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Canada is a special country to us and to Nudestix. Not only did we grow up in Toronto, but our company is now based in this beautiful city and makes it even more special to us. We sat down with Beauty Editor, Kristin Corpuz, about our journey as Canadian entrepreneurs and what being Canadian means to us and our company. 

Kristin Corpuz: What does it mean to you to own a company in Canada?

Taylor Frankel: I feel like we’re very fortunate to have started a company in Canada, especially in Toronto. Toronto is one of the most multicultural cities in the world and a lot of the products that we’ve developed are specific to what we were exposed to growing up. When we launched Nudestix in a global market, we had such an amazing assortment from a shade perspective. Whether it’s in India, or Australia, or Mexico, one thing that our women always express globally is that they love our brand because they can always find their perfect nude shade. That’s why I’m really proud to be Canadian and have a Canadian beauty brand. 

Ally Frankel: When you think about all the beauty brands out there, you often associate them with the United States. I’m proud to be Canadian, but I’m also proud to be a Canadian entrepreneur. It’s great to expose people to the fact that there are a lot of Canadian brands out there. 

KC: How did being raised in Canada affect how you think a business should be run? 

TF: Diversity is, of course, a huge part of it. I think that being raised in Canada made us really aware of things from sustainability in our packaging to clean ingredients in our products. Plus, the [beauty brand] market isn’t as saturated in Canada, so we have the opportunity to innovate a little bit more [within our community]. We’ve really been able to find our niche. If we were based in New York City or LA, it would make it harder to carve out our specialty. 

KC: How did the Canadian beauty industry have an impact on what you wanted to do with Nudestix? 

AF: We were definitely raised in and around the beauty industry because of our mom, with her being at Cover FX and MAC. But what we’ve found through starting Nudestix is that the concept of easy, on-the-go beauty isn’t specifically a Canadian thing. In the US, I feel like there was this idea of “all or nothing” in the beauty industry — either you wear a ton of it or none at all. We were really exposed to a different type of beauty industry [growing up in Canada], and we’ve seen this trend all around the world. 

TF: The Canadian woman can be so many different things, but most of all, she’s a woman who wants beauty to be easy and effortless. When we launched Nudestix, before we even had any products, we wondered if it was just us, these two Canadian girls, who wanted the “less is more” approach to beauty. once we started traveling and meeting women from around the globe, we found that the “less is more” woman exists everywhere. Maybe it was specifically a Canadian thing five years ago [when we launched] but now, every modern woman wants to look like herself, feel comfortable in her own skin, and to be able to do that with their makeup as well. Minimalizing is such a trend right now, whether it’s your closet, your home, or your makeup bag, and more women are adopting this lifestyle. Women don’t think it’s practical to spend an hour on their makeup anymore. In the words of Marie Kondo, women now only like to keep the things around that “spark joy.”

KC: How have your Canadian roots impacted the naming and formulation of your products?

TF: Obviously our one great example is naming our [Nudies Bronzer] Deep Maple, Eh. It’s been fun going around the world and having to explain why we included the “eh.” That’s definitely a callout to our Canadian roots. We also launch a Canada Day kit every year exclusively for our Canadian market, both on nudestix.com and Sephora Canada. This year’s kit is really cute: it comes in a transparent waterproof pouch, and it has the Nudies Bloom in Poppy Girl and our Gel Color Balm in Pulse. We like to create a limited-edition palette for our Canadian-based #babebosses. 

KC: What do you hope your impact is on Canadian beauty lovers and Canadians in general? 

AF: We definitely want to inspire more Canadian #babebosses, both guys and girls. We have so much talent here in Canada, but they may not feel as confident to become an entrepreneur because starting a business is not as popular of a thing to do here. We really want to inspire Canadians to start their own businesses. 

TF: We want Canadian girls to know that they can do whatever they want to do. Sometimes, Canadians think of themselves as “small” because “we’re just Canadians,” you know? There’s a lot of cool, creative things coming out of Toronto, whether it’s MAC, or Drake, or Nudestix...

AF: Or the Raptors winning! 

TF: [laughs] Or the Raptors! Inspiring Canadian women to be fearless in launching whatever they want to is definitely a huge goal of ours.