“People say that no-makeup makeup is trending now,” said Victoria Jackson, Founder of the cosmetics brand No Makeup Makeup. “I say, it’s been trending my entire career. The whole reason I got into this industry back in the 1980s was to do no-makeup makeup.”

If you’re young enough that you don’t recognize Jackson by name, you’ve undoubtedly seen her influence. Viral makeup trends like “clean girl aesthetic,” “minimalist makeup,” and “barely-there beauty” are all modern iterations of a concept that Jackson pioneered decades ago. (She even trademarked the term “no makeup makeup” back in 2004.)

And if you’re of the age where you were wearing makeup in the 1990s, then you know that Jackson is a beauty trailblazer. One of the biggest female founder success stories to date, her original brand, Victoria Jackson Cosmetics, became the first cosmetics line sold on television in 1989 that generated over a billion dollars in sales throughout the ‘90s. She is an inductee in the National Women’s Hall of Fame, has been recognized by the Pope for her philanthropic work, and co-founded an organization that has led to life-changing medical research and therapies. She’s also a legendary innovator who has created more than 600 products throughout her career.

For her latest venture, however, Jackson and her longtime business associate Kim Wileman launched No Makeup Makeup in July 2024 with just a single product: a cream-balm foundation featuring their exclusive FlexShade Technology (more on that in a bit) that is the culmination of over 30 years of perfecting natural-looking, complexion-enhancing cosmetics.

“I want women to feel comfortable and confident in their own skin, and to not use makeup as a mask,” said Jackson. “That is what drives our innovation.” Wileman, who is Co-Founder and CEO of No Makeup Makeup, added, “Even though social media often pushes a strong makeup aesthetic, the customer who wants simplicity is still very present. She doesn’t want a transformation — she just wants to look like herself, only better.”

Paving a Path in Beauty

This “less is best” philosophy — the tagline for the No Makeup Makeup brand — has been Jackson’s beauty mantra from the beginning.

Born in New York and raised in Southern California in a tumultuous home environment, Jackson left home at 17 after being brutally attacked in her bedroom by an assailant who was later convicted. She moved to West Hollywood, where she began working at a department-store Clinique counter and eventually won a scholarship to beauty school in 1976, setting her sights on becoming a Hollywood makeup artist.

To build a portfolio, Jackson reached out to Los Angeles photographers — “who I found by combing the Yellow Pages, because this was pre-internet,” she said — and offered to do makeup for free on shoots in exchange for photos of her work. One day in 1980, while working for free, the photographer asked Jackson to fill in on a People Magazine cover shoot after the hired makeup artist cancelled. Jackson jumped at the opportunity.

“The cover shoot was with Larry Hagman, star of Dallas, one of the biggest TV shows of the 1980s,” she recalled. From there, more cover shoots followed, then album covers and advertising campaigns, with Jackson typically being booked to do men’s makeup — “which I credit for helping me perfect my no-makeup makeup look, because the men never wanted to look like they were wearing foundation,” she said.

Jackson spent more than a decade working as a Hollywood makeup artist, all while quietly laying the groundwork to launch her own cosmetics line.

Changing the Makeup Game

“It’s hard to imagine now, but in the ‘80s, there really wasn’t any natural-looking makeup,” said Jackson. “Everything was bold and heavy, and I always noticed when people had on too much makeup or were wearing the wrong shades for their skin tone. It wasn’t their fault — all the foundations back then had these pinkish, orange-y, or ashy undertones. There was literally nothing on the market in neutral skin tone colors, even though most women I knew just wanted something that would make their skin look great but not obviously made-up.”

So, Jackson started blending her own foundations in a range of skin tones. “I began by mixing things up in my garage, then eventually I sourced a cosmetic chemist to work with. While my makeup artist peers were busy doing bold looks for editorial — and doing them quite well, I might add — I found my niche that I wanted to perfect for all women.”

