Too Faced, The Luv Letter

On the eve of Too Faced's 10 year anniversary, we received a touching letter from Too Faced founder, B&TB contributor, and one of the cheekiest, funniest and wittiest people we've ever had the honor to spend time with, Jerrod Blandino. It brought tears to our eyes and is inspirational to beauty lovers, aspiring beauty brand founders, and anyone who's ever mixed glitter with lip gloss. Hats off to Too Faced to 10 years of changing the cosmetic industry!

FROM JERROD: I can't believe it's been ten years!!!!! As Too Faced races across the globe adding our signature Hollywood Glamour to the world at large and gaining legions of devoted fans from every country we enter, I can't help but stop and take a brief moment to look back. It all started when I was 26 years old, working as a makeup artist for Estee Lauder at Saks Fifth Avenue in Orange County, California. I quickly became infamous for being a total rebel, breaking dress code and conduct guidelines as well as the traditional ways they taught us to sell.

However, I also quickly became one of the most successful and lucrative employees they'd ever seen! I was obsessed! I had finally found my calling and I wasn't going to let anything or anybody stop me from making my mark! Oh to be young and naive.

I soon became restless being confined behind the counter and began to create my own cosmetics concoctions by destroying every tester in the department. I would mix a Chanel lipstick with a Lancome shadow, mix in a bit of YSL loose shimmer, and voila: a new cream blush was born! I knew I could create the products and amazing formulas that were so sorely missing from the cosmetics department. There wasn't anything glamorous, fun or innovative wrapped up into one brand that my customers and I were desperate for! I knew what women wanted, but more importantly I knew what they could handle and what they couldn't. Let's face it, over-the-top artistry lines look great behind the safety of the glass cases that hold them, but put pumpkin orange or chartreuse eye-shadow in the wrong hands and...oh I don't even want to think about it! I neglected to mention prior to my career with Lauder I was going to school to become an animator for Disney. It proved to be way too repetitive and creatively restraining for me.

My point is I've always had an eye for color, fantasy and fun. I sought out to create the cosmetics company of my dreams using every skill and life experience I had learned up to that point! A company who broke the conventional rules I had been taught to follow. A brand that would break the rules, not for the sake of reckless rebellion, but to create unique products with incredible colors, textures and formulas in which the world had never seen before! I would allow girls to have fun while looking just as amazing and glamorous as the celebrities and models who ruled the red carpets and stages. I asked myself, "Why be pretty when you can be gorgeous?" Why? Why not go all the way? Every little girl dreams of growing up to be fabulous don't they? Even if life isn't exactly what you want it to be, why not look like it is? It might sound silly, but I believe if you look the part, life will catch up.

So ladies and gentlemen, that's the moment Too Faced was really born. That moment back in 1998, staring off into the distance through the dazzling glass doors just beyond the fragrance counter, across the parking lot and into the cotton candy filled aqua sky on a crisp California winter's afternoon. The moment my life would change forever. I had no idea I was about to paint the world pink! I ran home right after work. (well ok I hopped into my red convertible and raced home, but why split hairs?) I feverishly began to sketch and draw. I thought if I was going to create the most glamorously innovative makeup company in the world, I'd need to know who my target customer was.

Being a trained artist, I'd draw her and that was the afternoon Envy, the sexy siren in silhouette you see in the dot of our logo, was born. She was a mix of every over-the-top chick I'd ever worked with over my 5 years behind the counter. She was the girl all the other girls wanted to be and the girl all the guys had to have. You know, the "It Girl," the physical manifestation of the phrase; "The Beautiful People.". I all but accosted my best friend, Jeremy (who was a very successful business manger for Chanel cosmetics at the time) when he got home and rambled on and on about my dream..about our destiny! I showed him all of my drawings and sketches, I described the products I fantasized about, the formulas with uber glimmer and glamour mixed into everything! I fetched an old vintage 1970's shirt I bought on Melrose years before bur could never let myself get rid of. A black disco shirt with a silver metallic thread going though every groovy inch of fabric and told him I wanted to make an eye-shadow with that sparkle!

Believe it or not, he took me seriously and before I knew it we were meeting with labs and manufacturers. We didn't have any money, so with a hefty loan from my parents and every credit card we had, Jer and I jumped in with both feet. I loved those early days in the lab with all of the talented women who were, more times than not, responsible for the fantastic products the large billion dollar cosmetics companies took credit for upon lunching to the world. I cherished every glossy minute developing my dreams. I pushed and pushed one of my favorite lab bunnies to add silver glitter to a metallic black shadow she had developed. She said it couldn't be done, but I just couldn't take that; I wanted her to try. I remembered my black 1970's shirt hanging in my closet and just knew it would work. She reluctantly took the jar of silver glitter I was holding out to her that I had snatched from the lip gloss area and began to mix the diamond-like mixture into the twinkling black powder.That, my loves, is the day the first glitter eye-shadow was born and the day that "OOH & AAH" duo eye shadow (still one of our best sellers) changed the face of the global cosmetics industry as it had been known!

Sometimes it seems like a million years ago and sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday; but it always feels amazing! I am so grateful that I've been given the opportunity to live out my dreams. They do come true! My dream of bringing happiness, self confidence and light into the world has happened. I am forever grateful to my customers, friends and fans who love Too Faced as much as I do and who "get it." They get that it's about love loving yourself enough to live every moment of your life like it counts. To "LIVE IT UP" and make your journey fun! Too Faced is about being you, standing out from the herd and stepping to the front of the stage and making your mark!

So my darlings, I want to thank every one of you for allowing me to do what I do, and for being so fabulously TOO FACED!

Luv,
Jerrod