Tower 28 founder Amy Liu on the rush to clean makeup

Amy Liu, founder and CEO of Tower 28, had dreams of being a beauty founder, in large part because she watched her father live out his own entrepreneurial dreams. But instead, she chose to work for some of the biggest founder-led brands before starting her own clean makeup company in 2019.

"I sought out founder-based brands here in Los Angeles, and prestige ones, color, skin care. I worked at Kate Somerville, Smashbox Cosmetics, Josie Maran. And really, with all the companies -- I went to went from bigger company to smaller company -- my role kept getting bigger. The hope there was that I just wanted to see what it was like to have a seat at the table," she said on the most recent episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast.

Because of Liu's own chronic eczema, Tower 28 was created to go beyond the proposition of clean. "I tried to make the switch to clean beauty, but a lot of clean beauty felt like it was actually pretty hard on my sensitive skin because there are essential oils and plant botanicals in it." Moreover, there were few clean color cosmetics options when Liu was conceiving of her brand.

Layering a youthful and accessible positioning has been a boon for the new brand --- products are all under $28. It's ranked No. 7 at Sephora, and it's penetrating 1% of Sephora sales worldwide. "One percent of all Sephora customers are buying Tower 28, which is actually a feat that a lot of big brands never get to; that is partly because of the fact that our price point is low, so then a lot of people can have the ability to try our products."