Episode 125 - Exploring Strip Makeup’s Skin Cleansing Revolution With Co-Founders Riley Egan & Shaun O’Hollaren (Full Transcript)

This is a full transcript of the Nirvana Sisters podcast Episode 125.

Editor’s Note: Please know that this podcast transcript is automatically generated and may contain minor errors such as typos and word switches. For more information, be sure to listen to the podcast here or view our podcast episode guide.

Speaker A: Welcome to Nirvana Sisters podcast, where we take the intimidation out of well being and beauty to help you achieve your highest state, your Nirvana. We are sisters in law and your hosts. I'm Amy Sherman.

Speaker B: And I'm Katie Chandler. So let's get into some real conversation. You.

Speaker C: Welcome back to the show Nirvana Sisters family. It's Amy and Katie. And we are here with Sean O'hollerin and Riley Egan, co founders of the recently launched brand Strip, which is a better for you skin cleanser brand. We are very excited to get the 101 on how to effectively clean our face. So a bit about Sean and Riley. Sean is a seasoned expert on the beauty consumer. He co founded the Brow Gal in 2012 and grew the company domestically and scaling to 40 international markets. Following the Brow Gal, sean spearheaded sales and expansion at other successful brands such as Makeup Eraser, Malley's Cosmetics, and Sugar Bear Hair. I know all of those brands. Passionate about the beauty industry and an entrepreneurial spirit at heart, sean's knowledge of the makeup removal space paired with years of successfully bringing brands to the market is invaluable to strip's mission. Riley is a tech savvy entrepreneur with a film industry background. After graduating from UCLA, Riley pursued a career in tech while simultaneously working on passion projects in film and television industry. Very interesting. After multiple successful exits in getting a feature film made, riley transitioned into small business consulting in 2016. Combining his passion for the film industry and extensive background in startups, riley maintains a wealth of knowledge in raising capital and scaling operations and logistics for the business. So really cool backgrounds. Excited to hear more. Before we start though, we always like to start our show to talk about our Nirvana of the week. Something that brought us joy, a smile to the face, big or smile just to set the stage. So Katie, I'll pass it to you. Sure.

Speaker B: Okay, well, thanks for being here, Riley and Sean. We're excited to chat. I think my Nirvana this week, I had a spare like hour earlier, the week after I finished work and I went to the beach by myself. I've literally never done this since. I've lived here near the beach for the last almost two years. And I just went by myself and sat and caught a moment of peace, staring at the water, breathing, taking it all in, letting my thoughts process. And that was a very nice Nirvana. I don't think it was an hour, it's probably like 30 minutes, but either way, it was fantastic. What about you, Amy?

Speaker C: That's awesome. Well, I think this week has been hectic because last week I was on vacation, which was amazing and a Nirvana, but being back, just catching up on all the things has been a little bit busy and crazy. But anyway, this morning when I was making my coffee, I had to refill the beans and I just refilled them and then took a second and smelled them and they smelled like so good, that fresh coffee scent. So I was just like that was my ten little seconds of meditation this morning. So I'll go for that one. What about you? I'll pass it to who am I going to pass it to? Riley.

Speaker D: Absolutely. And thank you both so much for having us on here. So I have a few nirvanas, I'll share them pretty quickly. One was this morning getting to wake up in my own bed again after traveling for work for a week. We've been at a convention in Las Vegas all week and there's just something so special about being home. Another for me was actually at the convention and really having a lot of people come up to me and talk to us about how much they loved the brand was a very cool thing. Because being a really remote work team and a D to C brand, it isn't super often that we get to interact with people in person. So that was just a really lovely experience. And then the other thing was that prior to that convention, I was spending a few days with my parents and my mom was having a bit of a health scare and everything is okay.

Speaker C: Good. Thank God.

Speaker D: That's good. Yeah, elderly parents are health is their primary concern these days.

Speaker C: Yeah, that and congrats on the praise at the conference. That's super exciting. Okay. What about you, Sean?

