The identical thing that’s kept Jeanine Lobell playing mahjong is what’s given her beauty profession its longevity: the love of the sport.

Lobell, who founded Stila, one in all the long-lasting indie brands of the ’90s, and most recently founded Neen, has been playing mahjong since before her time in the sweetness industry trenches.

“I learned to play Chinese mahjong once I was a child. I played on a regular basis with my best friend,” Lobell said, who took up the American version of the sport about 15 years ago. “Then I began teaching everyone I knew methods to play, since you would like 4 players.”

Today, she alternates between two groups, in addition to her children and their friends, and in addition plays online. Lobell celebrated her birthday 12 months with a 48-hour cruise off the west side of Manhattan, which quickly become a two-day mahjong binge with five other friends. 

All her playing time notwithstanding, don’t call her a game person. For this founder, it’s all concerning the human interaction.

“The interesting thing about mahjong is that for me, I exploit it as exercising my people-reading skills. I’m playing my very own hand, then I’m watching everyone else, how they’re reacting, and what they’re throwing tells me what their actual hand is,” Lobell said. “It’s an enormous strategy game, but all of them just say, ‘she’s a witch!’”

All that practice definitely pays off. “I win rather a lot,” Lobell said. “There are 70 hands in mahjong, and I even have all of them memorized. It’s something I’m just superb at, but there’s also luck, right? You’ve got to get the appropriate tiles and hope no one is playing the identical thing.”

Brand constructing is comparable. “It’s knowing when to carry back and knowing when to go for it,” she said. “Once I’m on Zoom calls with people I would like to work with, I gauge their face, their reactions and body language. It helps me know what to say next.”

Constructing a business also requires the identical balance of luck and know-how. “It’s a bit random how some things work out for some people, and the way it doesn’t for others,” she said. But I noticed I really like making makeup, and I all the time tell people, ‘I don’t must be smarter than other people, I must be smarter than the issue.’ I’m an issue solver.”

Thus was born Neen, driven by Lobell’s desire to create an environmentally conscious cosmetics line tapping into the advances in ingredients and formulas since her early days as an entrepreneur.” Neen’s assortment is comprised of products for lips, cheeks and eyes. The products are housed in refillable, dishwasher-safe silicone compacts, and highlighters are packaged in recycled aluminum tubes. Lobell’s subscription cards, on FSC-certified paper, also include product samples and accompanying QR codes to tutorial videos.

And while the right meld may not exist in mahjong, for Lobell, the merging of those aspects made launching a latest makeup brand a no brainer. “I desired to make something now that was environmentally conscious, and I wanted it to mimic my life, which incorporates every sort of person,” she said. “I used to be able to go again.”