Meet our 20 Faces of cosnova
cosnova celebrated its big anniversary in 2022. Twenty years had passed since cosnova was founded, and we were looking back on an incredible success story: what began in a dining room with two employees was and is now a global family business with around 870 employees - and we continue to grow.
Celebrating 20 years of cosnova also meant celebrating all cosnovas! That's why we nominated "20 Faces of cosnova", representing all employees and reflecting our diversity in departments, roles, countries, brands, positions, ages, cultures and working models - as diverse as cosnova.
With their passion, creativity, and innovative spirit, they shape our brands and our corporate culture. Some have been with us for a long time, others have just started - but they are all united by our mission to "Make everyone feel more beautiful"!
Note: The interviews were conducted, and their content was published between spring and fall of 2022. As a result, they will not be updated.
Our consumers know: They can always rely on the high quality standards we set and our products always keep their promises.
But how can we ensure the outstanding performance and reliability of our range? This is where Anna Blümel, Head of Quality Assurance Services, and her team from the Quality Assurance department come in.
She works closely with other departments at cosnova, the contract manufacturers and external institutes to put the products through all of their paces during and after development.
All delivered products first go to the incoming goods inspection. Here, Anna's colleagues check whether the products meet the high quality standards set - they carry out a sensory test, check very carefully whether the legal information is correct and the packaging is as specified and commission different analyses.
Nevertheless, it can always happen that the products do not meet 100% of the expectations. In this case, Anna's team also takes care of complaints management and critical cases.
In our slideshow you can learn more about what inspires Anna in her daily work at cosnova.
“Boredom, dull products, depressing working atmosphere, sad people. You would never find these things at cosnova”, says our Senior Media Manager, Kevin Lantzsch, one of our “20 Faces at cosnova”.
Rather, cosnova is characterized by speed, trend awareness, teamwork and low hierarchies making it “one cool company”.
This is also, but not exclusively, why Kevin has been with us for 7 years: He started as an intern in the social media department and has been an integral part of the cosnova family ever since. Now, as Senior Media Manager for our brands essence and CATRICE he develops and implements digital campaigns on all digital marketing channels.
Watch this video and find out, what his favourite beauty product is, how the future will look like at cosnova and how he finds inspiration for his job.
How do trends turn into new products? Our Product Manager Julia Schrage from the CATRICE Limited Editions develops products “from scratch to store”.
In the beginning of a Limited Edition life cycle, the team develops a concept in close coordination with the innovation hub. They discuss upcoming trends and topics, which seasons and products fit best and how can they bring them to life while guaranteeing the best quality for the best price. Most important thing within the process: the consumer. What are their needs, what excites them? And at the end the product managers develop a consistent world around the trend, which is immediately recognizable for the consumers.
Sneak-peek for the coming seasons? Of course! 2023 will contain lots of extraordinary worlds with exciting, colorful and cool statement looks.
Silvia Steinert, one of our 20 Faces of cosnova and Director of Corporate Responsibility, has been working at cosnova for more than 17 years. Since 2015, she has dedicated herself to the topic of CR and has developed a comprehensive sustainability strategy for the company. For several years now, the following five pillars have been the backbones of the strategy: Harmlessness of our Product, Zero Waste, Climate action, working conditions at business partners and Social Initiatives.
We work on a science-based climate strategy to reduce our CO2 footprint continuously.
Our brand essence is 100% vegan, CATRICE 99%, and we constantly extend our product ranges with strictly defined "Clean Beauty Standards". Beyond that, cosnova is the first beauty company to have its entire product range produced microplastic particle free by 2023.
And there are still many more to come…stay tuned!
How many messages does a Community Manager of the best-selling cosmetics brands in Europe receive every day? Meet our cosnova Face Laura Kummert and learn more exciting insights about our community wishes and needs.
As a member of the Consumer Experience Team, she oversees all social media channels, and creates a strategic link between the brands and the people who love our products. The Community Management Team has to know each product and ingredient inside out, keep a cool head in critical situations or be the empathic counterpart on the other line. Lauras focus: the organization and strategic orientation of consumer-oriented communication on cosnova’s social media channels.
