Inside the World of Daisy Kelly, Founder of Glow For It

Pictured: Daisy Kelly, Founder of Glow For It.

There are few tales as captivating as that of Daisy Kelly, the visionary founder behind Glow For It. With a blend of authenticity and innovation, Daisy has transformed her genuine commitment to empowering her community into a thriving business that resonates deeply with customers worldwide.

From lash and brow serums to groundbreaking hair growth solutions, Glow For It continues to redefine beauty standards while fostering inclusivity and confidence.

In this exclusive interview, Daisy shares the defining moments of her entrepreneurial journey, offering invaluable insights into starting a business, navigating financial risks, and harnessing the power of social media. Join us as we delve into the remarkable story of Glow For It and explore the vision driving its continued success.

Reflecting on your journey, can you share the moment when you first thought that your personal experience with anxiety and compulsions might be the key to creating a meaningful and successful business?

Interestingly, I wouldn’t say the two thoughts were necessarily linked. I struggle with anxiety and intrusive thoughts and for me this manifested in a compulsion to pick my lashes and make wishes. I’d think things like: “Just make a wish with your lashes and you’ll pass that exam”, etc. But, by the time lockdown came around, I knew I needed to control this issue and I forced myself to find other mechanisms to cope with my anxieties. Once I had this under control, I decided it was time to grow back my natural lashes after the years of excessive damage - and that was easier said than done. I began researching the market and discovered that most serums were not only expensive but contained hormones and harsh chemicals. Glow For It started out of a genuine need to find a product that did not exist on the market. It wasn’t a thought-out business plan to make profit, but more of a naive experiment. I just knew I wanted to help other people, like myself, who struggle with their confidence, and I wanted to help people to feel confident in their natural beauty. I think it is this authenticity that has created Glow For It into the business and community that it is today.

Starting Glow For It with your student loan was a brave decision. What advice would you offer to young entrepreneurs about taking financial risks, and how can they navigate potential challenges with care and foresight?

I would start by saying that I am lucky enough to be incredibly privileged. I come from a very hard-working family, and my mum has had a wonderful and inspiring career that allowed me to feel very safe and secure growing up. The third year of my university degree was actually cut short due to the pandemic and I was forced to move back home with my parents. I think that this gave me the time and security to make that financial decision to invest my student loan. I was no longer at university, and therefore was no longer paying rent, etc. However, my loan only covered part of this investment; I had to borrow the remainder from my mum to place my first PO with my manufacturer. This, to me, felt like a bigger risk and it took a lot more convincing! Luckily my (and my mum’s) risk paid off and I was able to repay her from the profits of our first batch.

TikTok has been pivotal for Glow For It. How did you initially leverage the platform for growth, and how has your content strategy evolved over time?

Organic and authentic content! I feel like this is often overused, but it could not be more true. I started our Glow For It account out of a genuine love for the platform. I was authentically posting daily, and I found that people really engaged with the founder focused journey. I started by packing the two orders I’d had that day in my parents' kitchen, and now we go live from our office in London with our team of eight people! It’s been a real journey. But, at the core throughout has been a genuine love to communicate with our community and share our journey in a relatable and inspiring way. This is something I often find missing from heritage brands. Who is behind the brand, and why do they have the products they do? There is a relatability to Glow For It that I think people love, and that is something TikTok has provided the perfect platform to showcase.

From the kitchen of your mom’s house to a multi-million-pound business, what key strategies did you employ to build and scale Glow For It?

My main tip is to always remain loyal to our key core values. For me, these include our founding story, how our products are made, where they are made, what they are made from and ultimately, our results!

At the start of the business, many people (family and friends included) questioned why I wanted to put myself at the central point of our content. I understand why they were asking this - it is very time-consuming and exposing. However, for me, it was that connection, from brand to consumer. I started Glow For It for a reason, and that has allowed me to help thousands of customers who have experienced hair/lash loss due to a variety of reasons including stress, postpartum, menopause, anxiety, trichotillomania and many more. I take so much pride in our WHY, and I love to share that story personally.

How do you deal with imposter syndrome, especially as a young entrepreneur, and what strategies do you use to maintain your confidence?

