Newness Inc. | Iris Beauty App

Marketing Manager | Launch Strategy • Community Building • Creative Direction

At Newness, I helped bring the Iris Beauty App to life, from early-stage development to launch. I led go-to-market strategy, created content to build buzz, and worked closely with product and design teams to align messaging with user experience. My role blended creative direction with marketing execution: building out seeding campaigns, crafting user acquisition strategies, and growing a tight-knit community of early testers and creators.

Iris was built to change how people discover and talk about beauty products, and I loved shaping a brand that felt fresh, inclusive, and community-first.

Newness – Iris Beauty App | 0→1 Launch & Community Building

Growth & Community Marketing • Product Design Support • Influencer Partnerships

The Challenge
Iris was designed to help beauty enthusiasts discover products that truly worked for them, based on their skin type, tone, eye color, hair, and other key attributes. As a 0→1 app, we needed to validate the concept, build an early community of creators, and design an engaging product experience from the ground up.

The Process

0→1 Community Building: Led outreach to bring beauty influencers into early testing through TestFlight, ensuring diverse representation across skin types, tones, and beauty styles.
Product Testing & Feedback: Organized user testing sessions, scheduled calls, and connected with early adopters to refine flows, profiles, and features. Feedback directly informed the product roadmap.
Visual Identity: Collaborated with design leadership to shape the app’s color palette and early visual language, ensuring it reflected inclusivity and accessibility.
Profile Design: Helped design profile features that highlighted users’ key beauty attributes (skin type, eye color, hair, etc.), enabling smart grouping and product recommendations.
Influencer Partnerships: Built relationships with beauty creators, makeup artists, and influencers to test and produce in-app content. Supported both organic collaborations and paid partnerships.
Gamification & Social Features: Helped conceptualize interactive features (e.g., challenges, product engagement loops) to keep the community active and motivated.
Inclusive Product Range: Ensured product representation covered both clean/accessible drugstore options and high-end beauty, broadening reach and relatability.

The Results

Built and activated an early creator community that validated the app concept pre-launch.
Established a strong foundation for user segmentation (profiles → groups → recommendations).
Secured creator and influencer participation that fueled engaging in-app content and early adoption.
Positioned Iris as a community-driven, inclusive platform with credibility across both beauty creators and product brands.

In app & on Social