When Thai-Ling Cahow’s daughter was four, playing with makeup became another extension of something she had always loved: color, dress-up, art, and imaginative play.
But after buying a popular kids’ play makeup kit marketed as “clean,” her daughter developed a rash. Sitting on her daughter’s bedroom floor, Cahow began researching the ingredients one by one and discovered what she saw as a larger problem: Parents were being asked to navigate broad claims like “safe,” “clean,” and “non-toxic” with little help determining what those terms actually meant.
“My daughter has always been a little artist, drawn to color, and I’ve always wanted to support that kind of imaginative play,” Cahow said. “The problem was that I couldn’t find a play makeup option that met the standards I wanted for something going on her skin.”
That experience inspired Cahow to create Jovy, a kids’ cosmetics company that began with play makeup designed specifically for children. Jovy combines the color, shimmer, and fun kids want with full ingredient transparency, rigorous testing, and independent safety verification.
Jovy went on to create the first EWG VERIFIED® makeup made just for kids. EWG VERIFIED®, administered by the Environmental Working Group, requires products to meet strict standards for ingredient safety, transparency, and manufacturing practices. Jovy’s standards also include dermatologist and ophthalmologist testing, heavy metal testing, gluten testing, and other product-specific safety measures.
Jovy was recognized as the Top Honoree in the Micro-Business Leaders category of the 2026 CO—100, an awards program for small businesses hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The brand’s story shows how a small, family-owned business can make strategic choices and invest for future growth while staying true to its mission.
[Read more: Meet the 2026 CO—100 Honorees]
Building the company she couldn’t find
“I wasn’t interested in creating another brand that asked parents to take our word for it,” Cahow said. “If Jovy was going to earn parents’ trust, our standards needed to be backed by transparency, testing, and independent verification.”
Holding Jovy to that standard made getting to market harder.
During development, fragrance became an unexpected obstacle. Fragrance formulations are often treated as proprietary, which made it difficult to get the full ingredient disclosure Cahow required. Rather than accept an undisclosed formulation, she delayed production for months while searching for a partner willing to meet Jovy’s standards.
“We had already invested so much in developing the product, but if we were going to ask parents to trust Jovy, I wanted us to be able to stand behind every detail,” Cahow said.
That decision helped define the company’s philosophy: proof, not promises.
[Read more: A Small Business Guide to Research and Development (R&D)]
Learning when a lean business needs to let go
While Jovy’s standards were ambitious, its early operations were exceptionally lean.
Cahow led product development, marketing, customer service, and operations while raising her two children. Her family transformed their basement into a makeshift warehouse, assembling kits, packing orders, and making daily trips to shipping carriers.
After Jovy’s first holiday season, demand began outgrowing the homegrown system.
“If I wanted to keep growing Jovy, I knew I couldn’t continue spending most of my time working in the business instead of on it,” Cahow said.
Although the company’s sales volume had not yet made outsourcing fulfillment an obvious financial choice, Cahow partnered with a third-party logistics provider while increasing inventory. The move freed her to concentrate on product innovation, customer education, brand strategy, and Jovy’s direct-to-consumer channel. As the company continued growing, she transitioned to a larger fulfillment provider before the original partner could become another bottleneck.
Spotlight On
Jovy Cosmetics LLC
Jovy is a kids’ cosmetics brand creating safe, thoughtfully formulated makeup designed specifically for creative play. Inspired by a mother’s search for a safer option for her own daughter, Jovy developed the first EWG VERIFIED® makeup made just for kids. Jovy was founded to give children a fun, creative way to explore makeup through play without exposing them to questionable ingredients commonly found in traditional children's cosmetics. The brand is committed to full ingredient transparency, rigorous testing, and independent safety verification, believing that parents should never have to choose between imaginative play and their child's well-being. Guided by its mission to raise the standard for children's cosmetics, Jovy combines thoughtful formulations with rigorous testing and verification to help families feel confident about the products their children use while encouraging creativity, curiosity, and joyful play.
If Jovy was going to earn parents’ trust, our standards needed to be backed by transparency, testing, and independent verification.Thai-Ling Cahow, Founder of Jovy
Building ahead of growth
The fulfillment decision reflected a broader shift in how Cahow ran the business: making investments based on where Jovy was headed, not just where it was at the time.
As a bootstrapped company, that required taking calculated risks. Cahow increased inventory, invested in marketing and product development, and strengthened operations before demand made those investments unavoidable. At one point, she placed a purchase order larger than everything Jovy had sold up to that point.
Those investments helped Jovy grow more than fivefold in its second year and expand from a single hero product to a collection of more than 15 products and variations, all while maintaining the safety and transparency standards that shaped the brand from the start.
But growth also required restraint. Rather than pursuing every path to expansion, Cahow has focused on strengthening Jovy’s direct-to-consumer business, customer relationships, operations, and financial foundation before expanding further.
“We didn’t chase growth,” Cahow said. “We built trust, believing growth would follow.”
[Read more: 3 Scaling Startups Unpack Customer Acquisition and Retention Strategies Driving Growth]
Raising the standard for what comes next
As the kids who use Jovy grow, Cahow sees an opportunity to bring the same commitment to thoughtful formulation, transparency, rigorous testing, and independent safety verification to more of the products kids and tweens use.
The vision extends beyond play makeup: to build a brand parents can turn to as their children grow, knowing the same high standards are behind every product.
“Jovy started because I wanted a better option for my own daughter,” Cahow said. “Now we're building the kind of brand I wanted to trust as a parent. My hope is that one day the standards we're setting won't be the exception in products made for kids—they'll be the norm.”
[View the full 2026 CO—100 list]
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