Meet Taylor Anderson | Founder, CEO, & Chemical Engineer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Taylor Anderson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Taylor, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I was a senior in chemical engineering at Mines, and I wasn’t happy about the trajectory I was on for career options. Working in a factory for the rest of my life was going to make me miserable.

Meanwhile, I had been struggling with my skin for years. I dealt with acne, dryness, and redness, and didn’t know how to make it better. After switching over to clean makeup, I started to notice a positive difference in my skin. That’s when I took my chemical engineering background to do some deeper digging.

I couldn’t believe what was actually going in the average makeup product. Many common ingredients are irritating, allergens, and endocrine disruptors. No wonder I was having a hard time with my skin.

Besides a general lack of understanding surrounding what goes in clean beauty products, it became pretty clear to me why most people weren’t using clean makeup. It lacked pigmentation, long-wear properties, and ease of use.

So, everyone’s stuck between hurting their health and sacrificing a lot of work going to waste when it comes to choosing makeup products.

I wanted to put an end to that. With my chemical engineering background, I worked with a lab to formulate clean, long-wear products. Not only do they wear like cult favorite brands, they don’t have any of the harmful ingredients.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My experience working in the lab came from my time at Mines, performing research for a faculty member. I work with this same professor now with my grant, and feel grateful for the serendipity. This project is one of the things I’m most proud of and excited about that my company is pursuing.

When it comes to managing the marketing and branding, which is arguably the most important part of running a makeup brand, my experience came to me from a rockier path.

After graduating from Mines with my master’s degree, I suffered from a difficult health problem. My new employer wouldn’t provide disability accommodations, and my grandfather agreed to help support me while I healed.

Unfortunately, he passed a few days after I had quit that job. My family’s funds were diverted to put my grandmother in memory care, and I had to act quickly to make ends meet.

I started working at Target in the Ulta Beauty section. This gave me a lot of important information for my brand, and I valued the experience working with customers and learning firsthand what they were looking for.

Like my other position, I eventually needed accommodations that they could not provide. My dad, a chiropractor, agreed to employ me as his office manager while I got back on my feet.

This is where I really started to practice my marketing skills. I had self-taught myself marketing and digital design for Provanity, but now I had more chances to put it into play.

About a year later, I became a freelance marketer to continue improving my skills while paying my bills as I grow Provanity. Although this came about through survival, I’m so grateful for the chance to have improved as a marketer. Now, I’m excited to bring these skills back to Provanity.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I fear I’m not the most knowledgeable about things to do in Denver, and I’m pretty partial to Golden.

Here, I’d start by taking them on a walk around Clear Creek, which is one of my favorite places to unwind. It’s great to be able to catch up with a friend in nature.

For lunch, we’d go to my favorite hole-in-the-wall deli, Cheese Ranch, to get (I kid you not) the best sandwiches I’ve ever had. They import premium cheese and meats, and you can tell.

We’d also have to have dinner at Woody’s Pizza, which I fully plan on having cater my wedding just for their garlic knots.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to dedicate my shoutout to my mentor, Todd McLean. I met him through Mines, and his support has helped me grow to the entrepreneur I am now. He was instrumental in Provanity receiving a grant to pursue a research project in one of Mine’s R1 research labs, where we test ingredients to determine how safe they are. This has become the biggest differentiator of our brand, and I’m grateful to him for making this possible. His advice has gotten me through many difficult times in the company, and I look forward to continuing to work with him.

Website: https://www.provanitycosmetics.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/provanitycosmetics/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylor-anderson-085a581a0/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tayloranderson.n

Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@provanitycosmetics

Image Credits
Angelli Nguyen