Curious to know how Urban Decay came to be, as well as the women behind the brand?
Read on to discover the untold truth of Urban Decay.
Thus, the seeds were planted.
“When I met Sandy Lerner … everything changed,” she explained in an interview withCosmopolitan.
Determined to seize the opportunity in front of them, Zomnir and Lerner got to work.
We really could start a makeup brand," Zomnir continued.
“We were shipping product by January 1996.”
And, thus, Urban Decay was born.
We couldn’t have come up with better if we tried.
“It was guerrilla, grass roots.”
Our girl was fearless!
To that end, she swiped a friend’s contact list at Nordstrom and began soliciting makeup buyers.
Eventually, that landed Zomnir her shot.
“I had learned from my ad agency days how to be professional.”
Even if Zomnir didn’t like the ad business, it certainly primed her for the business world.
It was with that confidence and poise that Zomnir brought Urban Decay to the next level.
That’s thanks to their Midnight Cowboy eye shadow, which was a runaway success for the brand.
“The edgy name was part of the secret sauce it was naughty,” Wende Zomnir shared withBloomberg.
“That was our first big hit.”
In addition to the name of the product being important, so, too, was the makeup itself.
They really were light years ahead of the curve!
“It sold out before it ever hit the shelves.”
“The employees at the stores didn’t know what to do,” she continued.
Talk about a good problem to have!
When you think of ’90s fashion icons with an edge, who comes to mind?
And speaking of that edge, Stefani and Urban Decay have a relationship that goes back for decades.
We can imagine that helped sales grow!
Stefani would go on to create another collaboration with Urban Decay in 2015, according to the brand’sInstagrampage.
“We’ve created some amazing makeup together and I can’t wait to share it with you.”
And wouldn’t it be impressive to have the car still running all these years later?!
“The idea for it came from my product development director guy and I,” she explained toStyleCaster.
There are now at least 29 such items, and 11 or more counterfeits have been identified.
“We got bought by L’Oreal in 2012,” she explained in an interview withBloomberg.
That is light years beyond coming up with makeup colors in your house and hustling at music festivals.
Of course, there have been growing pains, something that Zomnir has been forthcoming about.
But from the looks of things, Urban Decay is doing just fine.
We are so here for this!
We couldn’t agree more.
Well, fear not, Urban Decay fans, as Wende Zomnir is doing her part.
“It’s easy to make packaging that’s shiny,” she added.
“It’s harder to make things out of cardboard that look luxurious.”
No one’s saying any of that anymore, Wende!
These days, Urban Decay is still true to itself and its principles.