Up to 2.500 messages/comments reach Laura and the team every day. Most of the time, these include great, positive, and emotional stories about self-confidence and -discovery. Thus, the requests cosnova receives are just as diverse as the tasks in daily business itself. Every day is different, and it never gets boring – this is what we love!
Meet… Thorsten Mühl! Thorsten is the newest face among our "20 Faces of cosnova". He has been with us for just over a year as Director Digital Marketing & Experiences providing our consumers with the best possible beauty experience across all digital touchpoints. He is convinced that brands need to tell compelling stories: the stories of their brands and what they stand for.
“Content is the currency of the future. It needs to be creative and cutting edge, but also be strategically developed with a consumer-centric focus and generate awareness on the different platforms and channels we share our content.“
Watch this video to find out why Thorsten joined cosnova, what the biggest challenges are in the area of Digital Marketing and what you need to bring if you want to apply.
Meet Tatiana Zara, Junior Regional Marketing Manager.
At our headquarters in Sulzbach, Germany, we develop the ranges for our essence and CATRICE brands that are distributed in over 80 countries worldwide. In order for consumers all over the world to be equally attracted to our products, we need employees with a special understanding of communication and assortments in different countries and different cultures.
Tatiana has been part of the colourful cosnova world for 4 years and takes care of the localization of our brand and product communication in various markets. Whether it's South Africa, the MENA or LATAM region, Europe or Asia – she and her team adapt our campaigns to the regional market characteristics like specific beauty needs and preferences of our consumers. A good example of this is our regional essence Magical Eyes gift set, which was produced especially for the occasion of Ramadan.
Find out what’s driving her at cosnova every day…
Allow us to introduce: Christine Fink, Director People & Organization!
Christine’s journey started in 2004, being only the 16th employee of the company: From Process- & Project management to the Logistics department to being Director of People & Organisation. She knows cosnova from the ground up!
During her past 18 years at cosnova, she has experienced record sales figures, many internal changes, wonderful people and great “cosnova-typical” parties.
Find out here whether you have to wear make-up when you come to us, what makes the cosnova culture so special and whether it’s possible to be in a leading position while working part-time.
May we present: Kristin (Murphy) Jaskolka.
As part of our "20 Faces of cosnova" series, we are very happy to introduce to you our Director of the brand essence. Kristin works together in a tandem leadership with Isabelle Tambue, shaping the global look and feel of the brand.
Together with their team, they have played a key role in continuously evolving essence and making it so successful.
Always at the centre of attention? The consumer. “I love touching consumers with our brand and communicating with them in various ways, finding out what their needs are. And I Iove the experimentation that we do with essence trying so many new things every day.”
Find out in this video what her first impression at cosnova was and what female empowerment means to her nowadays.
"We want our consumers to fully trust the brand and become their soulmate in beauty." Let's meet Christian Herold!
As Director Consumer Experience & Engagement, he and his team put the expectations, needs and desires of our consumers in the center of attention: It is their mission to create a virtual world for our brands ensuring the best possible digital user experience – and the feedback proves them right.
Watch this video to have a further look behind the scenes and find out what Christian likes best about his job, the routine he starts the day with and what was the best experience for him at cosnova (spoiler: It’s about the colour of the food).
“What is next?” This question can be answered by our Director New Business Bülent Özdemir, who is working for our sister company NextGen Beauty.
NextGen Beauty was founded in 2019 as an incubator for cosnova with the aim to develop new brands, products and technologies.
Watch this video of Bülent to find out what it is like working in such an innovative environment and why the sentence “We have always done it that way” does not apply for us.
Being a man and working in the cosmetics sector? Fortunately no longer an exception today! Meet Thomas Causemann, our Director Sales Germany, who describes the industry as “super exciting and just cool!”
Thomas has been with cosnova since 2014. Together with his team, he creates the basic conditions for our trade partners to add more essence and CATRICE beauty shops to their stores. In total, he looks after the proud amount of 15,000 cosmetic counters spread all over Germany.
