Beauty, Boldness and Becoming: Adrianna Abbott on Building Lily Pop

The children's beauty market is experiencing unprecedented growth, driven by parents seeking safer, cleaner alternatives for their young ones who are naturally drawn to experimenting with makeup and self-expression. Enter Adrianna Abbott, a seasoned beauty industry executive who spent a decade at Estée Lauder Companies before embarking on her own entrepreneurial journey with Lillipop, a clean play makeup brand designed specifically for children.

Lillipop, named after her two daughters Lily and Poppy, represents more than just another children's product line. It's a thoughtfully crafted collection that prioritizes safety without sacrificing the joy and creativity that comes with play. With formulations so clean that children could safely ingest an entire tube, Abbott is setting a new standard in an industry where "clean" claims are often more marketing than reality.

Amy Cohen Epstein: This is a really fun way for me to chat with friends, Adrianna, but also to really get to know my friends better in a way that I get to ask questions that you don't normally get to ask over dinner or drinks... I've known you for a very long time, but I've kind of, in many ways, known you as a partner or wife, but in the last year I've gotten to know you a lot better, which is really fun and exciting for me. And now I consider you a much younger friend. You're a decade younger than I am, so it's really exciting to have a friend who's about to turn 40... which makes me feel young and exciting too. But your career to me is really phenomenal, and I think for a lot of people it will be too. So I think we should start with that... Just give me your background and who you are and how you went into your career... Even where you're from, I think's exciting, and your love of all things beauty and makeup and fashion and how that led you into your world.

Adrianna Abbott: Thank you so much. I love this question because it's a big part of who I am, and I think there's definitely reasons why I went into beauty. So I'm originally from Arizona. I'm an only child. My mom was a single mom, so we spent a lot of time together and she was really my first beauty mentor, right? I remember sitting on her bed watching her do her makeup, and I grew up in the eighties, so she was like dynasty queen—big hair, red lips, red long nails, shoulder pads, big chunky gold jewelry. This was my mom. I'm also Latina, so my mom's side of the family is Mexican. And in our culture, we're very passionate, vivacious people. And part of that is your appearance, right? So I remember my mom always saying, "You always go anywhere, you're going overdressed. You never want to be underdressed."

You always have to be done. And now I feel like maybe that led to a little bit of my perfectionism, but her whole note was that you always want to put your best foot forward, put your best self forward. You're meeting new people every day, so make sure that you have a respect for yourself and that you're always presentable and respectful to wherever you're going. And that confidence will carry through. So whoever you're meeting with, always make sure you give them your best self. So anyway, that was the whole idea around beauty. And then when I was in dance and all the things, my mom would put on these elaborate makeup routines and I just was obsessed. I would get into it and be playing with her things and she never really—my mom was great about [this]—she never said, "Oh God, that looks horrible."

Or "Oh, yikes, what are you doing? That's way too much." She would kind of say, "Oh, okay, if that's what you want to wear, great." She kind of let me do my own thing and let me go through stages of life. So if I had some style or some makeup—I remember when I wasn't allowed to wear makeup until I was like 13, I think, and that [was just] eyeliner—in any event, in high school I had these elaborate makeup routines. I would flip through Vogue or V Magazine or whatever and I would say, "Oh my God, this is so beautiful." And whatever couture shoot in the back of the book looked like, I was like, "Oh, I'm going to match this for a Tuesday at my private Catholic school." Why I chose that, I have no idea. But my mom would say, "Oh, are you sure that bright purple is really a good idea?"

I'm like, "Yeah, mom, I'm living my best life every day." And she was like, "Okay, great." If that's what [you want]—she knew, she trained me to be that way. So I was like, "Okay." She was like, "Fine, if that's what you want to do." And I think it just carried on. I just really loved it. In college, I was doing makeup at the counter and it was my happy place to be able to transform people. And I remember once being at the counter, this woman came in and she had some scarring on her face, I think burns or something, and she was kind of timid and shy to come up to the counter. It could be intimidating. You see these people [who] are done up and all these things and maybe they have too much makeup on or they don't have enough or it's kind of intimidating.

