Inside a nondescript office constructing in Corona del Mar, California sits a veritable playland of entrepreneurship.

Here lies the offices of Toy Box Brands, the most recent enterprise from Jerrod Blandino and Jeremy Johnson.

Emblazoned above rows of desks is the phrase “F–k average, be legendary.” Product samples are scattered all over the place. In Johnson’s office sits a framed flag that reads, “I can’t consider we’re still doing this.”

“I can’t consider we’re doing this again” is more prefer it.

Yes, Blandino and Johnson, partners in business and life who founded Too Faced in 1998 and sold it to the Estée Lauder Cos. in a landmark deal for $1.45 billion in 2016, then the biggest acquisition in Lauder’s history — are back at it.

Toy Box Brands is a cross-category incubator that taps into personal and skilled know-how. The primary two brands, a jewellery cleaner called Drunk Diamond and a makeup line called Polite Society, are launching in July and August, respectively, followed by a capsule makeup collection for Madonna’s upcoming tour inspired by the singer’s seminal beauty looks. (The superstar is a detailed pal of the duo.)

“I never thought for one second we’d ever do that again,” Blandino said of the fully self-funded enterprise. “We had success greater than I ever dreamt up and created this movement in beauty and helped, in our own tiny little way, change culture through Higher Than Sex.”

Blandino was referring to the blockbuster Too Faced mascara, whose combination of cheekiness and efficacy catapulted it into franchise status, together with other products like Born This Way foundation and Lip Injection Plumper Gloss. But after making their mark, the duo departed the brand last yr and made haste in getting their latest enterprise off the bottom. “June 30, 2022 was our last day [at Too Faced],” Johnson said. “On July 1, I used to be on the phone saying what we desired to trademark. We had a plan.”

The impetus was the past few years at Too Faced, which Blandino found counterproductive to his creative process. “Once we sold to Estée Lauder, that process was quite a bit different than I assumed it was going to be, and it was quite a bit harder in plenty of ways. I got that burning back in me, I desired to do it again the way in which we first did it: rebelliously creative, nothing’s inconceivable, break every rule and alter the world,” Blandino said. “It was a present that it wasn’t easy. It lit a hearth under our asses and made us need to do it again.”

By getting back into the sport, Blandino and Johnson join the ranks of Nineties founders who also sold and are starting again. In 2020, makeup artist Bobbi Brown debuted Jones Road, while Urban Decay’s Wende Zomnir launched her California-inspired brand Caliray the next yr. Stila’s Jeanine Lobell introduced Neen, and Marcia Kilgore, who founded and exited Bliss Labs and Soap and Glory, is back at it with BeautyPie.

Now that Johnson and Blandino know the principles of the sport, they’re breaking all of them. “It’s keep moving forward, don’t look back,” Blandino said. “I wish [Too Faced] the best possible, but I’m moving forward in my very own direction, and attempting to create one other universe that I need to live in.”

In no higher place is that universe exemplified than the headquarters. Blandino, who entered the office on a recent morning with a Starbucks in a single hand, a Dior garment bag in one other, and hair pulled back in a Washingtonian bun, has his own office next to Johnson’s, full of notebooks from Hermès and a colourful bookshelf. “Those were purchased due to the colours, not due to what’s in them,” he clarified of the Tolstoy and Austen titles lining the shelves.

Johnson’s office, more subdued but not austere by any measure, counts a vintage Louis Vuitton trunk as a coffee table, vintage bookshelves from Paris, and Gucci dog bowls for the couple’s full-bred Chihuahua, Clover. The space is a mirrored image of each of their tastes, along with the roles they play within the business. “We’re a dynamic duo. We’re two sides of a coin. Together, we create one perfect human being,” Blandino said. “We do very various things, and that’s our magic. We’re not changing anything there, it’s our secret sauce.”

Sticking true to their roots, they selected to found Toy Box Brands in Orange County versus Los Angeles — where the pair spends Fridays through Sundays of their Bel Air manse — because it’s the birthplace of their entrepreneurial careers.