Watch this video and find out more about his most compelling sales arguments, what is the key to success at cosnova and what it is like to work in a company with his wife.
Would you like to meet the very first employee of cosnova? Here we go: Petra Schönegger joined cosnova 20 years ago and, together with our founder Christina Oster-Daum, developed and marketed the first product range of our brand essence from a dining room in Frankfurt.
Since then, she has strongly impacted the history of the company, especially in terms of diverse communication approaches as well as various product innovations.
In her current role as Director Innovation Hub, she and her team ensure being a “soulmate in beauty” of our consumers by anticipating their future desires: What are their needs? What problems would they like to have solved? What are their expectations?
Watch the video and find out how she felt about the change from a secure job to a start-up, what is exciting about innovation and what is special about cosnova for her.
Meet Nadine Langen, our General Manager of the subsidiary in Milan, Italy.
Nadine has been with us since 2012 and has since then gone through very different stages, each with its own unique challenges: Starting as Brand Manager at CATRICE, to the development and positioning of a completely new brand L.O.V as Director, to General Manager in Italy.
In between, she took a sabbatical of 6 months and travelled the world. Always with her? Mascara!
Find out in this video why she went to Italy, what her biggest challenges were and what to expect when you join cosnova Italy.
During the last two decades, we did not only follow #trends – we also set them. Two departments are essential for this: our trend experts from the innovation department, who research the latest trends in fashion, lifestyle, beauty, food and interior design – and the ones who turn these trends into cool new products with great attention to detail and love for new ideas: our product managers.
One of our product managers at the essence Trend Edition team is Larissa Bechtloff – one of our 20 Faces of cosnova whom we would like to introduce in order to celebrate our 20th anniversary. 🎉
Larissa's journey in product management for cosnova began five years ago for the brand L.O.V. and since 2019 she is part of the essence Trend Edition Unit. She is responsible for the conception, development, coordination and design of the limited collections which combine products from different categories – e.g. eyes, lips, face, nails and also make up related accessories. All of this is created under a specific theme inspired by trends, seasonal factors or special occasions like our essence make beauty fun Trend Edition in honor of the 20th #anniversary of cosnova and it’s beauty brand essence. From the vision to the retail launch in about nine months.
For Larissa, Make-up helps you to discover who you are and who you want to be. Click here if you want to find out more about her motivation for creating beauty products every day.
We set trends and don’t just follow them! Right at the front: our Senior Trend Expert & Consumer Insights Carolin Keller.
Carolin is responsible for tracking down upcoming developments, consumer needs and trends. Every day, she explores what's happening in the world. Usually in the U.S. and Asia, where the majority of relevant trend impulses take place.
By adding emerging social trends like those on TikTok she has the perfect base to develop forecasts. These, in turn, are translated into concepts and ultimately into products together with our brand teams.
A little foretaste for 2023? Self-expression, endless creativity, metaverse-inspired colors and exciting textures will become increasingly important ... so stay tuned!
Here you can see what drives Carolin at cosnova every day.
At cosnova, our innovation hub looks into the crystal ball and predicts the beauty trends of the day after tomorrow. What is beauty going to look like three or five years from now?
This question is answered by Asita Morgan, Head of Innovation Lab. Asita and her team set the impulses for new products that enrich the lives of our consumers in many ways. Ten years ago, Asita started her career at cosnova when our company counted around 160 employees. First, she was part of our PR team and helped to enter new markets around the globe. This also included moving to New York for some years, a place dear to Asita´s heart.
Moving back to Germany was the starting point for the Innovation Lab. Her time abroad and the experiences she gained there were also a decisive factor for focusing more on looking at beauty in the long term.
Besides being Head of the Inno Lab at cosnova, Asita is Female Founder and owner of the beautiful concept store Philokalist in Frankfurt. In 2019 she has reduced her working hours to 50% at cosnova in order to pursue both career paths and has thus created the best possible working conditions as an example for flexible working models also in leading positions.
