Gen Z, Wellness & Innovation with BeautyMatter's Kelly Kovack
Posted posted on May 28, 2025
On This Week's Episode:
Kelly Kovack, founder and CEO of BeautyMatter, joins Dr. Anthony Rossi to explore how evolving values, scientific innovation, and cultural storytelling are transforming the beauty landscape. Together, they examine the enduring resilience and reinvention of the beauty industry—even amid economic uncertainty—revealing why it continues to be a fertile ground for innovation and opportunity.
Kelly offers a nuanced look at the rise of body care and skin health, unpacks the complexities of the clean beauty movement, and discusses how technology is revolutionizing the consumer experience—from empowering in-store advisors to reshaping brand-consumer relationships. Whether you’re a founder, strategist, or beauty enthusiast, this conversation offers a thought-provoking lens into the future of beauty—grounded in insight, integrity, and impact.
Guest Bio:
Kelly Kovack has diverse work experience in the beauty industry. Kelly is the Founder and CEO of BeautyMatter, a platform that offers curated news and original content. Kelly also hosts the podcast "It's a Matter Of...". Additionally, they are a board member of Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare and the Independent Beauty Association. In the past, Kelly has held roles such as Chief Marketing Officer at AllWork and Strategic Advisor and Creative Director at SoCozy. Kelly is the Co-Founder of Odin New York Fragrances, Purpose-Built, and Rescue Beauty Lounge. Kelly has also worked as the Vice President of Marketing at Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare and as a Principal at Brand Growth Management.
Kelly Kovack attended The Catholic University of America, where they earned a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Political Science and Philosophy. The exact start and end years of their education are not specified.
Episode Transcript:
DR. ROSSI: How is longevity going to change the way we think about skincare and the products we use?
KELLY KOVACK: I think it is going to completely reframe the conversation. We are already shifting from “anti aging” to skin health and long term resilience. Longevity thinking forces you to ask what this routine means for your skin ten, twenty, thirty years from now, not just in the next selfie.
DR. ROSSI: Hi everyone, I am Dr. Anthony Rossi and you are listening to Give Good Face. Welcome back to Season 2. Today I am thrilled to have Kelly Kovack, founder and CEO of BeautyMatter, one of the most influential voices in beauty. Kelly, thank you for being here.
KELLY KOVACK: Thanks for having me. I am excited to be here.
DR. ROSSI: I read BeautyMatter, I get the newsletter, I stalk the site. You have a wide lens on what is happening in beauty. How are you seeing the industry right now?
KELLY KOVACK: I think we are very lucky to work in a resilient category. Things are tough and a little chaotic. The next twelve to eighteen months will not be easy from an economic or business standpoint. But those hard moments usually come with opportunity. They force people to think differently and a lot of innovation comes out of that.
DR. ROSSI: The classic lipstick index.
KELLY KOVACK: Yes, although this time I would say it is more of a fragrance index. Fragrance is absolutely killing it right now, which is fun because that has not happened in a long time.
DR. ROSSI: Where do you see the biggest opportunities inside skincare specifically?
KELLY KOVACK: Even though skincare growth is slowing a bit in some markets, there are regions like the Middle East that are still very underpenetrated in skincare and that is exciting. And the science side is having a real moment. Consumers are genuinely excited about science. They want efficacy, they want proof. We are shifting away from brands that are mostly marketing with a nice label over a private label formula. People are demanding data. That dovetails perfectly with biotech and new delivery systems. The efficacy you can get today, including from brands like yours, is on a different level.
DR. ROSSI: You are speaking my language. Science backed skincare, real testing, real results.
KELLY KOVACK: And even the language is changing. We are talking about skin health instead of chasing an impossible “perfect” face. At the same time the industry is still obsessed with youth. We always chase younger consumers. The fact that we are even discussing eight year olds shopping at Sephora is mind boggling.
DR. ROSSI: Parents ask me what their eight year old should use and I tell them the only active they need is sunscreen.
