How Blanka Opens the Door to Beauty Entrepreneurship

When Kaylee Lieffers started her first skincare brand, she quickly learned that good ideas weren’t enough. Packaging delays, sourcing confusion, and minimum order quantities stalled her efforts before the product reached a shelf. What she experienced wasn't rare. It was the norm for thousands of would-be founders in the beauty world.

That experience shaped her next move. Instead of building another product, she built the infrastructure for others to do it. She launched Blanka in 2021, a company designed to make private-label beauty easier to access, especially for entrepreneurs without capital or supply chain experience.

Blanka connects sellers to ready-to-brand products from North American manufacturers. It handles product sourcing, white-label branding, order fulfillment, and delivery. For users, it’s as simple as customizing a logo, syncing with Shopify, and launching their store.

Thousands have already used it to create their own cosmetics or skincare lines.

A Business Built on Solving What Broke First

Kaylee knew early that the challenge wasn’t a lack of ideas, but too many unnecessary hurdles between the idea and a finished product. She had spent years working in management consulting and startups, so she understood how tools could work better. But in beauty, she saw systems that were needlessly complicated. Vendors operated in silos. Regulations weren’t transparent. Low-volume businesses were often ignored.

Rather than fight those systems, she created one that bypassed them.

Blanka’s users can now start a branded cosmetics line without managing inventory or warehouse logistics. The platform offers more than 450 products, including cruelty-free, vegan, and fragrance-free options. Users pick what fits their brand, personalize packaging, and launch within minutes.

Many of them never handle the product themselves. Blanka stores and ships directly to customers.

The simplicity is the point. Kaylee said that if her first business hadn’t failed, she may never have seen how many others needed a better way to start. That lesson led her to form Blanka alongside co-founders Adam Chuntz and Doug Long. Together, they built a lean supply chain and an early prototype that gained traction fast.

Focus on Usability and Transparency

Blanka doesn’t hide what it does behind industry jargon. That’s deliberate. The process is laid out step by step. Branding previews are available before launch. Margins are clearly displayed. The goal is to give users enough confidence to move forward without second-guessing.

Integrations help too. Blanka connects directly with Shopify, Wix, and WooCommerce, and is rolling out features to support sellers on TikTok and Instagram. As customers place orders through the entrepreneur’s store, Blanka takes care of the rest.

It’s not drop-shipping in the traditional sense. There’s no sourcing from overseas marketplaces with uncertain quality. Everything Blanka offers is produced in North America, with consistent lead times and cosmetic regulations that meet U.S. and Canadian standards.

This approach has brought strong growth. Blanka became a high-ranking app in the Shopify store and won startup recognition in its home region. The team remains lean, but the operation is scaling steadily. And entrepreneurs are responding to it.

Founders, Not Influencers

Kaylee is clear about who Blanka is built for. It’s not just influencers seeking to cash in on followers. It’s for small business owners, especially women, minorities, and first-time founders—who have ideas but are locked out by traditional supply chains.

Many of the brands launched through Blanka begin with a personal story. A founder wants to create skincare for people with eczema or clean makeup for working moms. Others want to build businesses that reflect their culture, values, or style. They come with the vision. Blanka helps them execute it.

In return, the company keeps its promise to stay behind the scenes. The end customer never sees the Blanka name. To them, it’s just the founder’s brand.

That quiet support is by design. Kaylee believes entrepreneurs deserve to own the full customer experience. Her role is to make sure they get there without losing time, money, or motivation.

Building a Real Company, Not a Hype Machine

Kaylee says Blanka’s product roadmap is shaped by conversations with real merchants. That focus on usefulness over appearance comes from her consulting background, where results had to be clear and measurable.

She also doesn’t romanticize entrepreneurship. Getting Blanka off the ground took months of unglamorous work. Her team started by bootstrapping, tested early versions manually, and only raised capital after demonstrating traction.

Even now, she says funding is just a tool, not a badge of legitimacy. What matters more is whether Blanka actually helps founders succeed.

The company’s growth suggests it does. Many of the businesses that launch through Blanka go on to generate consistent revenue. Some reach six or seven figures within a year. Others remain small by choice, focused on their local markets or niche audiences.

Either way, they’re operating on their own terms.

People-First Culture

Inside the company, Kaylee brings the same intentionality to hiring and leadership. She looks for people who are analytical, collaborative, and able to adapt quickly. Startup experience helps, but so does curiosity and clear communication. Her team is distributed but stays close through weekly check-ins and shared goals.

There’s no tolerance for inflated egos or shortcut thinking. The focus is on solving real problems. That applies to Blanka’s internal culture as much as it does to the product.

Sustainability is also part of the conversation. Most of the products offered through Blanka are vegan, cruelty-free, and designed with eco-conscious packaging. That’s not just an industry expectation, it’s something the founding team believes is non-negotiable for long-term business health.

Not Just Selling Products, But Opening Doors

Kaylee often returns to one theme. The product is only part of the story. What she’s trying to build is access, specifically, access to opportunity.

She knows that many founders don’t need millions in funding or venture press. They need a clear process, transparent pricing, and products that don’t require taking out loans just to get started.

Blanka won’t do the work for them. But it removes the obstacles that never should have been there in the first place.

For Kaylee, that’s the win.

Kaylee Lieffers, Founder & CEO, Blanka

We realized there had to be a better way for entrepreneurs facing the same obstacles.