So she came in and I said—I looked at her in the eye and I said, "How can I help you today? What are you here for?" And she was like, "I went through this whole thing with my skin. I had this burn and I don't really know where to begin now." And I sat with her for an hour and we talked through it and she walked away and she was smiling and felt happy and confident, and that was huge for me to be able to—I think when a woman feels her absolute best, the most beautiful, she is powerful, she can take on anything. She feels her best self, she feels that she can accomplish whatever, she's not fearful of, "Well, I'm not good enough" or "I'm not that." So to be able to give someone that and show them and train them how to do it on themselves so that they can live their best life or be their best self or put their best self forward every day, what a gift.

So it kind of just continued from there. I went to college and I originally was in fashion PR, and that was so great, and I moved to New York and it was exciting and fun, but it was fashion PR. I thought, "I need to bring it back to basics. I need to go back to beauty." So I left fashion and I started doing makeup at the counter again after college, and I just kind of was scouring the job boards. There was one particular beauty house that I had worked for when I was at the counter, and so I would just scour their boards every day and see what positions came up. [A] position came up in corporate sales at Clinique. And so I did all the networking and all the things and tried to figure out who works there and who's here and who's that. I just was fearless.

I tapped my network and I asked everybody and I told everybody what I wanted to do, and eventually I got an interview and then I got the job and that was my foot in the door. Did I want to be in corporate sales at the time? No. My background is in marketing [and] PR, so it wasn't exactly it, but it was my foot in the door. And honestly, it was incredible. I was at the Estée Lauder Companies for 10 years and I feel like it was my masterclass in learning the business. That's kind of where I was until now. Happy to go into my new thing, but this is your show, Amy.

Amy Cohen Epstein: How'd you get your hustle?

Adrianna Abbott: I think it was growing up in Arizona and seeing—I was a big fish in a small pond and I'd visited New York after high school with some friends and I just was attracted to this, the pulse of the city and the diversity and everything. It was organized chaos of there's a million people and they're going 10 different ways, but it kind of just flows. And so I knew in my heart, "Okay, that's where I need to be. That's where I somehow need to get there." And I took a look around in Arizona and I thought, "Wow, this is so great. And my family's here and I love them, but it's time for me to go." And so I knew if I needed to go, I needed to save money and I got two extra jobs. And then I transferred to school out in New York. And when I was in New York, I always had my internship and another job and I was going to school full time and that was New York, and that was my dream. I knew what I wanted and I didn't want, and people told me, "Oh, New York's expensive," or, "Oh, you'll not make it there or you'll be back soon." And that kind of was my ammo of, "You know what, maybe you wouldn't make it there, but that's not going to happen to me. I don't want this life. I want to see the world and have new experiences and meet people and life is so precious. Why be in one place your whole life?" So I think that was my hustle of my dream of knowing what I didn't want, but also being hungry for what I did want.

Amy Cohen Epstein: Your hustle shows—you are a tough cookie, but you're a tough cookie [in a soft way]... You're going to get what you want because you're going to work hard, not because you're going to like bulldoze, but you're going to work hard to do it. And it shows that's who you are and it's cool. It's very attractive as a friend...

It makes sense to me that you have a mom who said to you—my mom was the same, my mom, and I think I don't have daughters, I have three boys. So I didn't get to translate it into my kids, but my mom was very clear on this sense of if you're not feeling great, pull yourself together and it might make you feel better. And when I was in a stage of my life in my early teens or in that crummy stage where you're awkward and going through your puberty and whatnot, I remember being like, "You're so shallow."

