As a veteran beauty columnist for The New York Times, Bee Shapiro gets to try everything. The newest creams, the best serums, and the freshest colors and scents are all at her fingertips, and the celebrities she interviews regularly lift the curtain on their skincare secrets.
But in 2013, when Bee sought to clean up her beauty routine during her first pregnancy – to nix ingredients like parabens and phthalates, for example – she simply couldn’t find a clean, sophisticated fragrance that she loved in her assortment, or on the shelves. So, she created one: Ellis Brooklyn, Bee’s line of natural, sustainable perfume, body care, and candles, is named for her older daughter in honor of its origins.
Meet the Community:
Bee Shapiro
Founder, Ellis Brooklyn
The benefit of clean beauty “is that we feel good and safe using it,” says Bee. “And beauty, at the end of the day, is feeling good.”
So now she’s a writer, fragrance guru, and entrepreneur – but before any of those, Bee was a Georgetown Law grad glued to her desk at a New York City firm, beginning to admit that she needed a change. A big change, to a whole new, creative career. So with little delay, she quit the firm and began chapter two. A college degree in fine art and connections in the art world helped her to pitch art and fashion stories as a freelance writer, and she soon proved a master of entertainment, pop culture, and beauty writing, too.
“Now that I’ve had several years to look back on everything, I see that I was always passionate about the written word and in that sense law school made sense,” she tells us. “Law is often about the power of words. So when I transitioned to being a writer, it all kind of came full circle for me.” Even as a girl growing up outside of Seattle, Bee was drawn to books and magazines, especially foreign fashion magazines like Vogue Italia and L’Officiel, she says.
So now she’s a writer, fragrance guru, and entrepreneur – but before any of those, Bee was a Georgetown Law grad glued to her desk at a New York City firm, beginning to admit that she needed a change. A big change, to a whole new, creative career. So with little delay, she quit the firm and began chapter two. A college degree in fine art and connections in the art world helped her to pitch art and fashion stories as a freelance writer, and she soon proved a master of entertainment, pop culture, and beauty writing, too.
“Now that I’ve had several years to look back on everything, I see that I was always passionate about the written word and in that sense law school made sense,” she tells us. “Law is often about the power of words. So when I transitioned to being a writer, it all kind of came full circle for me.” Even as a girl growing up outside of Seattle, Bee was drawn to books and magazines, especially foreign fashion magazines like Vogue Italia and L’Officiel, she says.
She’s still always learning, in one way or another. As a writer, Bee usually works solo, but as a founder, “communicating my thoughts and visions to many people was a new thing for me and something I had to work on,” she says. She’s learned to lead the company’s concepting, product development, marketing, and more. And as Ellis Brooklyn has grown, so has her family: Bee welcomed her younger daughter, Sky, to the family in 2016.
So why beauty? “I got into it by accident or, really, luck,” says Bee. At the Times, “the beauty columnist in the Style section moved to Travel and they asked me if I wanted to take it over and I said yes. It’s a move I’m so grateful for as now I’m obsessed with beauty and care less about the latest fashion-designer hot item.”
At the helm of Ellis Brooklyn, Bee’s passion for detail flourishes. Each perfume, she says, starts with an idea and a feeling. Take MYTH, for example: It’s a rich, worldly fragrance layered with jasmine, tiger orchid, musk, and cedarwood. It began, she explains, with “this idea of the urban myth.”
“For me, it means some story or juicy tidbit that’s dying to be shared. Maybe it’s leaning in closer to someone and whispering this little bit in their ear.” You can hear Bee’s writer’s touch in her expressive, sensual vocabulary – not to mention in literary fragrance names like Fable, Sci Fi, Rives, and Raven.
So why beauty? “I got into it by accident or, really, luck,” says Bee. At the Times, “the beauty columnist in the Style section moved to Travel and they asked me if I wanted to take it over and I said yes. It’s a move I’m so grateful for as now I’m obsessed with beauty and care less about the latest fashion-designer hot item.”
At the helm of Ellis Brooklyn, Bee’s passion for detail flourishes. Each perfume, she says, starts with an idea and a feeling. Take MYTH, for example: It’s a rich, worldly fragrance layered with jasmine, tiger orchid, musk, and cedarwood. It began, she explains, with “this idea of the urban myth.”
“For me, it means some story or juicy tidbit that’s dying to be shared. Maybe it’s leaning in closer to someone and whispering this little bit in their ear.” You can hear Bee’s writer’s touch in her expressive, sensual vocabulary – not to mention in literary fragrance names like Fable, Sci Fi, Rives, and Raven.
And of course, for Bee, the integrity of her products is just as important as how enchanting they smell. All are vegan, cruelty-free, sustainably sourced, and free of the stuff that pregnant women and discerning non-moms alike seek to ban from their skincare routines. But she’s found that “natural” is more nuanced than you might think. “I’m all about the science,” she explains. “While naturals are beautiful ingredients, and we use a tremendous percentage of naturals in our fragrances, not all naturals are safe.” Similarly, even the safest ingredients may need to be diluted. “I also believe there are amazing, safe synthetics out there that are also extremely sustainable,” she says.
Perfume can feel like a luxury. But while luxurious, Ellis Brooklyn’s soul-soothing fragrances draw on an essential connection. “Our sense of smell is incredibly tied to wellness,” says Bee, pointing to studies that link scent with focus and relaxation, for example. A signature scent is a way to express yourself, or to treat yourself. To find one for you, start with your mood, says Bee. “What’s the mood you like the most, or want to be in?” Whatever that may be, Bee hopes to bring you the fragrance – bright and sunny, warm and cozy, or carefree as a day on the French Riviera – that will transport you there.
Perfume can feel like a luxury. But while luxurious, Ellis Brooklyn’s soul-soothing fragrances draw on an essential connection. “Our sense of smell is incredibly tied to wellness,” says Bee, pointing to studies that link scent with focus and relaxation, for example. A signature scent is a way to express yourself, or to treat yourself. To find one for you, start with your mood, says Bee. “What’s the mood you like the most, or want to be in?” Whatever that may be, Bee hopes to bring you the fragrance – bright and sunny, warm and cozy, or carefree as a day on the French Riviera – that will transport you there.