Wende Zomnir and the tubing mascara that survived surf

Caliray began where most clean eye makeup stopped. Wende Zomnir had already built Urban Decay, left it, and started again with a tubing mascara and a waterproof liner that had to perform in salt, sweat and long days. This is how scrappy control, Sephora Clean standards and low plastic packs turned into a Sephora sell through story.

In December 2020 Wende Zomnir walked away from the company she had co founded in 1996. Urban Decay was a blockbuster, the Naked Palette was in millions of drawers, and Zomnir had scale, teams and resources most founders never touch. She chose the opposite. She wanted creative control back, a small team, and a clean brand she could build from scratch.

That decision became caliray, launched October 19, 2021 with co founder Jenna Dover from Newport Beach, California. The premise was narrow on purpose. Eye makeup that works, made to Sephora Clean standards, in packs that could go back into the recycling stream. Mascara first, liner second, everything else later. Less makeup, more living.

What Gloss Report noticed is how retail that choice was. Zomnir did not lead with a 40 shade complexion story or a fragrance style launch calendar. She led with wear time, transfer, payoff and removal, the four things that decide whether an eye product reorders or gets returned. The rest of the line, from Hideaway corrector to setting spray, follows the same logic.

You met Dover playing beach volleyball near Laguna Beach, and the brand still reads like that meeting. California beauty unfiltered, golden hour skin, quick looks, packs made from ocean plastic and sugarcane. The tone is playful, the sell through math is serious.

Your first sale was October 19, 2021, with Come Hell or High Water Mascara and Surfproof Eye Definer, after you said you felt a hole in clean beauty for real performance eye makeup. Why start narrow with eyes instead of a full face?

I love eye makeup, and I love eye makeup that works. That sounds simple until you try to do it clean. I do beauty well. I do not write, I do not paint, well I do all those things, but not well, but I do beauty well. Eyes were where I knew I could tell if a formula was honest.

I felt like there was a hole in clean beauty with real performance eye makeup. A lot of clean mascara at the time gave you a soft lash for about three hours, then it was under your eyes. A lot of clean liner gave you a sheer line that needed three passes. I like things kind of scrappy, so we started where the gap was biggest. One mascara, one definer. If we could get payoff on the first swipe, wear through surf and sweat, and removal without scrubbing, we would have something worth reordering.

That focus also kept us small enough to stay in control. Two eye products let me challenge the labs directly and keep tweaking until the wear time was right.

You left Urban Decay in December 2020 after building it from 1996, and you have talked about a 2018 surf trip where a remote beach covered in plastic made you ask how many Naked Palettes are in landfills. What did that guilt change in how you brief packaging now?

We at Urban Decay created a lot of products that were plastic and vac metallized, and we made them really beautiful, but they were really bad for the planet. I saw that beach in 2018 and I could not unsee it.Vac metallized means that shiny metallic coating on plastic, pretty on shelf, hard to recycle. So with caliray we wanted to make sure everything we did was from either recycled plastic or an alternative source that was not as polluting as traditional plastic.

There is not any crazy decor on our products so that they can just go back into the recycling stream. No heavy caps, no mirrored shells, no mixed materials that doom a pack at the sort line. The mascara tube is 100 percent ocean plastic. The skin tint uses over 75 percent post consumer plastic. Boxes are 100 percent post consumer recycled paper, FSC certified, which means the fiber comes from responsibly managed forests. The liner barrel is sugarcane bio based.

It is not perfect. Small empties still miss curbside recycling because they fall through the screens. That is why we work with Pact. You collect five to ten empties, mail them back, we pay the fee.

Come Hell or High Water is a 24 hour tubing mascara in Nightdiving black and Secret Spot espresso brown, with a teddy bear brush, triple wax mix, carnauba wax and argan oil. What does tubing solve for the buyer who swims, sweats or wears contacts?

Tubing solved the exact complaint I kept hearing. Women wanted length, volume, curl and lift that lasted 24 hours with zero transfer, clumps or flakes, then removal that did not leave grungy under eyes. The polymer film holds the curl and keeps pigment off skin, even in humidity. You wiggle the teddy bear brush from base to tip, it grabs and separates, and the film sets.

For swimmers and contact lens wearers, that matters. Transfer is pigment load moving where you did not put it, onto lids, under eyes, onto lenses. Our clinical test was 30 women, 24 hour wear, checked for waterproof wear and for smudge, flake and transfer proof wear. It is vegan and cruelty free, which was non negotiable.

Removal is warm water. The tubes roll off. You do not need to tug. Tugging is what thins lashes over time. K bye to ugly cries is our shorthand, but the real point is you can surf in the morning, work all day, and still look right at hour eight without raccoon eyes.

Surfproof Easy Glider Eye Definer launched at 20 dollars in Night Diving black, Secret Spot brown and The Deeeeep navy, in a sugarcane barrel, sold as full pigment on the first swipe. How did you get payoff and waterproof wear without the usual drag?

Payoff is how much color you get in one pass, and drag is the enemy. A lot of clean pencils either skip or pull, so you press harder and the line gets thick and uneven. We wanted a creamy glide that still set waterproof, for a precise line or a smudged look.

The base is about balance. Enough slip to lay down full pigment first swipe, then enough set to stay in place through water, sweat and oil on lids. Finish is creamy then set, not glossy, not flat matte. Wear time was the test, not just the claim. If it moved by lunch, it failed.

The sugarcane barrel was part of the same brief. Bio based plastic, made from sugarcane ethanol rather than fossil feedstock, lowers fossil plastic use and still feels good in the hand. Undertone mattered too. Night Diving is a true black, Secret Spot is a soft espresso brown that suits lighter lashes, The Deeeeep is navy that reads black until the light hits it. Three shades, each with a job, rather than twelve that sit on the shelf.

