🤝 Meet Michelle Anderson. She’s the founder of Rayna, a new app for ranking and reviewing popular makeup and skincare products. As she puts it, it’s like Letterboxd for cosmetics. We sat down with Michelle to talk about Rayna’s origin story, being an entrepreneur in Canada, and her Letterboxd Four Favourite beauty products right now.
Can you give a quick explanation of what Rayna is?
Rayna helps you and your friends rank, discover, and gossip about beauty products. It’s a platform where you can see what products your friends are using, rank everything in your vanity, and discover new favourites, all in one place.
It started from the idea that beauty should feel fun and truthful again. We’re constantly hit with fake reviews, influencer-sponsored content, and “life-changing” products that don’t always hold up in real life. Rayna cuts through that noise by making beauty discovery social and honest.
Rayna sits at the intersection of tech, culture, and commerce. It’s a reminder that social platforms can be built around shared interests and community.
What are the app’s origins?
It started with me getting burned by one too many viral products. I’d see something blow up on TikTok, fall down a research rabbit hole on Reddit and brand sites, and still end up texting my friends for a reality check. The pattern was always the same: crazy viral hype online, disappointment offline.
One day, I realized my group chats were doing the job better than the internet. So I decided to build the thing I was already doing manually: a place where friends could talk about beauty in a way that actually felt human.
What do you think the main issue is with marketing in the beauty industry?
It’s become performance art. The lighting’s great, the skin’s flawless, but you can’t tell if anyone actually likes the product. I think people are tired of being sold to by people who were gifted the thing they’re selling.
There’s a craving for unfiltered truth, the kind that comes from your classmates, coworkers, or friends saying, “I tried it. It sucked.”
As a Canadian entrepreneur, what have you found are the positives of building your app in Canada?
Canada has this quiet magic to it. The founder community here is growing but still small and wholesome enough that people still root for each other.
There’s no cutthroat posturing; it’s more like, “Hey, how can I help?” That generosity feels baked into the culture. I think it ties back to core Canadian values like humility, empathy, and collaboration.
We’re taught to lead with kindness, and that shows up in how we build things, too.
What trends do you see emerging in the beauty industry?
I think (and hope!) the beauty industry is entering its honesty era. The beauty industry spent over a decade chasing aspiration — now it’s shifting toward trust. And that trust isn’t built by influencers, it’s built by our peers.
It’s been just over a month since Rayna launched. What’s been the No. 1 challenge thus far?
Building community. You can’t hack it or buy it. It builds in waves. People join Rayna because a friend told them about it, or they organically come across our social content. That takes time and patience, which isn’t something startup culture usually rewards.
But when you start to see real conversations happening, people ranking, debating, joking, that’s when all that effort feels worth it.
You’ve billed Rayna as “Lettboxd but for makeup.” In that spirit, what’s your Letterboxd Four Favourites but for beauty products?
I love this question. These are my Four Favourite beauty picks right now:
I’ve been reaching for more Canadian brands these days, and I need to give a shoutout to some of my favourites: Sahajan, e11ement, and The 7 Virtues.
I’ve also been loving North Finder (a directory for all things Canadian beauty) to find my next holy grail products!
Do you have a book recommendation for our readers?
Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino. She has this way of making you confront how strange it feels to live online, to perform sincerity while also questioning it.