While discussing the usual industry goings-ons with a fellow beauty writer – companies blatantly copying one another’s designs and problematic influencer-founded lines among them – we came to a shared conclusion: No beauty brand is doing anything really good.

Everything feels and looks the same; products are pitched as “clean,” “the first of its kind” or “science-backed.” The number of celebrities shilling skin care or makeup has diluted the power of a star founder.

Where is the next Glossier or Fenty? To be clear, I don’t mean who will copy Glossier’s social media-first approach or launch with a wide foundation range. I’m looking for the company that will change the conversation and our relationship with beauty so profoundly that it will breed a new generation of copycats.

Group-think mentality led many founders to copy business models or an aesthetic that worked for one brand (even though it probably won’t work for them), and investors have become increasingly conservative in an uncertain economy. Earlier this year, several venture capitalists told me they had stopped investing in CPG altogether, even though beauty has a history of being “recession proof.”

Less money going into businesses means fewer new ones coming out. Instead, we have an influx of celebrity brands while non-celebrity founders struggle to raise money to scale innovative concepts.

A founder of a venture-backed beauty brand – one with buzzy launches, industry recognition, a…