Alicia Grande: Founder & CEO of Grande Cosmetics

Episode 684

On this episode of The Kara Goldin Show, we’re joined by Alicia Grande, Founder and CEO of Grande Cosmetics—the beauty brand behind the cult-favorite GrandeLASH-MD now a top lash and brow serum in the U.S. What started with $25,000 in savings and a solution for her own postpartum hair loss has grown into a global brand with a full lineup of award-winning, science-backed beauty enhancers.
In our conversation, Alicia shares her journey from early grit to global success, what it takes to build trust in a crowded industry, and the real story behind how Grande Cosmetics developed a loyal following. We dive into how she approaches product development, why clinical results and consumer trust have always been her north star, and how she’s using her platform to bring attention to often-overlooked stages of women’s health like menopause and perimenopause. We also touch on the impact of Grande Gives Back, her philanthropic initiative that's donated over $1M to women’s causes.
Whether you're building a brand, navigating beauty trends, or just love a good founder story—you won’t want to miss this inspiring conversation. Now on The Kara Goldin Show.

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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be you. Just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked out, knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and really, some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Goldin show. So excited to have my next guest here. I’ve been a huge fan of the product that she created, but also an incredible story behind it, Alicia Grande, who is the founder and CEO of Grande Cosmetics. So the powerhouse behind Grande Lash, MD, you may be familiar with it, the iconic lash serum that helped launch an entirely new category out there. Back in 2008 her journey began with just $25,000 in savings and a whole lot of determination and puzzle building exercises along the way, resilience, and today, she leads a top lash and brow serum brand in the US, sold across Sephora, Ulta, Amazon, and, of course, her own site. And while Alicia’s business is booming, what really sets her apart is her commitment to results, to safety, to clinically back innovation and to lifting women up along the way. So also a lip plumping serum. I can’t wait to to get into that too. So we’re going to talk about how she’s built this incredible brand rooted in performance and trust and what she’s learned leading through growth and how she thinks about beauty and the business around it and breaking barriers in a very crowded space today. So Alicia, welcome. So excited that you’re here. Thank

Alicia Grande 2:16
you, Kara, it’s my pleasure to be on your show. It’s an honor. Excited to talk to you about, you know, Grande Cosmetics, and how I got started. It’s definitely a long story. I

Kara Goldin 2:28
love it. I love it. So for those who aren’t familiar with Grande Cosmetics, can you give us a little bit of background on what it is first

Alicia Grande 2:37
so Grande Cosmetics is a brand that is best known for Grande Lash MD, it’s a lash enhancing serum, because your lashes have a full potential to get longer and thicker and darker. So that is what we are best known for. Our lash conditioner. It is the number one lash serum on the market. And then we also have a brow serum. That’s the number one on the market as well. And that’s really transformational beauty, taking your own natural features and transforming them with ingredients that are performance driven to achieve results and safety and efficacy. It’s a mouthful.

Kara Goldin 3:20
So when you think about those early days of Grande Cosmetics, I read that you started the business with $25,000 in savings, looking back, what were some of those decisions that you had to make as you were trying to create this company?

Alicia Grande 3:38
Well, yeah, I mean, it was definitely the definition. And, you know, all these definitions, I saw your hockey stick. One, this is Bootstrap. Definitely. A lot of the decisions were, do I make product? Do I go to a trade show? How do I keep putting revenue into the business? Because that $25,000 Kara that was made just that, that just really bootstrapped the initial launch of making the product, having a trade show, Booth ready literature so I could go to my first trade show. And the decisions that I had to make were difficult, because I had to work very hard and leave my children behind with my husband and my my mother in law so I could make this company work. And being a woman and a mother and and making that decision to really build a company was was was difficult, because I wanted to really be there for my children. And in essence, I was because, you know, they have a great life, and I was still able to really provide for them. But it was not easy making decisions on missing holidays. And birthdays and events, etc, to be at trade shows all around the United States, so I could sell my product at hair, makeup and spa shows, and I was selling a lot of a lot, one at a time, so the professionals can see that their own lashes would be longer and thicker and darker, and they needed to be convinced Kara that it worked. And once they knew that it worked, they were like my walking billboards. You know? They because their clients would see that their lashes were amazing, and they they look like they were fake, and they would repurchase then six or 12 and 24 and really, that’s how the business grew. That’s

Kara Goldin 5:45
amazing. So your backstory of why you developed the product is really, really fascinating. Can you share that with us? Yes.