Speaker E: Yeah, for me, Riley's referencing, we just got back from Cause and profit beauty trade show in Las Vegas and for me it was just seeing so many people from all over the world that I hadn't seen in years, probably since before COVID And just actually getting to give them a big hug know, touch and feel somebody that you work with for so many years. So that was my nirvana this week.

Speaker C: Yeah. That's good. The connection is so important. OK, so let's kick off. I want to know how you all met and is this your first business together?

Speaker D: Absolutely. And yes, it is our first business together. Sean and I have known each other for, I want to say a decade or a little bit more now. So it's been quite a while that we've known each other and that was mutual friends introducing us back when we both worked in film and television. And it was actually a client of Sean's who just thought we'd get along famously and thankfully for both of us, he was right and we've been friends ever since.

Speaker C: I love it.

Speaker E: Yeah, it is our first business. We've been probably discussing it for two or three years before it finally came to fruition.

Speaker C: That's so cool. And tell us about the cleanser category of beauty. It's one we haven't really covered. We've covered it generally, but we haven't covered in detail. So I'd love to kind of get a sense of why you chose this category and what the inspiration behind your brand is.

Speaker E: Yeah, we both have different attachments and stories that brought us together in this category. For me, I was more in color cosmetics and some hair care before I got into business with Makeup Eraser, which was kind of the original reusable makeup wipes, and fell in love with it. Fell in love with the category and just realized that there wasn't a whole lot of innovation or education around this crucial step, being the first step in your skincare routine. And it was always something I wanted to do, was create a brand that only focused on makeup removal and cleansing and tried to be the go to experts and not just another brand that has a single product or two tacked onto a very long range of skincare. So Riley has a different story, but that's how we started discussing and I'm.

Speaker D: Not a makeup user myself, but my history in film and television, I've had my makeup done hundreds or thousands of times, potentially, and I've had my skin really badly damaged by very harsh cleansing products. And I'd always thought that was maybe just a me problem or potentially just the nature of heavier makeups on set and harsher products to remove those. And so when Sean came to me and know, I've had this idea for years, and I'd really love to do something in cleansing and makeup removal, I was like, that can't be a problem for everybody. And he assured me that it was. So I started talking to just every woman I could in my life. And it was really shocking to me that as I spoke to these gals, I'd say maybe one in ten really loved the product they had for this step, and the rest fell somewhere between being kind of ambivalent of like, it does the job, but I don't love it. To actively disliking it, but not knowing what else to do. And on the extreme end of the spectrum, potentially having just abandoned the category to use like a grocery store variety coconut oil. And so as I kind of was like, that is very strange to me what's going on here. I started studying cleansing more and really looking at the science behind how it affects skin. And we can get into this more probably later in the podcast, but the kind of unfortunate truth is, it's certainly better than sleeping in your makeup, but cleansers actually can do some pretty significant harm to your skin. And so as I looked at this, I was like, it seems very unacceptable to me that an entire product category that every makeup user, really, every person should be doing every single day is actively taking away from your skin's health.

Speaker B: Yeah, it's interesting because we've talked to a lot of women on the podcast, and we often ask them what their routine is and everything, and we hear a lot of different responses when it comes to makeup removal. That piece. So what is it about strip that is, what did you guys do? How did you innovate that's?

Speaker D: Okay. I get really excited about this because I kind of geek out on the science behind skincare. And really what this came from was us looking at Cleansing as a whole category and saying, what is it doing that isn't serving users? And how can we make a product that does? And so we really identified three main ways that traditional cleansers aren't as skin friendly as we'd love them to be and at a high level. The first is it removes a ton of moisture from your skin, so it dehydrates your skin. The second is that it disrupts your skin's PH. And this is a really big issue and really has a lot of skincare effects, but it elevates your skin's PH to a really alkaline level, which is very unhealthy. And then the third and this is where the name came from, it strips your skin of a lot of the essential nutrients your skin just needs to be healthy. So we actually have been in product development for three years, and it's been a very unique challenge to figure out how to have the Cleansing efficacy that people demand.

Speaker C: Wow.

