Patti Pao has one heck of an inner voice. An admitted perfectionist who believes in the transformative power of education, she has been led by a rather tenacious inner voice since the day she graduated from business school. It was this voice that implored her to subvert the business-school trend of becoming an investment banker to find work that inspired her in the beauty industry. After beginning her illustrious career at Avon Products, she would be guided by this determined voice to the forefront of revolutionary product developments for lauded brands such as Elizabeth Arden, Guerlain, and Peter Thomas Roth. And undoubtedly it was this same resolute inner voice that also led her off the beaten path (literally), to a salmon hatchery, in Western Norway, where she would discover the miracle ingredient at the center of her current endeavor, Restørsea. “Always listen to your inner voice. Don’t let others bring you down. People have told me my whole life what I couldn’t do. My response to this kind of feedback is to show them by my actions that they are wrong.” And has she ever shown them. —Jennifer Henderson
Name: Patti Pao
Occupation: The founder and C.E.O. of Restørsea, a naturally derived, efficacious skincare line. “I found the greatest ingredient I have ever seen, literally by accident, while touring a salmon hatchery. I noticed that the workers’ hands looked as if they were 20 years old while their faces looked substantially older. The reason is that their hands were submerged in the post-hatching waters, which contained a concentration of an enzyme baby salmon release upon birth.”
Her work ethic: “I love to work and am going to work until I die. I was raised to always try my best. This is very different from winning. Winning is actually easier than doing your best because doing your best means giving it your all every time. I believe that when someone gives you your shot, you run as fast and as hard as you can.”
Her personal style: “I call it ‘Pigpen meets Chanel.’ I always wanted to be one of those women who were perfectly manicured, coiffed, and attired and who never broke a sweat. Alas, at age 54 this is never to be. Running a skincare company, all I really have to have is good skin, which I have thanks to good genes and Restørsea. One of the happiest of coincidences is that the look of the moment is to look undone. So at least for the time being, I fit right in.”
Her office uniform: “Altuzarra Ghianda bullrope saddle bag. WOMAN by COMMON PROJECTS sneakers. Zero + Maria Cornejo black leather pants in the fall and winter and Zero + Maria Cornejo leggings in spring and summer. Any Zero + Maria or Altuzarra top, like this one, which I’m loving right now.”
Drugstore go-to: “Andrea Strip Lashes #53. They are great lashes; inexpensive and very natural-looking and always sold out, so I stock up on them.”
The path to a better life: “When I graduated from business school, I worked for several women bosses who told me, ‘We had to suffer so you have to suffer.’ I thought this was hogwash and vowed that if I ever got in a position to help other women, I would. And I do. We chose Room To Read to give 5 percent of our retail product sales to because my dad believed that education was the path to a better life. He also believed in investing in my education. He and my mom cheerfully paid for my college (University of California at Berkeley) and Harvard Business School, for which I am forever grateful.”
Entrepreneur’s Golden Rule: “I always cringe when I hear people say, ‘I don’t have to write a business plan. It’s in my head.’ Writing a business plan is not for your potential investors; it is for you. Writing everything down helps solidify your ideas so that you can answer their questions concisely and gracefully in extremely pressure-filled environments.”
Her must-haves: RolPal: “As of October 2015, I have logged 190,000 United miles. Coming home on an Orange County-to-Newark flight recently, I found that I couldn’t stand up. My left knee was literally locked (a very scary experience). After 10 minutes of rolling out my hip flexor, I was able to straighten it fully and walk normally. The RolPal comes in a travel size and generates a lot of good interest and dialogue from the TSA agents.” NutriBullet Blender: “I lost 25 pounds by eating one meal a day from a blender. It’s a great way to incorporate fruits and vegetables into your diet. Eating a plant-based diet on the road is often challenging, so I travel with my NutriBullet and go to the local grocery store to stock up on almond milk, chia seeds, and produce.” FIRMA energywear leggings: “As I mentioned, I fly constantly, and my mission was to find stylish compression wear to improve circulation and reduce muscle fatigue. I wore FIRMA leggings on an eight-hour flight to L.A. and was so happy because when we landed, I could feel my legs and they weren’t sore.”
Beauty is: “Feeling comfortable in your own body and taking care of yourself. I think everyone is beautiful. I think that we all walk around feeling less than what we are. It is one of my personal goals to help stop this thinking. It is not helpful nor productive nor very much fun.”
Inspiration all around: “I travel a lot. The great part of never being in one place for very long is that you get to see so much. And I am really good at putting the pieces together. Being able to do this is how I found the greatest ingredient I have seen in the 30 years I have been in the beauty business.”
Words of wisdom: “Basically, I live by the mantra ‘Always help people and never expect anything in return.’”
Best face forward: “Take care of your skin as soon as possible. I started taking care of my skin at the age of 13. I started working as a stock girl at Nordstrom’s. I used my earnings and employee discount to purchase my first skincare regimen, Erno Laszlo. When washing my face, I still splash 30 times.”
What’s next: “We are focused on selling our PRO line, which has as much as 10 percent of our proprietary ingredient, Aquabeautine XL®, to dermatologists and plastic surgeons. And I personally try and go back to Norway to visit our salmon hatchery once a year. I love playing in the tank with the mama salmon.”