The Future of Beauty: Heather Marianna of Marianna Naturals On How Their Technological Innovations Will Shake Up The Beauty Industry
Self confidence is key. It is not about how you look on the outside, it’s how you feel on the inside. That sounds so cliché right but the energy you give off when you are self-confident is really powerful and attracts others, money and big opportunities!
As a part of our series about how technology will be changing the beauty industry over the next five years I had the pleasure of interviewing Heather Marianna, who originally skyrocketed in popularity with the launch of her Beauty Kitchen YouTube series in 2012, where she showcased simple DIY beauty recipes made with common kitchen household ingredients. She quickly generated a powerful following of more than 3 million viewers.
With the channel’s growing success, the bubbly social media personality translated her passion for looking and feeling her absolute best into the development of her all-natural, plant-based self-care and skincare product line, Beauty Kitchen, which delivers a luxurious at-home spa experience with simple ingredients at an affordable price.
Heather has appeared on 100+ national TV news segments demonstrating her DIY skincare treatments. Her beauty expertise has been featured in Better Homes and Gardens, OK! Magazine, E! Online, US Weekly, TODAY and more.
Marianna was also named “the Nevada Female Leader Making Moves in The West” by The Ladders and named an “Inspirational Female Executive to Follow” by The Luxury Spot in 2019. The skincare enthusiast also previously starred on Bravo’s luxury-travel series, “Tour Group”, was featured on Oxygen’s “My Super Shopping Addiction” and appeared on several episodes of MTV’s “Teen Mom OG.”
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I’ve always had bad skin and after doing some research on toxic chemicals hidden in popular skincare and beauty products, I was inspired to make my own (chemical-free) using common kitchen house products. I solved many of my own beauty problems and began helping my friends with their skincare concerns. I really honed my passion and commitment to all-natural beauty everytime I helped craft concoctions that resolved popular issues like dandruff, rosacea and acne. Fast forward some years to 2012 and I reignited my knowledge in the form of my own YouTube channel, demonstrating DIY beauty treatments that quickly went viral with millions of views on each episode. In 2013, I officially launched my own plant-based skincare line, Beauty Kitchen.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
One of the most interest things that has ever happened to me is deep-rooted in the power of manifestation. I try to always be positive with a grateful heart. I am very big on affirmations and speaking things into existence (with a plan of course.) I promised myself I would employee American workers once I was in the position to do so. A few years into my journey I was able to secure not only one warehouse (my dream) but three warehouses, three stores and one office building! I am very proud to say all of my Beauty Kitchen products are made in Boulder City, Nevada, and all of my employees are local! That is interesting to me because I literally prayed on it and put a plan together and made it happen. I always share this story with aspiring entrepreneurs because if I can do it, so can you! Believing in yourself is key!
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?
Absolutely! The latest company I started, Marianna Naturals, is about to go public right now in Canada on the Canadian Stock Exchange. I knew at that point that that all the sacrifice and everything that I had been dealing with and sleepless nights and the crying and everything was worth it. I have to give a big thanks to my CEO there who has helped me every step of the way I am very excited and happy to have an actual partner who does half of the work and chairs in the responsibilities with me. We really are the dream team. The takeaway lesson from that is that you are only as good as your team!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I have many people I’d love to thank, Joel DeBellefeuille, my partner and president of Marianna Naturals, who is a huge go getter, hard worker and always innovating how to take our company to the next level and my powerhouse publicist, Lindsay Feldman, at BrandBomb Marketing who has elevated both my professional and personal brand. Lindsay’s secured me on over 100+ national TV segments (non-paid, earned media) and has helped to maximize the visibility of Beauty Kitchen in outlets including Forbes, E! Online, In Touch Weekly, Vegas Magazine and many more. Again, this is why I say you are only as strong as your team. It is vital as an entrepreneur to employee smart people who are masters at what they do and understand your vision.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The beauty industry today has access to technology that was inconceivable only a short time ago. Can you tell us about the “cutting edge” (pardon the pun) technologies that you are working with or introducing? How do you think that will help people?