I felt like there was a hole in clean beauty with real performance eye makeup

Wende Zomnir

Sephora Clean was your base, with what you called a few tweaks, and you said you really challenged the formulators you work with. What was hardest to keep once talc, parabens, phthalates and mineral oil were out?

The hardest part was performance within clean limits over easy conventional formulas. Take mineral oil and certain silicones out and you lose slip and long wear for free. Take carbon black concerns and harsh preservatives out and eye formulas get fussier. You have to rebuild texture, stability and preservative systems without the workhorses.

I feel like Sephora Clean is a really good industry standard, and I made a few tweaks to that, then really challenged all of the formulators I am working with. That meant more rounds, more wear tests, more no. A lab will tell you it cannot be done in that base, and you have to decide whether to accept a softer wear claim or keep pushing. We kept pushing.

We are all cruelty free, the mascara is vegan, and everything is built for sensitive eyes. That narrows pigment and wax choices. Triple wax with carnauba gives structure without brittleness. Argan oil keeps the film flexible. It took longer, and it cost more per round, but the reorder tells you when you got it right.

You entered Sephora in 2022, won Allure Best of Beauty for Best Tubing Mascara, raised Series A led by True Beauty Ventures in February 2023, and were named to Fast Company Most Innovative in 2024 for low plastic and bamboo work. Which number told you it was working, doors, sell through or restock rate?

Sell through. Doors are distribution, how many stores carry you. Sell through is how much actually sells to shoppers, and restock rate is how fast stores reorder. A launch can look big on doors and still sit.

Sephora in 2022 put us on the floor next to conventional performance brands, which is exactly where we wanted to be judged. The Allure Best of Beauty win for Best Tubing Mascara helped shoppers trust a clean mascara to actually hold. By the Series A in February 2023, led by True Beauty Ventures, we had proof that the mascara reordered, not just trialed. Fast Company in 2024 recognized the pack work, low plastic and bamboo, which matters because sustainability stories rarely move units unless the product works first.

I like control, but retail is honest. If shade Secret Spot espresso brown pulls its weight next to Nightdiving black, if travel sizes convert to standard sizes, if a shopper comes back for a second tube instead of trying the next launch, that is the signal. Scrappy only works if the numbers repeat.

Hideaway Brightening and Hydrating Under Eye Corrector at 29 dollars dropped first on TikTok Shop on February 15, 2024, then Sephora and DTC on February 20. Why give a corrector to TikTok first when mascara built the brand?

Mascara built trust, but under eyes are where shade, finish and wear show up on camera. Hideaway is a serum like corrector, brightening plus hydrating, meant to conceal and correct without creasing. On TikTok you get instant feedback on undertone, which is the background warmth or coolness in a shade, and on payoff in daylight and ring light.

We wanted to watch real application, not polished ads. Does it crease by hour six. Does it sit well over sunscreen. Does Dawn suit fair neutral, does Pale Sun suit fair warm, does Sunlight suit medium, does Radiant suit deeper skin. TikTok Shop let us hear that in days, adjust how we talked about shade selection, then go wider to Sephora and DTC on February 20.

Getting dressed in the morning should not be an ethical decision, as Jenna says. She also says we wanted it to capture the dreaminess of California. That dreaminess still has to match a real face. A five day exclusive gave us the comments we needed before the shelf did.

The line now runs from eyes to Hideaway, Surfproof Setting Spray, So Blown primer, Sundrip bronzer and lip tints, all under clean makeup, dirty minds and sexy sustainability. What would you tell a founder who wants funny and sustainable without sounding gloomy?

Set more boundaries. That is my real advice. Funny only works if the product works and the pack choices are clear. We blend makeup with wellness and create innovative concoctions with innocent ingredients designed for less makeup, more living. Life is too short to spend it getting ready. That is the promise. Quick looks, makeup you do not have to worry about, that slice of Golden State in your pocket.

We did not want sustainability messaging to be all gloom and doom. Gloom makes people tune out. Sexy sustainability means you can laugh, go surf, wear SPF gloss, lock makeup with an alcohol free, non comedogenic mist, and still care about ocean plastic. Smashing together beauty, body and wellness only lands if you say no a lot. No crazy decor. No non recyclable shells. No gloomy lecture.

Stay scrappy where it counts. Fewer shades done right beat a wide range that stops three shades short. A refill for setting spray beats a new bottle every time. If the story, the shade and the wear time line up, shoppers will find you, and they will come back.

Closing note from the desk

What stays after this conversation is discipline disguised as ease. Zomnir could have made another Urban Decay, louder palettes, heavier packs, faster shade drops. She made the smaller, harder thing instead, a two product eye launch that had to prove itself in water and in Sephora aisles.

Caliray set out to make California beauty unfiltered, clean formulas that perform and packs that do less harm. The humor gets attention, but the retention comes from film formers, wax structure and barrels that do not cost the earth as much. That is why the mascara reorders, and why the rest of the line has room to grow.

Product spotlight

Come Hell or High Water is the 24 hour tubing mascara at 25 dollars for standard size in Nightdiving black and Secret Spot espresso brown, with a 14 dollar travel size. It volumizes and lengthens while resisting smudge, flake and transfer, then rolls off with warm water. Wiggle the teddy bear brush from base to tip for curl and lift that holds through sweat and surf.

Surfproof Waterproof Eyeliner Pencil is the 20 dollar clean liner in Night Diving, with additional shades including Secret Spot brown and The Deeeeep navy, wrapped in a sugarcane bio based barrel. It lays down full pigment on the first swipe for a precise line or a smudged look. Glide along the lash line and let it set for waterproof wear that stays put.