Career
Begoun was born in suburban Chicago, Illinois. As a child, Begoun suffered from acne and eczema. After trying numerous skin-care products, and visiting over a dozen dermatologists through her teenage years, she found that nothing worked very well or for very long.
Begoun studied Science at Northern Illinois University, before moving to Washington D.C. to work as a professional makeup artist and esthetician in 1978. Begoun relocated to Washington and opened her own cosmetics stores in Seattle in 1981, adding a business partner a short time later. In 1982, KIRO-TV in Seattle, Washington offered Begoun a consumer/feature reporter position, where she began reporting on the beauty industry as an investigative journalist. At that time she began working on her first book, Blue Eyeshadow Should be Illegal.[3]
Begoun had sold her business shares to her partner in 1984, and at the end of 1985 she self-published Blue Eye Shadow Should Be Illegal.[4] The book gained national attention, and resulted in the first of many appearances for Begoun on The Oprah Winfrey Show. In the following years, Begoun received thousands of letters from women across the nation for her Dear Paula syndicated column,[5][6] wanting more information on products and her ongoing expose of the cosmetics industry. The constant product review requests from women led Begoun to begin work on the first edition of Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me. The first edition was published in 1992.
In 2008, Paula created an online version of Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me. Beautypedia.com is a product review database with over 45,000 products reviewed from over 300 brands. Products reviewed cover a wide range of skin care and cosmetics from many companies, making Paula Begoun the only cosmetics industry CEO to recommend products other than her own.[7]
In the early 1990s, Begoun began work with a team of cosmetic chemists to develop her own line. She adhered to the standards that skin care should offer results based on published, peer-reviewed research rather than hype and hyperbole. Begoun’s extensive research of the cosmetic industry earned her the expertise necessary to develop her exceptional, state-of-the-art formulations,[8] relying on proven science to create products unique to the industry: skin care that worked, without exaggerated claims. In 1995, Paula’s Choice began to sell their first products online. Every Paula’s Choice product is free of artificial coloring agents, fragrances and irritating ingredients.
Paula’s Choice products are available worldwide, primarily via the company’s main web site and through a network of international distributors. Begoun remains a consultant for dermatologists, plastic surgeons, major cosmetics companies, news and industry insiders.[9][10][11][12] She is an internationally recognized authority as a consumer advocate for the cosmetics and hair-care industries, and routinely appears on news and talk shows, including CNN,[13] Oprah,[14] The Dr. Oz Show,[15] and The View.
