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Hey, Glams!

We have waited seven years and almost 600 episodes to get Jerrod Blandino on this podcast, and we promise it was worth the wait. Jerrod co-founded Too Faced with his husband Jeremy, sold it to Estée Lauder in 2016 for a record-breaking $1.45 billion, and launched his new brand, Polite Society, three years ago. And this week, days after the news broke that Estée Lauder is shrinking Too Faced and moving it out of its iconic OC headquarters, Jared finally told us the real story of what happened after the sale.

Keep reading for highlights and remember to watch or listen to the full episode for all of the juicy deets.

Two weeks ago, Business of Fashion reported that Estée Lauder Companies would not be selling Too Faced and instead, streamlining the team and moving its headquarters from Orange County to New York. Jerrod posted a response to the news on his Instagram account in a video titled “A message to my Too Faced team.” He expressed his disappointment and heartbreak with the conglomerate’s decision. We asked Jerrod to elaborate on how he was feeling.

The hardest part for him isn’t the brand, he shares — it’s the people. Jerrod says he personally raised much of the Too Faced team, and watching them get treated as replaceable after the sale has been the most painful part of the entire saga.

While the sale is one of the biggest on record, Jerrod says that knowing what he knows now, he’s not sure he’d make the same choice to sell. He was careful to say he’s grateful, that the money changed his life and his family’s life. But he also said he thought the acquisition would give Too Faced “wings,” and instead it gave the brand “weights.”

Jerrod told us about the exact moment where he first felt something was wrong: during one of the meetings about the deal, one of the Lauder executives spoke disrespectfully to a member of his team. He remembers standing up so quickly in his chair that it hit the wall, and he stormed out. His husband and co-founder Jeremy came to check in on him and had to convince him to calm himself.

That moment, he says, is when the “battle for control” really started. He also told us Bobbi Brown, who sold her own brand to Lauder years earlier, gave him a quiet warning early on that he didn’t fully understand until it was too late: don’t look back, and get great lawyers.

We asked Jerrod to tell us logistically what happens the day after you sign a life-changing deal like he did. Do you get a therapist? A team of handlers?

According to Jerrod, nothing. He and Jeremy sat quietly. They didn’t make a big statement or make big plans — they processed what a number that size actually means when it was never the goal to begin with.

The first real thing he did with the money was buy his entire family their dream homes for Christmas and helped decorate them. And while he loves to indulge in the finer things in life, his POV on wealth is that money doesn’t make you happy, it’s a magnifying glass. It amplifies who you already are.

Although he did sign a five year non-compete, Jerrod didn’t really take a day off after selling Too Faced. He started building Polite Society in his mind within 24 hours, fueled by two years of watching a brand he built get run through corporate committee and hearing “you can’t do that” one too many times.

Polite Society is what happens when nobody can tell him no. He calls it “relaxed California luxury”: a little more embellishment, a little more flair, glamour for people who want to feel extra on a random Tuesday. Same obsessive, artist-first process that built Too Faced (see: a mascara brush he hand-molded out of clay), just with nobody standing over his shoulder this time.

You can watch and listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts (yes, you can watch us on there!), Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Shop everything mentioned in this video here:

Missbehave Weightless Volume Mascara - Black

The Starter Collection - Simply White

Glide Pro-Health Deep Clean Dental Floss, Cool Mint

POLITE SOCIETY | French Rose Milk Moisturizing Glaze Mist

POLITE SOCIETY | Love It Lip Balm

POLITE SOCIETY BEAUTY | More than A Pretty Face Skin-Caring Foundation

POLITE SOCIETY | B I G Mouth Xl Plump Intensive Lip Plumping Concentrate

POLITE SOCIETY | Cabana Club Cocoa Caviar Bio Peptide Bronzing Serum

MERIT BEAUTY | The Minimalist Perfecting Complexion Stick

MERIT BEAUTY | Great Skin Instant Glow Serum

DR. DIAMOND’S METACINE | InstaFacial Infusion Biomimetic Microcollagen Matrix