The Makeup Artist Who Coined ‘No Makeup Makeup’ Launched A Brand Named For Her Beauty Philosophy

For makeup mogul Victoria Jackson, appearing on QVC for the first time in almost 22 years was like riding a bike—it was as if no time had passed. Jackson first rose to fame with her eponymous makeup brand in the 1980s, when she was light years ahead of her time and celebrated “no makeup makeup.”

“I think it’s always been the right time for no makeup makeup because it’s been my philosophy since the 80s,” says Jackson, who trademarked the term in 2000. “Even as a young teenager applying makeup, I’ve always had a sense of aesthetics and it was clear to me when people put too much on. I didn’t have the skill set that I have now; I had to work to perfect as a makeup artist my technique to really embody and show what no makeup makeup looks like. I just needed my skills to catch up with what my eyes were seeing.”

Jackson took a 15-year hiatus from the beauty world to dedicate herself to finding a cure for neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a rare autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system, which her daughter, Ali Guthy, was diagnosed with at age 14 in 2008. Now that her daughter is healthy and thriving, Jackson recently launched a new brand, No Makeup Makeup.

“I took my existing formula and brought it back to today’s standards, meaning making it clean and being able to make all the claims that are important, all the things that fall into the clean categories,” Jackson says. “It had to be even better than the one that I was making, which was my hero product. We finally got to a point where it’s just an incredible product. I’ve made 600 beauty products, and this is by far the best that I’ve made.”

When Jackson returned to QVC to introduce its viewers to No Makeup Makeup and its first product, the No Makeup Makeup Foundation, No Makeup Makeup did a million dollars in sales in the 24 hours after Victoria first went on air on QVC.

“Victoria has a rich history with QVC,” says Anna Baker, Vice President and General Merchandise Manager of Beauty for QVC US. “She launched her first brand on QVC in 1993 and spent a decade on our platforms as a successful beauty authority. She knows how to connect with our customer and understands the power of our platforms for building authentic connections, trust and storytelling. After one swipe of No Makeup Makeup you are a believer. It blends effortlessly with the skin, it is a QVC clean approved brand and gives you a second-skin finish that lasts all day—it’s your skin but only better. Our customers, many of whom still remembered Victoria and her products, welcomed her back with open arms and the product sold out in its debut. This is a testament to Victoria’s passion and innovative approach to makeup.”

Kim Wileman, Co-founder and CEO of No Makeup Makeup, has worked with Jackson for 20 years. When launching No Makeup Makeup, they knew they had to start with a foundation—fans from the original brand had been clamoring for it all these years. The plan was to take away all the pain points for the consumer, starting with making a matching brush that practically does the application work for you. The brush is angled in a way so that it perfectly hits the contours of your face. It’s dense enough that it holds the exact right amount of foundation and it disperses the pigments on skin. “Part of the magic of the application is the two together,” Jackson says. It also comes with a sponge at the bottom of the compact.

Available in 13 flexible shades, the goal was to modernize the original cream base; now it’s a cream balm texture. “The reason we did that is because it literally feels weightless,” Wileman says. “When you you put it on, keep using that brush and blending, and you’re going to see your skin look luminous. It’s going to last all day. It’s unlike any other foundation we’ve ever created, and it’s unlike any foundation that’s on the market. We wanted it to be a multi-use product. Obviously, it’s a foundation, but you can use it as a concealer. If I have a pimple, I just use the sponge, tap it on and leave it and that’s it. I don’t use the brush for that because the brush sheers everything out.”

The foundation also reduces redness, color corrects and takes the place of a primer and a powder. “We did not want to confuse the customer with a range of 45 different shades, so we have flex shade technology,” Wileman says. “They’re light reflective coated pigments, and it’s over 20% of the formula. We also included blurring ingredients and longevity ingredients, and we’ve got natural hydrators. We wanted people to put it on and feel great about themselves.”

When women try No Makeup Makeup for the first time, they often experience a revelation when they realize they don’t need as much makeup as they thought they did, making it a self-confidence booster too. “That’s the best part of this—you go, ‘I’m still getting compliments on my skin, and I don’t have two layers of pancake-feeling makeup on,’” Jackson says. “You start to see that you can still look beautiful, and you don’t have to have a lot on. Ultimately, in doing women’s makeup, I’ve always wanted to help them look better and feel better. I want them to go out and kick ass in the world and not worry about how they look. I want them to look like themselves and not wear it as a mask.”

Launching No Makeup Makeup with foundation was an obvious choice. “It’s called a foundation for a reason,” Jackson says. “It’s the base, it’s what everything is built upon. This starts it so when you see that you can wear less and your skin looks beautiful, that brings you into the whole idea of maybe I don’t need to wear as heavy a blush or as dark an eyebrow or as heavy lips, so it sets the stage perfectly.”

After being in the medical research world for 15 years, Jackson returned to a very different world of beauty. “It was like I’ve been in a deep sleep, and I woke up and I’m like, what is this? Influencers, creators, TikTok—I came into a new world of marketing,” she says. But Jackson was used to doing demos of all kinds. She grew her original brand with infomercials and QVC. At one point, she even had her own radio show about makeup. So, distilling that into a TikTok wasn’t all that different.

“I was always very proud of my product, and it’s highly demonstratable,” Jackson says. “I was known for these half face demonstrations where I would do half the face and then you’d see the other half. I did 13 years of infomercials, and we would have up to 20,000 customers a week.”

Watching Jackson during a recent QVC segment, it’s easy to see why her foundation sold at lightning speed. One segment begins with a montage of her talking about her no makeup makeup philosophy over the decades. A true natural in front of the camera, she explains what makes her new product her best formulation yet.

Though her beauty aesthetic hasn’t changed, the rest of the beauty world has, from advancements in cosmetic chemistry and packaging to how it’s sold. But ultimately, No Makeup Makeup will always stay true to the original philosophy. Jackson says, “As I add more products to the line, they will all be with that same feeling—the ultimate payoff will be that less is more makeup.”

“I am genuinely excited to be back,” Jackson says. “Because I’ve had a 15-year hiatus from this work, I have a renewed excitement, enthusiasm and gratitude to be able to come back and to speak to a whole new group of people. I have to prove myself again. I never have a problem with that because ultimately, I’m for the customer. I’m for women.”