The True Beauty Podcast

I’m actually so excited to come back from our hiatus to this episode of The True Beauty Brooklyn Podcast. As Alix and I listened to this interview in preparing to record, we realized that there are things that our incredible guest, Andre Springer recalls that are so striking, and a little haunting considering the timing of the COVID-19 crisis. Andre is the artist behind what we consider the personification of your favorite Auntie, Shaquanda, and the co-founder of the consumer goods company, Shaquanda’s Hot Pepper Sauce. You guys will see what we mean, in that Andre first really started working on his Drag character, Shaquanda during the first financial crisis of our millennial lives, back in 2008. As we listened to this episode, we remembered what it was like during the first times of uncertainty in our adult lives, and how it forced creativity in our generation. The loving, endearing, funny, and beautiful drag character Shaquanda was first created by Andre back in the early 2000’s. As you’ll hear, she was resurrected after the Great Recession when he returned to New York from California and began working in restaurants and nightlife. At the time there weren’t many jobs available, especially within the creative and luxury industries that he had always worked in. When he met his first drag mentor, Linda Simpson host of Gay Jeopardy, a spark was ignited. He was inspired to focus, fusing his creativity, his incredibly friendly and loving personality, the pride of his heritage with the love of his City, and hone his artistic, and design skills. The result is not only a character for the stage, but a consumer goods product to line the shelves of our grocery stores. The logo of brand includes the image of a beautiful, gender-fluid, brown drag queen, sporting the friendliest wide-mouthed smile that you can’t help but smile back at. In our episode Andre is brilliant enough to speak on the importance of equity and equality, (can I get an amen?), the importance of kindness, empathy and of course, representation. You might be thinking, why does representation matter? Off the top of your head, name an American food brand character. HINT: it’s not good when you can name 7 make-believe creatures, and talking animals before you can name a person of color on a food box. I hope that his story is what some of you need to hear today! I think we can all take the message that Andre’s story tells to heart. Now more than ever, we all need to believe in ourselves 100%, even if we don’t know what the road ahead looks like. Just like Andre! Please visit our new site at www.truebeautybrooklynpodcast.com and email us your questions and comments at [email protected] visit https://shaquandawillfeedyou.com/ for more information on Andre and to purchase Shaquanda's Hot Pepper Sauce Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’m actually so excited to come back from our hiatus to this episode of The True Beauty Brooklyn Podcast. As Alix and I listened to this interview in preparing to record, we realized that there are things that our incredible guest, Andre Springer recalls that are so striking, and a little haunting considering the timing of the COVID-19 crisis. Andre is the artist behind what we consider the personification of your favorite Auntie, Shaquanda, and the co-founder of the consumer goods company, Shaquanda’s Hot Pepper Sauce. You guys will see what we mean, in that Andre first really started working on his Drag character, Shaquanda during the first financial crisis of our millennial lives, back in 2008. As we listened to this episode, we remembered what it was like during the first times of uncertainty in our adult lives, and how it forced creativity in our generation. The loving, endearing, funny, and beautiful drag character Shaquanda was first created by Andre back in the early 2000’s. As you’ll hear, she was resurrected after the Great Recession when he returned to New York from California and began working in restaurants and nightlife. At the time there weren’t many jobs available, especially within the creative and luxury industries that he had always worked in. When he met his first drag mentor, Linda Simpson host of Gay Jeopardy, a spark was ignited. He was inspired to focus, fusing his creativity, his incredibly friendly and loving personality, the pride of his heritage with the love of his City, and hone his artistic, and design skills. The result is not only a character for the stage, but a consumer goods product to line the shelves of our grocery stores. The logo of brand includes the image of a beautiful, gender-fluid, brown drag queen, sporting the friendliest wide-mouthed smile that you can’t help but smile back at. In our episode Andre is brilliant enough to speak on the importance of equity and equality, (can I get an amen?), the importance of kindness, empathy and of course, representation. You might be thinking, why does representation matter? Off the top of your head, name an American food brand character. HINT: it’s not good when you can name 7 make-believe creatures, and talking animals before you can name a person of color on a food box. I hope that his story is what some of you need to hear today! I think we can all take the message that Andre’s story tells to heart. Now more than ever, we all need to believe in ourselves 100%, even if we don’t know what the road ahead looks like. Just like Andre! Please visit our new site at www.truebeautybrooklynpodcast.com and email us your questions and comments at [email protected] visit https://shaquandawillfeedyou.com/ for more information on Andre and to purchase Shaquanda's Hot Pepper Sauce Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we are sitting down with the co-founders of Fur, Laura Schubert, and Lillian Tung. Fur is a company that the two founded in 2016 when they saw a grey area in the body care category. At the time, there were no intimate hygiene products that were beautiful to look at, smelled great, were all-natural, and actually worked to eliminate ingrown hairs that can come with hair removal. Fur Oil, their first product was groundbreaking in that it elevated intimate personal hygiene products by creating an entirely new product category within the body care industry. This line of beautiful products is made specifically for anywhere that skin meets hair. Childhood best friends, the girls met in middle school in their hometown of New York City. They were co-captains of the cheerleading team before attending Harvard for their Undergraduate degree, and then Columbia for their Masters. I know, total underachievers, right? You’ll hear how these two incredible women left their corporate careers to be all- in on this crazy dream of creating a new product category of high end, beautifully crafted, all-natural, cruelty-free, performance-driven, intimate personal care products. The girls are killing it, singlehandedly growing their business into multiple millions of dollars. The company is female-owned, founded and driven, and the girls are so fucking cool, smart, and kind. Do you want to know what it’s like to be an industry pioneer? Try having people hang up on you when you say the words “pubic hair oil”, redialing, and with a smile saying, “I’m sorry! We must have been disconnected! As I was saying, I’m creating a pubic hair oil...” over, and over, and over again. It’s called conviction. And we’re going to learn all about what it takes to build a truly unique brand, how to follow your conviction when people are telling you you’re crazy, and what it’s like to have a lifelong co-founder that just happens to be your best friend. Don't forget to email us your questions to [email protected], and please add us on Instagram @truebeautybrooklyn. Enjoy the show! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we are sitting down with the co-founders of Fur, Laura Schubert, and Lillian Tung. Fur is a company that the two founded in 2016 when they saw a grey area in the body care category. At the time, there were no intimate hygiene products that were beautiful to look at, smelled great, were all-natural, and actually worked to eliminate ingrown hairs that can come with hair removal. Fur Oil, their first product was groundbreaking in that it elevated intimate personal hygiene products by creating an entirely new product category within the body care industry. This line of beautiful products is made specifically for anywhere that skin meets hair. Childhood best friends, the girls met in middle school in their hometown of New York City. They were co-captains of the cheerleading team before attending Harvard for their Undergraduate degree, and then Columbia for their Masters. I know, total underachievers, right? You’ll hear how these two incredible women left their corporate careers to be all- in on this crazy dream of creating a new product category of high end, beautifully crafted, all-natural, cruelty-free, performance-driven, intimate personal care products. The girls are killing it, singlehandedly growing their business into multiple millions of dollars. The company is female-owned, founded and driven, and the girls are so fucking cool, smart, and kind. Do you want to know what it’s like to be an industry pioneer? Try having people hang up on you when you say the words “pubic hair oil”, redialing, and with a smile saying, “I’m sorry! We must have been disconnected! As I was saying, I’m creating a pubic hair oil...” over, and over, and over again. It’s called conviction. And we’re going to learn all about what it takes to build a truly unique brand, how to follow your conviction when people are telling you you’re crazy, and what it’s like to have a lifelong co-founder that just happens to be your best friend. Don't forget to email us your questions to [email protected], and please add us on Instagram @truebeautybrooklyn. Enjoy the show! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don't forget to email us at [email protected] with any questions, or comments! Follow us on IG @truebeautybrooklyn and please share our show with your friends! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don't forget to email us at [email protected] with any questions, or comments! Follow us on IG @truebeautybrooklyn and please share our show with your friends! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the True Beauty Brooklyn Podcast! Hosted by two old Millenials, Elizabeth Taylor and Alix Shapiro our goal for the TBBP is to create a platform that conveys the narratives lived within our Brooklyn New York neighborhoods, communities, and friends. Our community is made up of diverse, inclusive, socially conscious, funny, empowering, inspiring, smart, hardworking, and driven women and men, however, we don’t see ourselves, or our friends broadly reflected in today’s media landscape. We figured we would be fools if we didn’t at least try to give voices to us! Inspired by what we have seen in the sports news/commentary industry, we believe that in creating a beauty podcast that includes the audience's participation, shares in-depth interviews with women (and some men) who live truly inspiring lives and hosted by two licensed and working beauty professionals of different ethnicities (Elizabeth is black, Alix is Jewish), we can create a truly diverse community. Want to help desegregate an industry that for the past 400 years has been segregated by ethnicity, race, age, and gender? Take a listen, and write us an email to with YOUR questions, comments, or segment submissions, and let's disrupt this $800B industry, one episode at a time. 1. Milk? With your Dinner?! Strange/funny/questionable cultural differences within multicultural relationships 2. I didn't know then, but I'm older now Beauty/life/fashion/career mistakes that we've made in the past and swore was the shit, until we got older/wiser/more stylish/your friends stepped in, as well as things that you should know by your 30's. enough said [email protected] week's segments: 1. Milk? With your Dinner?! 2. I didn't know then, but I'm older now 3. Ode To a Beauty Trend We Can't Wait To Die Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the True Beauty Brooklyn Podcast! Hosted by two old Millenials, Elizabeth Taylor and Alix Shapiro our goal for the TBBP is to create a platform that conveys the narratives lived within our Brooklyn New York neighborhoods, communities, and friends. Our community is made up of diverse, inclusive, socially conscious, funny, empowering, inspiring, smart, hardworking, and driven women and men, however, we don’t see ourselves, or our friends broadly reflected in today’s media landscape. We figured we would be fools if we didn’t at least try to give voices to us! Inspired by what we have seen in the sports news/commentary industry, we believe that in creating a beauty podcast that includes the audience's participation, shares in-depth interviews with women (and some men) who live truly inspiring lives and hosted by two licensed and working beauty professionals of different ethnicities (Elizabeth is black, Alix is Jewish), we can create a truly diverse community. Want to help desegregate an industry that for the past 400 years has been segregated by ethnicity, race, age, and gender? Take a listen, and write us an email to with YOUR questions, comments, or segment submissions, and let's disrupt this $800B industry, one episode at a time. 1. Milk? With your Dinner?! Strange/funny/questionable cultural differences within multicultural relationships 2. I didn't know then, but I'm older now Beauty/life/fashion/career mistakes that we've made in the past and swore was the shit, until we got older/wiser/more stylish/your friends stepped in, as well as things that you should know by your 30's. enough said [email protected] week's segments: 1. Milk? With your Dinner?! 2. I didn't know then, but I'm older now 3. Ode To a Beauty Trend We Can't Wait To Die Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices