How Drunk Elephant evolved from a side hustle to a mega beauty brand

Tiffany Masterson is a hero to skincare entrepreneurs eager to replicate her success. Meet the master marketer who rewrote the rule book.

Clean beauty products are a thing; but they weren’t in 2009 when a Houston mother of four decided “to make a little extra money on the side”.

Eugenie Kelly

Apr 11, 2023 – 5.00am

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The beauty-billionaire club is small, but its elite list of members is growing. Rihanna is on the list, with a 50 per cent stake in Fenty Beauty estimated to be worth about $US1.7 billion ($2.52 billion). Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics sold a 51 per cent stake to the Coty conglomerate in 2019 for $US600 million, valuing the business at nearly $US1.2 billion. Then you have Tom Ford, whose empire sold to Estée Lauder for $US2.3 billion in November 2022.

They’re big numbers on par with tech-company valuations, but the thing about these brands is they encompass the categories of fragrance, skincare and makeup – and in Ford’s case, fashion and accessories too. Their founders are also high profile.