In January 2021, Beauty Kitchen and Marianna Naturals launched our new skin diagnostics platform across both of our websites where customers can whip their phone out and scan their selfie at any time from anywhere and get real time diagnostics on their skin meaning a skincare analysis scoring their skin age, texture, dark circles, dark spots and many other areas of concern and then that score uses an advanced technology to then recommend what Marianna Naturals products (if Canadian based) or Beauty Kitchen products (if in US) will pair best to boost your skincare scores. What’s really cool about this is that we are staying above the curve and COVID-19 unfortunately has changed the consumer shopping experience so we had to innovate. Gone are the days of going into your favorite skincare store and having someone apply samples to your face. I launched this technology on my brands alongside Joel DeBellefeuille, my CEO of Mariana Naturals. We now have this technology in over 3000 boutiques in the United States and all of those boutiques who carry our products are now adding an iPad to their skin care section of their stores and utilizing this interactive experience with all of their existing customers we have also seen a surge of spas medical spas and other retailers who are wanting to add this to their locations. As an experience for customers everyone is looking for something new to bring people in because of Covid guidelines we are only allowed across the United States so many people in stores at a time and most things have gone to online ordering I have seen my customers who have added this to their locations increase the amount of their foot traffic by 300% or more. Not only does this help people who are buying our skincare, but we have actually been a driving force with this technology by helping our retailers command more traffic into their stores as well. We have been getting a lot of attention by some major retailers with this technology and I can’t mention a lot but keep watching us because we are going big and going fast with this. Another thing that I’m excited about with this technology is that we have launched is the fact that a lot of people have felt intimidated a lot of times by pretty girls at the store who are recommending them skin care and maybe don’t want to talk to those people about their acne etc. This is a great way for people to get these recommendations and feel safe, comfortable, confident and empowered in their own space.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
I am a very big fan of the show “Black Mirror” and the one that I absolutely love is the one where the girl is desperate to get her social score up, I actually have a watch that show so many times and I probably will watch it now when I’m done with us because it’s absolutely my favorite. The only unintended consequence that I would hope that didn’t happen with this technology is that everybody is judged for everyone to see on their skin scores but in a way, I think there’s so much beauty in sharing your skincare score because we are all so used to seeing airbrushed models in magazines and filtered selfies on social media and that’s just not reality.
Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the “beauty-tech” industry?
I’ve never been a tech girl, I’ve always been into just old-school ways of writing everything down. The other day I had a panic attack because I had to get a new phone and I had to change my email from my Apple TV and I thought I was going to lose everything, LOL, but what I am excited about is the fact that we are on the forefront of things and a great response were getting we have had over 500 skincare diagnostic scans posted online. It really honestly peaked my interest in the beauty-tech world even more because technology has really made it such an exciting time to be both a consumer and a creator. I have been looking into some tech conferences to go see you and I just really want to learn a lot more about what’s out there this is. It is exciting to think you can get personalized skincare recommendations just off your selfie.
Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest?
If I could think of three ways to help the beauty industry it would be that we need to really watch the chemicals that are in all of our personal care products. It really makes me sick how many companies are saying that they are actually natural when they are not and using greenwashing techniques to manipulate the buyers with marketing packages and gimmicks. I also would like to see more honesty with brands and I would like to see more sustainable packaging right before Covid hit we were ready to switch all of our packaging over to sustainable bamboo packaging jars etc. and now we are in a standstill with that because it is very hard to get jars bottles and everything that we need right now because of Covid.
You are an expert about beauty. Can you share 5 ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”? (Please share a story or example for each.)
I would love to see more alcohol-free product brands pop up. Alcohol is so damaging to your skin, your body and your mental well-being that I would love to see more brands adapt the alcohol free life until then I will keep drinking my one go-to alcohol-free wine. I’d also like to see a great decrease in the use of plastic water bottles. Every time I go to the store and I see the cases of the plastic water bottles it wants to make me puke. It’s very easy to transform your home into a plastic free zone I actually wrote a blog about it and it’s actually cheaper than buying cases of water. It really hurts the environment.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Just keep going stay in your lane and block the haters. Keep working hard and don’t give up, ever!
How can our readers follow you online?
Follow me:
Instagram @heathermarianna @beautykitchenjunkie @beautykitchenboutique @mariannanaturals
Facebook.com/beautykitchenbyheathermarianna
Twitter @heathermarianna
Youtube.com/heathermarianna
As a part of our series about how technology will be changing the beauty industry over the next five years I had the pleasure of interviewing Heather Marianna, who originally skyrocketed in popularity with the launch of her Beauty Kitchen YouTube series in 2012, where she showcased simple DIY beauty recipes made with common kitchen household ingredients. She quickly generated a powerful following of more than 3 million viewers.
