I first discovered RMS Beauty the way I imagine most people do—a woman I admire thanks to Instagram mentioned in passing that she uses "Un" Cover-up religiously. Now I religiously use it, too (right now, in fact). Word-of-mouth—the best advertising a brand could ask for. RMS checks all the cult favorite boxes—organic, unfussy, minimal packaging, affordable yet high quality. It's the sort of makeup meant to make women feel beautiful in their skin, not by hiding it. So it's fitting then that RMS's COO, Elaine Sack, isn't afraid to talk openly and honestly about her own life, work, and experiences. This is a brand built on raw honesty and the belief that beauty is imperfectly human. Here's Elaine on how she started at RMS (before RMS existed, actually): 

"I definitely went to college with a completely different career path in mind for myself. I wanted to work in the art industry. I really loved my art history classes—you know, it's after lunch, the slides come on, the lights go down—it was entertaining for me. So I found myself interning in art galleries and my first job out of college was here in Charleston at an art gallery.

Charleston is different than other cities—people come to galleries here to shop them, and it's really catered toward selling. Working [at the gallery], I realized I love to do sales. I love closing a deal, closing a sale, closing an account. It’s just a very gratifying and satisfactory job-well-done feeling. So that's how I got off that [art world] path—by pursuing more of a sales future for myself. 

On Shifting from Art to Sales

After I'd worked in the art galleries for awhile, I needed a change. I wanted to find somewhere I could excel—and I knew I wanted to be doing sales. I didn’t care what it was—it could have been selling curtains or pharmaceuticals. I was willing to do anything just to get into a sales-driven environment. There was a company that was opening up, a manufacturing facility. When I took the job there, there were three cars in the parking lot and I was the only sales person. The company was just in its early infant stages. 

On RMS Beauty "Before Even the Beginning" 

At the manufacturing company, [I'd talk to] all these stay-at-home moms and celebrities and even scientists—all these people who wanted to make their own skincare or makeup line or something along those lines. But everyone had very generic ideas and product concepts that felt redundant. Then a call came in, and it was Rose-Marie [Swift, founder of RMS]. I really clicked with her. She told me about her background as a makeup artist and what she wanted to do and I thought, 'This is a product that’s a genius idea.' 

I worked with her through the manufacturing and development process, and she always said along the way, 'I’m going to hire you one day. You’re going to come work for me one day.' When the product was finished, I asked her what she was going to do next. She hesitated—I think she'd hit the stumped point in the process—and said, “Well you’re just going to have to work with me because I haven’t gotten past the production and development stage of this.”

So I left that company that I'd helped build—when I left there were probably 60 cars in the parking lot—and went from that, which was a very interesting position, to jumping into something completely brand new. That’s how I started with RMS Beauty. I was with RMS from before even the beginning, from the concept stages. 

On a Collaborative Brand 

When we first started the company, it was just Rose-Marie and myself—so in one week I was the Director of Sales, the Director of Social Media, the Director of Fulfillment...I did a little bit of everything. When we landed the QVC and J.Crew deals, the ones that really helped launch the company, I was right there with Rose-Marie. It felt more collaborative than [my previous sales roles], which felt really good. 

Rose-Marie and I have a very unique working relationship in the sense that she lets me take a lot of control and leadership with this company. So to me, it’s almost my baby as well. 

I think it's really cliché when people say "You have to love what you do so it won't feel like work." It’s definitely work. This isn’t an arcade. It’s not for fun. It’s hard work everyday. But I’m very dedicated to this, and I want to continue to see it grow. And again, I’ve been with it since the beginning. So I’m extremely addicted to it as well.

On Catapulting Into Sephora Stores

You know that philosophy, ‘If you build it they will come"? People really trust Rose-Marie, and we don’t come out with products just to launch them. I mean right now we’re preparing a launch for lipsticks that we’ve been formulating for five years. We put as much into every single one of these products as we can. Our customers see it, and they feel it. We’re really lucky. We don’t have a ton of upset customer service calls. We don’t have a lot of negative reviews online.

Our employees feel it, too. It was the two of us for a couple years, and now eight or nine years later, we have about 15 part-and full-time employees, and we don't have a lot of turnover. I feel like we’ve hired a lot of disciples to the brand, not just worker bees but people that believe in us and want to see this brand do well. We truly do have something we’re all so proud of and can stand behind. 

Right now, I have this strong sense that the brand is ready to grow. It’s always been poised for growth, but right now it’s being catapulted. Our relationship with Sephora is growing—we’re going to go into 35 stores. That was really this stamp of approval as a beauty brand to get placement in a physical Sephora store. I think it proves the natural industry isn’t going anywhere. And the fact that Sephora is getting behind us is amazing.

"We're Reinventing Categories"

I think we've succeeded so far because we’ve paved our own way. Often, we have people say 'Oh, now you have to come out with skincare. You need to make a sunscreen. You need to make a professional line.' But all of those traditional paths that other brands have followed—they're just not of interest to us. I can't say a lot right now, but we're working on a project [launching in January] that's revolutionary in that, as a cosmetics company, we’re going to take another health category under our wings. We're reinventing categories. It's going to be something that surprises people, but it’s still in line with our philosophy. We believe in giving women the best health and the best chance to feel and look their greatest. We’re just going to do it in a different way."