In episode 256 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Conor Riley, CEO of Luxie Beauty, a luxury cosmetics company specializing in high-end, vegan, cruelty-free makeup brushes. Listen in as Riley discusses why the company was founded, how he ended up at the beauty brand, and the typical Luxie customer. He shares how the COVID-19 pandemic has effected the Luxie Beauty business, why the brand implemented Afterpay's payment platform on its e-commerce site, and how the company is responding to changing trends in the beauty industry.

Furthermore, Riley addresses how the coronavirus has caused Luxie Beauty to re-evaluate its wholesale business, how the brand developed a highly collaborative working environment with its retail partners, and why corporate social responsibility is a core part of the Luxie Beauty brand — and should be for all retailers.

Conor Riley is the multitalented CEO of Luxie Beauty. Driven, bold, and an out-of-the-box thinker, the Northern California native started his first company at the age of 20: an event-based marketing company in Modesto, CA. Riley soon established himself in the finance world, becoming a founding partner of tech-focused, boutique venture capital fund Obsidian Partners. Shortly thereafter in 2008, he served as a founding partner of White Stable Ventures, a private equity fund focused on manufacturing and transportation investments. He later joined Global Capital Markets, Inc. as a principal, where he worked on a variety of deals in tech, fintech, agriculture, real estate, and medical devices. In 2018, Riley stepped into the world of beauty as an investor and adviser for Luxie Beauty. A year later he took on the position of CEO at Luxie to reposition the brand for global distribution.