Madisonian's beauty brand for men makes waves

As many companies struggled with the onset of COVID-19 in 2020, Madison native and current resident Tony Lecy-Siewert began laying groundwork for a new business alongside New York City-based Jamie Melbourne . The pair created Apostle , a beauty brand blending makeup and skincare for men. Today, the company is poised for success after being named part of Ulta Beauty’s 2024 MUSE Accelerator Cohort this September.

“We’re on a mission to make beauty accessible to men,” says Lecy-Siewert. “This is one way of us putting our foot in the door for that.”

Lecy-Siewert’s entry into the creative world began on Hoard Street, where he lived until his family moved to Fitchburg when he was 8 years old. His early passions for sneakers, skateboarding and snowboarding brought with them a love for street fashion and design.

“Back in the day, those groups were intertwined," he says. "The artists hung out with the skateboarders.”

But Lecy-Siewert didn’t get into the beauty industry immediately — instead, he studied design and fashion, switching between stints at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. He then moved to Hong Kong around 2004 and opened a showroom to showcase his fashion work.

In 2009, Lecy-Siewert had an opportunity to work with the luxury brand Versace after moving back to New York City. He pivoted to branding and fashion marketing, cofounding the branding agency Stella Giovanni in 2014 and the beauty technology company Cherry Pick in 2018.

Through his marketing work, Lecy-Siewert noticed a gap in the market for men’s cosmetic products, particularly in North America. He sold his tech company to begin consulting in the men’s cosmetic space. In May 2020, he was hired by Jamie Melbourne, a former makeup artist and model, to consult on building a men’s beauty brand.

”It was after six months or several months of us working together, I realized this beautiful synergy,” says Lecy-Siewert. “And we decided to embark on Apostle."

He and Melbourne spent the next couple of years assembling a core team, culminating in the launch of Apostle in July 2023.

With their wealth of experience, Lecy-Siewert and Melbourne knew about the Ulta Beauty MUSE Accelerator, a yearly program designed to prepare BIPOC beauty brands for retail readiness. Although the program wasn’t initially part of their plan, they decided to give it a shot.

The decision paid off. On Sept. 16, Ulta Beauty announced Apostle as one of eight members of the MUSE Accelerator 2024 Cohort.

“As a startup founder, you get so many ‘no’s.’ So you build up this tolerance of taking ‘no,’” says Lecy-Siewert. “So it was almost surreal to receive the ‘yes.’"

Lecy-Siewert and Melbourne have already started the 10-week program, which includes curriculum covering brand strategy, product development and other topics to help prepare brands for retail readiness. In addition, each brand selected to the cohort receives $50,000 and the chance for a retail partnership with Ulta Beauty.

Now, back in Madison, Lecy-Siewert believes the program will help them reach their goal of becoming a North American leader in men’s cosmetics by 2028.

“We were selected because I believe they take confidence that we are the change-makers,” he says. “We are part of the change-making, and they see promise in that.”

Michael McDonough is an editorial intern at Madison Magazine .

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