Years after being turned away, she built the very future the beauty giant wanted in on
Years before her brand would attract the attention of global beauty leaders, Deepica Mutyala was simply another hopeful intern applicant who didn’t make the cut.
L’Oréal rejected her for a full time early in her career, and while moment passed quietly – as rejections often do – what followed did not.
Over time, Mutyala would re-enter the beauty industry from an entirely different angle, carrying with her a vision shaped by lived experience rather than corporate convention.
That vision eventually became Live Tinted, a beauty brand that not only found its market, but later earned investment from L’Oréal itself.
When a single post changed Deepica Mutyala’s entire direction
In 2015, Mutyala shared a simple beauty hack video, covering under-eye circles with red lipstick, that unexpectedly went viral with over 11 million views on YouTube.
Far from a coincidence, this moment revealed a deep, shared frustration with mainstream beauty’s lack of products catering to diverse skin tones, especially for those with deeper complexions and undertones.
As a South Asian American from Texas, who also had experience working at makeup-subscription service Birchbox, Mutyala had long felt the gap in inclusivity within beauty brands.
Her viral moment was more than content, and it wasn’t long before it became a call to action. Mutyala soon recognized a widespread need and leveraged her growing audience to create a community that valued representation and inclusivity.
Deciding not to walk away
By 2018, Live Tinted was born. Today, it is a well-established beauty brand known for serving “all tints and tones” through clean, vegan, and cruelty-free products designed with underserved customers at heart.
Her first product, however, didn’t come from trend forecasting or a lab brainstorm. It came from listening. The HUESTICK was shaped by conversations with the community Mutyala had built – people talking openly about dark circles, hyperpigmentation, and the small adjustments they had to learn because the right products didn’t exist for them.
The result was a simple, adaptable stick meant to work across skin tones, not around them.
As the brand grew, the product line followed the same logic. Instead of chasing bold launches, Live Tinted focused on basics that many customers still struggled to find. And, as a result, growth game gradually.
Mutyala had built her audience through direct-to-consumer sales before expanding into retail, eventually earning a national presence at Ulta Beauty after starting in the retailer’s Ulta Sparked program.
By early 2023, the company had reportedly raised about $15 million, including a $10 million Series A round.
The funding didn’t just fuel expansion, though. It reflected how a brand that started with conversation and care had found a durable place in a crowded industry.
When the door didn’t open
Perhaps the best part of Mutyala’s journey circles back to her early ambitions with L’Oréal.
After completing a summer internship in New York City, she applied for a full-time role at the company and was turned down. It was the kind of rejection that lingers – the sort that’s easy to take personally, especially in an industry that can feel impenetrable if you don’t fit an established mold.
“The dream was shattered,” Mutyala recently wrote in a LinkedIn post. “But I was still determined to make my dream happen one way or another.”
Years later, the relationship looked very different. By the time Live Tinted had found its footing and proved there was real demand for more inclusive beauty products, L’Oréal took notice. This time, the company didn’t pass.
Instead, it recently announced it has invested in Mutyala’s brand – an acknowledgment not just of Live Tinted’s growth, but of the perspective behind it.
The shift speaks to something larger than a single full-circle moment. Established beauty companies are increasingly paying attention to brands that come from founders’ lived experiences, and especially those addressing gaps the industry long overlooked.
For Mutyala, the investment was a quiet validation of years spent building with intention – proof that resilience doesn’t always mean pushing harder in the same direction, but finding another way forward when the original path closes.
“Going from a L’Oreal intern to L’Oreal rejected to L’Oreal influencer to L’Oreal invested,” Mutyala writes. “Manifestation is real.”
