On the evening of Saturday, February 22, 2014 and all day Sunday, February 23, 2014, the Retail & Luxury Goods Club hosted a record number of nearly 400 students and professionals from Harvard and the surrounding community for its tenth annual Retail and Luxury Goods Conference. The conference marked a decade of hosting business leaders and industry insiders and to celebrate the occasion was [...]

This past weekend I was at a BBQ where techie entrepreneurs from around the valley mingled over beers and hot dogs. Someone would approach, and ask me what I did, to which I would reply that I am a business school student currently interning at Sephora.
“Sephora?” they asked quizzically
“Yes, you know, the really large beauty retailer” I replied.
“Oh…I think my [sister] [mom] [...]

Confession: I had no idea that Sephora was part of LVMH until I interviewed. Most of that is strategic: LVMH wants to make sure that its brands feel distinct and authentic, but this internship definitely exposed me to the broader portfolio in some very fun ways.
At Benefit’s San Francisco offices, we got a healthy dose of the quirky, fun brand’s personality. The reception area alone is a [...]

And there it went – 8 weeks at Sephora, 3 weeks at Tatcha – it all just blew by so quickly. And what came of all of it? Amazing beauty products? Sure. Fantastic new friends? Absolutely. But given all the effort and agonizing that came with the internship search, surely I expected something more. So, without further ado, the 7* lessons that made this all worthwhile for me:
1) Winning is not [...]

I’m now most of the way through the summer and am feeling pretty good about my project and also have really appreciated the senior exposure along the way. But something was missing...and shockingly, that something was actually beauty! So when Sephora offered me the opportunity to attend a week of classes at Sephora University, I jumped at the chance.
Over the course of 4 days, I learned [...]