How I started in beauty: Industry expert and founder Anna Teal

Anna Teal has built an impressive career, rising from an apprenticeship at Boots to become CEO of Australian skincare brand Grown Alchemist, a role she stepped down from in March after three years.

Now entering a new chapter, Teal is also developing AFIMA, a new wellness brand she describes as “still early, but rooted in a white space I care deeply about”.

Alongside this, Teal is working with founders, operators and investors on growth, brand strategy and scaling businesses. She has also launched a Substack exploring beauty, wellness, business and the realities of building something from the ground up.

In this interview, Teal looks back on her early career, outlines her plans for the future and explains why she remains deeply inspired by brand founders.

Have you always had an interest in beauty? Why does it appeal to you and why did you want to work within it?

Yes, always. My mum was an Avon lady part-time, so I grew up with lipsticks, skincare and fragrance samples around the house. It all felt very normal to me. Even before I understood beauty as an industry, I understood that products could change how people felt. I could also see it was a sector where you could build a real career and earn well.

When I started thinking seriously about what I wanted to do, I knew it would be beauty or retail. What has kept me in it is that beauty sits in that really interesting space between emotion and commerce. It is personal, expressive and confidence-building, but it also demands real rigour: product, margin, sourcing, channels, customer behaviour. That is what still makes it so interesting to me.

Anna Teal, in her 20s, when she ran the summer category and took part in a campaign

Tell us about your first job in beauty. What drew you to the role? What was the experience like?

I joined Boots on an apprenticeship scheme, so I started right at the beginning and learned the business from the ground up. I was drawn to it because it was the perfect mix: beauty, retail and a scheme that trained me on the job. I knew I did not want to go to university, but I did want a role with strong training and a clear career path. Over time, I moved through the organisation and eventually became a Business Development Director.

What I loved about Boots was that it was not glamorous in the way people sometimes imagine beauty to be. It was commercial, operational and fast-moving. You were dealing with real customers, real numbers and real decisions every day. It was an amazing training ground and gave me foundations I still use now.

What were the most valuable skills or lessons you gained from that first experience?

Three things really stayed with me.

First, understanding the difference between the customer and the consumer. They are not always the same person, and you have to know how to serve both.

Second, margin discipline. Boots taught me to really understand the economics of a product, a category and a deal - not just whether something sounds good, but whether it actually works.

Third, negotiation - not as a battle, but as a craft. The best deals are the ones where everyone gets something they value.

What do you most enjoy about your current role?

What I enjoy most is that it feels very real. I advise beauty and wellness brands and investors, and I am also building AFIMA, my own wellness brand, from scratch. So I am not talking about these things in theory; I am living them too.

That makes the work feel honest. The feedback is immediate, the accountability is mine, and the learning is constant.

I also love the variety. In one week, I might be looking at brand strategy or diligence, and then making decisions on formulation, positioning or channel in my own business. That keeps it interesting and keeps me sharp.

If you could go back and give your younger self one piece of advice at the very start of your career, what would it be and why?

Just do it. Back yourself.

Keep putting yourself out there and keep stepping outside your comfort zone. That will become your winning formula. The moments that build you are rarely the easy ones. They are the stretch roles, the difficult situations, the times you say yes before you feel completely ready.

And keep building your network and your sponsors. You will have more of them than you think, and they will matter more than you realise. Careers are built on capability, but they are also built through people who trust you, back you and open doors when it matters.

What does the next chapter of your own career look like and how are you hoping to grow from here?

The next chapter is really about building on my own terms.

A big part of that is AFIMA, which I am building in a space I care deeply about: women’s wellbeing. It is early, it is personal, and it is the clearest test of everything I have learned so far.

Alongside that, I want to do a small amount of advisory and board work where I can genuinely add value, and I want to keep growing Beautiful Hustle as a platform for honest conversations about brands, deals and building in beauty and wellness.

Personally, the growth is about getting more comfortable with uncertainty. When you build independently, there is less structure, but there is also more truth. I am learning to trust that more and more.

Has there been a person in beauty that you have always admired and why?

I actually admire a type of person more than one specific name.

I have huge respect for founders who build something from nothing, especially the ones without celebrity, hype or a ready-made audience - just a strong point of view, a great product and the nerve to back themselves.

That founder mindset is what I admire most: people who really understand the consumer, take the risk early and build with conviction before anyone else validates it.

That is the kind of builder I respect, and honestly, it is the kind I am trying to become.