How I started in beauty: Neom Wellbeing CEO Isabel Malbois

Isabel Malbois has been the CEO of Neom Wellbeing since October 2023. She first joined the company as Commercial Director in 2021 before being promoted to Managing Director in 2022.

She brought with her extensive experience in the beauty industry, having held numerous positions at L’Oréal, including General Manager for Giorgio Armani Beauty in the UK and Ireland, and beginning her career as a Product Manager at Lancôme.

In this interview, Malbois reflects on her early days at Lancôme and the lessons that shaped her professional journey. She also shares insights into her current leadership role, offers advice she would give her younger self, and reveals the people in the beauty industry she has long admired.

Isabel Malbois (right) with Urban Decay co-founder Wende Zomnir (left)

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

I’ve always been interested in beauty, but I had never really considered it as a career choice. I studied psychology and later completed an MBA. I was 30 when I spotted an ad on an Irish jobs website for a role at L'Oreal - and that was the moment everything changed.

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

My first job in beauty was when I joined L'Oreal back in 2007 as a skincare product manager for Lancôme, which was one of the leading brands in Ireland at the time. It was very much a baptism of fire - I remember being asked on my first day to forecast a new launch (Hydra Zen, if I remember correctly!).

Being a product manager in a smaller market was an incredible way to kick-start my beauty career. With very small teams, we truly had to do it all: account management, trade marketing and media buying - which at the time was print and OOH only... how easy, right!? From there, I went on to spend 15 years in sales, marketing and general management roles at L’Oréal in Ireland, the UK and US markets.

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

One of the biggest lessons for me was the importance of building strong relationships with third-party partners, such as retailers and agencies. They are an integral part of building a brand, but you can’t expect them to do the heavy lifting without close collaboration and being treated with respect. Being in-store regularly, really understanding what’s happening on the ground, and treating agencies as a true extension of your team makes a huge difference.

What do you most enjoy about your current role?

I love being at the helm of such a complex business and having the opportunity to work across so many fascinating areas. There’s the fun side - creative, content and seeing our brand campaigns come to life - but also working closely with supply chain teams, from product design through to manufacture, warehousing and distribution.

Most of all, I love mobilising teams around a shared mission. I take positive working culture very seriously. We all work incredibly hard every day, so it’s important to enjoy the environment and the people you spend your time with. As we say at Neom: work hard, play hard, rest hard.

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?

Never stop asking questions. It’s one big learning journey, and the more you put yourself out there - without pretending you know everything - the more you will learn. That’s still true today. I love the idea of reverse mentoring and learning from others in the team who are experts in their own areas, whether that’s packaging design, CRM, or TikTok (which I am still far from figuring out or understanding... maybe at my age I never will!). The world of beauty is in constant evolution, so there’s always something new to learn.

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

More recently, I’ve found myself evolving from being purely a business operator to doing much more strategic work. I’m excited about building Neom's long-term global plan and working closely with advisers and investors as we think about the next stages of the founders’ vision. I also love the idea of advising and helping to grow independent businesses using the experience I’ve gained over the years - and luckily, there’s never a shortage of founders and exciting new brands in this industry looking for someone who has been there, done that!

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

I have enormous admiration for beauty founders - those people who put their savings on the line for an idea they truly believe in. I know only too well how stressful it is managing budgets and cash flow, but trying to do it all with start-up funds adds an entirely different level of pressure. From the constant phone calls and trade shows in search of distribution, to figuring out absolutely everything - where to make your product, how to design the packaging, how to ship it, how to navigate retailer margins, and how to avoid losing everything on one bad decision - it’s an incredibly demanding journey.

I’ve been very fortunate to work with and soak up the belief and passion of some truly brilliant founders over the years, from Dr. Robb at Clarisonic, to Wende Zomnir at Urban Decay (pictured above), and now with Nicola Elliott and Oliver Mennell at Neom.