“Our dream team is here and we built Too Faced here,” Blandino said. “A number of people who now we have worked with before wanted to come back back, and we put our little team back together. Just about all of them live here.”

That team is 17 members strong, and is predicted to succeed in 30 when the pair starts their rapid fire of name launches. “In the subsequent eight to 10 years, we’ll probably do 16 brands,” Johnson said, adding that five are on the docket for the approaching years. 

“Between [private equity] and strategics, we’ve been in business for 26 years and we learn from each one in every of those experiences to construct out Toybox to be a really robust global brand powerhouse, I call it,” said Johnson. “We’re planning possibly two brands a yr, and two brands is quite a bit in our first yr.”

That’s where the corporate gained its moniker. It’s meant to be a treasure trove full of all of their businesses. “We now have the toy box, and we’re filling it up with all of our corporations,” Johnson said.

For Blandino and Johnson, the goal this time around is for every latest brand to garner a cult following from small sects of consumers somewhat than forged a large net. Blandino’s strategy is identical irreverent approaches to product positioning he took with Too Faced. “Once you’re in a giant corporation, there’s this pressure to not make anything ‘an excessive amount of.’ Anyone may not prefer it. And I believe that’s good — I don’t want everyone to prefer it, because then they won’t want it,” he said.

“I never take a look at numbers, I don’t need to be basic, I don’t want to simply be one other. I need people to not like what I’m doing. Hopefully more prefer it than not prefer it, but I don’t want everyone to prefer it, I need some people to love it,” he continued.

He learned that ethos from Leonard A. Lauder, chairman emeritus of Lauder, Johnson said. “There’s nothing comparable,” Johnson said of his time working with the patriarch. “It’s his heart. He’s like us, we’re like him, we only need to create amazing products and excite a customer. That’s what he wants you to do, too.”

“You have got to offer people products that give them that ‘wow’ — we’re not going to launch anything that’s not gonna shake you up. We now have to be disruptive,” Blandino said. “We’re only coming out with products that we might be disruptive with. I’m not even doing products that we all know will sell or which are selling, it’s all about how we do it otherwise, how can we put a spin on it.”

The important thing, Blandino contended, is emotional connection. That, he said, is what’s modified in regards to the landscape. “You’ll be able to’t be a me-too brand, you possibly can’t just be a copycat. Everyone wants something special, and so they need to feel themselves in your brand. That’s what’s really modified — they should feel connected to you on levels beyond the product.”

Enter Diamond Drunk, Toy Box’s debut brand, which launches July 25 directly on its website with 4 different scents of its nontoxic day by day jewelry cleaner for $75 each. Additional products will include a cashmere jewelry towel and cleansing concentrate refills, available on subscription for $48 every 4 months. 

“Gems and jewels are really emotional, whether it’s a gold ring that your grandmother gave you, or something you acquire for yourself,” Blandino said. “Jewelry tends to be a manifestation of affection, and it marks moments, reminds you of individuals, and we would like to deal with them.”

Inspiration struck when Blandino, a self-professed diamond enthusiast, found only lackluster options for cleansing his baubles. (Ask him what number of carats he wears on any given day? “I don’t count,” he retorts, waving his left hand, which accommodates a really large emerald-cut diamond ring. “A girl never counts. But my ring’s 33.”

“Jeremy has been so loving and so wonderful, and we’ve worked with Cartier and Chanel Superb Jewelry, and I’m purported to go on Amazon and just buy some who-knows-what?” he said. “I used to be asking Cartier and Chanel to make a jewellery cleaner, and I used to be begging another person to do it for me, because every thing’s toxic and it doesn’t should be. Nobody was picking it up, and Jeremy said we must always just do it ourselves.”

There are nuances to the brand which Blandino likened to beauty. “It’s a beauty ritual to your jewelry. Once I wash my face and I am going to bed, I take my jewelry off and put it on this cleaner, and once I get up, I rinse it off, put it on and prepare. Identical to I cleanse my face, I do this with my jewelry. That’s what Diamond Drunk is.”