With the channel’s growing success, the bubbly social media personality translated her passion for looking and feeling her absolute best into the development of her all-natural, plant-based self-care and skincare product line, Beauty Kitchen, which delivers a luxurious at-home spa experience with simple ingredients at an affordable price.
Heather has appeared on 100+ national TV news segments demonstrating her DIY skincare treatments. Her beauty expertise has been featured in Better Homes and Gardens, OK! Magazine, E! Online, US Weekly, TODAY and more.
Marianna was also named “the Nevada Female Leader Making Moves in The West” by The Ladders and named an “Inspirational Female Executive to Follow” by The Luxury Spot in 2019. The skincare enthusiast also previously starred on Bravo’s luxury-travel series, “Tour Group”, was featured on Oxygen’s “My Super Shopping Addiction” and appeared on several episodes of MTV’s “Teen Mom OG.”
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I’ve always had bad skin and after doing some research on toxic chemicals hidden in popular skincare and beauty products, I was inspired to make my own (chemical-free) using common kitchen house products. I solved many of my own beauty problems and began helping my friends with their skincare concerns. I really honed my passion and commitment to all-natural beauty everytime I helped craft concoctions that resolved popular issues like dandruff, rosacea and acne. Fast forward some years to 2012 and I reignited my knowledge in the form of my own YouTube channel, demonstrating DIY beauty treatments that quickly went viral with millions of views on each episode. In 2013, I officially launched my own plant-based skincare line, Beauty Kitchen.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
One of the most interest things that has ever happened to me is deep-rooted in the power of manifestation. I try to always be positive with a grateful heart. I am very big on affirmations and speaking things into existence (with a plan of course.) I promised myself I would employee American workers once I was in the position to do so. A few years into my journey I was able to secure not only one warehouse (my dream) but three warehouses, three stores and one office building! I am very proud to say all of my Beauty Kitchen products are made in Boulder City, Nevada, and all of my employees are local! That is interesting to me because I literally prayed on it and put a plan together and made it happen. I always share this story with aspiring entrepreneurs because if I can do it, so can you! Believing in yourself is key!
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?
Absolutely! The latest company I started, Marianna Naturals, is about to go public right now in Canada on the Canadian Stock Exchange. I knew at that point that that all the sacrifice and everything that I had been dealing with and sleepless nights and the crying and everything was worth it. I have to give a big thanks to my CEO there who has helped me every step of the way I am very excited and happy to have an actual partner who does half of the work and chairs in the responsibilities with me. We really are the dream team. The takeaway lesson from that is that you are only as good as your team!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I have many people I’d love to thank, Joel DeBellefeuille, my partner and president of Marianna Naturals, who is a huge go getter, hard worker and always innovating how to take our company to the next level and my powerhouse publicist, Lindsay Feldman, at BrandBomb Marketing who has elevated both my professional and personal brand. Lindsay’s secured me on over 100+ national TV segments (non-paid, earned media) and has helped to maximize the visibility of Beauty Kitchen in outlets including Forbes, E! Online, In Touch Weekly, Vegas Magazine and many more. Again, this is why I say you are only as strong as your team. It is vital as an entrepreneur to employee smart people who are masters at what they do and understand your vision.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The beauty industry today has access to technology that was inconceivable only a short time ago. Can you tell us about the “cutting edge” (pardon the pun) technologies that you are working with or introducing? How do you think that will help people?