That's not true. But... I realized as I was older, and certainly as a grown woman, it is—if you pull yourself together and you feel like you're going to look your best, there's an extra spring in your step. And it does bring a power to you that if you don't feel it inside, it kind of pulls it out. And beauty does come from within, but sometimes if you're feeling that power and that beauty within, you have to put it on. And it doesn't mean you have to be fake. You just have to get it together, get your shit together. I think I was 15 or 16 when—and I have blonde eyelashes—my mom was like, "Never leave the house without mascara. That's it." And I don't think I have since then... My mom's other thing was always wear a matching bra and undies because if you get into a car accident [and] you end up in the hospital, you don't want the doctor to see you not in a matching set...

Adrianna Abbott: [That's] totally so [funny]...

Amy Cohen Epstein: There is this sense of real power from that, and it does give you this kick in the butt and this, "I'm going to go and I'm going to get it done, and I am going to be this person who has this force and this will, and I'm going to be a force to be reckoned with, but I'm going to have this veneer on me that's also soft and lovely and kind, and I'm going to work with you and I'm going to be this wonderful person because that's part of who I am as well. I'm not just this hard tough person. I'm a tough cookie, but I'm soft and delectable too." And that's certainly who you are. So you were really into makeup... You worked the beauty counters and then you worked for Clinique, and then where did that lead, because you worked for other companies too.

Adrianna Abbott: So when I was at [the] beauty counter, I was at MAC, so I always say once a MACer, always a MACer. That's kind of where I started my career in beauty, I guess. And so MAC was really [cutting edge]...

Amy Cohen Epstein: Cutting edge when it [started]...

Adrianna Abbott: Really [cutting] edge. [It] talked to me, their motto. I think it's changed a bit since, but it was "All Ages, All Races, All Sexes." There's one more. My MACers would be mad at me, but it was inclusive to all skin tones, all genders, all walks of life. And so I really liked that and I also liked the people that I worked with there. It was literally everyone. And so it just is [a] nice perspective and you just feel like it was just a family. And so after that, I went to Clinique and I was doing corporate [sales] there, and I was supporting the SVP of sales for the Northeast and her team of sales directors. And that was amazing. I mean, I think every woman—what an iconic brand. I think every woman has a Clinique story, at least one product in their life that they use or used at one time or continue to use.

So it was a real privilege to be there, and it taught me so much. I was with the Clinique brand the longest when I was at Estée Lauder. And then from there I went into a marketing role that covered—it was like [a] multi-department kind of multifunctional role. And so I covered the Clinique, MAC, Bobbi Brown and GlamGlow brands. And so there, that was kind [of] nice. It was essentially running your own business. I handled promotional sets, Mother's Day, holiday gift with purchase, and then I handled MAC [when it] was coming to our department and opening on the military bases. So we had some accounts there. So that was really special. Bobbi Brown, my colleagues kind of more handled that brand, but I did more of—if we had PAs or Bobbi at the time was with Estée Lauder, so we would do some of the PAs with her then.

And then GlamGlow was new. It was new to Estée Lauder also, so it was expanding their distribution in our smaller boutique companies, and that was really great. I loved my job there because we were kind of touching on a little bit of everything—education, sales, operations, marketing, advertising. And so that was very, very cool. And I managed my own budget there. And in fact, we had a trio and our manager at the time, our director, she has become a great friend, and in fact, she moved to Denver not too long ago. And so we still see each other, and I often call her with things. "Now, what do you think? Or what's your thought?" And so it's been great. The Estée Lauder family is still there. And after that I went on into the fragrance designer fragrance group, and that was kind of nice.

It was kind of rounding out my experience. And so I had skincare, makeup, and now fragrance, and... fragrance is really beautiful. It's a really beautiful medium. There's a lot of storytelling and notes and layering, and it's this really romantic sense. It's nostalgic and just beautiful. So I'm really glad that I kind of went into that role, but again, in marketing. And so [I] worked with [a] variety of different retailers and high[end] and low[end], and so it was awesome. Then from there, I was at Estée Lauder and they were making some changes and restructuring [and] reorgs. They asked me, "Would you come to this other brand and this and that?" And I thought—I'd moved in the pandemic. I thought, "Why not see what's here in my environment?"... Being in Denver, I don't know, it would've been like the Zoom girl all of the time, which was fine, and they were happy with it, but I just thought, "I need to see, I need to take a step back and see what's here."