Speaker D: As a side note, something that was very OD to me when I got involved in this category was people seem to be so impressed by a product that just removed their makeup. And I was like, shouldn't that be the absolute bare minimum that this product is doing for you? So, obviously, the Cleansing efficacy is very important to us. And then we had to solve for how do we, in the same jar, in the same step, rehydrate balance your PH and restore those nutrients. And it was a very fun journey, thankfully. And Sean kind of doesn't mention this, but he actually is a chemist. We worked with some really formulators. He oversaw a lot of that product development, and we came out with what I think are really incredible cleansers. And this is a category that people don't really expect skincare benefits from. So we did go have third party clinical testing done. So all of these claims are independently verified. Everything we say about the brand is actually from independent testing.

Speaker C: Yeah, I was going to ask you about that. I saw that you have all your clinical results on your website, which is super important. I've been paying a lot of attention to brands that are doing that because it's just like, to your point, you don't really know what you're putting in your face, even if it says tested. Like, the clinical test know the gold star of knowing that the product's safe and a good product. But I'd love to hear a little bit more about the clinical results and the chemist side of it. Sean, that's super cool.

Speaker E: Yeah, it was something I actually never thought I would graduate with a degree in biology and chemistry but once I got into beauty, it was something that became applicable. So I haven't done product development with every single one of my brands, but with strip, just building this from the ground up, it was very important. And I know what I don't know. We did bring in some other great formulators as well and really studied the market. What are other brands doing, what are consumers really comfortable using and using on a daily basis? So that's kind of how we backed into it. But as Riley said, we wanted to create products that had never really been seen before and really solved a lot of the issues looking at even makeup Eraser did back in the day. I really love to use just water to remove your makeup rather than pre soaked wipes that sit in chemicals. That was something really important to us as well as the environmental approach, wanted all of our wipes not to sit in landfills for years on end and not break down. What we did with the clinicals was really tried to break down each of our products to look at how well they hydrated the skin, any antiaging benefits, obviously how much makeup they removed. And then we also wanted to compare them to traditional cleansers that you could find at local drugstores or premium beauty stores that were popular and really show the point of difference in what we created. So it was phenomenal. Riley, you might have off the top of your head some of the actual numbers and stats about how much more it removed your makeup and hydrated you. I'm running on little sleep, so I.

Speaker D: Don'T I do have so the one that I love to start with and I'd like to start I actually thought it was a mistake when the lab sent this back to us. The whipped coconut makeup remover that we have compared to your drugstore variety Neutrogena wipe leaves your skin with 500% more moisture in it.

Speaker B: Oh, my God.

Speaker D: This illustrates point of how traditional cleansers negatively impact your skin. And we know these drugstore wipes are kind of like the most egregious offender and everyone knows that they are really bad for your face and they're terrible for the environment. They're cheap, they're convenient, and they're fast. So unfortunately, people still use them. But whereas a product like that can remove almost 65% of the moisture from your skin, r two products are clinically proven to instantly increase hydration by 75% and 73%. That's the Cabiar jelly is 75% and the whipped coconut is 73%.

Speaker B: Wow, that's very impressive.

Speaker C: If you think about it, when you cleanse your face, then at least at night, right? Or in the morning. But when you cleanse your face, then you put back on a hyaluronic acid or something to then hydrate your face. And I have very dry skin, so I'm doing that all the time. So I got to figure out what I'm doing, but I have to try your products, and then maybe I don't need those things.

Speaker E: A lot of these close off your pores when you're using a micellar water or a chemical soaked wipe. It really shuts that down. So your skincare that you're using after is not as effective.

Speaker B: Yeah, right.

Speaker C: It doesn't give it the thing in again.

Speaker B: Right as we're talking, I'm thinking about the cleansers that I use, and I've never committed to a cleanser. I think I have three different cleansers in my shower by my sink, because I'm literally just at best, like you said earlier, I need something to take off my makeup and not make my skin worse. So it should be more than that.