He custom molded the cage to suit rings, brooches and necklaces, without having them clang against one another, and every refillable canister comes with a crystal coaster to not damage marble countertops – all pain points Blandino present in his own experiences.

The product will are available 4 scents, each named after milestones within the couple’s lives. One is Malibu Rain No. 95, the yr they met; Alchemist Rose No. 98, once they founded their first business; Forbidden Fruit No. 8, once they got married, and Lemon Drop No. 22, for once they founded Toy Box Brands. The formulas are 99.5 percent clean, vegan and cruelty-free, Blandino said, and “it’s not going to harm the planet.” The corporate expects the brand to succeed in $15 million in first-year retail sales.

Education will play a key role in Diamond Drunk’s launch strategy. “Jewelry is a number of the dirtiest belongings you own,” Blandino said. “It touches doorknobs, handrails, phones, whatever. You need to be cleansing your jewelry day by day, not simply to deal with it, but for health reasons, and nobody’s teaching you to do this.”

It’s also a distinct style of business than what they’ve ever done before, Johnson said. “We were lucky enough that now we have some great relationships and a pair of outlets interested, but we desired to go down our own path,” he said. “Direct-to-consumer, we all know nothing about.”

To him, that’s a part of the fun. “We were at all times product-first at first of our careers, and that’s what it’s now. Construct essentially the most amazing product, the buyer will come,” he said. “We’re back to our roots here, and that’s why it feels so good.”

Johnson and Blandino are back to their roots in additional ways than one. Toy Box’s second brand, a makeup brand called Polite Society that can bow in 750 Ulta Beauty doors on Aug. 27, is well inside their wheelhouse. Blandino said he’s taken cues from Too Faced, but Polite Society represents an evolution of the past, not a reincarnation of it.

“It’s a version of me that’s a bit bit more restrained, less embellished, but just as fabulous. It’s also more emotional. I need to feel things, I need you to feel emotionally attached to the way in which we’re offering it to you,” he said. “It’s not cutesy, cupcake-y. I really like things that smell, there’s an aesthetic I really like with pastel-washed colours, things that look soft, and I’m taking that with me. But while you take a look at Polite Society, it looks very different, it’s more sleek and more modern.”

The road meets Ulta’s Conscious Beauty standards, and features skincare ingredients, too. The muse, for instance, includes willow bark extract — a natural alternative to salicylic acid. “Let’s be as glamorous as you dare to be, or as natural, with none pressure or judgement. That’s the great thing about Polite Society, it’s natural, sustainable. For me, I didn’t ever see myself in any of those brands — they’re wonderful, but either too sheer or natural-looking. Where’s the glitz? Where are the actives? I also want coverage. Natural doesn’t should be boring. There’s room for a very fabulous, kick–s clean line.”

The products include a face palette, a mascara, lip gloss and a foundation. The latter two feature names like B.I.G. Mouth Lip Plumping Lip Gloss and More Than a Pretty Face Skin-Caring Foundation. The blush palette? “Go Flush Yourself!” Prices range from $27 to $42. In accordance with the corporate, global retail sales will reach between $45 million and $50 million in its first yr.

The launch strategy is rooted in starting with essentials, then expanding the assortment from there. “Once we first launched Toy Box, I assumed, what am I known for and what is going to people expect from me?” Blandino said. “What do I do and know more about than other people? Mascara, lip plumper and foundation. I assumed we must always start with things that you simply use day by day that it’s essential replenish which are going to attract you to the brand. Then, once they’re married to it, how can we expand it from there.”

Blandino said it’s also a return to some much-needed fantasy in beauty. “Beauty has gotten so serious and so heavy,” he said. “I need to ask people who find themselves in search of positivity or fun, who’re in search of glamour. We wish to ask all of them in our automobile and take them on a visit. Should you’re in search of trouble, in the event you’re trying to be cruel, I don’t want you.”

The branding has the identical cheeky tone as Too Faced did. Products carry the tag line “Polite as f–k,” and on the no-list of ingredients, “negativity” is listed alongside “parabens.”

“Negativity is just as toxic as parabens — like all of the trolls we’ve needed to cope with over the past several years. We’re not having any of that,” he said.