So I did and I took a look around and there wasn't anything that kind of met my interest, and so I decided to start my own business. And so the idea was I have two little girls and they are eight and five, but they've always kind of been in my things and my beauty products and things. So I thought, "Why not create a product or products, a clean play makeup for kids that they could play with because they're in your things anyway and why not have something that's made for them, but also safe, right? Safe [and] quality." So the packaging is beautiful, but also I come from prestige makeup, so I want to make sure that it's something that's quality for them and not going to hurt them and not going to stain all of the things because as a mom, that's annoying. So that's kind of where I'm at now, and so I'm going down this journey.

I'm a one-[woman] show at the moment, but I'm learning as I go. It's so funny. I feel like I'm working in a vacuum a lot of times. I have so much experience with working with these other groups, but I wasn't in packaging, I wasn't [exposed to them]. But now that I'm doing it all, it's like, "Wow, this is a whole"—I mean, at Lauder we had everything in house. So now it's me trying to figure it out and it's really, really fun. And in fact, because I love it so much, it doesn't feel like work to me. It's a fun challenge, but sometimes it can feel a little lonely when you're the sole founder.

Amy Cohen Epstein: It is. So how do you start? Where did you start?

Adrianna Abbott: So first, it is funny, I had this vision. My husband and I got our kids for, I think it was like a holiday, they got this little makeup set. It was like a tin set with lip glosses in it and [lip] balms and my husband thought, "Oh, this is really cute, but you could do this better." And I thought, "Yeah, okay, he's just saying that to be nice." And literally the next day I was doing a meditation or something and it came to me. Everything came to me—the name, how I wanted it to look, what I want it to smell [like], taste [like], feel like, look like. The whole 360 marketing campaign was in my head. So I got up and wrote it down and took all my notes and I told my husband, I said, "Oh, remember you were telling me that I should do this?"

And I said, "What do you think about..." I pitched him on it. He was like, "This is amazing. What do you mean you just thought of this?" I'm like, "Yeah, I don't know. I think it's a cool idea." And he's like, "No, I think this is great." So what I did was I kind of just again went out to my network of people—either business owners or family members or people in the industry—and I kind of was like, "Where do I start?" And I think the best advice was write down all the things that you need to do and put them kind of in pillars to kind of organize yourself and based off your knowledge [of] each step what it takes. So I literally have this 15-page document with all the things, and so it was kind of like, "Okay, organize all the things that you think that it requires to build a brand, but also a product and then try to cross off as you go."

So I started with, "Okay," I asked a friend to help me with a logo. I gave him a pitch book of "This is my idea." He used to work with me on other brands, so he helped me with a logo. So that was iteration one, and then I went and registered my EIN, and then as I'm talking to people, I'm kind of gathering more information, but I don't know, I'm just making it up as I go and trying to figure it out. And sometimes—my brother-in-law who is [an] entrepreneur, I asked him, I interviewed him, I'm like, "How should I kind of get this going?" He's like, "Whatever you [do], you should try to fail cheap. So take risks. But if you can take a risk that's cheap, that's not going to bankrupt your idea, then do it. Try it, see how it works."

Also, another friend [who's] a family member, she's an entrepreneur also. She said, "Find out from what you want, but find out what your customer wants. What are these moms? What are they looking for? What are the kids looking for? The kids aren't buying it. Your target audience is a mom or someone who is buying as a gift, so what are they looking for? What's important to them?" So I put together a focus group—people in the industry, people not in the industry, mom[s], friends, school friends, all the things. And I just ask them questions. "What's important to you?" When I found my manufacturer, I thought—they asked me, "What are your claims going to be or what's important to your brand? What's going to make it different?" And so I thought, "Well, I don't really know. I know what a child brand is so different from an adult brand."

