This profile is part of the Glossy Pop Guide to Influencer-Founded Brands, covering the fashion, beauty and wellness companies started by people who built their careers on social media. More from the series →
Before Teni Panosian had hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers, she was doing makeup tutorials on YouTube, starting in 2010. Before YouTube, she was offering up makeup advice on her blog, Miss Maven. Since, Miss Maven has transformed into Remarque, a more lifestyle-based beauty blog. Panosian’s career doesn’t stop at makeup; she’s acted in various projects, including the movie “Deadly Revenge” and a music video for The Wanted. In the thick of the pandemic, in March 2020, she launched her skin-care brand, Monday Born. Monday Born is renowned for its sustainable practices, like drop shipping which dodges risks around overproduction.
Who: Teni Panosian (Monday Born)
Platform: Instagram
What’s the brand: Skin care
Find it: Beaubble.com
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What are you known for & how did you get your start?
I got my start with makeup tutorials on YouTube. I expanded into skin-care reviews and routines, home renovation videos, travel diaries, and anything else that was relevant to women’s lifestyle.
Why did you decide to bring a brand into this crowded marketplace?
I knew I’d be ready to create product when I was sure I’d be doing it differently than anyone else and filling a hole in the market. That’s exactly what we did with Monday Born. We utilize a drop model which not only ensures that the freshest product possible goes out to customers. Many people are not aware that, especially when buying retail, these products could have been sitting on a shelf for more than a year, and both expiration and shelf life impact the efficacy of skin care. This also allows us to produce in smaller batches, therefore reducing the impact on the environment since we’re not overproducing or having to discard expired or unsold products. Creating stellar products was a given, I knew I’d have that covered, but quality and impact is something we’re changing in the industry with our model.
What makes the brand different?
Besides our sales model, we’re all about education and transparency. We invite our community to see the good, the bad and the ugly. Trust is very important to me; people spend their hard-earned money on our products, so I insist on going the extra mile to make sure they feel comfortable with what we’re doing. That includes educating them on ingredients, usage and some of our behind-the-scenes operations. We also formulate our products with our community. We have an activation called The Monday Born Experience, where we gather a group of about 10 people within our community from different age groups, complexions and skin types or concerns, and they test our lab samples of upcoming products right along with us. We convene over a Zoom chat every few weeks after they’ve had time to test out each round of samples and discuss what we like, what to change and so on. This is how we develop such incredible products.
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Fun fact: If you search “what does the name Teni mean?” on Google, the very first search result at the top says “Monday Born.” My birthday is July 16, 1984, which happens to be a Monday.
Best seller: Rebirth exfoliating serum with lactic acid
To read the rest of The Glossy Pop guide to influencer-founded brands, click here.
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