In 1986, she launched Victoria Jackson Cosmetics, and in 1989, she pitched a room full of male executives on creating an infomercial for her line. “Their initial response was, ‘There’s no way you can sell makeup on TV, because women need to touch and feel the products,’” Jackson recalled. “I said, ‘Just give me a chance. We have color-coordinated kits based on skin tone, so they don’t have to make any decisions. We’ve taken the guesswork out of shopping for makeup.’”

The executives rolled the dice on Jackson, and it paid off in spades. Victoria Jackson Cosmetics did $1 million in sales in its first week on air and went on to become one of the most successful infomercial series of the 1990s, bringing in 20,000 new customers a week at its peak. This led to a decade-long QVC partnership and a total of 13 infomercials, with the brand generating over $1 billion in sales throughout the ‘90s.

Pioneering a Movement

The secret sauce, said Jackson, wasn’t just her revolutionary, no-makeup makeup formulas — it was empowering women with the knowledge on how to use them.

“My biggest discovery at that time was that regular women didn’t really know how to do their makeup, and they were afraid to admit this,” she said. “I wanted to not only give them great products but also teach them how to use the formulas and find the right shades for their skin tone.”

This approach catapulted Victoria Jackson Cosmetics — and the founder herself — to fame. At a time when most cosmetic companies were centered around aspirational beauty, Jackson championed authenticity and inclusivity, making beauty accessible to people of all skin tones long before the industry embraced these philosophies. In an era when retail presence conferred cachet and clout, Jackson leaned into the power of connection that infomercials and QVC offered, where real women and their needs took center stage.

Still, department-store brands of the ’90s are often credited with introducing women to natural-looking makeup, and Jackson’s early role in the movement towards this aesthetic is sometimes overlooked. “Perhaps it’s because I was off in infomercial land and never crossed paths with big beauty companies,” she said. “We were in different lanes.”

Jackson was also a pioneer of beauty tutorials years ahead of social media. From DVDs to books to cards with step-by-step instructions that you could stick on a mirror, she demystified makeup by teaching the fundamentals, like how to apply foundation, while also making the latest trends approachable and easy to replicate.

“One of my premier products at the time was called Survival Kit,” she noted. “It was basically a Swiss army knife of makeup that had every cosmetic you would need in this sleek little contraption. I still own the mold for it, so perhaps we’ll bring it back!”

Creating a Mission with No Makeup Makeup

Survival of a different kind would soon lead Jackson down a path of purpose. In 2008, her daughter, then 14, was diagnosed with neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a rare autoimmune disease, and given only four years to live. Jackson shifted her focus away from her powerhouse global beauty brand to caring for her daughter and raising awareness of the disease, co-founding the Guthy Jackson Charitable Foundation with her husband to fund life-saving research and therapies and help find a cure for NMO. Their efforts led to the first-ever FDA-approved treatments for NMO and have helped those with the disease like her daughter, now 31, defy the odds to live longer, better lives.

Today, at age 70, Jackson is once again shaking up the beauty industry with No Makeup Makeup, which she co-created with Wileman. The two have worked closely together for over 20 years: Wileman served as general manager of Victoria Jackson Cosmetics from 2006 until she and Jackson decided to shutter the company in 2015.

An industry trailblazer in her own right, Wileman made her early mark in retail and business development at companies like Saks Fifth Avenue, Barneys New York, Wella Corporation, and Mana Products, a leading contract manufacturer of color cosmetics and skincare. In 2006, she founded Galla Beauty, a consulting agency renowned for developing award winning product innovation for beauty brands such as JLO Beauty and DIBS Beauty. Dubbed “the CEO Whisperer,” Wileman has worked with some of the most successful founders, celebrities, and business leaders to expand their company’s vision and opportunities, transforming brands into market leaders. She’s also a passionate champion of female founders.

“For much of my career, leadership in the beauty industry was predominantly male,” said Wileman. “What Victoria and I have as two female founders and leaders working together for as long as we have is very special. Ours is a longstanding, respectful, fluid relationship based on honesty, passion, and the spirit of delivering something to the customer that simplifies beauty routines with amazing, gorgeous formulas.”

