Tash Insights
Tash Insights brings you inside the minds of female brand founders and the leaders of the UK’s fastest-growing e-commerce tech companies.
Hosted by Tash Courtenay-Smith – serial entrepreneur, investor, NED and fractional Head of Growth – each episode dives into the strategies, challenges, and breakthroughs that have shaped the futures of some of the UK's leading founders.
Whether you’re a founder, investor, tech lover or you just love hearing the growth stories behind top brands, this is the podcast for you.
Tash Insights
How Wonderskin built a real brand after going viral | CEW Future Beauty Summit 2026
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Tash Insights presents a live conversation from CEW Future Beauty Summit 2026, hosted by Tash Courtenay-Smith in partnership with CEW, Google, Amazon and Tash Partners.
In this session, Wonderskin co-founders Michael Malinksy and Marina Kalenchyts share the story behind one of beauty’s most talked-about brands of the last three years.
A viral lip stain made Wonderskin famous, but the real work came afterwards. The conversation covers how the brand moved from a lockdown-era viral product into a global multichannel business, now operating across Sephora, Boots, Selfridges, Amazon, TikTok Shop and DTC.
Michael and Marina discuss what actually drove growth, how they amplified the content that was already working, why lo-fi creative often outperformed polished brand assets, and what it took to turn TikTok attention into a more durable brand.
You’ll hear:
- How the viral lip stain started and why profitability took time
- Why the algorithm decides what makes a good ad
- How Wonderskin amplified organic content with paid media
- The real channel mix behind the brand
- Why DTC and Amazon still matter inside a multichannel strategy
- How raw, lo-fi creative can outperform polished content
- What TikTok Shop seeding really costs at scale
- Why affiliate communities work better than one-off creator posts
- Where Michael and Marina would put first budget in 2026
- What they learned from the products that nearly cost them the business
This is a practical listen for beauty founders, marketers and operators trying to understand what happens after a product goes viral, and how to build something more sustainable from that moment.