Speaker D: That's what you rewind. A moment you asked how strip came about. It was really saying, how do we make a really integral product that actually is first concerned with the health and wellness of the people that are using the product. And so everything we talked about all of these ways that traditional cleansers damage your skin. Essentially every cleanser is the same, and people really choose them based on, like, do I prefer the feel of a micellar water, a balm, an oil, a wipe? But they're all doing the same kind of damage to people's skin. And it's really crazy when you think about it, how much of your beauty routine is actually undoing the damage you just did with pulling out that moisture, disrupting your PH, and stripping your skin of those nutrients.

Speaker C: So true.

Speaker D: I'm sure you're all familiar with, because we all are that dry, tight, irritated, postcleans skin. That's your skin's way of screaming, something's wrong. Please help me. And that desire, like, I need to reach for my toner, I need to reach for my moisturizer the second I get my makeup off so I can start. And this was something that Sean really saw as a great opportunity for people, is to change the way we look at cleansing. It's not this thing that we need to do before we start our skincare. It's not, Let me get my makeup off so I can start my skincare. Your skincare starts the moment you begin cleansing. And this is because you're either, like Sean said, really setting yourself up for success with the rest of your routine, or you're giving the rest of your routine a lot of extra work to do.

Speaker C: Yeah, I was just going to say it sounds like it could shorten your routine if you're doing it right. So on that point, give us the breakdown from, like, an am and A-P-M in terms of cleansing, because I hear different things.

Speaker D: Nighttime routine is generally more important because you have been potentially wearing makeup all day and your skin has been accumulating different impurities, dirt, oil, grime, different environmental factors throughout the day that don't have as much of a chance to impact your skin while you're asleep. But the real thing that's going on here and this is a lot of that PH issue we talked about earlier is cleansing twice a day can actually be pretty harmful to your skin. So your skin's natural PH, or the healthy PH I should say, is about 4.5. This is pretty acidic. Base is seven. And most cleansers, your general soap can have a PH as high as nine or ten. So this really raises your PH. And what this does is it actually causes your skin's acid mantle to break down. This is the primary component of your skin barrier, which is what helps keep all that moisture in it's what helps your skin to regulate itself and keep itself healthy, to bring in the nutrients it needs to stop those environmental factors from getting in and negatively impacting your skin. And when you've disrupted your PH like this, it can actually take eight to 10 hours for your skin to repair itself on its own. So if you're cleansing morning and night with a product that is disrupting your PH, your skin essentially never has a chance to recover. And you're going through life with your skin's primary, your first defense not working for you. So it can really cause big issues. And there's other ways around this, right? This isn't a given. So there's products that balance PH. There's certain cleansers that balance PH, but not everyone's aware of that. So not everyone's taking it into account.

Speaker E: And oftentimes a double cleanse is only needed because the first product you're using isn't working. Holistically. So we do like to say you can use a single topical or one of our topicals on their own, but taking off that first layer of makeup with a reusable wipe with just water, especially that heavy eye makeup that's a little harder to get off, and then going in with a topical cleanser is a great way to do it. And then I still just cleanse generally in the morning as well as I think, a lot of us.

Speaker B: So tell us the different products that you have and why one would choose. Absolutely.

Speaker D: I actually have a few jars with me right here, I can show you. I'll start with this one that's in my hand. And this is our caviar jelly makeup remover. Caviar is just a name, by the way. Our entire brand is completely vegan, cruelty free, clean by EU standards. But we have these cool little bubbles, which is part of the technology. And it kind of looks a little bit, maybe a bit hard to see here, but looks like Caviar, which I can get into.

Speaker C: I haven't seen this online, by the way.

