Eco-friend beauty brand Youthforia got a boost of nationwide exposure — and funding — for the next phase of its evolution on Friday’s episode of ABC’s “Shark Tank.” Tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban agreed to back its founder Fiona Co Chan, entering unfamiliar waters in the beauty space.
In April 2021, Chan launched the hybrid makeup and skin care company, which aims to combine eco-friendly ingredients with innovative formulations.
As part of Chan’s pitch, she said the investment would help expand the brand to enter into additional blush shades that are non-color changing.
Related Galleries
The financier made a $400,000 deal with an 8 percent stake with Youthforia after initially rejecting Chan’s pitch, citing his lack of knowledge in beauty, then recoiled. “I’ll even do demos,” he added.
The billionaire TV personality, who is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team and investor in several tech startups, mentioned his daughters and wife as having a keen understanding of beauty, which pushed him to consider investing in Youthforia.
After the show, Chan took to Instagram to share that participating in the show provided exposure as she expanded the brand’s presence at retail. “A big reason why I decided to go on ‘Shark Tank’ is because when we filmed, it was right before we were launching nationwide in Ulta Beauty,” part of her caption read.
Chan created the Youthforia after she realized her skin was affected by pollutants from the places she traveled for work in sales at a tech company.
“When I first started dating my husband, I used to always sleep in my makeup,” Chan told WWD in July 2021. “I’ve had experiences in the past where I’ve gone to the hospital with allergic reactions from sleeping in makeup and that’s when I came up with the idea of making makeup that works like skin care.”
Youthforia offers face wash, blush, gloss, primer and setting spray, which according to Chan is safe enough to fall asleep in. One of the standout products from the brand, which uses social media platforms like TikTok for marketing, is the BYO blush, a color changing blush oil that reacts to the skin’s pH to give customers the perfect shade.