Westporter launches genderless makeup, beauty brand
WESTPORT — Growing up, Jon Wormser never thought about the beauty industry; but now he owns his own gender-neutral beauty brand, Good Weird.
“I can’t believe that it’s real,” he said. “I still can’t believe that I have my own company.”
It launched with the online store on March 29.
Wormser, a Westport native, was inspired to create his own makeup line after he had a breakout about two and a half years ago. He went to a beauty store and realized there were a lot of products but not many made with him in mind. Then he went to a drugstore and saw that he needed a lot of products like primers and brushes, when he was just looking for a quick fix to cover pimples and under eye bags.
So, he talked with his best friend, Stephen Yaseen, who he met in college, and the duo built Good Weird around the idea of genderless beauty.
“We built this entire idea around functional beauty,” he said. “Basically taking beauty products but lowering the pigment load significantly and then infusing skin care elements.”
Wormser said he has seen many celebrities and trends in fashion or music using unisex or genderless approaches, but believing beauty hasn’t quite gotten to genderless in the way he believes it should.
The name “Good Weird” has to do with the stigma behind beauty, Wormser said.
“Who can and can’t explore the beauty of the aisles has been told to us for a long time that it’s gendered, it’s specific to certain people,” he said.
He said that being called “weird” is a stigma, but adding “good” to it changes the narrative.
“You’re embracing your weird,” he said, adding it also changes the stigma.
Wormser said he had many friends from Westport now in finance, banking and venture capitalism, so he asked one of them for assistance with a pitch deck. With that, he secured funding for this business while working full time, and the brand continued to evolve.
About two years ago, Wormser’s father died, which got him motivated to move forward with his brand and secure funding.
He said they received many rejections before getting backing from venture capitalists. He also said it is an important point to know that less than one percent of venture capital funding goes to founders in the LGBTQ+ community, which Wormser and Yaseen are within.
For about seven years, Wormser has worked as a creative brand strategist at different agencies to help build out campaigns. He said this has helped with Good Weird because he’s practiced his business tactics with other brands for years.
Wormser said when he was in middle and high school, he used to steal his mom’s concealer for his breakouts, but he never thought about getting into makeup.
He said situations like that are one of the reasons he wants the brand to exist.
“So 16-year-olds who have a breakout and want to be able to wear a beauty brand and feel good about it, feel proud about it,” he said.
Wormser said he was fairly new to the beauty industry going into creating this brand, but he has become passionate about it.
Good Weird offers three products on its website, but there’s more to come, he said. None of their products require additional tools, he added.
Wormser described the bronzer, “Back from Vacay,” as “a moisturizer meets bronzer.”
The “Balmy Weather Moisture Stick” is similar to a highlighter, he said, which can be used on the lips, cheeks and other parts of the face to add a glow.
The last is the “Cold Brew Undereye,” which is a caffinated undereye serum to puff and energize the eyes, Wormser said.
“We have really great skincare ingredients,” he said.
Wormser said Good Weird’s products feel “comfortable for anyone, any shade, any gender.”
Yaseen and Wormser worked together with a beauty lab to create the products with their favorite ingredients, Wormser said.
The inspiration for the aesthetics of the packaging is based on 90s skateboarding culture, as Wormser said he grew up surfing and snowboarding with his family.
Outside of that, they picked typically genderless colors, such as green and metallic.
“We want people to feel comfortable showingcasing and having their product around,” he said.
He added, “It’s not just about the products but it’s about our audience and who we are as a community.”
Good Weird is not currently in stores, but Wormser said they hope to be in a retailer in a year.
“Good Weird helps put your best face forward,” he said. “Good Weird is for every kind of beautiful.”
Wormser said they hope to change the conversation about who can and can’t use beauty products.
“I want everyone who’s exposed to our brand to feel empowered to take part and be able to celebrate what makes you weird,” he said.
In the future, Wormser said Good Weird wants to be the hub for Generation Z customers, “building a community for all people in the beauty industry and creating easy-to-use products that combine skin care and color cosmetics.”