Jennifer Yen on Being A Mompreneur, Power Ranger Villainess + Anti-Aging Secrets

We chatted with Jennifer Yen, creator and CEO of pur~lisse and former Power Rangers actress on being a new mom, creating a new business and how she rocked the Power Rangers wardrobe!

On being a mom:

I have to admit that before I had my daughter Gemma, I was completely consumed with myself – my work, my desires and my life.

I’m 6 months into being a mom and it’s been pure joy! Motherhood has changed my life on so many dimensions. I’ve learned so much, gained new friends and experienced new emotions. The most fun has been rediscovering the child in myself. I’m now in an amazing universe that only mothers can understand.

And I’ve found that the cure for self-obsession is being a mom!

On balance:

I’m grateful I have a supportive partner and my mom who takes care of my daughter. We work together as a family unit, which enables me to continue working on my beauty company, pur~lisse and also preserve some of my former life.

With their support, I can have a balanced life and truly enjoy being a mom.

What was working on Power Rangers like?

It was a lot of hard work but fun to play a villainess Vypra on TV. I’m grateful I was able to start working as soon as I moved to LA. Often, my call times started at 5am and ended at 5 or 6pm, which made me very disciplined.

My least favorite part was having my mid-riff exposed. I never had a six-pack and my weight often fluctuated so at times the pants were super tight, which made me self-conscious. But luckily wardrobe granted my request for a bigger pair of pants!

I learn a lot on set. To this day, I’m grateful for my experience, it’s helped prepare me to be on TV selling my products, hitting eye marks, camera angles, voice projection, not to be nervous, just everything.

Hopefully, my daughter will like my episodes.

At what point did you consider starting a skincare line? What inspired you to do so?

My skin went from normal to haggard within 6 months of working on Power Rangers. After going to dermatologist after dermatologist, trying all the latest and greatest and nothing worked. Then I turned to my wise grandmother who has the most beautiful skin and most effective beauty secrets. And her rituals transformed and healed my skin. As a result, I regained my confidence and was completely inspired to start pur~lisse skincare, for sensitive skin fused with Asian botanicals.

What was the transition from focusing on an acting career to being a skincare entrepreneur like? 

I’ve been told my several older and wiser people that “anyone who starts a business is either crazy or stupid. And that no one would start a business if they knew how hard it was.”

And thankfully I didn’t know how hard it was.  When I first started, people would look at me like I was crazy. And they would ask: you were an actress, you have no beauty experience or business experience, you have no distribution and no investors and you want to start a beauty company? What? Are you crazy?

I just dove into it. I started taking beauty marketing classes at FIDM, went to all the packaging supply shows, talked to manufacturers, found a world renowned chemist and got started. I put everything I owned into starting pur~lisse. At the time, I thought, I have NOTHING to lose so why not go for it?

From a lack of experience, I made tons of mistakes but I learned along the way and overcoming it has made me a better entrepreneur.

How did you decide to blend Asian and French beauty concepts?

After using the Asian botanicals such as White Tea and Blue Lotus that I learned from my grandmother, it healed and transformed my skin. So I found a team of chemists and married her Asian Beauty Wisdom with modern French skin technology, while excluding parabens, petrochemicals, synthetic color/fragrance, GMOs and other unsafe ingredients.

What can be better than 5,000 years of time-tested Asian beauty wisdom??

What’s one of your favorite beauty tips?

Being a new mom means lack of sleep, which leads to puffy eyes. Here is a simple beauty secret:

Steep 2 bags of White or Green Tea with 5 tbsp of hot water and refrigerate overnight.
In the morning, place the cold tea bags over your eyes for 5-7 minutes while lying down.

Follow up with eye serum. Try pur~lisse pur~eye adore.