Beauty & Style

How ‘Breaking Beauty’s Carlene Higgins Created Cassatt Beauty to Serve the Gen X Skincare Gap

October 3, 2025

On Breaking Beauty, cohost Carlene Higgins unveils her debut beauty brand, Cassatt Beauty, complete with a hero product designed to answer a need she’s been thinking about for years.

The launch feels especially personal for Higgins—after decades of testing formulas and speaking with founders, she noticed a glaring gap in the industry. “Gen X ladies were not being spoken to or catered to at all,” she says. Instead of waiting for the industry to catch up, she decided to create something directly for women like her: modern, practical, and rooted in authenticity.

That sense of pride and support echoes what Cassatt Beauty stands for—community, collaboration, and seeing the beauty in one another, regardless of age.

Cassatt Beauty: Gen X Finally Has a Skincare Line

Why Gen X needed its own skincare space

Creating Cassatt Beauty was about making products for the peers Higgins knows best. “I want to do something really authentic that is for my peeps that I understand. It’s for you. It’s for me. It’s for our friends,” she says. She stresses that women in their forties and beyond deserve skincare that feels as fresh and modern as anything marketed to younger consumers.

The brand’s tagline, “See the beauty,” comes from Higgins’ personal experience navigating perimenopause and its effects on skin and self-esteem. “It’s really easy to look in the mirror and feel like you’re not yourself,” she says. “I feel like I have aged 10 years in the past two years in terms of my appearance. And that’s really hard on the self-esteem.”

By turning those challenges into inspiration, Higgins reframes what beauty can mean at midlife. “We have to remind ourselves to see the beauty in ourselves consciously,” she explains, emphasizing that it’s not just about outward appearance, but about acknowledging the strength and stories women carry into this stage of life.

The inspiration behind La Pommade Retinoid Skin Ointment

Cassatt Beauty’s hero product, La Pommade, is a retinoid ointment designed for sensitive and aging skin. “I knew when I was going to create one product for Cassatt that it had to be a retinoid,” Higgins shares. Years of experience made it clear to her that retinol remains the gold standard for results, but many women—herself included—struggle with irritation.

“Even though it feels like petroleum when you put it on, it’s actually what I’m calling a ‘bio ointment.’ So it is petroleum-free,” she says.

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The formula relies on nourishing botanicals, such as arnica and calendula, combined with a gentler retinol ester. The result is a product that delivers results while respecting the needs of sensitive, inflamed, or perimenopausal skin. Higgins describes it as “a modern-day barrier-supporting formula, even though it’s a retinoid as well.” It’s skincare science edited down through the lens of someone who has tested it all, built to fit seamlessly into a Gen X routine.

Building a brand from scratch

Launching Cassatt Beauty is also about building a vibe. Higgins threw herself into creative direction, collaborating with friends and artists she admires for the brand’s debut campaign. “I cast friends of mine, real people who I just really respect and admire,” she says. That approach reinforces the ethos of celebrating women in their everyday lives, not just in glossy ads.

Still, the transition from beauty editor to business founder came with a steep learning curve. “The business side, absolutely,” Higgins admits when asked about the most challenging part of this new venture. “What do I know about business? The hard part is cloning myself and having time and having the learning curve to learn these things.”

That honesty about the grind makes Cassatt Beauty feel less like a slick corporate launch and more like a labor of love. “This is my baby. I want everyone to have a good experience, and I understand high standards,” Higgins says.

By placing Gen X at the center, Higgins reminds women everywhere that beauty is not confined to youth. It evolves, adapts, and, as her tagline insists, is always worth seeing.