Sheena Zadeh

Sheena Zadeh studied biology and worked briefly in bug taxonomy before pivoting to beauty. She launched Kosas in 2015 using $70,000 of her own savings, targeting women with olive skin tones the industry had largely ignored.

Her early breakthrough came after Gwyneth Paltrow featured Kosas at Goop, coinciding with the emergence of the clean beauty movement. A decade later, Kosas operates around 200 SKUs sold from South Beach to Saudi Arabia.

Kosas was profitable for several years before reaching scale. The Revealer Concealer — infused with peptides and caffeine — became a TikTok-viral cultural product that defined the brand's 'makeup for skincare enthusiasts' positioning.

Zadeh treats her scientific background as a brand asset rather than a footnote — skin-first formulation came before the trend, not after it.

She has remained independent through multiple acquisition offers, framing creative control as more valuable than the exit.