KELLY KOVACK: Exactly. The interest in skincare is great. The fact that they are talking about wrinkles at eight is not. The tricky part is they do not want products made for kids. They want what teens and college students are using. My hope is the industry uses some restraint this time. We should use this as an opportunity to get it right, to educate very young girls and boys on appropriate skincare and healthy body image instead of exploiting the trend.
DR. ROSSI: Are there brands you think are handling that well?
KELLY KOVACK: Bubble Skincare is one. Shai Eisenman set out to make skincare more approachable for younger users, but she is very responsible about it. She even puts on the packaging that certain products are not appropriate for anyone under eighteen. That is a step further than most. And then you have the lifecycle piece. The brands someone loves at fifteen will not be the brands they want in their twenties or thirties. Targeting them is a huge opportunity. Keeping them is the real challenge.
DR. ROSSI: Social media adds another layer. Filters, photo editing, constant comparison. It hits self image hard.
KELLY KOVACK: Yes, and you see that play out in categories like acne. Starface really shifted the tone by taking shame out of acne and making it playful and visible instead of something to hide. For years the only real innovation was the pimple patch. Now I think we are seeing “acne 2.0” with brands coming out of the professional space and treating acne with more sophistication. Acne is like anti aging. Everyone deals with it. There is still huge room for innovation.
DR. ROSSI: I love the pimple patch for that reason. It is treatment and confidence at the same time.
KELLY KOVACK: And patches are just one piece of a bigger movement in delivery systems. We are delivering actives in new ways now. Patches, masks, overnight systems. Habit forming formats that make self care feel practical and enjoyable. You do not need twelve steps, but people are building thoughtful routines and sticking to them.
DR. ROSSI: You also mentioned body care as an area you are watching.
KELLY KOVACK: Yes. I honestly thought body care’s moment during COVID would be temporary. Historically, if you had body care in your line it was the loss leader. Low margins, low urgency. During COVID, body care broke through and I assumed it was a “we are home in sweats” blip. But it has not faded. Ulta and Sephora are investing in the category. We have been a neck up market in the US. Now we are seeing serious body care that is ingredient and results driven, not just scented lotion.
DR. ROSSI: We are lasering neck down more. Decolette, arms, legs. The whole body is finally in the conversation.
KELLY KOVACK: Exactly. Wellness is being treated as a full body experience. And even there, people want actives. They want body products that do something. One founder I spoke to was a pastry chef. She uses chocolate tempering techniques and repurposed chocolate equipment to create solid body bars built on butters. It is true innovation in a “simple” category. And she did clinicals. It is artisanal body care with real data behind it.
DR. ROSSI: That is so cool. Very chef driven, but for skin.
KELLY KOVACK: It is also real innovation in the more natural, clean leaning space instead of just biotech.
DR. ROSSI: Let’s talk about that. How do you feel about clean beauty now?
KELLY KOVACK: The whole concept of clean beauty makes me a little insane, if I am honest. The term does not actually mean anything. It can be extremely misleading. I think it started from a good place then veered into fear mongering. Brands or retailers cherry picked studies, often weak or out of context, and pushed them into consumer media. Suddenly the entire industry was reformulating off bad science because no one wanted to be the brand defending a “scary” ingredient. It became a mess we created for ourselves.
DR. ROSSI: And then everyone has to fix it.
KELLY KOVACK: Exactly. For a while I wondered how we would ever clean it up. I actually think biotech and citizen scientists are helping solve it. Science is slowly calming the clean conversation in Western markets. The assumption now is that formulas meet a certain safety bar. That is table stakes. The “all natural good, synthetic bad” conversation is being exposed as pure marketing. Everything is chemicals. Context matters.
DR. ROSSI: And globally?
