Today we’d like to introduce you to Leah Vairo.
Hi Leah, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I was born and raised in British Columbia, Canada, surrounded by nature and creativity. While I was in college, I begged my parents to let me attend makeup artistry school on evenings and weekends and that’s really where my love affair with beauty began. Around the same time, I was discovered at a coffee shop and started modeling. Traveling for work completely expanded my worldview. It made me realize that I wanted to live in California and pursue my passion for the beauty industry at the highest level. After all, Los Angeles is the mecca of beauty, wellness, and innovation.
During my immigration process to become an American citizen, I studied Interior Architecture at UCLA. That program changed the entire trajectory of my life. It taught me problem-solving, systems thinking, and the ability to build ideas from the ground up. I fell in love with design, but I also kept working in beauty to support myself and eventually co-founded a skincare brand. In 2022, we sold our formulas, which opened the next chapter of my career.
Shortly after, I met the founder of Filterbaby. I stepped in to build the brand architecture and creative foundation, and together we scaled the company from $500K to $25M+ in revenue. Today, I serve as Chief Brand Officer, where I get to merge my passion for design, science, and storytelling every single day.
I’m now leaning even deeper into my love for longevity, wellness, and the future of beauty. My mission is to build brands and experiences that elevate people’s lives blending artistry, innovation, and intention.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I’ve experienced many challenges throughout my life and career, but one of the most defining and one I rarely speak about was my divorce. I never imagined I would get divorced, let alone at such a young age. It was the most difficult period of my life. When I left my marriage, I made the decision to stay in America and continue pursuing my dreams, even though it meant starting over completely on my own with very little money or support.
There was a point where I sold all of the designer pieces I’d been gifted during my marriage just to pay my bills. I ate frozen meals for dinner. I had to rebuild every part of my life from scratch and it was even more difficult because I was an immigrant without any credit. I remember begging my bank to approve me for my first credit card. I saved every dollar I could to buy a car, and even then I ended up with one of the worst financing rates imaginable. But through all of it, I believed in myself and in the vision I held for my future. That belief carried me. I kept pushing every single day, trusting that the life I wanted was within reach and that my hard work would eventually get me there.
My entrepreneurial journey came with its own highs and lows, but in many ways, my divorce prepared me for it. It taught me resilience, independence, and emotional strength. It showed me that I can survive the unimaginable and still rise.
Today, whenever I face challenges, I try to approach them from a place of calm strategy. I don’t make decisions from fear. I trust myself, my instincts, and my ability to navigate through anything life puts in front of me. That self-trust has become one of my greatest assets both personally and professionally.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
At Filterbaby, I stepped into a pivotal moment in the company’s evolution. The founder brought me in to help build the brand architecture, creative direction, and long-term strategy from the ground up. I applied everything I’d learned from beauty, design, and entrepreneurship from product innovation to storytelling to customer experience. Over the past few years, I’ve helped scale Filterbaby from roughly $500K in revenue to over $25M, shaping everything from our visual identity to product education to retail strategy. What I’m most proud of is that we turned a niche idea using filtered water as a skincare tool into a category-defining brand that women truly trust. Today, as Chief Brand Officer, I continue overseeing creative, partnerships, and community, ensuring we lead the conversation around longevity-driven beauty and skincare.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
As a child, I was endlessly creative and full of energy, always painting, dancing, putting on little performances, and crafting elaborate storylines with my Barbies that could have easily been full TV series. I loved imagining entire worlds and bringing them to life. My parents raised me with a strong sense of discipline and grace, teaching me how to carry myself and “act like a lady,” but I always had this free-spirited spark in me.
Even though I was incredibly enamored with being glamorous, insisting on blowing out my hair before school and making sure my bangs were rolled to perfection (at the age of 8) there was still a wild, imaginative, expressive side that couldn’t be contained. Looking back, that blend of glamour, discipline, and free spirit shaped so much of who I am today: someone who dreams boldly, pays attention to every detail, and still follows the inner voice that tells me to create, explore, and live with intention.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leahvairo/?hl=en
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leah-vairo-47a083205/