Wileman calls Jackson “the single most important person throughout my career,” so when Jackson approached her in 2021 about creating a new cosmetics brand together, she was all in.

“Victoria said, ‘I’m not done — let’s partner on our own line,’” recalled Wileman. “In the years since we’d closed Victoria Jackson Cosmetics, this fervor had grown for the foundation. We received thousands of requests from women saying, ‘Please bring back the foundation!’, so we knew the demand was there. But we also knew we needed to modernize the formula and take it to the next level.”

With no-makeup makeup now firmly rooted in the beauty zeitgeist and Jackson holding the trademark to the term, No Makeup Makeup the brand was born to champion that less is best when it comes to what you put on your skin —and your nightstand. “You’re never going to see 60 SKUs from us,” assured Wileman. “Our philosophy is to provide a handful of products that enhance your natural skin and look.” The brand is committed to using clean, fragrance-free ingredients and is vegan and Leaping Bunny Certified cruelty-free.

The line’s hero product is No Makeup Makeup Foundation ($55), a silky cream-balm formula that took two years to develop. It’s accompanied by The Perfect Foundation Brush ($30; $80 for the foundation + brush set), designed with NASA-level attention to detail, including getting the precise density of bristles that allow for a seamless application of foundation across all contours of the face.

But the biggest innovation is FlexShade Technology, the brand’s proprietary complex that combines light-diffusing particles for a soft-focus blur, light-reflective coated pigments that flex and adapt to a range of skin tones and undertones, lightweight hydrators, and longwear ingredients. This first-of-a-kind technology allows the foundation’s streamlined range of just 13 shades to cover the full spectrum of skin tones.

Jackson called the foundation “the best product I’ve ever developed. You really can’t make a mistake when choosing a color — if you’re trying to decide between two shades, the FlexShade Technology ensures you’ll be good no matter which way you go.”

FlexShade Technology will be integrated into future No Makeup Makeup cosmetics, starting with Blush & Lip ($46), the brand’s first color cosmetic that launches this month. A multipurpose cream-balm for lips and cheeks, the formula base is the same as the brand’s Foundation and layers seamlessly over it in a new and innovative way. Blush & Lip comes in three shades that adapt to each person’s skin tone for a natural-looking flush of color.

Shaping a New Beauty Conversation

For all her success, Jackson acknowledges that launching a cosmetics brand in today’s beauty landscape comes with a new learning curve. “I went from having 28 minutes to tell my story in an infomercial, to having 8 seconds to catch people’s attention on TikTok,” she said. The challenge, she noted, is less in navigating social media — Jackson relies on the young, digital savvy people on her team to guide that part of the business — but in reclaiming her position as the authority on no-makeup makeup, a concept she pioneered over 30 years ago that is now widely echoed across other cosmetics brands.

At the same time, Jackson and Wileman credit the popularity of the aesthetic with helping their brand reach a younger audience. While No Makeup Makeup’s primary customer is 45 to 60 years old, their second largest, closely adjacent demographic is 25 to 35.

Since the brand’s launch, Jackson has made a triumphant return to QVC, where she found remarkable success in the ’90s and is proving her staying power. No Makeup Makeup generated $1 million in sales during Jackson’s debut appearance and during each of her subsequent appearances on QVC.

With no plans of retiring anytime soon, Jackson is involved in every aspect of her new company, which is entirely self-funded, allowing her and Wileman the freedom to shape the brand on their own terms.

“We’re both very intuitive leaders,” said Wileman. “Everything is a gut check, and there’s not this whole pontification process that can happen in more corporate environments. When a decision needs to be made, Victoria and I rip off the band-aid and we go.”

While the two longtime friends and industry power players say they’re working harder than ever before to turn No Makeup Makeup into a meaningful movement, they’re having a blast doing so. “This is the most fun I’ve ever had building a brand — and we’re just a year old,” said Wileman. “If it’s this exciting at the beginning, the best is definitely yet to come.”

No Makeup Makeup is sold on nomakeupmakeup.com, TikTok Shop, QVC, and Amazon.com.