Extra Scoop

Hi everyone! Amy here. Olivia introduced me in last week’s post and interviewed me the week before that, but now I’m here to tell you about the most epic photoshoot I’ve ever been part of. Four months ago, we flew two team members (me + Olivia Eckerson), three models, two photographers, one makeup artist, and one surf coach/producer to Dakhla, a city in Western Sahara (which is technically part of Morocco) to shoot the Annadea launch campaign. Morocco is undeniably having a moment right now.

One of the most valuable lessons you’ll learn in life—both personally and professionally—is that it takes a village. You can’t do everything on your own; even if you technically could, it likely wouldn’t yield the best results. I see a lot of founder-led brands, even content creators, who make everything seem so easy, like they’re seamlessly running businesses worth hundreds of millions of dollars all on their own. They’re not. They have a lot of help.

The beauty world can be tricky to navigate as a consumer. So many brands and products advertise themselves as “clean,” “healthy,” and “good for your skin,” but it’s hard to make sense of what that really means on the surface, since different brands have different standards for their products, and different ways of presenting those standards to the public. A few years ago, I started to educate myself on what was in my beauty products after cleaning up household products containing toxins.

I’ve been working with Amy for several years now–she started coaching Kyle and me on our content business, and quickly became a go-to for many projects: she helped with my cookbook proposal (she has experience in publishing), my Substack strategy and content, and now she’s the Chief Brand Officer of Annadea, my forthcoming beauty company.

I often get asked how I manage to “do it all,” from developing new recipes and creating content every week to founding a beauty brand, all while raising an almost-one-year-old. But to tell you the truth, I don’t necessarily always manage to get it all done. I usually end my days with so much still left on my plate to tackle. It often feels like there are more items on my to-do list than I’m able to get to.

Health & Wellness How I Sustain My Energy to Keep Doing More of What I Love Even when we love what we do for a living, feelings of burnout have a way of creeping in now and then, letting us know when it’s time to rest and reset. This has been top of mind for me lately, since my team and I have been moving full steam ahead with the Annadea Beauty launch around the corner. Typically, I’d take a vacation when I begin feeling the strain of burnout.

Like all career journeys, my path to becoming a beauty founder is a twisting, non-linear route. Believe it or not, I wasn’t even that interested in makeup in high school and college, a time when many begin heavily experimenting with it. How, then, did I get to the place I’m at today, launching Annadea Beauty in just a couple of months? My makeup journey began at age fifteen, when I started wearing minimal products in high school.

From the outside looking in, it might be easy to assume that my life is all about food, all the time. And it’s partly true: as a recipe developer, food is pretty central to most of my days. I’m constantly thinking about what to cook and eat, whether it’s wondering what to make for dinner as I wander through the grocery aisles or brainstorming recipes in my kitchen to develop for my blog. But the truth is, food is only a fraction of what contributes to the wholeness of my life.

I have a funny relationship with imposter syndrome–I wouldn’t say I welcome it, exactly, but I like what it means to me. It means that I’m being challenged to do things beyond my current capabilities, and I like the challenge. Lately I’ve been feeling the imposter syndrome to a much larger degree than usual. I’m building a beauty company with zero prior experience of building a consumer goods company nor experience in the beauty world.

A disclaimer I want to give this newsletter before we dive in: I want to be clear that when I talk about how I am approaching certain motherhood things, I don’t necessarily think my approach is the RIGHT way. We are so inundated with advice as mothers and that advice can often make us feel like whatever approach we are comfortable with/suits our family might not be the “correct” one.