We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Vince Spinnato a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Vince, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.
Once I arrived to Beverly Hills from driving cross country from New Jersey at 20 years old I picked up the phone book and dialed the number of a woman named Juliette. Juliette was repeatedly a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Late Night with David Letterman. She was famous for what were called “kitchen cosmetics,” a do-it-yourself way to make cosmetics out of ingredients already in your home. She also had a brilliant beauty salon in Beverly Hills, and she manufactured and sold tons of kitchen cosmetics for people who didn’t have time to do it themselves. She was a genius. I knew she would be a treasure trove of information. In our phone conversation, I thought I would try and charm her into agreeing to see me.I walked into the salon the following day and said, “I want to work for you.” She looked at me like I was a nutjob. “Uh, okay,” she said. I did go the following day. I worked for her for free for a year. I had no money, mind you, but I was bound and determined to learn the cosmetic industry, no matter what it took.
Vince, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
After majoring in Cosmetic Chemistry and International Business, I completed a two-year apprenticeship to study the manufacturing and retail end of the industry, nationally and internationally. During this apprenticeship, I helped to create new formulations and learned how to manufacture, develop custom tooling for packaging while enjoying considerable success refining and developing new chemical ingredients for cosmetics. It was at my apprenticeship that I learned the “real world” effectiveness of ingredients and raw materials and of working and managing within a team
framework. Over the next 25 years, I went on to consult, help develop and
manufacture new product lines and private label lines for numerous cosmetics and health care companies such as Chanel, Limited (Victoria
Secret, Bath & Body Works), Gap/Banana Republic, P&G, J&J, Trader Joes,
Whole Foods, Kmart/Sears and many others. He also worked on
developing new products for celebrities including Jennifer Lopez, Ole
Henriksen, Jessica Simpson, Lilian Garcia, Khloe Kardashian, Pitbull, French Montana, and Carol Shaw, among others. I am a member of the California Chapter of the SCC, and has
been a contributor to publications such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper’s
Bazaar, W, Esquire, GQ, Whole Foods Magazine, Health News Digest, Live,
Riviera, WW D, OC Metro, Burn Magazine and Beauty Editor of Modern Luxury
Magazine and, Beverly Hills Lifestyle Magazine. Also been a guest
on television shows such as the Vicki Johnson Show, Go Curvy, Housewives of
Orange County, Workout, Blow Out among others. I have spoken in front of
groups including the Society of OBGYNs regarding the functionality of
transdermal pre- and post-menopausal products, as well as products
treating sexual dysfunction in women. I have for years Spinnato has been
involved in women’s category issues such as pre and post-menopause,
PMS, sexual dysfunction, breast tenderness, and varicose vein treatments.
Have you ever had to pivot?
After my stint as an independent contractor ended, I was so desperate to make ends meet that I ended up taking a job selling futons. Yes, that’s right. Futons. Those stupid folding-bed things that pull up into a couch. This was the first time I had worked for a place that had absolutely nothing to do with the beauty industry. The futon job was, for me, as low as I could go, and the most humbling experience of my life. I ended up selling futons on and off for about two years. As it turned out, there was a very high commission on bed sales, and I made pretty good money at it. Even so, I never let my dream fade away, not even for a second. No matter where I was, I always talked about starting my own beauty business. In hindsight, this made it hard to keep a job, because when employers learned I wanted to be doing something else, they were never that interested in keeping me around.
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
Yes, a friend of mine Marie, / soon to be mentor had a long and distinguished résumé and was what was called a “principal scientist,” or one who researches natural ingredients for inclusion in new products. She had done everything, from the creation of the formula itself to helping sales and marketing teams with their presentations. She had also worked for big companies like Gillette and had developed a lot of the original shaving-cream formulations. Moreover, Marie had been instrumental in developing Earth Science’s natural-beauty line, which is still sold in Whole Foods and health-food stores all across the country. In short, she was brilliant. When I eventually made my way over to visit her facility, she asked me a question I’d been wanting to answer for years: “What exactly do you want from a product line?” Up until this point, the only things I had done for my very own was concepts, Although her company, Liquid Technologies, couldn’t develop my product line for free, they were able to do some amazing things. They structured the deal to amortize a ton of costs, including Marie’s fees, into what they were charging me. If they hadn’t set it up that way, there would have been no way I could afford it. Marie took a huge leap of faith by supporting my dream and teaching me the ropes.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://vincespinnato.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vincespinnato/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thevincespinnato/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vince-spinnato-7619649/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/vincespinnato?lang=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuE4s_1WLVio8C_3rC2HCdg
Image Credits
Vincent Vallejo Jennifer Daigle