Three former Sephora merchants are going it alone, with the launch of a recent beauty consultancy.

Cassie Cowman, Gabriella Giron and Lindsay Ullman have cofounded View from 32, an all-encompassing beauty advisory firm, whose name is inspired by the thirty second floor of the previous Sephora Merchandising HQ, where the trio first met and built expertise within the industry before each moving to work at different beauty brands. 

While many former beauty executives have gone on to launch their very own brands, Cowman, Giron and Ullman selected the consultancy route, believing that there was a spot out there to leverage their background and expertise as Sephora merchants and brand leaders. In spite of everything, together they launched Drunk Elephant, Farmacy Beauty, Sol de Janeiro, Tatcha and Youth to the People at Sephora.

“We all the time had brands either in an off-the-cuff way or a proper way asking us to assist determine crack the Sephora business model, ‘how can we achieve success’ or ‘how can we sharpen our pitch to get into Sephora,’” said Cowman, who post-Sephora had a stint as VP of strategic marketing at hair brand Briogeo, of how the business got here to be. “We said we wish to do something together. We all know the brands are asking for this. Sephora’s asking for this.”

The consultancy plans to work with brands, retailers and investors to supply a breadth of services in a role-based, advisory and operational capability and is launching with a client roster including Sephora, Kulfi Beauty, Caliray and Laneige.

On the brand side, it’s going to have an initial conversation with the corporate and can subsequently develop a package to suit the needs of the business, from marketing to product to retail and more to assist sharpen the storytelling and the positioning of the brand in query.

“It could be project based, it will possibly be advisement based, it will possibly be goal based, it will possibly be a mix so we actually treat the client with a person bespoke approach,” explained Ullman, who along with Sephora has also worked at MAC and The Inkey List.

The consultancy’s work with investors, meanwhile, may involve due diligence and scouting brands.

And while its work with retailers will differ depending on the corporate, for Sephora, it’s going to include a support-type role so it will possibly tap the trio to cover leave, certain projects and gaps between roles, in addition to training.

“The founders of View from 32 are a number of the most passionate and devoted entrepreneurs I’ve come across. I’ve known Cassie, Lindsay and Gaby for a few years given their energetic roles in merchandising at Sephora — where the initial vision and inspiration for the corporate was born,” said Priya Venkatesh, senior vice chairman, global merchandising at Sephora. “Given their wealthy collective experience in guiding, supporting, and nurturing a few of today’s best and brightest brands, I even have little doubt they’ll achieve success in cultivating that success for a lot of more to come back.”