Pastry chef turned beauty entrepreneur, Kate McLeod knows a thing or two about good ingredients. During her days in the kitchen, Kate suffered from dry skin, leading her to one day try cocoa butter as a last salve. The results were transformational. But cocoa butter is rock hard in its natural state, and Kate wondered if she could make it easier to apply without diluting its raw power as a solid. So was born her best-selling Body Stone. The Kate McLeod Body Stones are the first of its kind and soften on warm, dry skin. They glide on like silk melt and absorb, leaving skin soft, supple, and glowing. With only cocoa butter, sweet almond oil, apricot kernel oil, avocado oil, and fractionated coconut oil, it’s no wonder it’s become a cult favorite, being seen on Naomi Watt’s ITG Top Shelf and flying off the shelves at Sephora. In this episode, Kate and I talk about building a hero product and defining your niche, how she pivoted from baking to beauty, and what it took to build a beauty brand that caught Sephora’s eye.