We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Charlene Etienne a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Charlene thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
The most meaningful project I’ve worked on so far has been leading marketing at CORPUS, a clean-beauty brand based in Los Angeles that creates personal care products with a strong focus on sustainability and elevated natural fragrance. This role feels deeply personal to me because it’s the culmination of how my journey in beauty began.
My love for beauty started long before I ever worked in the industry. As a teenager in France, I spent hours in my kitchen experimenting with homemade recipes, from shampoo to face creams, trying to create clean, simple products that actually worked. At the time, I didn’t think of it as anything serious; I just loved understanding ingredients and creating something with my own hands. It sparked my curiosity for beauty, but also planted a seed about what beauty could be: transparent, thoughtful, and connected to nature.
I eventually built a career in the beauty industry and started working for major luxury groups like L’Oréal and LVMH. It was an incredible learning experience, fast-paced, structured, and deeply rooted in heritage. But over time, I realized that something didn’t fully align. I was working with powerful brands, yet I felt disconnected from the values that had first drawn me to beauty. The clean, transparent and sustainable approach I believed in didn’t always match the priorities of these large corporations, or at least the impact I could have to lead the shift.
That’s what made joining CORPUS such a meaningful shift. It’s a small, independent brand built around clean formulations, sustainability, and a commitment to doing things differently. For the first time, I felt like the values of the brand matched my own. Because the team is small, I can see the direct impact of my work every day. I can see how a product launch is shaped, how we communicate, and how our actions can push the industry forward in small but tangible ways.
A moment that really crystallized this for me happened earlier this year, during my first six months. I was invited to The Climate Pledge x Saie Beauty dinner, an intimate gathering of people working across the clean beauty space. The Climate Pledge is a global commitment co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. It brings together companies across industries to take meaningful action on climate. It was inspiring to be surrounded by brands who share similar values and who want to push the industry forward. What made it meaningful was that it wasn’t just another industry event for me. It truly inspired me to push for CORPUS to sign the Climate Pledge and take a clear, public stance on sustainability.
In that moment, I realized how far I’d come from being the girl mixing skincare in her kitchen. I was now part of conversations where change actually happens. A few weeks later, CORPUS officially signed the Climate Pledge, something that made me incredibly proud. It wasn’t just about marketing campaigns or launches anymore. It was about aligning words with action, and being part of a movement bigger than me or any single brand.
II’ve always believed that real change often comes from companies, not just governments. And to drive that change, purpose and performance must work hand in hand. I’m very data-driven in my approach and deeply invested in how marketing strategies translate into growth, profit, and tangible business results. But I also need to feel that what I’m building matters. Working for a brand where I can merge purpose with impact has been the most meaningful experience of my career so far. And it’s a daily reminder that the work we do in marketing isn’t just about selling, it can also be about building a better future for the industry.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m a French Marketer specializing in the clean beauty industry. My journey into this field started long before my career officially began. As a teenager, I became fascinated by natural ingredients and taught myself how to make homemade cosmetics by reading books on formulation. I interned at a small clean beauty store in my hometown, and began sharing my recipes online. This early passion shaped my understanding of beauty as something that should be simple, transparent, and intentional.
Later, my love for content creation and photography naturally led me toward marketing. I studied business and earned a Master’s degree in Management in France, where I chose to focus on marketing as a way to combine creativity with strategy. I then joined major luxury beauty groups like L’Oréal and LVMH, which gave me rigorous training and a deep understanding of how strong branding is built. To perfect my skills, I obtained a marketing certificate from UCLA Extension, which opened the door for me to move to the United States and pursue an international career.
Today, I lead the full 360° marketing strategy at CORPUS Naturals, overseeing everything from product launches and campaign development to creative direction, social media, influencer marketing, e-commerce, and performance channels. My work lives at the intersection of creativity and strategy. What excites me most is building meaningful narratives around products and brands that truly stand for something.
