Renée Rouleau on 25 Years as a Successful Skin-Care Brand Founder

"What was your big break?" It's a question people often ask of celebrities, but at Allure, the beauty professionals and brand founders are the celebrities. In My Beauty Break, we'll dig into the behind-the-scenes details — the money, the aha! moments, and the mistakes — of the biggest brands in the industry. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Aesthetician and entrepreneur Renée Rouleau's eponymous skin-care company has a slogan: "Skin Care Personalized." (It's in fine print under her logo.) If you go to the homepage of her company's website, you'll see this, along with the tagline "One size does not fit all" in bold letters. It's the philosophy she has built her line of 50 skin-care products around — and it's also how she might describe her journey to the upper echelons of success as a beauty founder.

There is no one-size-fits-all secret to success in business, nor a handbook on how to get there or — sometimes even more challenging — how to stay there. But if there were, it would likely be what Rouleau calls the "hustler mentality": "I'm constantly moving and trying everything," she tells Allure. "It's work. It's the ones who actually roll up their sleeves and do the work, that's the hustler mentality; those are the ones that are going to be the most successful."

This August, Rouleau celebrates 25 years in business, still owning 100 percent of her Austin, Texas-based company. Along the way, she revolutionized the industry by discarding the tired "dry, normal, and oily" boxes in which we often label skin and created her nine types of skin in an effort to personalize skin care so treatments would be more effective.

She has also created a robust blog full of free advice, which she says is "probably the biggest key to my success," and stayed passionately true to her purpose. Rouleau tells Allure she says no to about 94 percent of opportunities thrown her way and famously asks herself 13 questions before saying yes to anything – all of which she can recite from rote memorization.

"I'm super strategic," she says. "I really want to make sure it serves me and my happiness, and I never want to sell my soul for the almighty dollar. I'm very clear about my path and where I'm headed and what's important to me. I'm always aligning with my core values."

A quarter-century in, "I really love what I do and I think I love what I do now more than ever," she says. Read on for Rouleau's masterclass in business and beauty and learn how servant leadership – and Madonna? – inspire her toward success.

Allure: You are celebrating 25 years in business this year – no small feat! First of all, congratulations. What have been some of the keys to your longevity?

Renée Rouleau: One of the things is the art of reinvention. Most businesses fail within five years. I've been dedicated to putting energy and fuel back into the company. Throughout these 25 years, we've done three or four rebrandings because it's important to keep it fresh. I always saw Madonna as an example — back in the day, Madonna invented herself all the time; she kept it fresh, and kept it fun. No one took her for granted because you never knew what she was going to do, and I always admired that.

I also have never lost passion for what I do. Everything is about time and energy, and I still love what I do, and I'm so lucky I've never gotten burnt out, even though I've worked so hard at it. I’m continually learning and I think I've kept it fresh for myself as well.

Allure: Thinking back to 25 years ago and even before that – I know your grandmother was a hairstylist and you originally went to school to become a cosmetologist. While working in a salon, you saw an aesthetician at work and were compelled to become one. At what point did you want to become an entrepreneur as well as an aesthetician?

Rouleau: It's funny the opportunities that come your way — and if they didn't come my way, who knows what my life would have been like. I had a coworker who was my mentor as an aesthetician. At that point, I was only 19 and she was 13 years older than me. I was just out of esthetic school, working in the salon trying to learn everything.

My coworker-slash-mentor always wanted to open up her own business, but she had two young children and she didn't want to do it alone. She said, "Hey, I've always wanted to open up a business, do you want to do this with me?" By this time, I was 21 – a year and a half into us working together is when she asked me that – so I said sure, and that's how I opened my first business, which was up in Boston.

Five years later, I would sell it and move to Dallas and start Renée Rouleau Skin Care. [Rouleau relocated to Austin five years ago.] She just simply asked me, but I'm sure I would have eventually done it; I definitely always had that drive, but it probably happened a little sooner than I would have thought.