KELLY KOVACK: In markets like the Middle East and parts of Asia, clean is still very new. You have retailers built entirely around clean and dedicated clean merchandising. Trends move at the speed of TikTok, but they do not commercialize at the same speed everywhere. Something fading in the US can still be rising elsewhere. That is important if you are building a global brand around any trend, clean or otherwise.
DR. ROSSI: I love that you call out the marketing spin and still keep the global nuance.
KELLY KOVACK: The positive piece from the clean wave is the push for transparency. Consumers demanded more transparency from brands. Brands then demanded more from suppliers. Suppliers used to hide behind “that is our IP.” Now they are expected to share sourcing, processing, even who is harvesting botanicals. Technology lets you track that and keep people honest.
DR. ROSSI: It shows up in conversations around contamination too. Benzene is a good example. People want to know where it is coming from.
KELLY KOVACK: Yes, and in the US you have another dynamic. We are very litigious. There is an entire business model around stirring up fear with testing that is not always rigorous or contextually meaningful. If I get a press release from a lawyer and a lab together, I am cautious. You always have to ask: what exactly are they testing, at what levels, and what does it mean clinically.
DR. ROSSI: And are these results relevant on skin or in the body, not just in a petri dish.
KELLY KOVACK: Exactly. A lot of these conversations try to make ingredients sound purely good or bad. In reality it is about concentration, formulation, and context. That is why some of the ingredient rating apps worry me. They flatten nuance into red or green lights. Most ingredients are not inherently evil or saintly.
DR. ROSSI: Same with percentages. We have a “more is better” obsession.
KELLY KOVACK: Yes. The percentage game has become a marketing tactic. More retinol, more acid, higher numbers on the label. But more is not always better. Often it is worse. I am sure you see the over retinoled faces, the broken barriers.
DR. ROSSI: All the time. People stacking retinoid, strong vitamin C, exfoliating acids, all together.
KELLY KOVACK: And for consumers, the science is complex. If I, as a brand and strategy person, sometimes need to slow down and reread, I know the average consumer is not decoding full journal articles. That is why black and white narratives are dangerous. They simplify to the point of distortion.
DR. ROSSI: Formulation science is its own discipline. Good chemists are doing real work behind the scenes.
KELLY KOVACK: Absolutely. True brands with staying power invest in that work early. They collaborate with serious chemists, iterate, test. That is very different from grabbing a stock private label formula and slapping a logo on it.
DR. ROSSI: Before we wrap, what are you most excited about right now?
KELLY KOVACK: I am really interested in beauty tech. Some companies are pulling tools out of the lab and out of the dermatologist’s office and putting them into the hands of consumers or beauty advisors. Some phone based tools are a bit gimmicky because you cannot control lighting or environment, but they can still guide people to better choices. What excites me more is tech like Eve Lab that controls the environment at a counter. You can track a consumer’s skin over time, connect what happens in clinic, at a spa, and at retail, and help them see real progress.
DR. ROSSI: And empower the people on the floor.
KELLY KOVACK: Yes. For a long time beauty advisors were at a disadvantage. They were told “no phones on the floor” while consumers stood there with the internet in their hands. After COVID that flipped. Phones are on the floor, and new tools are giving advisors real power. They are often the first touch point. In that moment, they are the brand. Giving them tech to personalize recommendations, build long term relationships, and feel confident in their advice is huge. They are an overlooked part of the ecosystem.
DR. ROSSI: If you want to know what is really happening, stand next to a beauty advisor for a day.
KELLY KOVACK: Exactly. That is where you hear the real stories and see what people actually buy, not just what we think they want from behind a laptop.
DR. ROSSI: Kelly, I love BeautyMatter. It genuinely helps me keep a pulse on the industry. Thank you for the work you do and for coming on.
KELLY KOVACK: Thank you. I appreciate that. And thank you for having me. I love your products. They are officially in my rotation now.
DR. ROSSI: That is an honor. Thanks again.
Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Give Good Face. Please subscribe, leave us a review, send us a DM, and follow along wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Gen Z, Wellness & Innovation with BeautyMatter's Kelly Kovack
On This Week's Episode:
Kelly Kovack, founder and CEO of BeautyMatter, joins Dr. Anthony Rossi to explore how evolving values, scientific innovation, and cultural storytelling are transforming the beauty landscape. Together, they examine the enduring resilience and reinvention of the beauty industry—even amid economic uncertainty—revealing why it continues to be a fertile ground for innovation and opportunity.
Kelly offers a nuanced look at the rise of body care and skin health, unpacks the complexities of the clean beauty movement, and discusses how technology is revolutionizing the consumer experience—from empowering in-store advisors to reshaping brand-consumer relationships. Whether you’re a founder, strategist, or beauty enthusiast, this conversation offers a thought-provoking lens into the future of beauty—grounded in insight, integrity, and impact.
Guest Bio:
Kelly Kovack has diverse work experience in the beauty industry. Kelly is the Founder and CEO of BeautyMatter, a platform that offers curated news and original content. Kelly also hosts the podcast "It's a Matter Of...". Additionally, they are a board member of Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare and the Independent Beauty Association. In the past, Kelly has held roles such as Chief Marketing Officer at AllWork and Strategic Advisor and Creative Director at SoCozy. Kelly is the Co-Founder of Odin New York Fragrances, Purpose-Built, and Rescue Beauty Lounge. Kelly has also worked as the Vice President of Marketing at Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare and as a Principal at Brand Growth Management.
Kelly Kovack attended The Catholic University of America, where they earned a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Political Science and Philosophy. The exact start and end years of their education are not specified.
Episode Transcript:
DR. ROSSI: How is longevity going to change the way we think about skincare and the products we use?
KELLY KOVACK: I think it is going to completely reframe the conversation. We are already shifting from “anti aging” to skin health and long term resilience. Longevity thinking forces you to ask what this routine means for your skin ten, twenty, thirty years from now, not just in the next selfie.
DR. ROSSI: Hi everyone, I am Dr. Anthony Rossi and you are listening to Give Good Face. Welcome back to Season 2. Today I am thrilled to have Kelly Kovack, founder and CEO of BeautyMatter, one of the most influential voices in beauty. Kelly, thank you for being here.
KELLY KOVACK: Thanks for having me. I am excited to be here.
DR. ROSSI: I read BeautyMatter, I get the newsletter, I stalk the site. You have a wide lens on what is happening in beauty. How are you seeing the industry right now?
KELLY KOVACK: I think we are very lucky to work in a resilient category. Things are tough and a little chaotic. The next twelve to eighteen months will not be easy from an economic or business standpoint. But those hard moments usually come with opportunity. They force people to think differently and a lot of innovation comes out of that.
DR. ROSSI: The classic lipstick index.
KELLY KOVACK: Yes, although this time I would say it is more of a fragrance index. Fragrance is absolutely killing it right now, which is fun because that has not happened in a long time.
DR. ROSSI: Where do you see the biggest opportunities inside skincare specifically?
KELLY KOVACK: Even though skincare growth is slowing a bit in some markets, there are regions like the Middle East that are still very underpenetrated in skincare and that is exciting. And the science side is having a real moment. Consumers are genuinely excited about science. They want efficacy, they want proof. We are shifting away from brands that are mostly marketing with a nice label over a private label formula. People are demanding data. That dovetails perfectly with biotech and new delivery systems. The efficacy you can get today, including from brands like yours, is on a different level.
DR. ROSSI: You are speaking my language. Science backed skincare, real testing, real results.
KELLY KOVACK: And even the language is changing. We are talking about skin health instead of chasing an impossible “perfect” face. At the same time the industry is still obsessed with youth. We always chase younger consumers. The fact that we are even discussing eight year olds shopping at Sephora is mind boggling.
DR. ROSSI: Parents ask me what their eight year old should use and I tell them the only active they need is sunscreen.