I have been on a big journey this past year, and I think if you had asked me this question a year ago, I would have given a very different answer. The reason for this is because it is an ever-changing journey, and it requires continuous work. I touched on the fact that I struggle with anxiety, and this isn’t something that just disappears, but I have developed coping mechanisms to give me control over it. I would say that imposter syndrome can often be impacted by who you surround yourself with. My team is incredible, they triumph our success and also bring me back to reality (on the daily) because we still have SO much we want to achieve. I think this balance is important - making sure you reflect on your journey and your success, but also remaining humble to the fact that this is a journey and that it requires continuous hard work.

You’ve been very open about your struggles with anxiety and compulsions. How do you balance transparency with maintaining a professional image, and what has been the response from your customers?

This is a really great question because I think what was once a very firm line between personal and professional is becoming more and more blurred, and I think social media has a big role to play in this. People want to know about more than just the product. Take Caroline Hirons or Trinny Woodall, for example, as a consumer I buy into the PERSON as much as I do their brilliant products. I want to know what they are wearing to work today and what event they are speaking at next week. Your community cares, and that is such a beautiful thing that cannot be taken for granted. I think I find a lot of strength and power in that, and I love building those untraditionally ‘friendly’ or ‘personable’ relationships with our customers. For me, if sharing my struggles with anxiety helps even one person in our community, then it is worth it.

You’ve just launched a hair serum! Can you elaborate on the process of developing this new product? What excites you most about it?

Our Hair Growth Serum has actually taken over two years to bring to market! It has been a long journey and I have learnt so much in the process. But I will take you back to the beginning...

We started with our Lash Serum, then people started using that on their eyebrows, so we launched a Brow Serum. People then started using our Brow Serum on their hairline (and were seeing results!), so I knew we needed a Hair Serum. The concept of our Hair Serum is that it can be used daily, like our Lash and Brow Serums. However, no one wants to use something on their hair daily if it is going to make their hair greasy. That is why we designed our Hair Serum to be water based, so that it will dry down in seconds, leaving your hair and scalp non-greasy. It is packed with ingredients to nourish your scalp to provide the perfect environment for healthy hair growth. I knew from the beginning that I wanted this product to be made here in the UK, and it has been an expensive and time-consuming process to develop this unique formulation. But I am genuinely so proud of the product we have created; it offers something completely unique, giving you those desired growth results without causing excess oil to build up on the scalp.

How do you incorporate customer feedback into your product development process, and can you share an example where customer input directly influenced a product or decision?

We are a customer-driven brand. All products we develop come from the requests of our community. For example, our customers were the ones requesting a version of the Lash Serum suitable for use on the scalp, and that is why we developed our Hair Growth Serum. Equally our customers were concerned about their mascara causing damage to their natural lashes, and therefore we developed our Lash Growth Mascara. Our mascara is packed with key growth ingredients that nourish the lashes, rather than drying them out, as many drugstore mascaras do. Honestly, this is probably my favorite thing about being a founder - being able to interact directly with our community and provide solution-driven products at the request of our consumer. It really is a privilege to be so involved in that process.

What are your long-term goals for Glow For It, and where do you see the brand in the next five years?

I have BIG goals and aspirations for Glow For It. In the next 5 years, we will be stocked in major online and in-store retailers. But really, my main goal for Glow For It is to provide our customers with a full range of beauty products to accommodate their full routine. All our products are designed to enhance your natural beauty, not mask it! We hope to make the beauty industry a more positive and inclusive place by allowing everyone to feel beautiful in their natural skin.

What are the top three pieces of advice you would give to young entrepreneurs looking to start their own beauty brand in today's market?

Who are you?
What are you doing?
Why are you doing it?

Genuinely I think about these questions in every decision I make. Who are we? Does this product or campaign feel true to the core values of this business? What are we doing? What ingredients are going into every product, what are their benefits, where is it being made? Again, making sure that what we do is true to the brand and our ethos. And, almost most importantly, why are we doing it? For me, our “Why?” has always been to give people the confidence to feel beautiful in their natural skin. I personally found that growing my natural lashes helped me to stop hiding behind the mask of extensions and strip lashes, and finally feel beautiful embracing my natural beauty. Our customers are our “Why?”. When I receive transformation results from our community and they truly feel our products have boosted their confidence... that is WHY we do what we do.

To find out more, visit Glow For It's website here.