Silly Little Girls Club

Amanda Baldwin, former CEO of Olaplex, on the Supergoop years, the phone call that led to Olaplex, winning back the pros and what leading at scale really costs.

Amanda Baldwin is a true one of one, and someone I am genuinely inspired by. She is the former CEO of Olaplex. We recorded this while she was still in the role, so she talks about the brand in the present tense.

We start with an eight year old Amanda walking around New York City trying to work out why some shops did better than others. She takes us through Wall Street, Wharton, Clinique and Dior, then the Supergoop years and the phone call from someone she trusted that led her to Olaplex.

We talk about what you do first when you take over a brand in a challenged spot, how every image and every piece of copy was flipped in about a year, and the middle of the night "what if it doesn't work" moment two weeks before it landed. We also get into how you win the pro community back (listen, then actually act), why hair is the highest passion, highest confusion category in beauty, and what the science can do next.

And the human stuff: giving up free Saturdays, going to two baseball games out of ten, what matters more than the fancy degrees when things get hard, and her advice to every silly little girl wondering if she has what it takes.
Thank you to Sephora UK for sponsoring this series. https://www.instagram.com/sephorauk/

Watch the full video: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuzwtwcT8M_vhOTRCd1kxdAeT8swZFej0
Listen everywhere: https://5xy1vclvlpjemmlq0w7vws.captivate.fm/listen
Silly Little Girls Club: https://www.sillylittlegirls.club
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Samantha on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samantha.cusick/
Samantha on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@samantha_cusick
Sephora UK: https://www.sephora.co.uk
Olaplex: https://olaplex.com

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Chapters
0:00 Welcome, and a thank you to Sephora UK
1:14 Meet Amanda Baldwin
2:01 Growing up in New York and falling in love with brands
6:02 Was it a plan? True north and the next right thing
7:55 The Wharton essay and not being patted on the head
9:24 Why Supergoop? Sunscreen and a founder called Holly
12:52 What scaling really looks like
15:36 The Goldman Sachs full circle moment
18:20 The Olaplex phone call
20:13 Why hair is unlike any other category
21:59 Where do you start with a brand transformation?
30:12 Winning back the pro community
33:24 Styling, science and health beneath the hold
37:01 Adding emotion to the potion
39:08 What nobody tells you about leading at scale
40:54 The question every client asks me
42:23 Being a mum and running a global business
45:48 What actually matters when things get hard
47:47 Where the Silly Little Girls Club name came from
48:41 Her advice for a silly little girl in her 20s
49:32 Thank you

Sephora UK's Managing Director Sarah Boyd on six or seven years of pushing for the comeback, the 5,000 person queue at Westfield White City, and how to get your brand on the shelves.
Sarah Boyd spent six or seven years banging her head against a wall asking why Sephora wasn't in the UK. Then someone finally said yes, and she came home with her two rescue dogs to make it happen.
We recorded this one live in the brand new Sephora on Carnaby Street, in front of an audience, with donuts. Sarah is the Managing Director of Sephora UK. She tells me what opening day at Westfield White City was really like (snow, 5,000 people in the queue, a security guard who kept asking for a number), why the UK is the third biggest premium beauty market on the planet, and how Greggs ended up at a Newcastle launch.
We also talk about how Sephora keeps inclusion real in the stores, from quiet hours to training every new team member with Face Equality International. Plus her advice for a first leadership role, what the industry gets wrong about what women want from retail, and what she'd say to a founder who dreams of landing on the Sephora shelves.
Thank you to Sephora UK for sponsoring this series.
Follow, subscribe, rate, whatever your app lets you do. It really helps.
Sephora UK: https://www.sephora.co.uk
Face Equality International: https://faceequalityinternational.org
Not a Phase: https://notaphase.org
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samantha.cusick
Chapters
0:00 Welcome, and why it's called the Silly Little Girls Club
2:40 Meet Sarah Boyd
4:21 Did it all lead somewhere?
6:48 From brand to retail: the coffee that changed everything
12:20 The Sephora call that felt like a lightning bolt
14:53 Running Sephora across Asia Pacific
18:15 A global brand with a local accent
20:55 Why Sephora UK went city by city
24:45 Six or seven years of asking why Sephora wasn't in the UK
26:13 Opening day at Westfield White City
31:54 Greggs, sausage rolls and the Newcastle launch
34:45 What makes Sephora different in the UK
37:06 Inclusion in practice: Face Equality International, Not a Phase and quiet hours
44:50 Being a woman in leadership across cultures
47:26 Quick fire: advice for a first leadership role
49:16 What beauty gets wrong about what women want
50:36 What does success actually feel like?
52:35 Advice for founders and the European incubation programme
54:01 Thank you

