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Any self-proclaiming beauty junkie is familiar with Too Faced and can rattle off their famous products by heart: the Chocolate Soleil Bronzers, the__Teddy Bear Brushes__, and, of course, the Better Than Sex Mascara, which might have a slightly hyperbolic name but does make your lashes look freakin' awesome. But did you also know that the company has been around for almost 20 years? Yep. Cofounders Jerrod Blandino and Jeremy Johnson started the company in 1998, and they are also married to each other. Keep on reading for more mind-blowing facts about one of our favorite brands.
The name of the company comes from a loving insult. Blandino used to work at the Estée Lauder makeup counter at Saks Fifth Avenue in the mid '90s. And according to this Too Faced YouTube video, it was there that he used to play around with the samples in the store to create his own makeup. "I decided to create my own items. So I would run over to Chanel and crush up a blush and mix it with an Estée Lauder lip gloss," says Blandino. "I just created these crazy-cool things that I thought we needed. Unfortunately, Saks frowned upon the fact that I was taking your purchase of five products home, melting them in my microwave, and bringing them back in little tupperware containers." But back to the point: Blandino used to call his customers "too faced," because they would turn from supernice to angry when they found out he was out of their favorite lipstick creation, hence the name Too Faced was born. While still working at Saks, Blandino would run across the mall and sell his Too Faced products in Nordstrom during his lunch break.
Too Faced created the world's first glitter eye shadow. Here's how Blandino describes the creation process in the video: "I was in the lab creating a black matte eye shadow, and across the room was the lip gloss area, and there were these little jars of glitter along this insane wall. I was like, 'Oh, oh, I want this!' So I ran over and grabbed a jar of glitter, and I brought it over to the lab lady who was pressing the eye shadow, and I said, 'Put this glitter in the eye shadow, because let's change the world.' And she said, 'It won't work because we need more binder,' so we put in more binder, and we put the silver glitter in the black eye shadow, and bam! The first glitter eye shadow. It was called Ooh and Aah, and it was in our top five products for, like, ten years." Seriously, Blandino is a character. He even has his own YouTube series called It's Happening:
The company mascot is Blandino and Johnson's Chihuahua, Clover, who comes to work with them every day.
In fact, Blandino's passion for animals was the inspiration behind the company's Teddy Bear Hair Brushes. "You don't need to hurt an animal to look beautiful," says Blandino in an interview with the Examiner. We've worked for years to make our Teddy Bear Hair Brushes—consulting top wig makers on how to make synthetic fabrics look and feel like natural hair."
Blandino got the inspiration for the best-selling Chocolate products from a facial.
"I was in Hawaii getting a chocolate facial and was loving the moisturizing and anti-aging properties of the cocoa. I did a little digging into cocoa and it's amazing for your skin," Blandino said in an interview with the Examiner.
Too Faced has eight bronzers for a very important reason. When Blandino's sister was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma, he set out to create beautiful, high-quality bronzers so that women would have ways to achieve a sun-kissed glow without sacrificing their health and baking in the sun. Blandino loves bronzers so much that in an interview with makeupandbeautyblog.com, he spoke about his "wardrobe" of bronzers. "I have a different bronzer for every different outfit," he says. "Every different time of year, every moment. It depends on where I'm going, what I'm doing. I've built a bronzing wardrobe that I'm absolutely addicted to and will never give up."
Inside the Allure Beauty Closet: