Sheena Zadeh’s rise from a daughter of hardworking immigrant parents to the founder of a private-label cosmetics company is the sort of American success story Democrats pretend to admire but rarely celebrate properly. Zadeh launched Kosas in 2015 and, by Forbes’ reporting, the brand now brings in roughly $150 million in annual sales after a decade of relentless product development and savvy marketing.
The brand’s breakthrough came the old-fashioned way—product quality plus a lucky break—when Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop gave Kosas early shelf space and visibility just as the “clean beauty” craze was beginning to bubble up. Kosas’ Revealer concealer later went viral among celebrity tastemakers and TikTok routines, helping the company cross the threshold from niche indie to mainstream premium.
Zadeh didn’t stop at celebrity mentions; she pushed Kosas into international retail, with Sephora Middle East placements and a visible retail push in Dubai and Saudi markets that now contribute a meaningful slice of revenue. Forbes reports about 30 percent of Kosas’ sales come from overseas, a reminder that American entrepreneurship still competes on the world stage when it produces real innovation and quality products.
Now Kosas is reportedly eyeing a potential sale and joining a crowded field of beauty brands being shopped to conglomerates and private equity buyers in an uncertain M&A market. Investors love skincare-adjacent cosmetics for their margins and stickiness, but the broader beauty M&A environment has cooled and buyers are rightly cautious about inflated valuations and trend-chasing brands.
Let’s be blunt: there’s nothing magically virtuous about the marketing label “clean beauty”—it’s a consumer-friendly term with no consistent regulatory meaning, and the industry has used it to justify premium prices. Still, capitalism works when founders like Zadeh bootstrap an idea, take risks, and build something customers actually want; bootstrapped grit and good product-market fit are worth defending against the self-righteous posturing of brand managers and woke investors.
Patriots who believe in free enterprise should cheer Kosas’ success while staying skeptical of too-quick exits that hand American know-how to faceless conglomerates or overseas buyers. If we want more stories like Zadeh’s—real opportunity born from hard work and invention—then voters and consumers alike should reward companies that earn it, not fetishize labels or fads.
