iWIG Founder Mara Porter on Trusting Her Intuition and Building Beauty’s Next Big Innovation

For years, Mara Porter built her career telling other people’s stories. As an Emmy-winning journalist, Porter spent decades reporting, interviewing, and helping audiences make sense of the world around them. Today, she’s writing a different kind of story, one that began with loss, was guided by intuition, and eventually led to a beauty innovation that would change the course of her career.

Porter is the founder of iWIG, a reusable beauty innovation that combines lashes, liner, and eyeshadow into a single eye application. The product has quickly gained attention online, fueled almost entirely through organic social media buzz and word-of-mouth recommendations. But behind the viral videos and sold-out launches is a story about reinvention.

As the company celebrates its first anniversary, Porter spoke on the unexpected path that brought her here and the lessons she’s learned along the way.

Speaking with EnVi via Zoom, Porter reflected on loss, entrepreneurship, innovation, and the importance of trusting yourself even when the path ahead isn’t fully mapped out.

Finding Joy Through Beauty

Porter’s journey into entrepreneurship wasn’t part of some carefully constructed five-year plan. Instead, it began during one of the most difficult periods of her life. After losing both of her parents within 18 months of one another, she found herself reevaluating what she wanted her days to look like and what truly brought her joy.

“It wasn’t exactly a decision or a plan,” Porter explained to EnVi. “It was kind of following my instincts and intuition step by step that led me to this place.”

That reflection led her back to something that had always made her happy: beauty. After years spent telling other people’s stories, Porter found herself exploring beauty content online, reconnecting with something that had brought her happiness long before journalism entered the picture.

“This was very much a personal journey of healing and doing that through joy,” she said. “And for me, that meant moments of beauty and glam because that’s always been my happy place my entire life.”

Mara Porter showcasing the iWIG on the TAMRON HALL Show. Tamron Hall airs weekdays in syndication on ABC. (Disney/Jeff Neira)

The Idea That Wouldn’t Leave Her Alone

The inspiration behind iWIG came from a frustration many beauty lovers know well. Even for someone who genuinely enjoys makeup, eye looks can be very time consuming. Priming, doing your brows, liner, lashes, mascara, etc. As a busy mother balancing multiple responsibilities, Porter understood firsthand how difficult it could be to find time for lengthy beauty routines.

“I wish I could just put something on my eye like how I put a wig on my head,” Porter recalled thinking. And it was that simple thought that eventually evolved into iWIG.

Porter wanted beauty to feel approachable for everyone, regardless of skill level. When she shared an early prototype online, the reaction was far bigger than she expected. Within 45 minutes of posting, Porter had already received hundreds of orders. “I had 300 sales,” she said. “My whole email was PayPal links.”

Nearly one year later, that initial response remains one of the clearest signals Porter received that she was solving a problem people genuinely wanted solved. What started as a personal frustration had quickly evolved into something much bigger than she anticipated.

She had to quickly pause sales and switch to a waitlist because in the days following that initial post, thousands of people had signed up. The convenience and accessibility of the iWIG is what resonated with her audience or her Glam Fam, as she affectionately calls them.

“There’s a lot of people who would love to participate more, but they never learned how, or they don’t really have the interest in spending 15 minutes on an eye look,” Porter said. “I want those people in the room too.”

Whether it’s someone new to makeup, a busy parent trying to get out the door, or someone who simply doesn’t have the time or desire to perfect a complicated routine, Porter wanted beauty to feel more accessible.

“I want to make [the iWIG] available to as many people as possible,” she explained. “I want to make this so, so, so easy just to feel your best and to walk out the door with your confidence on 11.”

Creating Products and Solutions

When discussing innovation, Porter visibly lights up. As she continued developing the idea of the iWIG, she found herself increasingly motivated by innovation. Not the kind that are usually associated with tech startups or Silicon Valley buzzwords, but the kind that solves everyday problems people have accepted as normal.

“I really am very interested in creating things that are new, solving problems,” she said.

Throughout our conversation, Porter repeatedly returned to the idea that some of the best innovations are often hiding in plain sight. The challenge isn’t necessarily finding solutions, it’s making sure the people creating products actually understand the problems they’re trying to solve.

“What I’ve found, which makes me really sad, is that the people who are making these products, by and large, are not the people who are using them.” Whether it’s men creating products primarily used by women or companies developing products for communities they don’t personally belong to, she believes that disconnect often shows up in the final result. The people closest to the problem are often the ones best equipped to solve it.

For Porter, that explains why so many frustrations continue to exist despite the beauty industry’s constant stream of new products. “So a lot of the solutions are very simple,” she continued. “It’s just that nobody took the time to try to address a problem that we all have.”