So I asked my focus group, "What's important to you? Allergy[-free]? Cruelty-free, vegan, organic, what does clean mean to you? Where do you want to buy your products? What do you want it to smell [like]? What do you want it to look like? All these things." Some people have answers and some don't, but it's feedback. So I kind of just took that and created an idea of based off of my vision of what I wanted it to be.

Amy Cohen Epstein: And where are you now?

Adrianna Abbott: So now I am all over the place, but now I'm trademarking, I'm in—my product is in testing. We're launching with six lip glosses, so I've done sampling and I've finalized the formulation. And so now it's finalizing tube design and packaging and working on website copy and creative. And I said trademark. That was what I dealt with yesterday. So it's so interesting... That's kind of where I'm at now. And at times I feel like based off of my past life, "Oh man, I'm so behind. I should have had this done already," but then I [remember] that this is my time and I can choose to say no or "It's not quite ready yet" or "I don't like that," so it doesn't need to be on a strict 18-month from conception to counter deadline.

Amy Cohen Epstein: And who set those deadlines [anyway]?

Adrianna Abbott: [My] boss, all my bosses, but you're your boss. So 18-month lead time from inception to on counter. And so we had stages that we had to go through in marketing to make sure we got there, and sometimes things would launch a little bit later, and that's okay, but that was kind of the [timeline]...

Amy Cohen Epstein: You're talking about at Estée Lauder, you're talking about a multibillion dollar business with access to every single everything in the world. I mean your expectations—you could have really high expectations, which you will. And you're running a household and you're running two children.

Adrianna Abbott: It's okay. It is okay. And I'm realizing my husband tells me all the time, "Remember, you are the boss. You can decide when you want these things done." And I said, "I know. It's just so ingrained in me to have things done at a certain time," and when you're a new founder and it doesn't work that way, you have to pivot and move and things [change] and that's okay.

Amy Cohen Epstein: So when you think about the brand, when you did that—when you meditated and it all came to you when you saw it—did you see a full makeup line? Did you see a kit when you visualize[d] or did you visualize pieces or did you think, "I don't know what it's going to be. I'm going to let it happen organically and naturally"?

Adrianna Abbott: I wish that I didn't know, and it would happen organically. I knew exactly how I wanted it to be. That doesn't surprise me... I saw it. I saw sets and palettes and brushes and makeup bags and gift with purchase and all these things, samples and smells and textures, and I knew exactly how I wanted it to appear on the skin, the finish. I saw all of those things. But now it's interesting what I saw and what I'm creating. In fact, the pink that I put together, I called my old boss, who is a dear friend now, and I was like, "The pink is great, but it's not like the Barbie pink I wanted." And she said to me, which I thought was really great advice, she said, "What's your brand ethos?" I said, "Well, it's important to me that it's clean, that it's safe and that it's playful."

She's like, "Okay. So that being said, is it more important to you to use synthetic dyes to get to that exact color of Barbie pink that you want? Or is it better to have a plant-based pigment that isn't quite the color you had in your mind but is going to meet your brand ethos?" And I thought, "Oh, you're right. It's important that I follow my brand ethos," so I did. So I went all plant-based pigments. It is really interesting to see some of my competitive brands and how they've listed their products and they're "clean" and all this and that when you're going through this process, you see certain ingredients or dyes or things and you realize like, "Wow, sure, it's... regulated by the FDA, but is it really clean for kids?" So I decided that'll be my point of difference. It's going to be very clean. They can essentially eat the entire tube if they want, and it's not going to hurt them.