The audience is one he and Johnson know well, specializing in Millennials and Gen Z. “It’s anybody who’s in search of incredible, efficacious makeup that need to feel something and feel like themselves, but additionally feel rebellious,” Blandino said. “It’s my core customer — Gen Z, Millennial. I’m at all times talking to the identical person in my head.”

The mascara is 83 percent natural, and just like the egg-shaped foundation bottle, has rounded beveled edges that prevent it from rolling off flat surfaces. For the More Than a Pretty Face Skin-Caring Foundation, the egg shape is “an emblem of recent life, latest beginnings, and Easter is my favorite holiday,” Blandino said. “It’s matte, it’s heavier, it’s substantial, it won’t roll off your table. And the mascara won’t either, plus it’s easier to carry in your hand since it’s more ergonomic. There’s just a few things I do know learn how to do thoroughly.”

Also in that camp is the lip plumper, B.I.G. — “an acronym for blueberry, infinity pepper and ginger,” Blandino explained. “It’s on the cusp of, ‘is it a drug, or is it makeup?’”

The lip plumper, for instance, features before-and-after shots on an iPhone. That was a deliberate sign of transparency, Blandino said. “We did it on a phone with no retouching, no smoke and mirrors. We don’t have to. That’s the entire idea, the products are so good.”

In August, the brand will launch in 850 Ulta Beauty doors. Johnson credited the partnership to Ulta’s ongoing success — net sales increased 12.3 percent to $2.6 billion in its first fiscal quarter of 2023, as reported by WWD — and its reinvention of the luxurious wheel.

“Ulta is basically shaking it up right away with what they’re doing with more prestige brands,” Johnson said. “They’ve high-end and mass as well, and mushing all of it together — that’s the brand new way the shopper is shopping.”

Maria Salcedo, senior vp of merchandising at Ulta Beauty, said that blend is performing well. “[Our brand partners] understand that Ulta Beauty exists to disrupt the established order and we’re at all times looking for latest ways to thrill our guests with the exciting products and experiences we provide. Luxury at Ulta Beauty is a wonderful example of this and is proving to be a valued addition to our guests’ journey.”

Polite Society will likely be merchandised in a 3-foot display “with opportunity to grow,” Salcedo said. “We’ll also support the launch through our marketing and owned channels to make sure guests can easily discover the brand.”

Salcedo is bullish in regards to the brand, noting that momentum is high in makeup across products and costs. “Beauty enthusiasts crave newness, and their desire for the most recent must-haves is driving trial and discovery for makeup spanning TikTok viral solutions, modern formulas, to vibrant, expressive colours and more. We’re seeing an increased interest in mass and masstige brands for those looking for to experiment and take a look at something latest for the season, while prestige loyalists proceed to refill on tried-and-true favorites.”

The expectation is for Polite Society to jibe with its shoppers’ expectations, particularly among the many Gen Z cohort. “Polite Society offers the fun, expressive, quality products with the added advantages of unpolluted ingredients, vegan and cruelty-free formulas, that are necessary values for our conscious-minded guests,” Salcedo said.

“To win in makeup, brands must reflect the wants and wishes of beauty enthusiasts, and more importantly, their values,” she continued. “This is very true for Gen Z as they expect the products they use to align with their lifestyle decisions.”

Further down the road, Toy Box has more businesses planned. A hot sauce company geared toward women is on deck, “because all these amazing women bring hot sauces with them all over the place. There’s rooster heads and skulls and all this boy s–t throughout every bottle,” Blandino said. “Why isn’t it being done otherwise?”

Jewelry cleaner, hot sauce, makeup: for Blandino, it’s all an element of the identical emotion-led vision. “The brands should be emotional and should connect with you on an emotional level, even something so simple as a diamond cleaner. Beauty, hot sauce, these are things that you’re feeling connected to. If someone uses a certain hot sauce or a certain lipstick, they almost feel territorial about it. It’s something that folks discover themselves with,” he said. “I need you to feel an element of yourself inside the brand, and it needs to be somewhere where there’s a necessity.”