The Beauty Edit: When the People Who Built the Industry Start to Lead It

When I saw the headline, Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye named Executive Vice President of Skims Beauty, I had to pause. For a moment, it felt bigger than just an appointment announcement.

It felt like a shift — one that so many of us have been waiting for.

Her quote said it all:

“I have sat on salon floors, worked eight-hour shifts at beauty retailers, started a company, and am now taking an executive seat at a beauty brand promising to bring a fresh approach to beauty.”

That line hit deep because it speaks to the part of the beauty industry most people never see, the artists, stylists, and retail experts who hold it together. The ones who’ve spent years doing makeup under fluorescent lights, stocking shelves, learning how people actually talk about their skin, and building careers out of empathy and experience.

I started my career the same way — behind the chair, in the chaos of holiday seasons, surrounded by clients who taught me more about people than any classroom ever could.

Those years shaped how I saw beauty: as something deeply personal, cultural, and human.

Triple Eight Creative was born out of that perspective. I didn’t just want to create looks, I wanted to create connections. My work has always been about bridging the gap between brands and the people who wear them, between artistry and strategy, between what happens in the salon and what happens in the boardroom.

That’s why Diarrha’s appointment feels different.

Because when someone who’s been on the frontlines, who knows the smell of setting spray and the exhaustion of a full retail shift, takes the reins of a global brand, it signals something powerful: that lived experience is finally being recognized as expertise.

This moment reminds me why I built this platform, and why I’ve kept showing up even when it felt like the industry wasn’t built for people like me. The truth is, we’ve always been building it, one client, one conversation, one creative risk at a time.

Now, as I relaunch Studio Eight, I want to dedicate this space to the conversations that shape culture, not just trends or products, but the people and moments that redefine what beauty means.

If this is the next chapter of the industry, I want to be part of writing it.

— Chardé