Amy Cohen Epstein: I think that's a really beautiful and really beautifully said... Point. I think if you can always bring it back to that and you can always say, "No, I'm going to stay true to my mission." I think that to me, that brings—that's what creates success long-term, and that's what keeps you honed and keeps you really grounded and it keeps your company safe from teetering. I think that's what allows you to really be successful, to always say, "I'm going to always bring it back." Going to whenever you're wavering or teetering, you can always bring it back to, "Well, am I staying true to what I wanted to do? Am I staying on path?" I think it's okay to pivot and it's okay to turn and make decisions because you have to, or you need to figure it out. But if you can always stay true, that's how you have long-term success. A hundred percent.

Adrianna Abbott: Yeah. I think it's grounding. And when she said that to me, I knew the answer.

Amy Cohen Epstein: Yeah, you knew it and you knew that if you pivoted from that answer that you wouldn't feel good about it and that you couldn't put the label on the box, and if you couldn't put the label on the box, you couldn't really stand behind it. And therefore, what is it? What's the point? And it's really fascinating to know and to see that there's so many brands out there that aren't clean or aren't truly organic, and so what does it mean anyway? And if you are, then you can say that with full confidence and 100% clarity. And I think that is the difference maker. And when you go up in front of focus groups or you're standing behind the table selling it, when you start or going and having sample sales and popups and all those things, that's what you can say. You can say, "Your daughter can stick this tube of lip gloss in her mouth and chew it, and you don't have to rip it out freaking out."

It's okay. It's like that dough that they sell where you're like, "You can eat it raw. There's nothing in it that's going to make you sick. It's totally fine." Yeah, I think that's amazing. I think that's really cool. So without putting pressure on, it is pretty cool that you know exactly what you want, but [that's] a lot of pressure, I can imagine, especially for someone like you who's a perfectionist and wants it to happen. And my guess is wants it to happen really quickly. I think part of your struggle is most likely going to be allowing it to happen over time and allowing it to come about. How do you see the next few years unfolding? Are you going to give yourself moments to breathe because you have to? How do you see this playing out?

Adrianna Abbott: I remember telling my old boss—by the way, she hates that I say [that]—she's [like], "We're friends." I'm like, "Okay, but you were my boss." And she—in any event, I kind of told her, I said, "Oh, I had this idea and this and that." She's like, "Okay, [Adrianna], you're on year five. You need to bring it back to year one and find your hero. What's your hero product going to be? Which one is going to stand out and why?" So I have an enormous amount of ideas when it comes [to] skincare. I think first of all, the kids or children's personal care products space is exploding. I mean, there's so many clean haircare, skincare, face wash, SPF, deodorants, all the things. So I think I have a lot of ideas for each, but my next after the lip gloss would be probably a palette or a set.

I'm not reinventing the wheel because these things have been done before. But I think based off of my experience and what my needs are as a mom, and again, my focus group, I think there's a lot of [gray] space. So I think there's room for all of us. And in fact, a lot of the competitors that I've been looking at who've led the way—there's maybe a handful of clean kids play makeup competitors. They've done an amazing job and I'm so inspired by them all. But I think there's room, like I said, the gray space is huge, and I think there's room for all of us and each kid, every woman or adult has different needs or concerns or things that they're interested in. So yeah, that's the next step.

Amy Cohen Epstein: I like it. I like it a lot. How do you balance launching product and then launching marketing? How do you balance putting out [the work of] building the Instagram page and building the media and building the website for it? How do you balance that?

Adrianna Abbott: Right now, I'm doing a little bit of both, but I am realizing even though my background is in marketing, creative and PR—for me to do it is [challenging because] I have an idea [of] what I want, but I need someone to execute it now because my time is so [limited]. I don't have as much time as I would like to be on it. So I'm doing a little bit of both, but I think when you launch a brand, it's all hands on deck. It has to be big and huge. So that is different from a product launch versus a holiday launch or that kind of thing. So the initial launch has to be huge. There's a lot of lead-in marketing that needs to happen, a lot of teasing that happens, a lot of initial mailings and PR, press kits and all the fun things. My first thought is, "Okay, I need to build this website so I have something that can be direct consumer, and then I need to have a space on Instagram, Instagram shop, and then I need to kind of build this customer community, customer retention."

