While studying at UNC Charlotte, Kaylan Joseph was busier than most students. That’s because she was also IAMEGYPT, an actress and singer with nearly 83,000 listeners on Spotify.
Joseph also likes to experiment with different hairstyles. But because she was so busy in her college days, she didn’t always have time to go to the store and get her haircare essentials.
“I literally did not have time to go to the store to get the things that I needed,” she said. “Or if I did go to the store and it was sold out, I was not dragging myself to another store to get it.”
Aside from her own time and fluctuations in product availability, costs were another issue. Most Black women spend $1,000-plus on hair care and styling.
“I’d close my eyes and just pay [for a product] and cry,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, this is just so much money.'”
The singer delved into this more (such as the fact that many people feel “stuck” when visiting popular stores like Sephora or Ulta Beauty) during conversations with other women and realized in time that she was not alone in her struggles.
It was on an Easter Sunday in 2023 that inspiration struck. Joseph decided to create something that would revolutionize the beauty industry. At the UNC Charlotte Venture Challenge in 2023, she submitted her first pitch. She took a hiatus from music and began talking to stylists and researching how a potential online beauty service could help them out.
Moving to revolutionize beauty
In 2025, Joseph officially founded GlamourBae, an AI-powered on-demand beauty subscription app for people like her who need assistance finding makeup, hair, and skincare products that can help them look their best. The platform is currently beta-testing and will launch officially this spring (with an early-access waitlist currently available).
To start, users register with their phone number and email. Then they take a beauty quiz—asking for their hair type, skin tone, skin concerns, makeup preferences, etc., alongside questions about how often they use products.
After the questionnaire and location input, users can browse curated categories and brands, as well as GlamourBae’s own top picks. Users choose what they like and add those products to a shopping cart, along with coupons when available. Upon checkout, users will have access to real-time tracking for the delivery of their curated boxes.
The founder described her platform’s delivery service as “Amazon meets DoorDash” for beauty. The delivery service itself has partnered with Charlotte-based Just Her Rideshare, but prospective drivers will also be able to apply via GlamourBae’s driver app, which is still in development.
GlamourBae will have monthly and yearly membership options for both the basic and VIP memberships. The basic monthly price will likely be around $5.99-$7.99 a month. If a user is a “LuxeBae” member, they can receive free delivery for either $7.99 a month or $75 a year.
Standing out from the competition
When it comes to competition, Joseph believes GlamourBae will stand out through its personalization, convenience, and dedication to catering to users’ needs. She notes that other beauty subscription services have not catered well to Black and Brown women.
“Whether you are product-recommended makeup, you have rosacea or [other skin conditions], you know that what you’re seeing is good for you.”
From the customer’s standpoint, many are actively concerned about expenses, bad quality, or bad service. So, the GlamourBae team is creating a database to learn exactly what stylists need to do to best serve their clients.
Perhaps most interesting of all is GlamourBae’s AI , which is designed to help users “try on” different looks. The AI even includes a shade-matching feature for cultivating different makeup applications. With this, one can envision a desired look in detail.
Progress so far
The team opened the waitlist for the Glamourbae app in January 2025; there are currently 275,000 people on it. The startup also has beta testers who are primarily in the Raleigh-Durham area and have given the app great feedback—for usability and selection of brands in particular. (Some brands GlamourBae has partnered with include Maybelline, Got2Be, Scala, REM Beauty, and Charlotte Tilbury.)
Last April, GlamourBae officially partnered with Fenty Beauty to feature some of their best hair products in their presale boxes.
Since the start, Joseph has worked with the help of her six-member advisory team.
“I love that they kind of match my intensity with GlamourBae and have me think about the business and avenues and all sides because… I like to think about all things strategically.”
Joseph has primarily bootstrapped the startup, though she’s received around $10,000-$12,000 in grants and angel investments.
QUICK BITS
Startup: GlamourBae
Founder: Kaylan Joseph
Founded: 2023
Team size: 5
Location: Raleigh
Website: glamourbae.com
Funding: Bootstrapped, some angel investment
Over the last year, GlamourBae has had many successes, including finishing their first write-up, hosting a pop-up at UNC Charlotte, and being accepted into the Google startup program. The platform has also garnered around 200% profit margins on beauty products.
But Joseph’s most memorable accomplishment in the last year was making 115 bags for the Root 100 gala, driving from North Carolina to New York to hand deliver them.
“I put my heart and soul and everything into this company,” She said. “And it’s [all] just really amazing.”
In the next few months, Joseph is eager to expand GlamourBae nationwide, to cities like Atlanta, Detroit and Houston. Her outlook for the next few years is for GlamourBae to expand internationally.
“Get ready for GlamourBae,” Joseph said. “We are coming.”
The app will launch for the public in April 2026. If interested in joining the waitlist, check out GlamourBae’s webpage.