Alicia Grande 5:55
So I actually had a radio show back when there was terrestrial radio, and I was obsessed with beauty and vitamins and skincare. So it was like, like, you’re filling your need to speak with entrepreneurs. I was scratching that itch to talk about beauty, and I went to a trade show in New York City. It was a spa show, and I was walking up and down the aisles, and this was back in 2006 and you know, everyone was, oh, I have the skincare ingredient that does this and gets rid of wrinkles, etc. And it everyone was sounding the same. And then I met a doctor and scientist who had created a formula that said that it would enhance your own natural lashes. And no one was talking about that in 2006 I didn’t even know that you could bring your lashes back to what they were from your youth. And even better, so being a person that was suffering from postpartum lash loss, and you know, hormones do a lot to women and men. And you know, my lashes got very short, and I thought this was something that I was stuck with. So lo and behold, I saw their product, and I I used it on myself, of course, and I investigated the ingredients to make sure that it was safe, because I was really hard to believe that some product can can do this? Well, I mean, my lashes got so long and thick that people were stopping me, my friends, my family, and thought that I had falsies, and I knew, with the last name, Grande, okay, that like Oprah would say I had that ah moment to really make this product, and I that’s when I said, I don’t care. I’m taking out my entire life savings, and I’m going to invest this $25,000 into building granite cosmetics. So crazy story, and I might be running on Kara but no, no, no, I love it. I did my first trade show in 2009 in January at the Javits Center in New York, a big, big convention center, the largest in New York City. And I spent $1,500 on my trade show booth, and I did $8,000 in sales. I sold out. I was so happy that I did so well. And I called up my husband, and I said, Frank, I literally sold out. I quadrupled my investment like I know I got it now. And he was literally walking out from the company that he was with for 15 years. He was let go because he was in finance. He was a trader, and so they, he said, they said, Put it all in a box and get out of here. So I said, Frank, don’t worry. I got this. I know I have the recipe for success, because if I could do it once, I could do it over and over again. And, you know, I had two small boys at home, one was three and one was five, and I knew I wanted to, you know, be able to give them a good life. And at that point, I really became the breadwinner of the family, and I went out there all over the country, and I was selling at the trade shows, nobody would go by my booth without hearing Have you heard of granny last? MD, and it was Yes, I got a hook. Or no, I got a hook. So it’s a lot of energy to put out there, and I have that energy, and I still do, 17 years later, believe it or not, not, the same amount of energy, but, but I have it.

Kara Goldin 9:55
No, you do. You have great, great energy. So the last serum space. Case barely existed when you first launched Grande Lash. MD, what gave, what was the key difference between what you were doing and what you were seeing out there?

Alicia Grande 10:14
Yeah, so I was definitely a pioneer in the industry, and I, and I, you know, I got it from a doctor and scientist who had created it for them to sell it. But as we know, a lot of times, dark doctors can’t do good marketing, right? So I went out there and I was, as you would say, quote, unquote, a hustler with grit and passion about this product, and they made it specifically for me a little different. But what was the difference between between other formulas? There was another formula out there that was pretty big, and it was called revital ash, and they’re still, they’re still out there, made by a doctor, and their their price point was a lot higher, and I was really going towards, you know, the everyday woman, because I came from a family that did not have money. I was brought up with in a divorced household, and I had to always work. I put myself through college, and I understand that everybody, women and men, deserve to have their best lashes and brows. So I was my price point was very reasonable, and he’s indigestible, and it had efficacy. So when, when I want you know when, when it’s funny, because when, when they first met me, they thought I was going to have, like, revitalized the the doctor met me, and he came by my booth, and he said, well, where’s Dr Grande? And I said, No, no, there is. I said, No, I’ve got Dr Grande. I’m Alicia Grande, and I am a self proclaimed beauty junkie and lash enthusiast, so, and I’ve been, you know, in the beauty industry for a long time. I, you know, I used to be in cosmetics when I was young, and my mother was in cosmetics, so I really sort of grew up with it Kara, but he thought it was going to be my hobby. And I think because, you know, as a woman, a lot of a lot of men don’t think you have that hustle, you know. And even the people who made it for me said, Oh,