And so maybe that looks like "Enter your email to know the latest and greatest or when we're launching, or to get 10% off," that kind of thing. Making sure the website is easy, user-friendly, pretty, beautiful, fun, all the things, but also engaging enough that you want to be a part of the know or the community piece. That's where I'm at now, but that is going to take time. And I don't know, my thought is maybe I keep pushing out the launch date, but maybe in the fall—I don't want to launch around holiday because I think that's just a really competitive space with brands who are already established. So if that's the case, then maybe I'd push it out to the new year. But yeah, that's the idea.

Amy Cohen Epstein: That's cool. And tell us about the name.

Adrianna Abbott: So the name is Lillipop, and it's a combination of my daughter's two names—Lily and Poppy—and it's kind of like a play off of candy [and] lollipop. So there is some candy themes, although it's not—they actually made it so there's no taste, there's no flavor to the lip glosses. I don't want them to eat it. I mean, it smells fun. But yeah, it's just fun, playful, inclusive of all skin tones. I often feel when I was doing my research, a lot of kids play makeup is not so inclusive to darker skin tones. I think a lot of it was like this generic powder blue eyeshadow—who is that looking great on? Maybe three people? So I wanted to make colors that little girls and boys of all [skin tones] can kind of enjoy and play and feel like their best selves in, and everything's very sheer [and] age appropriate. But also...

Amy Cohen Epstein: Why would we encourage little kids to put blue eyeshadow on? I don't know, it's so...

Adrianna Abbott: Weird. I think a lot of these—I think it's a lot of the mass products that either you find kind of randomly in a store and it's like, "Oh, this is a kid's build your own kind of thing." But then you put it on, it stains the mouth or stains the lip, forget your clothes. I mean, that's finished. So yeah, I don't really know because a lot of the feedback I've gotten from moms are like, "Please, if you're going to make a red, which my daughter would be so excited about, please don't make it a matte red," which is a hundred percent true... There's maybe some kids that are doing competitions and maybe they need stage makeup, but for everyday play, not necessary. It should just be sheer enough to have them see some type of payoff. I think my kids, when they played with things that are clear, they love it, but they're also like, "Oh," they kind of wish it had a little bit more pizazz, like mom's things. And so I did want to give them some wash of color, but not overwhelming, definitely age appropriate.

Amy Cohen Epstein: And if I had this going on in my house, which I didn't, I would say no glitter.

Adrianna Abbott: I know the glitter is, oh gosh, anytime...

Amy Cohen Epstein: We have a craft with glitter, I'm like, "Oh, can we just do this outside?" Because when we had glitter, when my kids—I remember my last kid, my youngest, when he would have glitter projects at preschool, and then I'd go in to pick him up and there was a trash can by the door and I would dump it in the trash can before we even got in the car. And there was—moms would look at me and they'd be like, "[It] doesn't even make it to the car." And I was like, "No, I don't want glitter in my car. Do you know how long it takes [to] get glitter out of your car?" And they'd be like, "You're the worst person ever." And I was like, "Sure, let me know. Ten years from now... [when] this is not your oldest child when you have other kids, no glitter."

Adrianna Abbott: Totally. And also [if] you want glitter in your car, that's great for you, but I'm not going to do that. No glitter. No glitter, but... I get it. I get it. Yeah. There's two lip glosses with glitter—one's like a gold glitter, one's like a rainbow [glitter], but they're suspended in gloss and there's not a ton of payoff of glitter coming [off]. It's more of like they can see it in the tube. And then when they [apply it], they're like, "Oh, it's so fun." It's not like they're [a] full-on disco ball.

