Launch Date: July 2023

Geography: Miami, Florida, US

Founder: Ian Pearson, Founder + CEO

Advisors: Faye Speedie

2025 Full Year Projected Revenue: $2M - $5M

Primary Category: Retail/Service Provider

Funding: Self-Funded

Primary Distribution Channel: DTC

2025 Projected Offline Distribution Points: N/A

This is Beauty is transforming the way people shop by giving imperfect products a second chance. We partner with leading retailers, brands, and distributors to rescue inventory that would traditionally be written off (and usually destroyed). Think products with damaged packaging, discontinued lines, or short-dated stock. These items are still perfectly usable, and by offering them to conscious consumers at a discount, we help recover revenue and dramatically reduce waste.

Since launch, we’ve already saved over 300,000 products from landfill—and that number is set to grow fast. With our first major US retail partner now on board, we’re entering an exciting phase of growth as we look to expand partnerships across the industry. For products that can’t be resold, we ensure responsible disposition through our partnership with the Pact Collective and its hard-to-recycle beauty plastics program.

At This is Beauty, we’re not just selling products—we’re building the future of circular beauty retail through accessibility to imperfectly perfect beauty.

Insights: Ian Pearson, Founder + CEO

Why now and why you?

Studies show that up to 30% of beauty inventory is discarded before reaching consumers due to imperfections or damage incurred during manufacturing, shipping, or retail handling. This leads to considerable financial losses for brands and retailers, as well as significant environmental impact. 

This is Beauty is uniquely positioned to address this challenge by offering an established resale platform to retailers, brands, and distributors helping them recover revenue, reduce waste, and drive sustainability.

What fuels your competitive advantage?

Expertise and Innovation: We’ve spent several years perfecting our process, enabling us to efficiently and accurately manage a wide variety of products, regardless of the type or extent of damage. Sustainability and Ethics: Our deep commitment to responsible practices sets us apart. We try to recommerce as much as we can, but anything that cannot be resold is recycled through the Pact hard-to-recycle beauty plastics program. Agility and Adaptability: We recognize that each retailer or brand’s needs are different, so we tailor our solutions to effectively manage the need. This could be damages, returns, short-dated products, discontinued lines, or any combination of these challenges. Strategic Partnerships: We’re not here for one-off transactions; we’re here to build lasting, strategic partnerships. We avoid unnecessary discounting and focus on long-term collaborations that contribute to making the beauty industry more sustainable.

What are you most proud of accomplishing to date?

Hitting the 250,000 items recommerced mark. That equates to us saving over six Olympic sized swimming pools full of damaged beauty products from landfill!

What is the one thing you wish someone had told you?

There's a reason people have tried and failed. It's not as easy as you think.

What would you tell your past self before starting this journey?

Be more frugal. Not everything happens when you want it to, and cash is king. Disrupting the way people operate today takes time and perseverance.

What does success look like in the next 3-5 years? 

Partnering with all major beauty retailers and brands across the US and becoming the go-to solution for problematic beauty inventory. Expanding our global footprint to drive meaningful environmental impact in the beauty industry.  Diverting over 1 million beauty products annually from landfill, setting a new industry standard for ethical and sustainable recommerce.

What's one industry trend that is overhyped, and what's being overlooked? 

"Clean" or "Green" Beauty. We believe one of the biggest sustainability challenges in the beauty industry isn't the packaging or ingredients; it's what happens to unsold, returned, and imperfect products. Each year, millions of perfectly usable beauty products are destroyed, incinerated, or sent to landfill due to overproduction, damaged packaging, short-dated inventory, or returns that can’t be reshelved. This is a silent but staggering source of waste, and it’s largely hidden from public view.

Despite growing consumer demand for transparency and sustainability, ethical inventory management remains overlooked. Brands often focus on front-facing "clean" or “green” initiatives while continuing to discard or destroy unsellable inventory behind the scenes. Part of the issue is operational complexity: managing imperfect inventory at scale is logistically challenging, especially in a category like beauty where safety and compliance standards are high. That’s where This is Beauty steps in, but it requires a mindset shift: seeing “imperfect” inventory not as waste, but as an asset that can be redirected with impact.

We want to help brands and retailers lead here. They won’t just reduce waste, they’ll build consumer trust, unlock new revenue channels, and future-proof their operations against mounting regulatory and ESG pressures.

How do you think the industry needs to evolve?

Damaged beauty shouldn't mean dirty beauty. In an industry obsessed with perfection, imperfect products are too often discarded instead of redirected. Retailers and brands tell us, “we have DIF (Destroy in Field) agreements in place,” as if that’s the only option. But why does this practice still exist? Why are we destroying perfectly resalable products when they could be recommerced, responsibly and profitably, through our platform? It’s time to rewrite the rules.

If you could wave a magic wand, what one wish would you make for your business?

To onboard a major beauty conglomerate or retail partner that will allow us to share the partnership publicly.