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Breakthru Beauty

About Us

Who are we?

About Breakthru Beauty

At Breakthru Beauty, we know not every brand has access to an experienced executive team. That’s why we offer flexible, cost-effective consulting tailored to your needs. With decades of beauty expertise—from retail readiness and financial management to marketing and relationship development—we’ve guided brands at every stage, from incubation to legacy.

Our Story

founded in 2024

We live and breathe beauty. Let our passion fuel yours. 

Our single goal & purpose is to help you build out a robust agency that can support all business needs required to be successful in Retail. 

Founders

meet The team

Lisa

Co-Founder

Expert on Retail, Relationships & Driving Sales | Former Ulta Beauty Executive, Chief of Sales, Chief of Retail Brand Executive 

Allison

Co-Founder

Expert on Brand Building & Marketing


Breakthru Beauty - Co-Founder

Lisa

As the founder, I bring over 20 years of expertise in retail leadership, buying and beauty brand executive leadership. My extensive background has equipped me with a unique understanding of what drives market share growth and profitability in the beauty industry.  My passion is relationship, team and brand building. Relationships are everything! 

Throughout my career, I have successfully:

– Developed and executed merchandising strategies that drove sales growth and increased market share

-Launched & grown hundreds of brands 

-Lead buying and sales teams across all beauty categories including makeup, skincare, body, haircare, suncare etc. 

-Lead sales, planning, trade marketing, education and 3rd party field teams to drive sales at both Ulta & Sephora 

– Fostered strong relationships with key partners and stakeholders

– Built and led high-performing teams that delivered results-driven solutions

– Negotiated profitable agreements that benefited both businesses and brands

– Analyzed financial data to inform strategic business decisions

– Successfully launched or managed relationships across key retail partners including Ulta, Sephora, Target, Kohls, Nordstrom, International, Salon distribution etc. 

With a passion for empowering beauty brands and elevating their success, I established Breakthru Beauty to share my expertise and help clients achieve their goals. I am dedicated to delivering tailored solutions that drive growth, profitability, and long-term success for my brands.

Breakthru Beauty - Co-Founder

Allison

Allison Slater Ray has over twenty-five years of experience as an executive in beauty, wellness, retail and e-commerce. Breakthru Beauty, the beauty advisory firm founded by Allison and Lisa Motzko Hamilton, develops brands from start-ups to established with C-level guidance across merchandising, sales, marketing, brand and team building. 

As a consultant, Allison has worked with beauty brands and fin tech companies on brand positioning, strategy, business development, team building, and sales. Supergoop, Afterpay, Charlotte Tilbury, Scentbird and Live Tinted are among her clients, as well as TZP Private Equity Group where she serves as an operating advisor.  Prior to consulting and board advisory roles, Allison was President at MBX, a Korean beauty incubator and then served as an advisory board member to MBX.  She was Senior Vice President of Marketing for IT Cosmetics at a critical time in the brand’s growth and transformation, helping to position and grow the brand for sale to L’Oreal for $1.2 Billion, the largest acquisition in the company’s history. Allison spent over 10 years heading up marketing at Sephora driving its evolution to the beauty and retail leader it is today. At Sephora, she launched the brand marketing team which acted as an in-house marketing agency for many of Sephora incubator brands. Prior to Sephora, Allison worked for Unilever and DDB Needham on the Calvin Klein and Chanel businesses. 

Allison’s strength lies in marketing, retail and strategy with a focus on high growth, early stage businesses.  Wander Beauty, All Golden and Cove Brands are the boards that she currently serves on.  Allison lives in NYC with her husband Brian and 2 children, Sammie and Max and cavapoochon, Gigi.