this is gonna be your little hobby, yeah. Lo and behold,

they winded up almost like kind of working for me, because I was their biggest account. That’s why, right? That is, yeah, wild, yeah. So

Kara Goldin 12:42
you had worked in the beauty industry, but you hadn’t done things like packaging, right or, or, you know, you had been a consumer of many brands in the beauty industry, but how did you know what to do next? I mean, it’s, it’s amazing what you’ve accomplished. And I think that so often people, when they’re thinking about launching a product, they they have this little voice in their head that says, I don’t know anything about this, and, you know, I can’t do it, but you’re a great example of somebody who just went and did

Alicia Grande 13:15
it. I think coming from also, you know, humble beginnings, I wasn’t really scared to take the risk. So understanding that I had a product that really had efficacy and safety, I was able to get people to believe in me, and these were professionals, estheticians, beauticians, you know, makeup artists, dermatologists, and when they used it, they they had the results, and then they winded up selling it, and, and, and, you know, those trade shows were relationship building. And I think that’s, that’s, that’s something that that I feel bad for a lot of young people right now, because the trade shows aren’t what they used to be. I feel like they this is a place that people were looking for newness. They were looking to connect, and they were connecting with me, and they wanted to support me. I mean, I was working from 2008 until 2016 before Sephora even knocked on my door. So I was selling, yeah, so I was selling to only professionals, and when Sephora got it, I mean, they, they, it blew up like instantly, and it was so prime for retail. And, yeah,

Kara Goldin 14:48
I mean, when you think about even 2009 I mean, the the direct to consumer business was, was pretty, you know, minimal, right? You didn’t have the experience. Either that you have today in in that for a go to market strategy, so you mostly focused on beauty salons, right? And lash places weren’t even as prevalent either, right?

Alicia Grande 15:14
No, yeah, no, definitely was. It was hairdressers and estheticians, and especially, you know, like I said before, when they would get their lash transformation right, people would see it, so they would this. These are people that you when you go to your hairdresser, when you go to your aesthetician or your makeup artist, you you have a relationship normally with these people. You’re communicating with them. So when you see them and you notice that their lashes look amazing, what did you do? Great. I want it so they have this trust relationship with their clients, and I build a trust relationship with them. And I really, I really owe my success to the passion that I had at the trade shows and the grit that I had there, and the the people who are the professionals who trusted me? Because if I did not build up all that momentum and I just put a product out on a shelf, it would not have taken off like it did. Yeah, it would not have taken no. So

Kara Goldin 16:35
how long was it before you extended beyond that initial product? Because you, I mean, you had one product, one SKU, for a large portion of those early days. So when was it that you decided to go beyond that product?

