Claudia Sulewski

Claudia Sulewski is the founder and creative director of CYKLAR, a body care and fragrance brand she self-funded in October 2023 and grew to an estimated $15 million in revenue by 2025.^[2] The brand expanded from direct-to-consumer sales to approximately 450 Sephora stores nationwide in March 2026, its first major retail partnership.^[3][7] In December 2025, Forbes named Sulewski to its 30 Under 30 list in the Art & Style category and selected her as the cover subject of that section.^[1]

Before founding CYKLAR, Sulewski spent fourteen years as a YouTube creator, launching her channel in 2009 at age thirteen under the handle BeyondBeautyStar.^[4][8] The channel grew to approximately 2.4 million subscribers and 154 million total views, making her one of the platform's earliest beauty creators.^[4] She parlayed that audience into a parallel acting career, making her feature film debut in the 2022 comedy I Love My Dad and later joining the cast of Apple TV+'s Shrinking alongside Jason Segel and Harrison Ford.^[4]

Sulewski grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois, in a Polish-American household.^[8] She did not attend college, having already built a full-time career on YouTube by the time she graduated high school.^[4] She relocated to Los Angeles in 2014.^[19]

Claudia Sulewski was born on February 19, 1996, in Chicago, Illinois, to Polish immigrant parents Beata Krupinska Sulewski and Czeslaw Sulewski.^[8] She grew up in Park Ridge, a suburb northwest of Chicago, in a bilingual household where the family spoke Polish at home.^[8] She attended Polish school every Saturday until eighth grade, studying Polish language and Catholic religious instruction.^[8] She has two brothers, Kevin and Marcin.^[4]

Sulewski has described an early entrepreneurial streak that predated her online career. As a child, she hand-poured soap bars and sold them to classmates, bringing them to school in a binder with a laminated menu explaining each product.^[8] She launched her YouTube channel in 2009 at age thirteen, initially under the pseudonym BeyondBeautyStar — a common practice at the time, as creators rarely used their real names.^[8][4] By the time she graduated from Park Ridge public schools around 2014, she had become an official YouTube partner and was earning enough from content creation to make it her full-time career.^[13] She moved to Los Angeles that year to pursue broader entertainment opportunities and did not attend college.^[19]

YouTube and content creation (2009–present)

Sulewski's YouTube channel began with beauty tutorials, product hauls, and lifestyle vlogs filmed from her bedroom in Park Ridge.^[8] She was entirely self-taught, learning to shoot, light, and edit her own videos.^[4] The channel grew steadily through the early 2010s, and she later rebranded it from BeyondBeautyStar to her full name as her personal brand evolved.^[13] As of 2026, the channel has approximately 2.4 million subscribers and 154 million total views, with content spanning beauty routines, home renovation, wellness, and CYKLAR brand milestones.^[4]

The years of reviewing products and observing how beauty brands succeeded or failed gave Sulewski what she has called a consumer-side education in the industry.^[13] She also collaborated with Nordstrom's BP label as social media creative director for a clothing line, producing her own lookbook and advertisements.^[19]

Teen Vogue (2015–2017)

In 2015, Teen Vogue hired Sulewski as the host of its YouTube channel, making her a regular red carpet correspondent at entertainment events.^[19] The role bridged her identity as an independent online creator and the world of traditional media production, giving her experience in professional studio environments and celebrity interviews.^[4]

Acting and directing (2016–present)

Sulewski transitioned into acting in 2016, appearing in the web series T@gged (2016–2018) and the TV series The Commute (2016–2017).^[4] In 2019, she appeared in an episode of Marvel's Runaways.^[4] Her feature film debut came in the 2022 comedy I Love My Dad, co-starring Patton Oswalt, which won both the Grand Jury Award and the Audience Award at SXSW.^[4]

She subsequently joined the cast of Apple TV+'s Shrinking, a comedy-drama starring Jason Segel and Harrison Ford, in a recurring role.^[4] The series returned for its third season in January 2026.^[4] Behind the camera, Sulewski has directed music videos for Grammy Award-winning musician Finneas O'Connell, including 2001 and Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa, as well as David's Brother for The Favors.^[4]

CYKLAR (2023–present)

Sulewski founded CYKLAR in October 2023, launching with a single product: a $58 nutrient-rich body cream in a reusable glass jar, in a genderless fragrance called Crescent.^[11][6] She self-funded the launch entirely with savings from her YouTube career.^[13][1] In the early months, she handled all customer service herself, signing emails under the pseudonym "Lauren" to make the operation appear larger than a one-person company.^[13]

In early 2024, CYKLAR received a strategic investment from The Center, a beauty brand accelerator founded by Ben Bennett that also houses Phlur, Saltair, Prequel, and Make Beauty.^[6][16] The Center had previously incubated Naturium, which was sold to e.l.f. Beauty for $355 million.^[6] The investment amount was not disclosed.^[13]

The partnership led to a full rebrand at the end of 2024.^[17] The body cream's price dropped from $58 to $29, and the product line expanded to include body washes, body lotions, exfoliating body sprays, body oils, deodorants, and roll-on perfume oils in twelve scents at $24 each.^[17][15] Formulations incorporated skincare-grade ingredients including mandelic acid, niacinamide, and ceramides.^[3]

Following the rebrand, CYKLAR sold more than 200,000 products and bundles on TikTok Shop.^[3][20] Forbes estimated the brand generated $10 million in revenue in its first twelve months and $15 million in 2025.^[1][2] Industry sources cited by Women's Wear Daily projected sales exceeding $50 million in 2026.^[3]

On February 21, 2026, CYKLAR debuted on Sephora.com, followed by a nationwide in-store rollout to approximately 450 U.S. Sephora locations beginning March 2, 2026 — the brand's first brick-and-mortar retail expansion after operating exclusively as a DTC business.^[7][3] Retail Dive named CYKLAR one of its six brands to watch in 2026, alongside Skims and FP Movement.^[5]

In December 2025, Forbes named Sulewski to its 30 Under 30 list in the Art & Style category and selected her as the cover subject of that section.^[1][2] She spoke at the 2025 Forbes Under 30 Summit.^[10] Women's Wear Daily named her one of its 30 Most Impactful Women Under 30 in Beauty and Wellness in 2025.^[3]

CYKLAR's products have received several independent editorial awards. The brand's roll-on perfume oil won Allure's 2025 Best of Beauty Award in the Best Perfume Oil category.^[3][4] The Vanilla Verve Body Wash received Marie Claire's 2025 Prix d'Excellence Award.^[4] CYKLAR was named a Who What Wear Beauty 100 winner and was included on Oprah's 2025 Favorite Things list.^[4][3]

Sulewski is married to Grammy Award-winning musician and producer Finneas O'Connell, the brother and primary collaborator of Billie Eilish.^[4] The couple began dating in 2018 and announced their engagement in September 2025; they married in 2026.^[4] During the COVID-19 pandemic, they co-hosted a podcast called We Bought A House, which they later discontinued.^[4] Sulewski has directed several of O'Connell's music videos.^[4] She resides in Los Angeles.^[3]