Meet Nicole
On an overcast March day deep in the pandemic, Nicole Lynn Cardillo was walking down a beach on the Long Island Sound when she spotted a piece of turquoise sea glass, half buried in the sand. It was a perfect ring, delicate yet unbroken.
Inspired by its beauty and unlikely survival after years in the pounding surf, Nicole wondered: Where did this come from? How did it reach me? What stories could it tell?
This urge to find a narrative arc comes naturally to Nicole. After all, with extensive experience in communications, integrated marketing, event planning and execution, she’s become an instinctive storyteller, one with a reputation for helping clients articulate their goal, clarify their message and make authentic connections with their customers.
Nicole’s approach was shaped in part by her long tenure at Shiseido, the global beauty brand. Over nearly two decades in a wide range of roles in communications, social and digital media, and customer service, she absorbed and internalized the philosophy of omotenashi, a Japanese concept of anticipating people’s needs with a selfless spirit of focus, care and hospitality.
Later, as Vice President of Marketing and Events at Cosmetic Executive Women (CEW)—a non-profit organization of more than 10,000 leaders in the beauty, fragrance, hair care, and wellness industries—she oversaw the ideation, content, execution, marketing, and evaluation of hundreds of live and virtual events. The challenges this posed, especially during the pandemic, strengthened her determination to deliver relevance and value to all members based on their needs as independent founders or employees of global heritage brands.
After CEW, Nicole served as Vice President of Global Marketing and Campaigns at Elemis, the United Kingdom’s leading luxury skin wellness brand. That company’s focus on clean beauty, especially its embrace of natural ingredients and sustainable processes, only intensified her longstanding interest in wellness and a holistic approach to healing. With this in mind, she launched her own consultancy in 2023.
A cum laude graduate of St. Lawrence University, Nicole also earned a Masters of Professional Studies in Fragrance and Cosmetics Marketing and Management at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she was awarded the prestigious Victoria’s Secret Beauty Recognition for Outstanding Leadership. She lives on Long Island with her husband and daughters, who often join her in beachcombing adventures.