Speaker D: Both balance PH and then the real difference is in what skincare issue that is of concern to you. And what's really great about the Caviar specifically is that it's about replenishing the lipids in your skin. So this addresses all the visible signs of aging, from fine lines to wrinkles skin elasticity, skin texture, skin evenness. And we have some really awesome actives in there hyaluronic acid, there's collagen peptides. There's vitamin C. There's retinoic acid, which is a form of retinol. There's a ton of antioxidants in there. So if you're concerned with either preventing signs of aging or minimizing signs of aging, that caviar jelly is an awesome product for you. Whipped coconut, again, rehydrates balances PH. But this is really focused on long term skin health and general skin wellness. So this is about that skin barrier that we talked about earlier. And a lot of the actives are focused on the fatty acids and the healthy fats that primarily compromise the acid mantle and the skin barrier. And then a lot of the micronutrients that your skin, again, needs to keep that functioning well and keep that balanced. So there's things like mango seed butter, shea butter, ginseng root, which stimulates a ton of circulation to bring those micronutrients back into the skin. And again, tons of antioxidants in there. Coconut oil, which hydrates the skin. And something very cool about this product, specifically coconut oil. Generally, it's a great product, but it really clogs pores, which obviously is an issue. And then you basically need to cleanse again to open your pores back up. And one of the kind of miracle things about this is that we've figured out how to have all of those benefits from coconut oil, and it be a non clogging product.

Speaker E: Oh, nice. And a common misperception. People will say skincare ingredients in a cleanser, aren't you just washing it off? How does that actually work? And if you have the right product, the right ingredients to actually remove your makeup, open up your pores, and cleansing correctly for 60 seconds or more, they really do work. It's not just a marketing gimmick that you see out there of collagen based cleanser.

Speaker D: People very rightly. So should be asking that how does the cleanser not cancel out the skincare benefits and wash them right out? And the answer is, that's something we spent three years developing. So I can't tell you how it works. But we did that clinical testing so we could say, look, this really is happening. It really does work.

Speaker B: The caviar looks like it would be very soothing. It looks like it's like a nice gel. Is it kind of like a gel? Is that the feeling of it? And does it have exfoliation to it or do those little it does not. Okay, yeah, it looks like it would be so soothing. This is kind of just a random question, but do you have to splash your face with water first?

Speaker D: You can go through the entire cleansing step without water. For me, I prefer both with water. So I'll take the product, I'll put it on my skin, work it into the skin a little bit, especially with that caviar. You want to give those little bubbles time to dissolve into your skin. That's where all the skin care is. And then I'll dampen it. I think dampening it for me gets a nice little lather going. I think the efficacy has a bit improved and it just feels nice. And then wipe and rinse and you're done.

Speaker B: Not having to use water, though, is cool sometimes.

Speaker C: You're I know I tend to use, to your point, the brands you formerly worked at, the Makeup Eraser, I have those. And sometimes I'll do cleaning and then I'll use that to just take it off with a little bit of water instead of splashing my face.

Speaker D: And there are a handful of people that have found their own type of double cleanse with these. And primarily it's that they use the whipped coconut to remove makeup and then they do the second part of that double cleanse with the caviar jelly.

Speaker B: I'm curious, how many men do you think are cleansing their face? Because I don't think my husband does. But he will then, because he has crows, right?

Speaker E: Yeah, there's a lot, but definitely not properly. I mean, at least men's skincare category has certainly gotten bigger, but I still recommend all my male friends is use a skincare or use a cleanser that you typically wouldn't associate as a men's cleanser. But there has been brands like Jack Black, obviously, over the years, and Anthony that have come out with some good ones. But yeah, I think a lot of guys are still using just your typical soap in the.

Speaker C: Mean. My routine at night is so long. My husband's always like, what are you know? But I think he literally splashes his face or does nothing unless he's showering.

Speaker B: Strip is targeted to women, but it's unisex you're using it yourself.

Speaker D: Riley quite a few of the husbands of women that have bought in the products have reached out to us and say that they steal them from their wives, which is always pretty funny to hear, but so know, I think a lot of the gals out there understand the importance of cleansing and already see it as an integral step in their routine. So it kind of is a better fit for that market. And like Sean said, men's skincare is certainly growing, but a lot of men still don't want to take the time, don't see the importance. So there's, I think, a different process there with it starts with education and it starts with helping people understand why they'd want to do this and what the benefit they're going to receive from it is.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker C: What about teens? A lot of teens use your products.

Speaker E: Oh, sorry, what was that?

Speaker C: Sorry, I was just going to ask if your products are good for teens. I have two teens.

