Women In Aesthetics: Sharon Collier, CEO at Glo Skin Beauty

As CEO at Glo Skin Beauty, Sharon Collier leads an impressive team with a bold vision for the brand and customer experience. Her inspiring international career spans more than 30 years in the beauty and skincare category.

Prior to joining Glo Skin Beauty in 2019, Sharon served as CEO and board member at Cover FX where she led the prestige cosmetics line to exponential growth through partnerships with Ulta Beauty nationally and Sephora globally, securing distribution in more than 20 countries. Before that, she was president and CEO of Laura Mercier Cosmetics and Skincare, ReVive Skincare, and a member of the Board of Directors of Gurwitch Products.

With her deep expertise with prestige brands, a creative approach and inspiring leadership style, Sharon is taking Glo Skin Beauty to new heights.

WL: Who were some of your mentors throughout your career?

Sharon: I’ve been fortunate to have had a lot of strong women as my mentors over the years. I started out in Neiman Marcus executive training, where there were so many diverse voices from across the business who took a real interest in nurturing every part of my career development. This gave me a solid introduction to the business of retail and truly set me on my path.

Janet Gurwitch at Laura Mercier was such a dynamic force behind the brand. She brought me onto the team before the brand had launched, which gave me unique insight into so many aspects of brand building beyond just sales. Her leadership was impactful and empowering. She would always say, “We are not a small brand, we are a young brand.” This ethos truly powered us through to the successes we achieved. After she left, I went on to become CEO, which wouldn’t have been possible without her support in helping me grow across all aspects of the business.

WL: How did you get your start in the aesthetics field?

Sharon: Working so closely with Laura Mercier herself, at the forging of her brand, really helped me get a unique insight into aesthetics and cutting-edge innovation. Laura was top in her field. Her product development came from such a clear vision, an unparalleled passion for the skin. She understood implicitly not only how the product had to look, but how it would wear, introducing the primer and tinted moisturizer that were such game-changing formulations for the time. She paired this with her innate talent for education with personal appearances and demonstrations.

Joining Glo Skin Beauty has given me a different perspective into aesthetics, partnering with professionals and aestheticians, but still with that emphasis on transformative products and education. Born in the treatment rooms, Glo has the largest collection of targeted peels in the industry. The pandemic created an unexpected opportunity to take peels to a whole new level: bringing them home, directly to the consumer, with our complete peel kit collection. Changing the face of peels and challenging misconceptions about peels of the past has been an incredible opportunity.

WL: What advice do you have for women who are rising stars in this industry?

Sharon: Keeping an open mind is everything. Success is rarely linear; it’s shaped by all your experiences—even the ones you didn’t anticipate. Being open to new opportunities, new ideas, keeps your path rich as you move through your career.

Find your passion. If you love what you’re doing, you’re constantly living your brand. It will flourish, evolve, and grow as you do.

There’s so much focus on social media these days, but nothing compares to the power of real-world relationships…genuine relationships have an authenticity that leads to more meaningful opportunities.

WL: How would your colleagues describe your management style?

Sharon: I think the first thing they would say is that I am collaborative. I’ve worked hard to develop and evolve a culture of creative collaboration, both empowering my team as individuals and as a collective. On that note, they’d say I’m very participative. I pride myself on strong, direct employee relationships and being very accessible and visible within the company. I thrive on staying connected and integrated with the team.

And, of course, they would say that I’m adaptive too. We have all had to be over the past year, but it’s that ability to pivot, think outside of the box and be responsive—even disruptive—that makes a true impact in such saturated times.

WL: Name a quote or quotes that best describe your philosophy

Sharon: “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” —Anais Nin; “I never dreamed about success, I worked for it.” —Estee Lauder; “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” —Thomas Edison