Deepica Mutyala
After a 2015 YouTube video on color-correcting dark circles for deep skin tones surpassed 10M views, Deepica Mutyala built Live Tinted as community first, brand second. In 2022 it became the first South Asian-owned beauty brand at Ulta.
"Inclusivity isn't a campaign — it's product strategy from day one."
— Deepica Mutyala
Growing up South Asian American, Deepica Mutyala felt consistently unseen by beauty marketing. After a corporate career at L'Oréal and IPSY, she filmed a 2015 YouTube tutorial on using red lipstick to color-correct dark circles for deep skin tones — a workaround the industry had never properly addressed. The video surpassed 10M views.
She launched Live Tinted in 2018 as an Instagram community first, then a brand — building product strategy from community feedback before any product existed. The flagship Huestick is a multistick color corrector formulated for skin tones the industry had chronically underdeveloped.
Live Tinted raised $15M including a $10M Series A by 2023 and in 2022 became the first South Asian-owned beauty brand stocked at Ulta. Mutyala also co-founded FNDR FWRD Lab, a program supporting emerging founders from underrepresented communities.
Community before catalogue — the product brief is built from a real audience, not a focus group.
Inclusivity is structural: shade and undertone development for the customer the industry has historically skipped.
- Pre-2015Corporate career at L'Oréal and IPSY
- 2015Color-correction tutorial surpasses 10M YouTube views
- 2018Launches Live Tinted, starting with Instagram community
- 2022First South Asian-owned beauty brand at Ulta Beauty
- 2023Has raised $15M including a $10M Series A