Speaker E: They definitely are. I mean, what we've seen is there's just a lot of complacency around this step and it's whatever is easiest to grab at your local store, drugstore, beauty store. It really is. I mean, we see teenagers, I mean, 13 up to gals in their 60s using the product. And something that I noticed too, was that a lot of especially gals that have skincare issues, especially struggling with acne, when they would go into even a dermatologist and try to look at how to clear that up, it was never a question that was asked was, well, what type of cleanser are you using? And a lot of times when you do change that step out, especially when you're going through those, your hormones are starting to change in your teens oftentimes that can really make the difference, and you might not have to get on Accutane or another.

Speaker D: There's a really good reason for that.

Speaker E: Major drug to clear up those issues.

Speaker D: Which, again, goes back to that PH. And our products certainly do not solve hormonal acne. However, if you have acne prone skin, again, your skin's natural PH is 4.5, which is acidic, the main bacteria that cause acne and that acne thrives on and lives on. It loves an alkaline PH. So if your skin's PH is constantly alkaline, the bacteria that primarily causes acne is thriving on your skin. So for a lot of those teens out there struggling with potentially non hormonal acne issues, the right cleanser and really keeping in mind balancing that PH is actually a very helpful step.

Speaker C: Yeah, I have two teenage boys, and so I'm sure if they just their acne isn't terrible, but I'm sure if they just wash their face better, their skin would clear up. They just need to take the time. But I can just tell them this will take them a minute and they don't need anything else. So, hey, that's good. Okay, so you mentioned it before, men not taking care of themselves as much as women do in terms of cleansing skin and stuff. So just in general, how do you feel about being men in this beauty business, this women dominated beauty business, which is just quite the opposite of most other industries. So definitely more of an anomaly. I'd love to get your thoughts on that.

Speaker E: Yeah, it's really interesting. You see, obviously from the manufacturing side of beauty, you do see a lot of men, but on the product development side, brand owners and obviously creating a product that is targeted towards women, it's really interesting, but we really try everything. I mean, my bathroom is filled with makeup. Anytime somebody comes over, are you sure you're not married? Or if somebody else is living here. But I try everything before I use it. I have so many female friends in the industry and out that we really test everything with. And to me, though, it really comes down to being passionate about it, creating a great product that you can stand behind and put your integrity into. And there's nothing more exciting than creating something that gals or people use every day that lives in their bathroom and that they can come back and buy that really makes them feel better. Look. Better. It's certainly interesting.

Speaker D: It's actually very helpful in two interesting ways. And the first is that as kind of an outsider to the beauty world, I felt like I was willing to ask the dumb questions that no one else seemed to be asking. And primarily that was why does it seem like so many women have just accepted that every day they need to use a product that is actively detracting from their skin's health? That just seemed crazy to me, but it seemed like there was a lot of complacency there and no one was really questioning it. And so asking that question was a big part of how this brand got started and why we developed products the way we did. And then the second part is I came in assuming that people would probably question my intentions. What is this guy doing in beauty? Are these two guys just trying to cash in on women and take advantage of women? And what it caused us to do is, I think, really care about the integrity of the brand and the integrity of the product and go as far as we possibly could in every single facet of the brand from the cleansing efficacy to the skincare, to the sustainability, to the products being clean, to the point where these products sean and I try and be as in the background as possible as founders. We're not a founder forward brand because we think the products should and can speak for themselves and that as people use them, they will feel like really viscerally feel instantly, but also over time how different of a product this is and the integrity that we built this with.

Speaker B: Yeah, I love that your passion for it definitely comes through and it's very impressive. Everything that you've done, the testing and finding, the efficacy, it sounds like they're both great products. I really want to get my hands on them. So you have to tell us where we can buy them. Where are you selling them, by the way? Are they online?

Speaker E: Yeah, we're selling them. So on our website stripmakeup.com on Amazon we are with Urban Outfitters going into Nordstrom soon as available there too and growing every yeah, we're a newer brand and want to keep the goal is to round out the line with a lot more products as well. So we can really offer every consumer a different product that suits them, suits their skin, suits their profile and just the feel of what they like out of a cleanser or makeup remover.

