SARAH’S STORY
As a serial entrepreneur she has built two successful beauty brands that have become synonymous with key inflection points in the beauty industry – digital and wellness. She is adept at turning ideas into multi-million dollar scalable, global businesses via her ability to build strong teams, implement powerful marketing strategies, develop world class products and drive investor value.
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Ms. Kugelman founded, was CEO and Chairwoman of The Board of the global skincare brand skyn ICELAND, Solutions for Stressed Skin. Launched in January 2005, it was one of the first clean, indie skincare brands and she grew it into a $25 million global beauty brand with 3,000 points of distribution in over 20 countries. In 2007 the brand won the prestigious Cosmetic Executive Women’s Indie Beauty Award and in 2019 was inducted into the WWD Beauty Hall of Fame for its cult item, Hydro Cool Firming Eye Gels. Due to Ms. Kugelman’s insight in building a team of makeup artist ambassadors early on to bring authenticity and viral word-of-mouth to the brand, it became a key staple of celebrities, makeup artists and influencers the world over. In June 2022, the company was acquired by Impala SAS a multi-billion dollar French company which owns iconic brands Lierac and Phyto. Skyn ICELAND will be the first clean brand within their impressive beauty portfolio.
In 1999, Ms. Kugelman revolutionized the beauty industry by creating the first beauty website, gloss.com, a multimedia beauty brand for which she raised $25 million in venture capital and grew to over 100 employees with offices in New York and San Francisco. Sarah sold gloss.com to The Estèe Lauder Companies in 2000 and then spent three years with the company in senior management positions. In 2000, Columbia Business School wrote a case study on gloss.com.
Ms. Kugelman has also held senior marketing positions at prominent industry leaders. She has made frequent television appearances, been covered in multiple national and international publications (including Vogue, Hampton’s Magazine, Time Inc) and has been a guest speaker at leading universities (Harvard Business School, MIT, Columbia Business School and Tufts University) and industry conferences (the first WWD Beauty Digital conference, Wells Fargo Beauty Industry Conference, Citibank Annual Beauty Conference). In 2006, Ms. Kugelman was a finalist in the Fashion Group International’s Rising Star Awards and in 2013 Sarah won a SmartCEO Brava Award.