Because CORPUS is a small, independent brand, I wear many hats and have the unique opportunity to shape how the brand shows up in the world from start to finish. From developing campaign concepts to executing launches, I lead initiatives rooted in clean formulations, sustainability, and modern aesthetics. I’m involved in every step of the process, ensuring that each campaign is both visually impactful and performance-driven.
What sets my approach apart is my commitment to bridging brand storytelling and values. I don’t just focus on selling a product; I focus on telling stories that reflect the ethos behind it. I believe marketing can be a tool for shaping culture and inspiring more conscious choices.
What I’m most proud of is being able to bring together everything I love: marketing, clean beauty, and building a life in California. I’ve always dreamed of aligning my career with my values and the lifestyle I wanted, and today, I get to do exactly that. I’m proud to have built a path that blends strategy and creativity with purpose, while contributing to a movement I genuinely believe in.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I’ve always seen marketing as more than a tool to sell. To me, it’s a form of storytelling, and when done well, it has the power to transport people into a world and make them feel something. My journey has always been guided by a quest for excellence: pushing creative boundaries, learning from every launch, and constantly raising my own standards.
But just as important to me is integrity. Marketing can influence behavior at a massive scale. It can inspire, but it can also manipulate. I’ve made a conscious choice to only work with brands I truly believe in because I don’t want to contribute to noise or consumer pressure for products that don’t align with my values.
My mission is to help shape a beauty industry that’s cleaner, safer, and more transparent, to make clean beauty not just a niche but the standard. Through my work at CORPUS, I lead 360° marketing strategies that merge beautiful storytelling with tangible impact, from amplifying a brand’s commitment to sustainability to redefining how clean beauty is perceived and experienced.
And if there’s one thing I bring with me everywhere, it’s my French eye for design and creative rigor, shaped by my past experiences in luxury beauty groups. It’s what allows me to infuse emotion, elegance, and clarity into everything I build. At the end of the day, my goal is simple: to create marketing that moves people and moves the industry forward.
Have you ever had to pivot?
One of the biggest pivots in my life happened right after college. I could have taken what many would consider the easy path: building a comfortable career in Paris after my experience in luxury beauty. Instead, I made the decision to move to the U.S. and build a career and network abroad from the ground up.
That meant leaving behind my family, my friends, and a familiar environment to navigate an entirely new culture, a new language, a new job market, and the complicated reality of visas. It wasn’t easy. I remember finishing my studies at UCLA and applying to countless internships in Los Angeles without success. I was exhausted and uncertain. Then I sent one application in New York, and that one changed everything. It led to my first opportunity in the U.S. and, through a series of connections and twists I couldn’t have predicted, eventually brought me back to Los Angeles.
The second pivot was more personal. I had started my career in the big luxury beauty groups, which taught me incredible rigor, structure, and excellence. But deep down, I knew I wanted to work in clean beauty, something more meaningful, something I truly believed in. So I left the comfort of corporate luxury to join smaller, independent brands like Joya Studio in New York, and eventually CORPUS in Los Angeles, where I now lead marketing.
Looking back, what allowed me to pivot wasn’t certainty. It was intuition. My gut knew this was where I felt the most aligned, even when everyone around me thought it was crazy to turn down some great offers. Overthinking has its place because it helps assess risk, but the real magic happens when you combine rationality with intuition. If there’s something I’ve learned, it’s that when you take a leap toward what truly resonates with you, doors open in ways you could have never planned for.
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Image Credits
Not credits since I took all of these photos, but I wanted to provide short captions for context.
#1 My early experiments in clean beauty, creating handmade skincare recipes as a teenager in France.
#2 Graduation at UCLA, where I earned my Marketing Certificate on top of my Master’s in Management from France and took the leap toward an international career.
#3 The Books & Magic x Joya Studio collaboration — a cross-industry project I led that brought fragrance into the literary world, merging scent, storytelling, and emotion.
#4 The Climate Pledge x Saie Beauty dinner — an inspiring event that motivated me to champion sustainability initiatives at CORPUS.