plain’s own set of brows, which she said drew compliments from friends and business associates. She enjoyed her career as a producer and writer for Paramount Pictures but decided to take a chance as an entrepreneur, starting out with the help of a $500,000 loan backed by the Small Business Administration.
“People would say, ‘Eyebrows?’ And I’d say, ‘Yes, everybody has them!’ And then they see dollar signs,” she said.
The marketplace for the category at the time was not as saturated as it is today. Sales of eyebrow cosmetics have nearly doubled since 2010, according to the Color Cosmetics US 2015 report developed by London-based market research firm Mintel Group Ltd.
About a quarter of American women are now using eyebrow pencils, and one in five are wearing eyebrow makeup on a regular basis.
Plain moved Billion Dollar Brows from the couple’s apartment to a Beverly Hills-based brow-shaping salon in 2006. A lineup of brow pencils, primers, gels and powders followed, as did a patent for a two-prong shaping tool called the Brow Buddy.
“We started with just one product, and now we have well over 25 products, which include consumer products at Kohl’s and eyebrow professional products sold at beauty salons or professional supply stores,” she said.
The company moved to Irvine in 2014 to accommodate the expanding company, picking up nearly 8,000 square feet of office, warehouse and fulfillment space on Hammond near the Irvine Spectrum area. Its products are manufactured in Los Angeles and Mexico City, and components are developed in China.
Billion Dollar Brows now has 15 employees and has set a goal to reach $15 million in annual revenue next year. Plain wouldn’t disclose its current sales.
“We are on track, but we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” Plain said.
Brow Academy
Growth plans include promoting the Brow Academy she launched in May to support professionals who “really want to invest in their careers and be the best in what they do. We’ve always sold the product, but we never taught them how to shape an eyebrow in a classroom setting.”
The academy offers two courses, Brows 101 and Advanced Brows, the latter helping to introduce its line of eyebrow extension products. The company also will offer webinars and in-person classes aimed at reaching and introducing professional product kits to a wider audience.
Plain said she’s talking to several trade schools about potential partnerships, including with a makeup academy in Los Angeles and Paul Mitchell Beauty School in Costa Mesa.
“We’d prefer everyone coming to us in Irvine, but we also know that’s not realistic,” she said.
Plain also is in talks with Target Corp. in Minneapolis, Minn., about producing its brow-shaping tool under a private label for the popular retail chain.
“It would have the Target logo on the actual Buddy itself,” she said. “We’ve created a first round of samples for them, and we are in talks to see how we would position this.”
