Rea Ann Silva

The only reason my makeup ever looks decent is my Beautyblender.

Back in the early 2000s, Rea Ann Silva was the lead makeup artist on Girlfriends.

The show was one of the first to shoot in high-def, and every pore, scar, and smudge showed up on camera.

Airbrushing worked… but it was messy…

So she cut up sponges by hand.

Tried triangles, barbells, even weird half-moon shapes.

Until she landed on the one.

A pink, egg-shaped sponge that gave a flawless, airbrushed finish.
She called it: Beautyblender.

Actors kept stealing them from her kit.

She couldn’t make them fast enough.

So she called the number on the back of a sponge package.

“Hi, I’m a Hollywood makeup artist. I have an idea.”

They laughed. Told her they had hundreds of patents.

She pushed back. Hard.

They signed her NDA.

She picked the hot pink color on instinct.

They told her to go with beige or peach.

She said no.

“If I want women to use this, they need to see it.”

In 2008, she went direct to consumers.

By 2012, she was in Sephora.

By 2018, Ulta.

Today, Beautyblender sells every 17 seconds.

And that original pink sponge? It’s in the Smithsonian.