You’ve probably seen the number: “At 26, she became the youngest Black woman to launch at Sephora.” It’s a great line. It’s also wrong — and because this page checks before it posts, here’s the real record, which needs no help: Nancy Twine launched Briogeo at Sephora in 2014, at 29, and she was the then-youngest Black woman ever to do it.
The claim vs. the truth
The claim: Nancy Twine was 26 when Briogeo launched at Sephora.
The truth: She was 29. Multiple profiles reported with her own participation put the Sephora launch at 29 — the brand was founded in 2013 and launched at Sephora in 2014. The “26” in the viral versions simply doesn’t survive contact with the dates. And here is the thing: the true version loses nothing. Youngest Black woman to launch a product line at Sephora, at 29, two years off a Wall Street vice-presidency — that is the story, printed straight.
The road from Goldman Sachs to the kitchen table
Twine founded Briogeo in 2013 after leaving a vice-president role at Goldman Sachs. The inspiration wasn’t a market study. It was the homemade hair products she used to make with her late mother — who was a chemist. Read that again: the formulas started at home, with her mother, long before there was a brand, a retailer, or a headline. Briogeo was built out of a daughter’s memory of making products with the chemist who raised her.
From there, the build was real and it was hers. She raised more than $20 million in private equity to grow the brand. And in 2022, Wella Company acquired Briogeo — with Twine staying on as founder and CEO. The woman who left finance to honor her mother’s kitchen-table formulas ended up running the company she sold, at the top of an industry her products helped reshape.
Why this page corrects one of its own favorite stories
Because three years don’t change the achievement — and accuracy is the tribute. Printing “26” because it sounds better would be trading the truth for a slightly shinier number, and Twine’s actual record never asked for that trade. Wall Street vice president. Founded 2013. Sephora at 29, the youngest Black woman ever to launch there at the time. More than $20 million raised. Acquired by Wella, still founder and CEO.
That’s a story with no edits required. Tell it right.
Join the conversation
Be honest: had you seen the “at 26” version before today? And does the real story — a VP who left Goldman to build her late mother’s homemade formulas into a Sephora brand — land just as hard at 29? Tell us below.
Source note: Nancy Twine’s record — founding Briogeo in 2013 after leaving a vice-president role at Goldman Sachs, inspired by the homemade hair products she made with her late mother, a chemist; the brand’s 2014 launch at Sephora, when she was 29 and the then-youngest Black woman to launch a product line at the retailer; raising more than $20 million in private equity; and Wella Company’s 2022 acquisition of Briogeo with Twine staying on as founder and CEO — is from Inc., CEW, Refinery29 and Fashionista. Correction: the widely repeated claim that she launched at Sephora at 26 is contradicted by those profiles reported with her participation, which put the launch at 29; this article prints 29.
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