Alicia Grande 16:52
So good question I had for three years. It was Grande Lash only, and that’s what also made it easier to make this company, because it was one product with a lot of success, a hero, right? And everyone would ask me, What mascara do you have on at the trade show? So it was very clear to me that I needed to make a mascara, and I didn’t really have a lot of mascara contacts, so I was looking for ways to get mascaras manufactured, and I went to a show in New York called makeup New York, where manufacturers all across the country go and show their makeup. And I had met a company that showed me this mascara that was very similar to my favorite mascara, because every time before I would go to a trade show, I buy a brand new bottle of fresh mascara so I could really build my lash as well and get that wow from the people who were you know, passing me at the trade show where I was engaging with so I made a mascara that was made in Italy that was very luxurious, and it had peptides infused into it that were lash enhancing peptides. And that was my original mascara, Grande mascara. And I would pair Grande Lash and Grande mascara in a little point of purchase display at the salons and spa was like a little acrylic a display, and it would have a header. And so when they would buy from me at the trade show, they would buy six Grande Lash and six Grande mascara, and then, yeah, and, and, and that was it, and then, and then I did brow in five years later. So was, was like, yeah, like, yeah, it was five years later. I I knew I wanted to separate Grande Brow from Grande Lash, because your brows actually collect dust particles, and your lashes could be sensitive, like you were saying to me before the show you have allergies, you’re sensitive. So you know you have pollen and and and dust from the environment going on your brows. And yes, we clean our face before we apply Grande Lash and Granny brow, but you never know. So I wanted to be able to prevent any allergic reactions by cross contamination of any thing from the environment that goes on your brows, onto your lashes. So granny brow was made, and you also needed more serum for your brows, because your brows are bigger, and you your brows actually have a four month growth cycle, and your lashes have a three month so I did, you know people were using in the on the lashes and the brows, and they didn’t have enough. So I said, Let’s just separate this. Separate

Kara Goldin 19:54
the two of them out. Yeah. What is yes? What is the key difference between like a brow? Serum versus a lash serum then

Alicia Grande 20:02
so I, of course, I’m always ready to show that. So the lash serum has a small applicator that it’s very precise, okay, and then you just apply it on your lash line. One dip is good enough for both lash lines. Then you have the brow, which has a much bigger applicator. It’s around two and a half times the size, and it is the the viscosity is is much more fluid, because you want to apply it on your whole entire brow. And you don’t want the lash serum to be drippy. You want it to be very precise, so it doesn’t get in your eye, right? And the brow, you want it to be like a little more, you know, watery, so it could go all over your brows. So those are the really true difference. The ingredient story is very similar, but the percentages are somewhat different,

Kara Goldin 21:00
and you also have it in different colors now too. So different tints. Oh,

Alicia Grande 21:06
yeah, the Grande brow here, of course, I have it two and one. Love, it is a revel. Did you get it? I hope they gave you one of those. Yeah, yeah, Auburn. And make sure you get the Auburn. Okay, we have five shades. It really is revolutionary. Granny brow two in one. It is a brow gel. And, you know, we, we every, not everyone, but a lot of people use brow gel. It’s very easy to use. You don’t even have to have a makeup look. You could just fix and tame your brows. And the brow serum is infused in the brow gel. So, you know, we’re all trying to take shorter steps in our routines, and this really gives you makeup, great makeup, and a serum that actually has efficacy over time. So, yeah, so,

Kara Goldin 21:57
so you’ve always prioritized clinicals and third party trials and consumer feedback. So how important is that today, when you think about products as they’re launching into the industry? I mean, it’s probably even gotten more important over the years for a product like yours, especially the more competitive it’s gotten. But what would you say to any founder out there who’s thinking about launching a product? Well,

Alicia Grande 22:27
first of all, you want to really know, as a founder, and I definitely want to know, especially a product that’s going close to your eyes, that it’s, number one, safe, right? And number two, there’s the efficacy. I mean, both of those are, I don’t know if it’s one or two, they’re both as equally important, but safety and efficacy are very important, and any retailer that you’re dealing with is going to ask, do you have studies this should be used in your marketing as well. So it is very important, and I wear my claims, I mean my studies as a badge of honor. I’ve went and literally just did another study because there was some misinformation on the internet that I wanted to make sure that my product did not do some of the things that I was seeing like under eye, Peri orbital, fat loss, all the crazy irritation. So we actually commissioned a big study with 120 people, and this was very expensive. But now that I’ve been in business for a long time, I was able to do a study of this large scale, and we disproved all of those, those the misinformation that really runs rampant in this day and age, in a digital society, you know, in a cancel culture, in a in a society where you know things are click bait, basically, right? So you have to disprove those things, and, and you’re always being judged. And, yeah, I mean, to this day, there’s people that still think that there, there, there’s some issues and and it is a safe product. But listen, there are people that have sensitivities, right? There’s people. Not everyone is the same. Some people can’t use certain skincares. And, you know, um, granny, lashes. Like skincare for your lashes, same thing with the brows. So you you have to be careful. And if you see that your body is saying no to something, then you have to listen to it. Yeah, no,

