Beyond Beauty: Ariana Grillo and the Art of Building a Lasting Beauty Business

Photo Credit: @winilaophotos

Ariana Grillo channels her aesthetic vision into distinctive, business-boosting design for independent brands.

How many times have you stepped into a salon or an exclusive retail space, only to feel slightly off because of its Spartan, sometimes remote vibe? For Ariana Grillo, the Brand Manager & Designer at Lead Better Co., design is more than mere placement. It’s a potential business tool. Her work brings together branding, marketing, and retail design, while also redefining what independent salons and spas can do with their space.

Grillo represents a design-forward approach to beauty brand growth. And she shows how strategy, interior design, and thoughtful salon branding can help a business scale up without losing its distinct personality to the indifferent “grey-ness” that some spaces gain.

Photo Credit: Devyn Lieberum

A Background in Beauty

Grillo’s approach as a brand manager in the beauty industry was uniquely shaped by her international background, which includes Lima, Mexico City, North Carolina, Barcelona, and New York. She boasts a foundation in Industrial Design that has taught her that every client touchpoint is an opportunity to create something meaningful. This lesson has shaped Grillo’s “360-degree” brand management approach.

Simply put, she manages the full arc of a brand’s story from its origins to its final salon interior design on its opening day. Her holistic approach to design, Grillo feels, is important for creating a cohesive and exceptional luxury salon experience.

Photo Credit: Gina Ribando

How to Elevate the Small Business Model

Grillo feels that the true impact of her approach is most deeply felt in her small business development, which often involves tight timelines and modest budgets. Design schools might take a more boundless vision, but her approach (and her specialty) is in delivering elevated, competitive looks within real-world constraints. Grillo believes that great design should be an intentional experience: systematic and accessible. Not just about luxury. And her dedication to accessibility has led her to develop systems and frameworks that make high-quality designs work, above all, efficiently.

Her company, Lead Better Co., is not a franchise, Grillo insists, but a management group that partners with local owners and provides important back-of-house support across financial, legal, marketing, HR, and customer care. The infrastructure she has built enables her partners to focus on their clients while preserving their unique look and community roots, and many of the brands she has partnered with have thrived in their first year.

Photo Credit: @megatherium

A Designing Woman

The power of Ariana Grillo’s design is in her integration of beauty brand strategy from concept to completion. Each of her recently expanded projects reflects a full cycle, from initial identity to interior, and then to final launch. These include the opening of Fox & Jane, Little Lion, Maeve in June, Skin Habit,  and The Iris Salon, all of which Lead Better Co. oversees. But even beyond her many entrepreneurial glow-ups, Grillo’s group excels at boutique salon marketing, with her visuals and campaigns earning brands like Fox & Jane features in publications such as Allure, Business Insider, and Refinery29.

For business owners interested in independent salon growth, Grillo offers a unique aesthetic that is not just visually stimulating but also a powerful sales driver. For her, it’s a way to build lasting loyalty and resilient brands that withstand change and market shifts. Grillo and Lead Better Co. are working toward a vision of becoming the top salon and spa management company in the US and, in the future, internationally. Her message is simple: strong brand building is the foundation for meaningful growth.

Disclaimer: Written in partnership with APG.