KELLY KOVACK: Exactly. The interest in skincare is great. The fact that they are talking about wrinkles at eight is not. The tricky part is they do not want products made for kids. They want what teens and college students are using. My hope is the industry uses some restraint this time. We should use this as an opportunity to get it right, to educate very young girls and boys on appropriate skincare and healthy body image instead of exploiting the trend.
DR. ROSSI: Are there brands you think are handling that well?
KELLY KOVACK: Bubble Skincare is one. Shai Eisenman set out to make skincare more approachable for younger users, but she is very responsible about it. She even puts on the packaging that certain products are not appropriate for anyone under eighteen. That is a step further than most. And then you have the lifecycle piece. The brands someone loves at fifteen will not be the brands they want in their twenties or thirties. Targeting them is a huge opportunity. Keeping them is the real challenge.
DR. ROSSI: Social media adds another layer. Filters, photo editing, constant comparison. It hits self image hard.
KELLY KOVACK: Yes, and you see that play out in categories like acne. Starface really shifted the tone by taking shame out of acne and making it playful and visible instead of something to hide. For years the only real innovation was the pimple patch. Now I think we are seeing “acne 2.0” with brands coming out of the professional space and treating acne with more sophistication. Acne is like anti aging. Everyone deals with it. There is still huge room for innovation.
DR. ROSSI: I love the pimple patch for that reason. It is treatment and confidence at the same time.
KELLY KOVACK: And patches are just one piece of a bigger movement in delivery systems. We are delivering actives in new ways now. Patches, masks, overnight systems. Habit forming formats that make self care feel practical and enjoyable. You do not need twelve steps, but people are building thoughtful routines and sticking to them.
DR. ROSSI: You also mentioned body care as an area you are watching.
KELLY KOVACK: Yes. I honestly thought body care’s moment during COVID would be temporary. Historically, if you had body care in your line it was the loss leader. Low margins, low urgency. During COVID, body care broke through and I assumed it was a “we are home in sweats” blip. But it has not faded. Ulta and Sephora are investing in the category. We have been a neck up market in the US. Now we are seeing serious body care that is ingredient and results driven, not just scented lotion.
DR. ROSSI: We are lasering neck down more. Decolette, arms, legs. The whole body is finally in the conversation.
KELLY KOVACK: Exactly. Wellness is being treated as a full body experience. And even there, people want actives. They want body products that do something. One founder I spoke to was a pastry chef. She uses chocolate tempering techniques and repurposed chocolate equipment to create solid body bars built on butters. It is true innovation in a “simple” category. And she did clinicals. It is artisanal body care with real data behind it.
DR. ROSSI: That is so cool. Very chef driven, but for skin.
KELLY KOVACK: It is also real innovation in the more natural, clean leaning space instead of just biotech.
DR. ROSSI: Let’s talk about that. How do you feel about clean beauty now?
KELLY KOVACK: The whole concept of clean beauty makes me a little insane, if I am honest. The term does not actually mean anything. It can be extremely misleading. I think it started from a good place then veered into fear mongering. Brands or retailers cherry picked studies, often weak or out of context, and pushed them into consumer media. Suddenly the entire industry was reformulating off bad science because no one wanted to be the brand defending a “scary” ingredient. It became a mess we created for ourselves.
DR. ROSSI: And then everyone has to fix it.
KELLY KOVACK: Exactly. For a while I wondered how we would ever clean it up. I actually think biotech and citizen scientists are helping solve it. Science is slowly calming the clean conversation in Western markets. The assumption now is that formulas meet a certain safety bar. That is table stakes. The “all natural good, synthetic bad” conversation is being exposed as pure marketing. Everything is chemicals. Context matters.
DR. ROSSI: And globally?
