Shelley Sullivan is a brand visionary and industry disruptor; a serial entrepreneur who continues to redefine the global beauty landscape by making luxe-for-less beauty more widely accessible to women everywhere. With strong ties to the fashion world, she ran a successful model agency for almost a decade, before breaking into beauty with her first brand, ModelCo, in 2002 - with a first-to-market heated lash curler and later, the world’s first airbrush self-tan.
Sullivan then launched her second brand, MCoBeauty, in 2020 with a commitment to luxe-for-less beauty, and the lofty goal of cracking the masstige cosmetics market - with just 6 products.
Known for her ability to tap into trends and strike clever, often unexpected partnerships, Sullivan has initiated a number of highly successful collaborations over the years with a range of celebrities and creatives including the likes of Hailey Bieber, Celeste Barber, Elle Macpherson, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Karl Lagerfeld. In 2018, ModelCo collaborated with the fashion icon and creative genius to launch the KARL LAGERFELD + MODELCO limited edition colour cosmetics collection. Sullivan’s signature viral marketing tactics saw her paint Paris (ModelCo)
pink for the launch; with a street activation featuring an army of Karl’s Beauty Butlers taking over iconic city locations including the Eiffel Tower, The Tuileries Garden and Place Vendome.
Since 2020, MCoBeauty has established its baby-pink place in masstige beauty with over 500 products, a highly engaged and loyal customer and a truly astonishing growth trajectory. Today, it is the fastest-growing beauty brand in Australia and is valued at over $1 billion. Ranked the #1-selling cosmetics brand in leading national retailers Woolworths and Big W MCoBeauty has wrestled market share from multinational competitors while the brand’s DTC channel has also seen phenomenal growth of 520% in the last 12 months. Earlier this year, Sullivan led the brand into the US as part of an ambitious global growth plan with more international markets to follow.
Sullivan is widely considered to be a true category disruptor and both she and MCoBeauty have won numerous business awards in the last 2 decades. Most recently, Sullivan has been named the winner of the retail category of the Australian Financial Review Women in Leadership Awards, 2024.
Fuelled by an incredibly strong work ethic that sees her in both the boardroom and the warehouse, Sullivan has an intuitive knack for what her customer wants. Sullivan states that her drive and tenacity has often come from being underestimated.
“When I started MCoBeauty, the market was dominated by the big global beauty icons Revlon, Maybelline and Rimmel,” she recalls. “We had just 6 MCoBeauty SKUs on the shelves and I told someone in the industry that my goal was to break into the global masstige beauty space. They told me it was not possible. This set the challenge in my mind — and I just went for it. There really is nothing like being told you can’t do something to give you drive, and for that I’m grateful.” - Shelley Sullivan
