Toni Ko (born 1973) is an American businesswoman and founder of

NYX Cosmetics NYX DARIEN () is an American cosmetics company that is a subsidiary of L'Oréal. The company was founded in Los Angeles by Toni Ko in 1999. It was named after Nyx, the Greek goddess of the night. NYX Professional Makeup is "certified" and ackno ...

. She currently works in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. She founded her company in 1999 and expanded it until she sold it to L’Oréal in 2014 for $500 million. She lives in

with her husband, while also running two new businesses, a venture capital firm focused on funding female entrepreneurs and a beauty brand accelerator.

Early life

Ko was born in

Daegu, South Korea Daegu (; ), formerly spelled Taegu and officially Daegu Metropolitan City (), is a city in southeastern South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; the fourth-largest metropolitan city in the n ...

. In 1986, at the age of 13, her family immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. When she first arrived, she spoke no English and was placed directly in the seventh grade. She spent most of her teenage years working for her parents, who also worked in the cosmetics industry as wholesalers. She attended Glendale Community College on the weekends, and operated the business with her parents during the week, but eventually dropped out to work for her parents as a manager of their wholesale business full-time.

Career

NYX Cosmetics

With her prior experience in cosmetics, Toni sought to fill a gap in the market for lower-priced, high-quality makeup products. In 1999, Ko founded

, being given $250,000 in startup money from her mother. The company was named after the Greek goddess

Nyx In Greek mythology, Nyx (; ) is the goddess and personification of the night. In Hesiod's ''Theogony'', she is the offspring of Chaos, and the mother of Aether and Hemera (Day) by Erebus (Darkness). By herself, she produces a brood of children ...

. Her original goal was to “... make a department store product with the price point of a drugstore product.” The company earned $4 million in its first year. The first NYX Cosmetics line consisted of six eye and twelve lip liners, which were priced at $1.99 each in comparison to their competitors whose prices hovered around the $10 mark. In less than a month, all of the products sold out. Her high-quality, low-price approach fulfilled a developing consumer need after increased demand due to the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

. She also increased the company’s sales during the advent of the

vlog A vlog (), also known as a video blog or video log, is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in one ta ...

on Youtube by partnering with trending beauty creators on the platform. This unconventional marketing approach formulated a strong brand that appealed to a younger audience and set the company up for a potential buyout. In 2014, Ko sold NYX Cosmetics to

L'Oréal L'Oréal S.A. () is a French multinational personal care corporation registered in Paris

for an estimated $500 million.

After NYX Cosmetics

Due to a non-compete clause with L'Oréal, Ko could not launch another cosmetics company during the five years following the buyout. In March 2016, Ko created the Perverse Sunglasses company, launching as a sponsor of

Coachella Coachella (officially called the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and sometimes known as Coachella Festival) is an annual music festival, music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valle ...

. Ko changed the brand's name to Thomas James LA. The retailer sells online only, following an unsuccessful attempt at opening

brick-and-mortar Brick and mortar (or B&M) is an organization or business with a physical presence in a building or other structure. The term ''brick-and-mortar business'' is often used to refer to a company that possesses or leases retail shops, factory produc ...

stores. Ko later sold the company in 2019. She also is the founder and current CEO of Butter Ventures, a principal venture firm based in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

that invests in start-ups, focusing specifically on those created by women.

Bespoke Beauty Brands

On September 30, 2019, following the five-year non-compete agreement with L'Oréal, Toni Ko launched a new cosmetics-focused company, Bespoke Beauty Brands (BBB), which would launch brands in cooperation with various celebrities and social-media influencers. The company's first collection, KimChi Chic Beauty, launched on October 16, 2019, in partnership with drag queen Kim Chi. On January 17, 2021, Bespoke Beauty Brands launched Jason Wu Beauty at

Target Target may refer to: Warfare and shooting * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artille ...

, in partnership with designer

Jason Wu Jason Wu ( zh, t=吳季剛, p=Wú Jìgāng; born September 27, 1982) is a Canadian artist and fashion designer based in New York City. Born in Taiwan and raised in Vancouver, he studied fashion design at Parsons School of Design, and trained u ...

Awards and honors

Ko has received various awards in connection to her business work. According to Ko, the most meaningful award was her brand NYX Cosmetics receiving the WWD Inc. 2013 Beauty Brand of the Year. In 2013, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Beauty Bus Foundation. In 2014, Toni added two more awards to her collection, winning the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the Asian Business Association and the Leadership Award from the NAWBO. The

National Women's History Museum The National Women's History Museum (NWHM) is a museum and an American history organization that "researches, collects and exhibits the contributions of women to the social, cultural, economic and political life of our nation in a context of worl ...

honored Ko at the 2016 Women Making History Awards. In 2021, Ko ranked #94 on Forbes’ list of American Self-Made Women, with an estimated net worth of $260 million.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ko, Toni 1973 births Living people People from Daegu Businesspeople from Los Angeles American women business executives South Korean emigrants to the United States 21st-century American businesspeople American company founders 21st-century American businesswomen American cosmetics businesspeople