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Meridith Rojas is on a mission to use dupes to democratize the beauty industry.
“The dupe conversation and dupe culture, in general, have grown leaps and bounds in the last 12 months,” said Rojas, North America CMO of MCoBeauty. “When I started at MCoBeauty [in July 2024, TikTokers] would mouth the word ‘dupe’ or write it [on the screen instead of saying it aloud]. It’s gone from a dirty word to an empowering word.”
“Dupe” is the colloquial term for a lower-priced product inspired by a luxury category leader. But unlike counterfeits or copies, which are often associated with unsafe formulas and flagrant IP violations, dupes are in their own category. Despite many lawsuits filed by brands being duped over the past year, dupes remain legal in the U.S.
As previously reported by Glossy, about half of MCoBeauty’s offerings are dupes for popular products from brands like Charlotte Tilbury, Drunk Elephant, Sol de Janeiro and Laneige for around a third of the price.
MCoBeauty was launched in Australia in 2016 and is the country’s top-selling color cosmetic brand. The company expanded to the U.S. in December 2024, launching at Kroger and Target stores and introducing a direct-to-consumer e-commerce site. The company’s sales grew 180% from November 2024 to November 2025, according to market research firm Circana.
“Our challenge [when we launched] was people felt a certain way [about dupes], and I actually think that’s a good challenge,” Rojas told Glossy. “If indifference is death, I’d rather start from a place of being polarized than a place of no one caring.”
Rojas, whose CV includes tech companies like Captiv8 and Logitech, plus Columbia Records, cut her teeth in beauty with MCoBeauty. She hit the pavement hard in 2025 by engaging key opinion leaders, which led to nearly sell-out Target shelves; creating a national “dupe day” and splashy campaign to match; and overseeing gangbuster DTC sales with a $4.44-per-item sale that “almost broke our supply chain,” she said.
At the heart of this growth was an overarching goal to create a U.S. community while changing the perception of dupes from a lesser-than copy to a new form of luxury, where price and accessibility are their own form of innovation.
“I knew we had to think about American culture, and how we are going to change the conversation around dupes as an empowerment tool, as a means of making luxury inclusive, and [how we were going to position] all of this accessibility as innovation,” she said. “This was a different ball game [than just trying to sell products].”
For example, Rojas hired Campbell “Pookie” and Jett Puckett, a married duo known for their fashion TikTok content, to promote MCoBeauty’s Target launch. “The campaign ‘Luxury for Everyone’ with Pookie and Jett, and the surrounding content around it, reached over a billion views,” Rojas said. “When the campaign launched, we sold out on Target shelves. Within two weeks, we were totally out of stock. It showed we were able to introduce the brand in such an impactful way.”
Looking ahead to 2026, Rojas is focused on additional community growth. “Audience does not equal community,” she said. “Our whole objective is building and nurturing that community, and not just giving them something to buy, but also something to feel a part of.”
Listen to a full interview with Meridith Rojas on The Glossy Beauty Podcast.
