Leslie Blodgett is an American Angel investor, a Beautician, former CEO and founder of Bare Escentuals.

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Born in 1963 as the middle child to educators in the state of Maryland, she is of Italian and Hungarian ancestry.

At the age of 9, her parents divorced so her mother had to look after Leslie and her two siblings.

^[12]She claims to have been working since she was the age of 10 years old.

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When it comes to beauty, Leslie Blodgett started breaking the rules by age 12, sneaking out with makeup on regardless of her mother disapproving.

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After finishing her high school years, she enrolled at the State University of New York–Oswego, where she studied modern dance.

She has stated that she spent two years of her time at the college mostly partying.

However, after two years she dropped out of studies.

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She then lived in Plantation, Florida, where she found a job at a Ponderosa Steakhouse as a waitress.

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That didn’t last long, since on the suggestion of her mother, Leslie worked towards an enrollment at the Fashion Institute of Technology on a cosmetic marketing program.

She was eventually accepted after getting experience in sales at Barney's.

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A hard worker since she was a young woman, she lists one of her jobs as working for McDonald's.

^[12]A girl there taught her how to apply double shades of eye shadow, which she still does today.

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After returning to New York City to complete her studies, she had to garner experience first before applying to FIT.

She sales at Barney's selling hair sticks.

She made 20% commission.

At this point in her life, she mostly Popcorn and Top Rame. ^[12]

While at the Institute, she worked for Estée Lauder, and Ultima II counter at Macy’s Herald Square.

While working there, she learned further about make-up application though the people she worked with were mean.

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After graduating from FIT, she found a job **** at Max Factor in product development and while there discovered she had a really good eye for color.

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She moved quickly from assistant to manager.

Shortly thereafter the company was sold to Revlon, which was then bought by Procter & Gamble.

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During her time with Max Factor, she was surrounded by younger M.B.A.'s who were making more money than Leslie, and all had attitudes.

This is an aspect of business she resented.

As a result, she didn't hire M.B.A.'s for years -- she wanted passionate people coming up through the industry.

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During her time working for Neutrogena she received a call from John Hansen in 1994, an investor group that owned Bare Escentuals, called her.

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She had never heard of the company, which made the first mineral-based makeup line and had six stores in Northern California.

At the time, liquid foundation was the norm, which seeped into the pores and created higher possibilities for zits.

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Thus a company with a powder foundation that was good for the skin made great sense, but the shades Bare Escentuals had created weren't working.

They were stale.

Leslie's strength is knowing complexions and how to match skin tones -- and she saw a huge opportunity.

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She was hired, and later became CEO within a few months.

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She relaunched the line of mineral powder make-up as bareMinerals, with six eye shadows, six blushes, five foundations, and brushes.

There were seven employees in the office winging it.

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By the fourth **** quarter of 1996, Leslie thought they weren't going to make it.

She spent many sleepless nights worrying.

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There was not much on TV at 2 a.m., so she found myself watching a smiling woman on QVC selling jewelry and thought she could do the same.

She bought a white suit and a $29 fake 5-carat diamond ring and decided to give it her best shot.

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On August 30th, 1997, on the day that Princess Diana died, Leslie went on the air for the first time.

She would say things such as: "Do you want to make your skin break out even more?

Then don't try my product.

But if you're interested in something pure that you can actually sleep in, then let's talk."

On the first day, they sold $45,000 worth of products.

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During the mid 2000s, the company was rapidly growing and they couldn't keep up with demand.

She finally decided to hire her first MBA in 2004, Myles McCormick, who would eventually become the CEO.

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Leslie then became the executive chairman.

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In 2011, Shiseido bought the company $1.7 Billion.

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She met her future husband, Keith, who worked in film production, while she worked at Macy’s Herald Square.

At the time, the two fell in love.

Keith was the first guy who insisted in buying her dinner.

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The two agreed that whoever was making more money would keep working when they started a family.

Their son, Trent, was 3 months old when she took a job with Neutrogena.

Keith has since been a stay-at-home dad ever since.

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