Wende Zomnir | Founder of Urban Decay & Caliray

Glow Journal

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In episode 133 of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Dimond talks to the co-founder of Urban Decay and Caliray, Wende Zomnir.

Wende Zomnir is beauty industry royalty. This is the woman behind the Naked Palette, Urban Decay’s now-iconic 2010 launch that ensured this already wildly successful brand would go down in beauty history.

Wende, alongside the tech mastermind that is Sandy Lerner, founded Urban Decay in 1996 with a distinctly grunge, “punk” if you will aesthetic. That in and of itself was revolutionary, when you consider that the most popular brands at the time were the likes of Clinique who were championing that very clean, very fresh look. Urban Decay was dark and bold and edgy, and thanks to some serious guerrilla marketing from Wende it quickly found its way into the hands of Gwen Stefani and Garbage front woman Shirley Manson.

Urban Decay was acquired by the L’Oréal group in 2012, with Wende staying on as CCO until 2022, soon after launching her latest beauty venture- Caliray, a brand that harnesses Wende’s love of and expertise in beauty with her longstanding passion for the environment and sustainability, with industry sources estimating that the brand generated between $20 and $25 million USD in retail sales in 2023.

In this conversation, Wende shares what it was like officially working with Gwen Stefani about 20 years after hunting her down at a music festival, what she believes it takes to create a truly iconic beauty product, and the full story behind the now infamous Urban Decay Naked Palette.