Year: 2026

I stood in a drugstore aisle in 2013, my hand trembling as I held a tube of mascara. My mom’s final battle with cancer had ended six months prior. For years, I had watched this vibrant, beautiful woman lose not just her hair and lashes to chemotherapy, but pieces of her identity. The makeup we bought to help her feel like herself was often a disappointment—irritating, ineffective, or tested on animals. In this fluorescent-lit aisle, surrounded by shelves of products that felt disconnected from real human struggle, the clarity was sudden and absolute.

(Reconstructed founder sentiment based on public interviews): “I didn’t just see products. I saw a profound gap between what beauty promised and what it delivered in life’s hardest moments. I saw a need for more than pigment; I saw a need for purpose.”

That moment catalyzed a $450M private company. From that personal grief, Thrive Causemetics was born—not as a cosmetic line, but as a vehicle for radical generosity. We launched in 2015 with a single product and an unwavering mission: to create high-performance, vegan, cruelty-free cosmetics that fund donations for women facing illness, trauma, and adversity. In our first full year, we reached $1 million in revenue. By 2021, we were generating an estimated $165 million annually, all while donating over $75 million worth of products and cash grants through our Thrive Causemetics Giving Fund.