KELLY KOVACK: In markets like the Middle East and parts of Asia, clean is still very new. You have retailers built entirely around clean and dedicated clean merchandising. Trends move at the speed of TikTok, but they do not commercialize at the same speed everywhere. Something fading in the US can still be rising elsewhere. That is important if you are building a global brand around any trend, clean or otherwise.
DR. ROSSI: I love that you call out the marketing spin and still keep the global nuance.
KELLY KOVACK: The positive piece from the clean wave is the push for transparency. Consumers demanded more transparency from brands. Brands then demanded more from suppliers. Suppliers used to hide behind “that is our IP.” Now they are expected to share sourcing, processing, even who is harvesting botanicals. Technology lets you track that and keep people honest.
DR. ROSSI: It shows up in conversations around contamination too. Benzene is a good example. People want to know where it is coming from.
KELLY KOVACK: Yes, and in the US you have another dynamic. We are very litigious. There is an entire business model around stirring up fear with testing that is not always rigorous or contextually meaningful. If I get a press release from a lawyer and a lab together, I am cautious. You always have to ask: what exactly are they testing, at what levels, and what does it mean clinically.
DR. ROSSI: And are these results relevant on skin or in the body, not just in a petri dish.
KELLY KOVACK: Exactly. A lot of these conversations try to make ingredients sound purely good or bad. In reality it is about concentration, formulation, and context. That is why some of the ingredient rating apps worry me. They flatten nuance into red or green lights. Most ingredients are not inherently evil or saintly.
DR. ROSSI: Same with percentages. We have a “more is better” obsession.
KELLY KOVACK: Yes. The percentage game has become a marketing tactic. More retinol, more acid, higher numbers on the label. But more is not always better. Often it is worse. I am sure you see the over retinoled faces, the broken barriers.
DR. ROSSI: All the time. People stacking retinoid, strong vitamin C, exfoliating acids, all together.
KELLY KOVACK: And for consumers, the science is complex. If I, as a brand and strategy person, sometimes need to slow down and reread, I know the average consumer is not decoding full journal articles. That is why black and white narratives are dangerous. They simplify to the point of distortion.
DR. ROSSI: Formulation science is its own discipline. Good chemists are doing real work behind the scenes.
KELLY KOVACK: Absolutely. True brands with staying power invest in that work early. They collaborate with serious chemists, iterate, test. That is very different from grabbing a stock private label formula and slapping a logo on it.
DR. ROSSI: Before we wrap, what are you most excited about right now?
KELLY KOVACK: I am really interested in beauty tech. Some companies are pulling tools out of the lab and out of the dermatologist’s office and putting them into the hands of consumers or beauty advisors. Some phone based tools are a bit gimmicky because you cannot control lighting or environment, but they can still guide people to better choices. What excites me more is tech like Eve Lab that controls the environment at a counter. You can track a consumer’s skin over time, connect what happens in clinic, at a spa, and at retail, and help them see real progress.
DR. ROSSI: And empower the people on the floor.
KELLY KOVACK: Yes. For a long time beauty advisors were at a disadvantage. They were told “no phones on the floor” while consumers stood there with the internet in their hands. After COVID that flipped. Phones are on the floor, and new tools are giving advisors real power. They are often the first touch point. In that moment, they are the brand. Giving them tech to personalize recommendations, build long term relationships, and feel confident in their advice is huge. They are an overlooked part of the ecosystem.
DR. ROSSI: If you want to know what is really happening, stand next to a beauty advisor for a day.
KELLY KOVACK: Exactly. That is where you hear the real stories and see what people actually buy, not just what we think they want from behind a laptop.
DR. ROSSI: Kelly, I love BeautyMatter. It genuinely helps me keep a pulse on the industry. Thank you for the work you do and for coming on.
KELLY KOVACK: Thank you. I appreciate that. And thank you for having me. I love your products. They are officially in my rotation now.
DR. ROSSI: That is an honor. Thanks again.
Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Give Good Face. Please subscribe, leave us a review, send us a DM, and follow along wherever you listen to your podcasts.