Kara Goldin 24:47
definitely. So you’ve grown, as we discussed, from just being in beauty outlets to Sephora and Amazon and International. National markets. How do you think about retail strategy while maintaining quality and brand identity? I mean, and in a very competitive market, I mean, I would have to say that if you were launching today, you would look around and you’d say, too much, right? There’s too many people out there. But you know, you have been able to stand the test of time. I mean, you’ve done an incredible job and continue to grow. So how do you think about what you’ve done, and how do you continue to do that? Well,

Alicia Grande 25:33
it is, it is tough, because I have a lot of mouths to feed. I have Sephora Ulta, Amazon and my own DTC, but I kind of that that’s my least priority. I mean, in our in Grande Cosmetics, our DTC is only 10% because we’re putting our advertising dollars to support our retailers, because you could get in, but if you do not, you know, sell out, you get you’re gonna get out. So you Yeah, you’re Yeah, you only have an opportunity once, and and you really need to make sure that you are treating your retailer, you know, taking care of the marketing. So yes, it is crowded, and it’s getting even more crowded. The last term category now has, you know, many, many competitors, and even a lot of the big names are making last serums and brow serums. And they’re, they weren’t doing that before, because they see that there’s, there’s money to be made. And, you know, there’s even a lot of, like, honestly, Chinese dupes out there that we’ll see if some of these tariffs make a change on the dupes that really have false claims. Okay? And they don’t really care about their customers, to be quite honest, and they’re not doing safety and efficacy testing, and what they’re doing is they’re even I’ve even seen them try to take our success stories and use it on their own marketing. It’s completely unethical some of the things that I see out there, and it makes me really scared for consumers, because, again, it’s a lash serum. You have one pair of eyes and you want to honor them and not destroy them. Listen, I mean, as we age, we’re already losing our vision, like we don’t want to put something on near our lash line that could be destructive to our vision, especially. And I do not know what’s in some of these products. It’s It’s scary. Kara, and I’ve seen a lot of dupes, even of granite lash. MD, I mean, it’s crazy. So hopefully some of that gets cleaned up with with this mess that we’re in with

Kara Goldin 28:04
China, with all the tariffs. Yeah, no, I can only imagine. So what hope? What legacy do you hope Grande Cosmetics really leaves behind? I mean, you’ve, you know, worked your tail off for the last since, you know, 2008 when you launched and done an incredible job building the company. But what do you hope is your legacy here?

Alicia Grande 28:27
Well, I’ll tell you what. My sons won’t like this, but my legacy is not to leave my money to my sons. I’ll give some of it, but I’m really very much involved with women’s health, and I’m an on a advisory board for the cats Institute, and we are working on helping women understand menopause and what they can do for you know, living their life through menopause and in the best way, and also reading mammograms differently so you could see calcifications that actually show that you have heart disease, because these things are actually on your mammogram, and it’s not even part of the radiologist Part to report those findings. And I’m honored to say that I’ve seen women their lives have been changed because they could have had a heart attack and they didn’t, because of what the cats Institute is doing. And I want to spend my time, my money, helping women with their health and making it a better world for women. I’m very focused on women and women’s health. I love

Kara Goldin 29:49
it. Well, you have done such an incredible job, and we’ll have all the info for everything you’ve talked about in the show notes. But Alicia, thank you so much for joining. US, and I’m a big fan of Grande Cosmetics, but also just you and everything that you’ve done. So appreciate you.

Alicia Grande 30:09
Love that here. Yes, thank

Kara Goldin 30:12
you. Thank you, and thank you again, and thanks everybody for listening. Goodbye for now. Bye, thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit. And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms at Kara Goldin, I would love to hear from you, too, so feel free to DM me, and if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book, undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and Building. Hint, we are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening, and goodbye for now you.

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