Recorded live at Soho Farmhouse, this special episode of The Silly Little Girls Club dives into a topic so many women quietly struggle with — hair loss.
Host Samantha Cusick sits down with Laura Tudor, co-founder of CENTRED, and Sofia Baig, a brilliant trichologist and true scalp expert, for an honest, raw and deeply reassuring conversation about what really causes hair loss, how to recognise the signs, and what actually helps.
Together, they break down:
✨ The most common causes of hair loss — stress, hormones, postpartum changes, deficiencies and more
💭 Why your mental health and your hair health are more connected than you think
💆‍♀️ How to build a simple but effective scalp-care routine
🩺 Which treatments and tests are worth exploring (microneedling, red light, nutrition)
💖 The emotional side of hair loss — and why talking about it matters
It’s educational, comforting and full of genuinely helpful takeaways — the kind of conversation women deserve to hear more often.

✨ Connect with our guests:
Laura Tudor – Instagram: @lauratudor_ | CENTRED: www.wearecentred.com
Sofia Baig – Instagram: @sofiabaig__

🎧 Don’t forget to follow, rate and share The Silly Little Girls Club

What does it really take to turn a home salon into a global beauty empire? This week on The Silly Little Girls Club, Samantha sits down with Kim Haberley — the fearless Australian entrepreneur and creative mind behind Boho Blonde, Ape Label, and Filtered Beauty.
From mixing colour in her garage to creating one of the most recognisable salon brands in the world, Kim’s story is a masterclass in resilience, reinvention and refusing to play small.
In this episode, Kim opens up about:
How she built Boho Blonde and Ape Label from scratch
The fearless decisions (and failures) that shaped her success
What it’s really like to scale from one chair to global distribution
Why women in business need to stop apologising for ambition
And how she keeps it real in a world that often rewards perfection over progress

This one’s raw, unfiltered and full of that “if she can do it, so can I” energy.
✨ Connect with Kim:
Instagram: @iambohoblonde
Ape Label: @ape.thelabel
Filtered Beauty: @filtered__beauty
🎧 Don’t forget to follow, rate and share The Silly Little Girls Club to keep our girl-powered community growing!

💄 Season 3 of The Silly Little Girls Club is proudly brought to you by @sephorauk
— the ultimate beauty playground.

What does it take to go from freelance writer to leading the beauty desk at one of the world’s most iconic magazines?
This week on The Silly Little Girls Club, Samantha sits down with Keeks Reid, Beauty Director at Cosmopolitan UK, to find out.
Keeks has built a career on storytelling, representation and celebrating beauty in all its forms. In this conversation, she opens up about her journey into beauty journalism, what it’s really like behind the scenes at Cosmo, and why diversity and authenticity are at the heart of everything she creates.
In this episode, Keeks shares:
How she navigated her career from freelance writer to Beauty Director
The importance of representation and diversity in beauty media
Why authenticity matters in content creation and brand storytelling
The future of beauty trends and how social media shapes them
Her advice for breaking into beauty journalism today

Whether you’re a beauty lover, aspiring journalist or someone curious about the media industry, Keeks’ story is full of lessons, honesty and inspiration.

✨ Connect with Keeks:
Instagram: @keeksreid
Read more at Cosmopolitan UK

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🎧 Don’t forget to listen, follow, rate and share this episode to support the girl-powered community.

💄 Season 3 of The Silly Little Girls Club is proudly sponsored by @sephorauk
— the ultimate beauty playground.