Allure: Is it ever hard to balance the two roles of being both an entrepreneur and aesthetician? When those two roles are pitted up against one another, which one wins?

Rouleau: Anyone who runs a company that's also a service provider is wearing a lot of hats. They do pull against each other. There comes a time when you have to, especially when you're hiring more employees and the company is getting bigger, pull away from being a service provider and, in my case, being an aesthetician. Probably 10 years into my company is when I really started to pull back from being an aesthetician. I wanted to focus more on product development and our website. So, I eventually pulled myself out of the treatment room because that's what the company needed — my energy focused on the business.

It's challenging, and it's not an easy move to make. When I did stop taking clients, I went from six days taking clients slowly to five days slowly to four days, so I didn't rip off the Band-Aid all at once. I took it slow. It ended up being the right move.

Allure: Today, how much time do you spend being an entrepreneur versus being a hands-on aesthetician?

Rouleau: I'm still hands-on in Los Angeles. Prior to the pandemic, I'd go about every six weeks and do house calls or work out of a hotel room. I'd go for two days taking clients, so it was a very small percentage. Now with the pandemic, I haven't taken clients since it started. So, not much.

Let's pretend it's not a pandemic — I love the amount I am a service provider, which is just a couple of days every other month essentially because I really realize how much education I get working on clients. It's super valuable, those conversations, putting my hands on someone's face. I can't ever see myself not doing it.

Allure: When did you look at yourself and say "Wow, I've made it"? What was the moment you consider your big break?

Rouleau: Probably when celebrity clients started shouting [my name] from the rooftops. That's a huge day when that happens. I've had a lot of different celebrity clients through the years. One of my celebrity clients is Demi Lovato, and I've been her aesthetician for over 10 years. Back when I started working with her, she wasn't who she is today. But when she would mention me [on social media], all of the sudden my Instagram was being flooded with hundreds and hundreds of new followers within a short period of time. It's those moments that you go "wow," when the floodgates open. Those are moments that are very memorable.

Allure: I am a firm believer that we learn the most through our mistakes. What is the biggest failure you've ever had in business, and what did you learn from it?

Rouleau: Circling back to no longer being a service provider, I am somebody who's not the best at numbers. I run things with my gut a lot. The moment I officially removed myself from the treatment room and no longer was a service provider, I found within about a month that all of a sudden I hard time making payroll, and I was like "What's going on?" I didn't realize that my revenue – the dollars I got for being a service provider – was supporting a lot of the payroll and expenses in the business.

Now that I wasn't a service provider, I would have to pay my employees to do the things I was doing, and all of a sudden I couldn't afford it. Luckily, I pushed through and made it work instead of saying, "Oops! Let me go back into the treatment room and start taking clients again."

The biggest failure was not paying attention and not understanding my finances enough. Had I paid more attention to that and really understood that I might have seen that coming and might have architected it a little bit differently.

Allure: Renée Rouleau is not just your name, it's your brand. Do you think that is a risky choice?

Rouleau: The name of my company is literally my name on my birth certificate when I came out of the womb, so it's very personal. It was a strategic choice because I was trying to elevate myself as an expert. When the company is your name, naturally, people want to know who that is. There's curiosity there with someone's name: "Who is Renée Rouleau?" I'm an expert and I really wanted to showcase that. I felt like having a name behind it was going to bring that credibility to my expertise.

The challenge with that is you really have to hold yourself to a high standard because you have to be likable. I can only just be me, but there's a little bit more of a magnifying glass on me personally, my life, et cetera.

The downside of it is it exposes you, because it's you personally and you are your brand, and if you make a mistake – thankfully I haven't – but people will come after you personally. For me, it was a good move, and I don't have any regrets about it.

Allure: What sets your work apart from all of the other aestheticians working today? What is the unique value of the Renée Rouleau experience?