That philosophy became especially apparent when it came time to manufacture iWIG. One of the biggest challenges was actually explaining the concept of the iWIG to get people on board. The product utilizes a medical-grade adhesive, and the manufacturer Porter approached primarily worked on medical products. Convincing them that people would want a decorative eye application proved more difficult than she expected.

Knowing she needed them to understand her vision, Porter flew out to meet the head manufacturer in person, when they sat down for dinner, he had also brought along his daughters. The manufacturer’s daughters immediately understood the concept and vision as Porter explained it.

“They started talking about it to each other, like, ‘Oh, wouldn’t it be fun if we did…'” Porter recalled. “And when he saw them get it, I saw him get it.”

It’s a story that perfectly encapsulates one of the beliefs driving her work: women understand the problems women are trying to solve. As a Black woman building in the beauty industry, Porter is also deeply aware of the gaps that still exist when it comes to ownership and representation.

“Black women spend a ton of money on hair products, and we don’t have almost any ownership,” she said. “I’m very motivated to make things better for us.”

She hopes the future of beauty includes more ownership from women of color, greater attention to product safety, and the continued expansion of the inclusivity that’s transformed the industry over the past decade.

One Year of iWIG

As iWIG approaches its anniversary, Porter can now laugh about some of the early challenges, but at the time, however, they felt anything but funny.

Despite the demand at the beginning, Porter was still figuring things out in real time. The original prototype had been made using a Band-Aid. Suddenly, she had to quickly learn about production schedules, shipping logistics, inventory management, customer service, and international fulfillment all at once. In Porter’s words, “It was zero to 100.”

Like many founders, she encountered setbacks along the way. One of the most significant came when an entire production run arrived with a defect. “We had 24,000 units, and every single one was defective.” The delay pushed back deliveries, frustrated customers, and forced Porter to have difficult conversations. Yet looking back, she views those moments as part of the education.

“I learned a lot in a year just by diving in.” That willingness to learn as she goes is rooted in something she describes as one of her defining traits. “I’m very confident in my ability to figure things out,” she expressed. Porter’s unwavering confidence is infectious, she acknowledges she doesn’t have all the answers but she’ll trust that she will find them.

“I may not know them when I’m starting the task, but I’ll figure it out by the time I’m done.” Instead of waiting until every detail was perfect, she embraced uncertainty and figured things out along the way, a strategy that continues to guide her today.

Why Not Me?

Throughout her career, whether in journalism, entrepreneurship, or the many roles she occupies outside of work, Porter has consistently relied on community.

“I’m a big, big, big girls girl,” she emphasized. While popular culture often pushes narratives about women competing against one another, Porter’s experience has looked very different.

“My experience is that women really want to support other women.” Porter points to mentors, colleagues, friends, and fellow entrepreneurs who have helped her navigate every stage of her journey. One of the most valuable pieces of advice she received was deceptively simple.

“The best advice I got was probably stop asking for advice and trust your instincts because they got you this far.”

That lesson feels especially fitting given the path that led her to iWIG in the first place. When asked what advice she would offer women who are sitting on an idea but waiting for the perfect moment to pursue it, Porter didn’t hesitate: “Do not be afraid to leap before there is a net.”

She laughed while describing herself as “the queen of leaping before the net has appeared and building the plane as you fly it,” but the sentiment reflects a philosophy she has lived by for years.

“There will never be a perfect time. There will never be the right time.” Instead, Porter encourages women to trust themselves and act when something feels right.

“If your instinct and your intuition, if everything inside of you is saying yes, you’ve got to just take the leap.”

“Don’t be afraid to leap before there is a net.”
— Mara Porter

Later in the conversation, Porter reflected on one of the biggest lessons she learned while working at the highest levels of journalism and media. For years, she assumed there must be some secret ingredient separating successful people from everyone else. Eventually, she realized that wasn’t true, “There ain’t no secret sauce,” she said with a laugh.

Most successful people, she explained, are simply ordinary people willing to take a chance on themselves. It’s a realization that has shaped the way she approaches both business and life. When doubt creeps in, Porter has learned to respond with a simple question:

“Why not me?”

As iWIG enters its second year, Porter is continuing to explore what’s next. She spoke about wanting to one day bring together her love of storytelling and beauty, though exactly what that looks like remains to be seen.

For now, she’s focused on creating small moments of joy, the same thing that started this journey in the first place. “You know, I’m very focused on the micro,” she said. If the product helps someone get ready a little faster, feel a little more confident, or enjoy their routine a little more, that’s enough.

“If my legacy at the end of the day is that I helped people be a little tiny bit happier in small ways once in a while,” Porter said, “that would make me really proud.”