It took a pandemic for Carisa Janes, who founded and sold Hourglass Cosmetics to Unilever Prestige, to start thinking about her next act.
Sequestered away in Palm Desert, CA, during Covid-19, she finally had time to ponder her follow-up, which meant revisiting an idea she had put on the back burner for almost 10 years.
“I was busy, but a different kind of busy,” Janes told The Business of Beauty. “I was just staring at nature and I was isolated.”
The result, a new brand called Outside In. will launch on Thursday with three products: a Silk Serum Foundation, $64, in 25 shades, plus a $52 accompanying brush and a Floral Reserve Facial Oil, $72. It’s been a long time coming: Janes has owned the intellectual property since before she sold Hourglass to Unilever. The line will be available from the brand’s own direct-to-consumer website starting Thursday, with a store in New York’s SoHo slated to open in spring 2026.
The price tag of premium makeup often raises well-manicured eyebrows, but investors continually show interest in catering to the high-net-worth shoppers who have proven themselves to be nearly immune to macroeconomic slowdowns. And Janes has already done it once: Hourglass launched with a luxury proposition in 2004 (its range of Ambient setting, highlighting and blurring compacts are oft-duped), was sold to Unilever in 2017 and arguably helped pave the way for modern-day premium lines like Westman Atelier and Fara Homidi. She’s also a shrewd investor, having injected funds into the buzzy brands Youth to the People and Salt & Stone.
But the climate in which she’s launching Outside In is not the same as Hourglass’. Premium beauty brands are a dime a dozen, wallets are tighter and customer expectations are even higher. Janes will also be dividing her time between the new line, working with Nature of Things, a body and fragrance line she acquired in October 2023 and relaunched this year, and continuing to lead Hourglass.
“I still feel vulnerable, but it’s less scary than it was the first time,” said Janes. Her bet is that customers are still searching for a brand that synergises skincare and makeup, and that the line’s loftier selling points around reducing virgin plastic (materials like limestone composite and bio-resins from rice have been used) create a unique proposition.
Unlike Hourglass, Janes felt a sense of calm making Outside In. There was no rush or pressure to produce anything, which helped her treat it like an “after-hours” project. Now that Hourglass is a mature brand with a “very capable team” in place, she’s emboldened her to focus more time on her next act.
“It felt like such a luxury, because this has been my passion project, she said. “But now, it’s finally coming to fruition.”
A Second Act
Making Outside In as big as Hourglass will be a challenge. Hourglass may have had to work hard to convince customers to part with upwards of $50 for products like powder and primer, but it had a first-mover advantage, as well as the upmarket and now-defunct New York department store Barney’s, to help reach wealthy shoppers. Now, her new line enters a crowded marketplace, and the affluent shoppers who can afford it have more choice than ever.
Hourglass already has four foundation SKUs, from a stick to a gel-cream, and also has a small range of skincare. It leans somewhat maximalist in its range, offering large palettes of glow-giving powders, and richly pigmented lip products. Outside In, on the other hand, feels spare, partly with its small line-up at launch, but also its skincare-first claims. Its elevated price point comes with elevated marketing claims, boasting what Janes refers to as “self-setting” technology, implying superior long-wearing benefits.
The oil is something of a Swiss army knife, and can be mixed with the foundation, used as skincare or used to smooth the hair, nourish the cuticles and more. The foundation also dovetails with the enduringly popular “clean girl” trend that has seen customers prefer products that offer skincare benefits alongside a healthy, fresh-looking glow. Janes said that customers are still looking for more enhanced complexion options.
Hourglass was not Janes’ first foray into operating a brand: Aged 24, she was poached from her role at cosmetics brand Urban Decay to run a vintage-inspired line called Body & Soul, which later shuttered but still retains ardent online fans.
Her expertise is in elevating everyday products: Before Hourglass, powders were simply used to set makeup in place, but the line helped pioneer the idea that crafted correctly, they could also blur, highlight and diffuse.
The Founders’ Bug
Janes also has a hard time sitting still.
“A lot of people sell their business and they’re like, ‘I’m safe now, I’m gonna go buy an island and chill.’”
She secured the intellectual property rights for the name in 2015, two years before she sold Hourglass. While she didn’t have an official noncompete clause that precluded her from launching Outside In, she said she and Unilever had reached a mutual understanding that she would prioritise Hourglass for the foreseeable future. (She also said she was far too busy working on Hourglass for many years.)
Many founders have the entrepreneurial bug, and are not content with simply launching one company: Bobbi Brown launched premium cosmetics brand Jones Road in 2020, 25 years after selling her eponymous line to Estée Lauder Companies. Brown has spoken about feeling constrained by the corporate machine towards the end of her tenure, which explains the punk-lite ethos of Jones Road.
Marcia Kilgore founded the spa and skin line Bliss, then the mass body care brand Soap & Glory before launching shoe brand Fitflop and finally, cosmetics line Beauty Pie. It wasn’t easy to step away from Bliss, but she did so when too much of her day had become concerned with “big corporate and big politics” tasks. “I’m great at ignition … but I’m not necessarily the person who wants to keep the engine running at a lower speed,” she wrote in an email to The Business of Beauty.
Janes clearly thrives under pressure. She is motivated by the desire to make something that genuinely excites customers, but it’s tricky in an industry that mostly runs on viral stunts and fleeting trends. She said she had no fixed milestones or revenue goals for the brand, describing it as a creative outlet.
She is, however, relishing the opportunity to keep a foot in both camps.
“There’s expectations [from Unilever] but I have the freedom to focus on the things that I loved the most [about Hourglass],” she said. “I would be crazy to leave.”
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