Rouleau: I've had so many facials and treatments from so many providers through the years, and the one area that I'm really strong in — and that I wish aestheticians were stronger in — is the consultation. A lot of times people are focused on getting to the treatment but not consulting with them and understanding the person's skin.

When you get a skin treatment, you're there for 75 minutes. My goal has always been to really understand their concerns, their lifestyle, see if I can play detective to figure out what's going on to arm them with the right knowledge and products.

So the minute they leave me, they can go back into the world and have the tools they need to improve their skin. We're pretty much talking the entire time; part of me playing detective is really understanding what's going on and providing solutions. Being very solution-oriented is what makes me unique.

Allure: What is the upside and downside of being your own boss?

Rouleau: The upside is you get the rewards of what you created; if you're doing the right thing and having good decision-making and treating people well, you get the reward of a successful company. I've always said I work for my employees.

On one hand, it’s great being my own boss, but I work for my team. I’m here to serve them, and I've always looked at it that way. I'm not the star of the show. I planted the seed and watered it and watered it and watered it – that's the hustler mentality – and all of the sudden it grew and blossomed. And I get the reward of that. Being a people-over-profits company has been a great mindset for me. When I put my head on the pillow at night, I know I did the right thing.

The downside is the relentless hours. Being an aesthetician, you're working when everyone else has time off. I couldn't ever go out on a Friday night, because I worked on Saturday. I think the sacrifices, and that goes back to it being a little bit lonely because people don't understand your world and what you have to give up when you don't have a 9 to 5 job. It's a lot of work.

Allure: You've been quoted as saying "I don't want to have a household name, I just want to be a damn good brand." What makes a damn good brand?

Rouleau: What's important to me is building a great company, not a big company. No one can convince me that a bigger company is a better company. At the end of the day, it's about serving others; helping people feel more confident when they look in the mirror, helping people be better-educated consumers about their skin through the blog and my team. We have a team of 18 people right now and I've always said that we spend more time with our coworkers than we do with the people we love. For me, creating an environment where people love what they do when they come to work every day, they are doing things that are really meaningful to them that they're good at, getting support and praise for that – that's what's important to me.

Allure: There's obviously no handbook to running a successful business, but if there were, what would the No. 1 rule be?

Rouleau: Don't do it alone. Being an entrepreneur is lonely, and nobody understands your world. Everyone thinks it's easy or you're in a great place because you don't have a boss, nobody gets to tell you what to do. And they also assume that you make a lot of money, and certainly, in the early days, it's a big struggle.

Now, there are easy opportunities for people to meet like-minded people through social media. There are also people out there that have a here-to-serve mentality and will mentor people and help people, and I think you should seek out a community of people that can guide you with their experience and wisdom. It's too hard to figure it out on your own. You'll make too many mistakes because you don't know any better.

Allure: Many, many years from now when your career is over, what do you want your legacy in the beauty space to be? When people think of Renée Rouleau, what do you want to come to mind?

Rouleau: That I was somebody who was of service to others. I want people to be happy, confident and feel good in the skin they're in. The generosity and having a servant heart mentality – that will probably be my legacy. I just want to help others. I am trying to mentor and serve others, and as I get older, I'll probably be using my tried-and-true successes and try to help others. Serving others in the skin-care space and in the business space, I think, will ultimately be my legacy.

Allure: Now that you've hit the 25-year mark, what's on tap for the brand for, say, the next 25 years?

Rouleau: I never see myself retiring. People need a purpose every day when they wake up in the morning – I can't ever imagine hanging it up. I think the idea of retirement is working as much or as little as you want, having control of how much you work is retirement. The next 25 years I will still be CEO and founder of my company and still dedicated to my purpose of helping others look and feel their best and serving others.

We will continue to innovate in the product space and still come out with new products, consistently looking for ways to help serve people better. We’re doing a good thing and we're just going to keep that going, but we'll always pivot and adjust to what the market bears, one foot in front of the other, and keep serving people the way we do.

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Originally Appeared on Allure