Carisa Janes is the Founder and CEO of Hourglass, which she launched in 2004 as the next generation luxury beauty brand. Throughout her career, Carisa has displayed an unwavering commitment to creating groundbreaking beauty products, embodied by Hourglass Cosmetics. Her creation of cutting-edge formulations and packaging has positioned Hourglass as an innovator in the prestige beauty category.

Carisa entered the beauty industry after attending Parsons School of Design in New York. As an original member of Urban Decay’s team in 1996, she helped cultivate the now iconic brand. In 1997, Carisa created a prestige color line, Body & Soul cosmetics for the Hawaiian fashion destination. She next established ISA Design, a beauty-consulting firm serving a range of clients including several well-known global beauty brands. In 1999, she created the teen cosmetics line Sugar. The same year, Glamour magazine saluted Carisa as “the world’s youngest beauty-biz veteran.” Recently, WWD named Carisa to its list of “Most Innovative Thinkers” in beauty.

In 2004, Carisa launched Hourglass Cosmetics after noticing a void in the marketplace for a new kind of beauty brand—one with a focus on active ingredients, modern design and exceptional functionality. Hourglass is known for its iconic products including Veil Mineral Primer, an unrivaled primer beloved for its ability to elevate the performance of makeup and instantly beautify the skin, the weightless and seamless Vanish Foundation Stick, the groundbreaking Ambient Lighting Collection, and the high performance Confession Ultra Slim High Intensity Refillable Lipstick.

In 2017, Hourglass was acquired by Unilever. Carisa remains the brand’s CEO, growing Hourglass to 1000 doors worldwide, including a standalone store in Manhattan, New York and a flagship in Venice, California, where Carisa works and lives with her husband and four rescue dogs.