In January 2021, Beauty Kitchen and Marianna Naturals launched our new skin diagnostics platform across both of our websites where customers can whip their phone out and scan their selfie at any time from anywhere and get real time diagnostics on their skin meaning a skincare analysis scoring their skin age, texture, dark circles, dark spots and many other areas of concern and then that score uses an advanced technology to then recommend what Marianna Naturals products (if Canadian based) or Beauty Kitchen products (if in US) will pair best to boost your skincare scores. What’s really cool about this is that we are staying above the curve and COVID-19 unfortunately has changed the consumer shopping experience so we had to innovate. Gone are the days of going into your favorite skincare store and having someone apply samples to your face. I launched this technology on my brands alongside Joel DeBellefeuille, my CEO of Mariana Naturals. We now have this technology in over 3000 boutiques in the United States and all of those boutiques who carry our products are now adding an iPad to their skin care section of their stores and utilizing this interactive experience with all of their existing customers we have also seen a surge of spas medical spas and other retailers who are wanting to add this to their locations. As an experience for customers everyone is looking for something new to bring people in because of Covid guidelines we are only allowed across the United States so many people in stores at a time and most things have gone to online ordering I have seen my customers who have added this to their locations increase the amount of their foot traffic by 300% or more. Not only does this help people who are buying our skincare, but we have actually been a driving force with this technology by helping our retailers command more traffic into their stores as well. We have been getting a lot of attention by some major retailers with this technology and I can’t mention a lot but keep watching us because we are going big and going fast with this. Another thing that I’m excited about with this technology is that we have launched is the fact that a lot of people have felt intimidated a lot of times by pretty girls at the store who are recommending them skin care and maybe don’t want to talk to those people about their acne etc. This is a great way for people to get these recommendations and feel safe, comfortable, confident and empowered in their own space.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
I am a very big fan of the show “Black Mirror” and the one that I absolutely love is the one where the girl is desperate to get her social score up, I actually have a watch that show so many times and I probably will watch it now when I’m done with us because it’s absolutely my favorite. The only unintended consequence that I would hope that didn’t happen with this technology is that everybody is judged for everyone to see on their skin scores but in a way, I think there’s so much beauty in sharing your skincare score because we are all so used to seeing airbrushed models in magazines and filtered selfies on social media and that’s just not reality.
Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the “beauty-tech” industry?
I’ve never been a tech girl, I’ve always been into just old-school ways of writing everything down. The other day I had a panic attack because I had to get a new phone and I had to change my email from my Apple TV and I thought I was going to lose everything, LOL, but what I am excited about is the fact that we are on the forefront of things and a great response were getting we have had over 500 skincare diagnostic scans posted online. It really honestly peaked my interest in the beauty-tech world even more because technology has really made it such an exciting time to be both a consumer and a creator. I have been looking into some tech conferences to go see you and I just really want to learn a lot more about what’s out there this is. It is exciting to think you can get personalized skincare recommendations just off your selfie.
Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest?
If I could think of three ways to help the beauty industry it would be that we need to really watch the chemicals that are in all of our personal care products. It really makes me sick how many companies are saying that they are actually natural when they are not and using greenwashing techniques to manipulate the buyers with marketing packages and gimmicks. I also would like to see more honesty with brands and I would like to see more sustainable packaging right before Covid hit we were ready to switch all of our packaging over to sustainable bamboo packaging jars etc. and now we are in a standstill with that because it is very hard to get jars bottles and everything that we need right now because of Covid.
You are an expert about beauty. Can you share 5 ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Self confidence is key. It is not about how you look on the outside, it’s how you feel on the inside. That sounds so cliché right but the energy you give off when you are self-confident is really powerful and attracts others, money and big opportunities!
- Affirmations — Every morning take the extra time to go to the gym, go for a walk or do whatever makes you feel good!
- Eat healthy — SO important! Fuel your body and mind with clean foods. You will see a change in your brainpower, energy and mind.
- Sleep — It’s so important to take time for yourself and make sure you are getting quality sleep. When you are sleep deprived, the first place it shows is in your skin! I meditate and take bubble baths to help me relax and fall asleep.
I would love to see more alcohol-free product brands pop up. Alcohol is so damaging to your skin, your body and your mental well-being that I would love to see more brands adapt the alcohol free life until then I will keep drinking my one go-to alcohol-free wine. I’d also like to see a great decrease in the use of plastic water bottles. Every time I go to the store and I see the cases of the plastic water bottles it wants to make me puke. It’s very easy to transform your home into a plastic free zone I actually wrote a blog about it and it’s actually cheaper than buying cases of water. It really hurts the environment.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Just keep going stay in your lane and block the haters. Keep working hard and don’t give up, ever!
How can our readers follow you online?
Follow me:
Instagram @heathermarianna @beautykitchenjunkie @beautykitchenboutique @mariannanaturals
Facebook.com/beautykitchenbyheathermarianna
Twitter @heathermarianna
Youtube.com/heathermarianna
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