Over the past five semesters, BCC has had the privilege of hearing from many inspiring professionals in the beauty industry. We’re incredibly grateful to those who generously share their time and knowledge, helping our club grow. A common theme among our speakers is the importance of community—a value that resonates strongly in the beauty industry. Many of these leaders not only embody the spirit of the beauty community but also reflect the ideals of the Trojan Family. It's especially inspiring when USC alumni return to share their journeys, reminding us of what’s possible after graduation.
To honor these leaders, we’re launching our USC Alumni Spotlight series. We're excited to kick off this series by featuring someone who has been instrumental in our growth—not just as a panelist, but also by leveraging her 15 years of experience in the beauty industry to support the next generation of beauty leaders: Nicole Collins.
Nicole Collins’s Career
Since 2012, Nicole has been a trailblazer in the beauty industry, driving start-ups to new heights with her innovative marketing strategies and brand-building expertise. A forward-thinking entrepreneur and storyteller, she has a deep understanding of influencer marketing, social commerce, and brand strategy. In 2023, she co-founded 213Deli, the beauty industry's first multi-brand text-to-buy service, revolutionizing how customers shop for beauty products.
Nicole’s impressive career spans so many brands, it’s almost easier to name the ones she hasn’t interacted with through her work. Her journey includes founding IPSY’s brand partnerships team, where she established IPSY as the world’s largest beauty sample subscription service by securing partnerships with over 150 beauty brands.
213Deli
Nicole’s most recent entrepreneurial endeavor within the beauty space, 213Deli, redefines the beauty shopping experience with its innovative text-to-buy service. Launched in 2023 by three industry veterans, 213Deli curates the best in beauty from multiple brands and delivers it straight to your phone. With just a simple text reply, makeup and skincare lovers can effortlessly shop for top beauty products. This service sets a new standard for convenience and personalization, making it easier than ever to discover and purchase the latest in beauty.
Advice From Nicole
Nicole previously shared her advice and career journey with BCC when she spoke as a panelist several semesters ago, but our club has grown since then, with many new faces who haven’t heard her journey. Last week, I had the pleasure of catching up with Nicole to gain her advice on building a successful career in beauty.
Q: Do you have a piece of advice that you strive to live by?
NC: Be yourself, be kind, and do good work. People won’t always remember what you said, but they’ll remember how you made them feel. If you feel good about how you show up everyday, that’s all that counts. There will be people who simply don’t like you, no matter what you do and no matter what you say. Disregard. Delete. Unsubscribe. Just don’t pay attention. The most important thing is that you feel good about how you performed and behaved.
Q: Can you share a valuable lesson you've learned from your career journey that has influenced your personal and professional growth?
NC: When you encounter people that are not your people, handle yourself in a way that you're proud of. Be professional. Be polite. Don’t dim your light. Be you and don’t let them see you sweat. I’ve definitely let people see me sweat earlier in my career, and I wish that I hadn’t. But now that I’m older and more mature, that’s my biggest takeaway.
And whatever's meant for you will be yours, and what's not meant for you won’t. If you don’t get a job, don’t be upset about it, that was not for you. The universe has your back and is leading you in the right direction.
Q: Can you describe a moment in your career where you had to take a leap of faith? How did you handle it, and would you approach it differently today?
NC: I’ve been working in early stage startups for well over a decade, so everything I’m doing is a leap of faith. I have a very high risk tolerance, and that suits my personality. Some have been hugely successful, like IPSY. When I joined it was a little startup called My Glam, and I had friends tell me not to take that job. But I took it, I was excited about it, and it turned into a multibillion dollar business. I’m really proud of that. I’ve worked at plenty of other startups that completely failed, but at the time that I took the job I thought “there’s potential here, these people are interesting, this concept is interesting.”
What I’ve learned through experience is that startups are always a risk. You only have an opportunity to succeed if you have a great idea, a truly great product that backs that idea, the team that can pull it off, and money. You need all four of those things, not three out of four, to have a chance of being successful. That does not mean that you will be successful, but if you don’t have all four of those things, you will not be successful. If a company has all four of those things, and I’m genuinely excited about it, I’ll usually dive in.
You have to know yourself. It might be a better career choice for you to work for Estée Lauder or L’Oréal for your entire career. If you need structure to follow and that’s your comfort zone, then go work at a well established company where you will find that and thrive. If you thrive with fewer rules and you build the airplane as you’re flying the airplane, then you will not thrive whatsoever at a company like that. You really have to ask yourself what gets you out of bed in the morning, and neither answer is right or wrong.
Q: What project or achievement are you most proud of? What lessons did you learn from that experience?
NC: I’m proud of most of the work I’ve done in my career. Right now, I’m most proud of 213Deli, which is the business that I launched last year with two former IPSY colleagues. It’s a text to buy business. You go to 213Deli.com, you give us your phone number, and once a week you receive a text. Text commerce is not a new concept globally, but it’s new to the United States and no one else is doing it in beauty right now. We’re only a year in—we have lots of goals and objectives to make it more fun and cooler than it already is—but I’m really proud of getting through that first year.
The other thing I’ll say is that, in the past, I have gone to work at startups with people that I didn’t believe in because I believed in the business idea so much. That’s 100% wrong. If anyone on the team is not great, and you don’t feel really good about them as a partner, run. Follow your intuition, it’s not gonna work. And twice now I’ve seen it not work. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me, right? So I’m not going to do that again. That’s partially why I chose my business partners now, we are friends and have previously worked together, so I knew their work ethic and what they could pull off. It’s been really exciting. In one year, we’ve done amazing collaborations, gotten great press, been on a bunch of cool podcasts, and most importantly we have thousands of loyal customers and have worked with really cool brands.
Q: When things don’t go as planned, how do you bounce back? What strategies do you use to stay focused and continue moving forward?
NC: In the startup world, I’d say more often than not things are not going to go as planned. So that’s almost the plan. It’s like, “hey, here’s what we want to happen and if it doesn’t, here’s our contingency plan.” Or stick to the plan, and when it falls down, don’t dwell on it. It broke, it didn’t work, it was a mistake—whatever. Even the best intentions and processes don’t work. It’s okay, just come up with solutions and keep going. Do not dwell on it, don’t think about it too long, don’t stress out about it, don’t blame yourself, don’t blame your colleagues. It happened, didn’t work out, what are we doing next? Just constantly be looking at what’s next.
Q: With trends in the beauty industry constantly changing, how do you stay up to date? What resources do you recommend for aspiring beauty business leaders?
NC: Honestly, number one, you have to spend an hour or two on Instagram and TikTok everyday. Literally watching what the kids are talking about. Outside of that, I read BeautyMatter religiously as well as Glossy. Beauty Independent is also important. And Cosmetic Executive Women is an important community to be part of, especially for when you're starting your career. There’s a job board and you can see the entire membership directory. If you want to reach out to someone for an informational interview, their name, their job title, the company they work at, and their email address is there. I’m also very active on LinkedIn, which I find really valuable.
Thank you, Nicole, for sharing your time, expertise, and advice with BCC!
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