My Sons Came to the Office As I Built Urban Decay

This as-told-to essay is based on interviews with Wende Zomnir, the founder of Caliray. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I started my career in advertising in Chicago in 1989, but those fabric cubicles quickly sucked the soul out of me. My dad had worked in corporate but dreamed of entrepreneurship. He never took the leap. He had a family to support. A part of me wanted to take the risks he didn’t.

In 1994, I moved to California in search of something creative and met Sandy Lerner, the cofounder of Cisco Systems. She was launching a beauty brand and saw potential in me. With her mentorship, I helped build what became Urban Decay. We sold our first product in January 1996.

I was building a beauty empire while raising kids

Urban Decay filled a gap in the industry: back then, it was mostly neutral department-store makeup or low-quality drugstore options. We created high-quality products in bold colors.

When we sold to L’Oréal in 2012 for over $300 million, my sons were in middle school — an age when they needed me more than ever. I stayed on as Chief Creative Officer, which kept me busy, but it also gave them a front-row seat to what hard work and creativity looked like.

I’m proud my sons got to see me in action

Most days, my boys came to the Urban Decay office after school. It was a place full of strong, creative women running the show. That became their model.

To this day, I’m proud that they genuinely respect women because they grew up seeing talented female leaders build a brand. They didn’t just hear about women being powerful — they saw it firsthand every day.

Our family talked about money at the dinner table

At home, conversations sounded different than most households. My husband worked as a startup CFO, so our dinner table was often filled with discussions about deals, financials, and marketing.

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We never specifically sat the kids down to teach them lessons about business, but they absorbed everything. They saw that you could work hard without a traditional corporate job and that passion and risk-taking were part of building a life.

With my kids grown, I had space for a new mission

By the time both sons were in college, I was in my 50s and finally had the freedom to create again. On a 2018 surf trip, I paddled onto a remote island and found the beach littered with plastic. I couldn’t help but think: How many Naked Palettes are in landfills?

That moment inspired Caliray, my clean, sustainable beauty brand. We use upcycled ocean plastic, sugarcane-based tubes, and even carbon-capture materials. This time, I didn’t start a company to build another empire — I started it because I had more to say.

Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy, but I’m passing the torch to my kids

People ask if you can “have it all.” My answer is simple: don’t let any entrepreneur tell you it’s easy. You can try to do everything, but it’s hard. If you and your partner both have big careers, it’s really hard. You just have to find trusted help wherever you can and accept that you can’t do it all yourself.

Today, my younger son is studying business at USC and dreams of entrepreneurship. My older son graduated in sports journalism and media, and has just launched his own podcast.

The seeds were planted long ago: in afternoons at Urban Decay, in dinner conversations about startups, and in growing up around strong women. Building beauty brands made me the entrepreneur I am. But raising kids alongside that journey shaped me even more — and now I see the influence living on in them.