Marissa Shipman on Building Resilient Beauty Brands: theBalm and Pretty Smart

“I'm a glass half full kind of person. I really like to think of things like, “Okay, why did this happen?” And, you know, it's like, if life gives you lemons, add vodka.”

Building a beauty brand takes far more than creating great products. Behind every successful company are years of experimentation, problem-solving, persistence, and learning how to navigate an industry that constantly evolves.

For many founders, entrepreneurship starts with curiosity:  seeing a gap in the market and deciding to figure things out along the way. But long-term success often comes from resilience: the ability to adapt, stay creative, and continue building through uncertainty.

In this episode of Entreprenista Podcast, we sat down with Marissa Shipman, the founder and CEO of theBalm Cosmetics and Pretty Smart Cosmetics. Under her leadership, theBalm has expanded globally, staying true to its mission of inspiring confidence and creativity through beauty. Recently, she collaborated with Walmart to launch her latest brand, Pretty Smart, in 2,800 stores. Marissa is committed to offering high-quality beauty products at affordable prices, continuing her mission of making luxury beauty accessible to everyone. Tune in to hear Marissa share how she got her first big break with Sephora, her decision to invest in building her own factory, and the importance of learning from her biggest mistakes.

You can listen to the podcast here on Spotify and Apple Podcast.

Here are a few moments from the podcast:

Marissa shares how theBalm started with curiosity, risk, and a lot of learning as she went.

“I basically decided I wanted to work in beauty and I had no idea how to do that. So I went online and I bought 11 books on how to make makeup from Amazon... I started mixing in my kitchen... I think I was like blissfully naive and I just charged forward and just did everything that sort of popped into my mind.”

She explains how her first Sephora meeting helped put theBalm Cosmetics on the map.

“I got a pity meeting because a friend of mine knew someone who was a buyer there. And I had basically invented one of the first plumpers... I came out with Plump Your Pucker and Sephora was like, wow, this is a good idea... by the end of the meeting they put me into five Savoras and then that built to 25 and you know got up to like 120.”

Marissa talks about building Pretty Smart Cosmetics with Walmart while keeping luxury formulas accessible.

“My goal has always been to give the best quality formulas at the lowest prices possible because I think everybody should have access to luxury beauty and not have to pay an arm and a leg... And by doing that, we were able to get to the pricing we want without sacrificing on the formulas.”

She shares the founder mindset that helped her keep going when people questioned her.

“It takes a long time to build a business. Nobody tells you that you think like you launch a line and it's automatically successful... But you can never succeed if you quit... if you have a passion for something and you, you know like when you like feel in your gut and you're like, I can do this, like I can make this go, go with your gut.”

Marissa reflects on why mistakes became some of her most important learning lessons.

“Nothing's a mistake if you learn from it... I've made so many mistakes, so many, you know, wrong turns, but you just course correct, right? So it's not a mistake if you can figure out how to make it help you. And I got to say like making the mistakes that I made helped me figure out how to be able to like do pretty smart.”

You may also like:

• How to Get Your Product in Stores (and Keep It on Shelves) 
• Starting a business with a partner? 5 conversations to have before getting started 
• Should You Trademark Your Business Name and Logo—or Start with One? 

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Connect with Marissa:

• Instagram: @themarissashipman)
• LinkedIn: marissa shipman - ceo at thebalm

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Updated on: June 1, 2025