Amy Cohen Epstein: Hey, my favorite nail[polish]—my favorite nail polish right now is just on my toes. Has a little glitter shine to it. I'm not going to lie, but it's not like glitter flying everywhere, but I'm just a mean mom. But that's okay.

Adrianna Abbott: No, I get it. If I had girls, I would've had glitter everywhere...

Amy Cohen Epstein: If I have granddaughters, I'm going to let them put glitter everywhere. I don't care... as long as it's not on the rug—it will never get out [of] the rug. That's fine. [As] long as [it's] not on [the rug]. I'll put some stuff down. I'll put mats or cloths down. Well, I think this is very exciting. I think starting a business is amazing. Being an entrepreneur is incredible. And I think that you're doing this in such a thoughtful way and making it truly clean and truly usable in a way that moms can feel and dads can feel really good... and not have to be hovering and watching and just allowing their kids to play and be creative and excited about painting each other's faces or their bodies or whatever it is.

And to express themselves and then get to a point that your mom and my mom were [at], which is be your best self and be powerful and strong and beautiful. However that translates to be, even if they were cringing a little inside when we were doing crazy things on our face, I think is really the best thing. And to start that at a young age and allowing that freedom of expression and ways to feel beautiful and just have fun. And like you said, they're going to go through your stuff. So let them [do] it in a safe, fun way. I think it's amazing. I think it's really cool... I think it's really awesome, and I am really excited to see the final product, however long it takes, Adrianna.

Adrianna Abbott: Yes, it's going to be great. It's coming along. I'm trying to be kind to myself. My daughter said the other day, "It's so cool, mom. I tell all my friends at school, my mom is making her own makeup. It's so cool that you're doing that." And I said, "Oh, thanks." It's important for her too, to know that it's okay to have dreams or ideas and try. And I always tell her, both of them, whenever you have something that you want in your life or you have a goal in mind, all you have to do is try and never give up. So even for me, even though it's taking longer than I would like, it [is] just never give up. Just try and see how it goes and it'll be great.

Amy Cohen Epstein: I think it'll be great... And enjoying the process is a really important lesson. And knowing they're watching you enjoy the process. Even if enjoying it's hard and even if enjoying it has stumbles and hurdles, I think that's a huge piece of it too. And I think there's another piece that you've touched on multiple times, which is getting to a point where you're asking for help and you're leaning on people that have experience or more experience or deeper experience [in] pieces of the puzzle that you might not have gone as deep in your career prior to this moment is such a huge piece. And it's allowing your ego to take a backseat and say, "I need help and I need assistance." And just leaning into those people allows for your success to shine. And that's a hard thing to do, a really hard thing to do, especially for women.

I think we feel like we have to do it all. And if we didn't do every little piece on our own, we're somehow not able to take the success. It's a really important piece of building your own business or just being successful in saying, "I don't know it all. It's not something that you should know how to do. It's unexpected and it's not some gift that we're all given, that we're all knowledgeable." So lean on those people and ask for their help, and people are excited to give it to you and excited to have you pick up those pieces and put them all together with their help and assistance.

Adrianna Abbott: Totally. I'm not the expert of everything.

Amy Cohen Epstein: No, nor should you be, nor should you be, nor should you be. And also this idea that [you can] take your time, because you don't get these moments forever. So being able to take your time and build this brand and build this business while being a fabulous mom to your kids and being home with your family is amazing. And so if that means you're going to take a little more time, that's okay too because you're getting [to] do it all. It just means you're not doing it all super fast. And that's really a blessing. It's really cool.

Adrianna Abbott: It is a blessing.

Amy Cohen Epstein: It is. Well, I'm not going to take up any more of your day and your time so you can get back to it while your kids are at school. Thank you so much. This was awesome. You were great... And I'm super excited to see Lillipop... come together and I really want to see your logo and your colors and your branding.

Adrianna Abbott: Happy to share.

Amy Cohen Epstein: I am... Have a great day, sweetie. And... thank you so much... to be continued.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.