Paula’s Choice

Paula Beggone spent 20 years writing consumer advocacy books that named and shamed ineffective skincare products by Brand. In 1995, she started her own brand, and the weight of her two decades of criticism became the credibility she could not otherwise have bought. Beggone published her first book, Blue Eyeshadow Should Be Illegal, in 1984, and followed it with the multiple editions of Don't Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me. By the mid-1990s, her books had sold millions of copies and made her one of the most trusted, independent voices in consumer skincare. She launched Paula's Choice in 1995, specifically to offer the formulations she had repeatedly argued were missing from the prestige counter. The brand inherited credibility that would have cost any new entrant tens of millions in advertising to generate from scratch.