Speaker C: Yeah, I was going to ask you what products are coming down the pipeline or you can't say yet.

Speaker E: There's some really fun ones we're doing a lot of we think on the go too is a big opportunity for anyone that travels a lot because oftentimes your routine can get disrupted. We've got more products both for in and out of shower, oil based, gel based, water based, so a lot more in the next several months.

Speaker B: And are you going to be offering more than just face? Are we talking potentially body washes coming?

Speaker D: We don't have body coming at the moment. Really, our focus is staying, again, just on the face and in the cleansing, and we don't have any plans to expand outside of cleansing anytime soon. And again, this is because while we do want to cater to every kind of removal routine preference, right now, a lot of people out there select their cleanser just based on product weight, product texture, product feel, because they all do the same thing. And our long term goal is to really redefine the way people look at this category. And they say, this is a crucial step in my skincare routine. What element of my skin or what skin concern do I want to be addressing? And so they all have their own skincare benefits. And it's like, do I care about the visible signs of aging? Do I care about my skin barrier? Do I have acne prone skin? So a lot of the products we're developing are for very interesting and differentiated skincare issues.

Speaker B: Yeah. That's brilliant. Nice. Good for you. Well, congratulations on all the success. It's exciting.

Speaker C: So I have a question before we wrap. So as best friends and business partners, which we can relate to, we're sister in laws and best friends. What is the best and worst parts of working together? And be honest.

Speaker E: Riley.

Speaker D: I love working with Sean and I.

Speaker C: Let me listen to this.

Speaker D: Sometimes it can be difficult because there is a different component to the relationship. And frankly, with Sean and I, I think that's been a huge plus for us because we have really great communication. Neither of us take anything personally. And because we have a very close connection, it's very easy to call each other and say, what in the world were you thinking with that? Or what's going on? And, hey, I need you here. And I think that the way we're able to communicate is super helpful for us as a brand. I think the hardest thing and I don't know this is so much about us being friends is that we're completely remote, so we don't live in the same city. And building a brand with somebody and not being able to be next to them every day while you're doing it has a ton of its own very unique challenges.

Speaker B: Yes, we relate to that also.

Speaker C: Yes, we can. Absolutely. Where are you all based?

Speaker E: I'm in Los Angeles and Riley's in Texas. And then our team spread out all over the yeah, too far. I hate to be that person, but I honestly can't say there's much, many bad things about working with Riley. I said years ago I would never work with a friend again. And Riley is the only one I could ever see myself working with. I'm so happy. We both have such different ways of thinking we take on different roles and positions in the company and really just balance each other. Well, I would say, yeah, being remote is a little tougher, but Riley, you make it easy. You're a great partner. That's nice.

Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, I was going to say, it seems like you guys have different skill sets, but together it works perfectly. It's like you complement each other, which is great. So congrats on all your success and where can everybody find you?

Speaker E: Yeah. On our website. Stripmakeup.com. Amazon Urban Outfitters.

Speaker C: Oh, right, you already said Instagram. I don't know if you said Instagram.

Speaker E: Yeah, on Instagram, we're at Strip Makeup TikTok as well, and also YouTube Strip Makeup, so we constantly also try to put out a lot of education just around cleansing, certainly around our products. And our team's always there to answer any questions, too, about a specific issue or what product is right or wrong for something nice.

Speaker C: Well, thank you again. It was so nice to meet you all. And, yeah, we look forward to seeing.

Speaker B: Congrats on all the success.

Speaker E: Thank you both so much.

Speaker A: Thanks for listening to Nirvana Sisters. For more information on this episode, check out the show notes, please subscribe and.

Speaker C: Leave us a review.

Speaker A: Also, find us on Instagram at Nirvana Sisters. If you loved what you just listened to or know someone that would, please.

Speaker C: Share it and tag us. Tune in next week for a fresh.

Speaker A: New episode of Nirvana Sisters. We'll continue to watch out for all things wellness so you don't have to. Bye.