Kate McLeod on bringing a baking background to beauty: 'The pastry chef in me came alive'

Kate McLeod on bringing a baking background to beauty: 'The pastry chef in me came alive'

The road from investment banking to baking to beauty isn’t obvious, but it's a circuitous career path that led Kate McLeod to launch her eponymous skin-care brand. “I was a trader at Goldman Sachs and ended up leaving Goldman and went to culinary school. I had a made-to-order bakery and I loved what I was doing, but then life always changes,” said McLeod on the most recent episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast. “Something very unexpected happened — I was living abroad — that brought me back to New York City in 2015.” McLeod reunited with a former boyfriend, Justin McLeod, founder and CEO of Hinge, thanks to the help of a New York Times journalist, and the two married shortly thereafter. With her love life on track, McLeod started rediscovering her own passions and personal rituals. A chance introduction by her sister-in-law to solid cocoa butter, the key ingredient of her now hero body stones, led her to play with the material in a deeper way. “The pastry chef in me came alive,” she said. “I also have a really long history and training of working with chocolate, so I took the cocoa butter into the kitchen and I thought, 'If I play with this, pretend I'm making a good ganache, what can I do to enhance that application process?’ That's really what sets us apart.” Thanks to a key endorsement from Naomi Watts, McLeod went from handmaking her body stones for friends and family to selling 20 body stones in a day in Watts’ Onda Beauty and then 40 more on a weekend. It was then that McLeod went from wrapping her stones in parchment paper to repackaging them in canisters with an official brand label. Three years later, the line is now sold at QVC and Sephora.

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The Glossy Beauty Podcast looks back at beauty in 2025

The Glossy Beauty Podcast looks back at beauty in 2025

As 2025 comes to a close, the Glossy Beauty team — Sara Spruch-Feiner, Lexy Lebsack and Emily Jensen — came together on the Glossy Beauty Podcast to reflect on some of the defining themes that shaped ...

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Ulta Beauty CEO Kecia Steelman unpacks her first year in charge and 2026 goals

Ulta Beauty CEO Kecia Steelman unpacks her first year in charge and 2026 goals

In January, Kecia Steelman became one of the most powerful executives in beauty.  After more than a decade at Ulta Beauty in positions like COO and head of international, she stepped into the preside...

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What beauty products do teens want for the holidays?

What beauty products do teens want for the holidays?

On this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, we're exploring what teens are hoping to receive for the holidays. To do so, Sara Spruch-Feiner speaks to 13-year-old Indy (whose last name is omit...

4 Joulu 202545min

Special Crossover Episode: The Shopper’s Black Friday Playbook

Special Crossover Episode: The Shopper’s Black Friday Playbook

How can shoppers, brands and retailers win Black Friday?  In this week’s special holiday crossover episode, Glossy Beauty Podcast host Lexy Lebsack is joined by Danny Parisi, host of the Glossy Podca...

27 Marras 202545min

T3 founders Dr. Julie Chung and Kent Yu on creating the luxury hair tool category

T3 founders Dr. Julie Chung and Kent Yu on creating the luxury hair tool category

Few beauty executives currently compete in a category they created, but that’s the case for Dr. Julie Chung and Kent Yu, the married co-founders behind T3 hair tools (19:00).  The duo created the lux...

20 Marras 20251h 3min

Bansk Beauty’s Reuben Carranza on building a distinct brand that lasts

Bansk Beauty’s Reuben Carranza on building a distinct brand that lasts

Reuben Carranza knows a good brand when he sees it.  Bansk Beauty, where he serves as executive chairman, made headlines in September after acquiring the buzzy, clinical skin-care brand Byoma. It’s p...

6 Marras 202540min

Beauty packaging hall of fame and shame with Allison Kent-Gunn, plus news

Beauty packaging hall of fame and shame with Allison Kent-Gunn, plus news

Allison Kent-Gunn knows good beauty packaging when she sees it.  The Los Angeles-based aesthetician-turned-packaging consultant has become one of the leading voices in beauty packaging on social medi...

30 Loka 20251h 6min

Helen Steed gives an inside look at packaging for Glossier, Merit and Rhode

Helen Steed gives an inside look at packaging for Glossier, Merit and Rhode

The Glossy Beauty Podcast is back with its second of three deep dives into beauty packaging. Today, our guest is Helen Steed, a veteran in the field, whose resume includes a 10-year stint leading crea...

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