Anne Marie Nicolet

Heritage beauty brand with a vertically integrated model and a US/Canada franchise network, offering a full portfolio of color cosmetics, skincare, and personal care products. Lead product development, innovation strategy, and cross-functional commercialization across a $51M portfolio. ♦️ Role Overview: Oversee end-to-end product and packaging development, global vendor partnerships, and portfolio transformation initiatives. Drive ideation-to-launch execution, category strategy, margin optimization, and crisis-responsive pivots that ensure business continuity and high-quality launches. ♦️ Product & Packaging Leadership: Directed end-to-end development for formulas, shades, textures, and packaging, ensuring regulatory alignment and vendor readiness; delivered decisive crisis-era pivots that protected timelines and business continuity. ♦️ Ideation-to-Launch Strategy: Defined product and promotional strategy, identifying category opportunities, selecting concepts, and guiding cross-functional teams through feasibility, cost alignment, and commercialization across an 800+ SKU portfolio. ♦️ Global Lab & Vendor Collaboration: Partnered with domestic and international labs to progress formulas, manage pilot batches and stability testing, and initiate compatibility, safety, and clinical studies that informed claims and launch positioning. ♦️ Repackaging & Cost Optimization: Led a 1.5-year custom mold replacement program, revamping 17 molds used in 30 core formulas representing $14M+, and secured competitive bids that reduced primary packaging COGS by 23%. ♦️ Global Sourcing Diversification: Developed multi-region sourcing strategies (Taiwan, Korea, Mexico, Canada) to mitigate tariff volatility, stabilize pricing, and support franchisee profitability. ♦️ Team Development & Education Rebuild: Rebuilt the Education function, designing a modern training ecosystem that strengthened product knowledge, execution consistency, and franchisee readiness.

Prestige beauty brand known for artistry-driven innovation across brows, color cosmetics, and complexion categories. ♦️ Role Overview: Directed concept-to-launch development, global commercialization, and packaging evolution for brow, color, and skincare categories, delivering 50+ launches that advanced brand position across major retailers. ♦️ Retail Growth & Launch Excellence: Delivered incremental growth across Sephora (+24%), Nordstrom (+23%), and Ulta (+16%) by shaping curated product pipelines, merchandising strategies, and data-driven marketing calendars. Developed persuasive retailer-facing assets and led creation of a hero SKU that ranked #4 brand-wide within its first year. ♦️ Innovation & Lifecycle Leadership: Owned trend forecasting, raw material evaluation, assortment planning, and consumer-led positioning for all new products and category extensions, ensuring on-brand, high-impact launches. ♦️ Packaging Modernization: Led end-to-end redesign of secondary packaging across the full portfolio, elevating brand clarity, educational content, and shelf impact while maintaining cost and production feasibility. ♦️ HSN Launch Strategy: Directed the brand’s entrance and expansion on HSN, crafting exclusive kits, promotional narratives, and on-air strategies that drove awareness and sales.

Orly International/SpaRitual: Global beauty brands specializing in professional nail lacquer, treatments, and clean body care, distributed in 60+ countries. SpaRitual pioneered the first vegan, DBP-free lacquer and body care line. ♦️ Role Overview: Built and led the first formal new product development (NPD) function, steering global innovation and end-to-end product development across nail, treatment, and body categories. ♦️ Global Innovation & Growth: Transformed concept-to-launch development, delivering 20% growth for Orly and 114% for SpaRitual by advancing high-performance lacquer formulas, shade and finish innovation, and ingredient-led treatment concepts. Co-developed integrated launch calendars leveraging trend insights, ingredient innovation, and consumer data to drive global readiness. ♦️ End-to-End Development Leadership: Partnered closely with on-site R&D to define formula benchmarks, shade accuracy, finish standards, and testing protocols. Built comprehensive evaluation processes spanning stability, wear, sensory testing, and ingredient suitability to ensure professional-grade performance. ♦️ Vendor & Manufacturing Partnerships: Managed global labs and suppliers, overseeing component development, shade matching, formula progression, sampling, troubleshooting, and packaging feasibility across multi-region manufacturing networks. ♦️ Founding of NPD Function: Established the company’s first new product development (NPD) department with a structured framework rooted in brand differentiation, ingredient strategy, competitive analysis, and COGS optimization, enabling scalable, repeatable innovation. ♦️ Team Leadership & Technical Development: Built and developed a team of two Product Development Specialists and an on-site chemist, fostering a high-urgency, collaborative environment focused on creativity, technical rigor, and disciplined project execution.

Suite-K/Irving Rice: Prestige beauty company with a five-brand portfolio across color cosmetics, skincare, bath & body, fragrance, and German-engineered mirrors. Products manufactured globally and distributed through major department stores and luxury retail channels. ♦️ Role Overview: Led innovation, formula and shade development, packaging strategy, vendor partnerships, and cross-functional launch execution. ♦️ QVC Channel Expansion: Launched two brands on QVC by developing exclusive kits, pricing strategies, and on-air preparation for talent; the first hour-long show sold out in 42 minutes, establishing strong early traction. ♦️ Formula, Shade & Packaging Development: Partnered with R&D teams and international manufacturers to guide formula creation, shade development, packaging design, artwork, pre-production sampling, and quality testing, ensuring high-performance and brand alignment. ♦️ Retail Sell-In & Merchandising Leadership: Created retailer-facing marketing decks and presented new launches to Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Lord & Taylor, Sephora, and Bath & Body Works. Leveraged compelling storytelling, assortment strategy, and trend direction to secure and support placement. ♦️ Marketing, Education & Content Development: Authored consumer, sales, and education materials, including product training, ingredient stories, claims language, and retailer launch kits, to ensure consistent, high-quality brand representation. ♦️ Team Leadership: Managed Counter Managers and Account Executives across key retailers, ensuring strong product knowledge, merchandising consistency, and execution of new launches and promotional programs.