Inside Eva Mendes’ Bubble

Read in English

A decade ago, the 50-year-old actress paused her Hollywood career to focus on her family with Ryan Gosling. Now, Mendes is re-emerging as an entrepreneur in the cleaning products industry, proving how her love of washing dishes can be good business.

_{By Alexandra YorkForbes Staff}

con Cuban music playing in the background, a scent of verbena in the air and a dishwasher full of dirty dishes, Eva Mendes is having her ideal night. Even after decades of Hollywood premieres and glamorous walks down the red carpet, the kitchen is where she is happiest.

“Cleaning for me and my family is not just cleaning. It’s an emotional connection,” Mendes says of household chores. “When I found mindfulness meditation, I thought: this It’s my rhythm.”

To get to this wonderful place in her life, where she spends most nights finding happiness next to the dishwasher in her home in Southern California, where she lives with her husband, 43-year-old actor Ryan Gosling, and their two daughters, They required years of hard work, a gene she says she inherited from her mother, a Cuban immigrant. Since Mendes was little, her mother explained to her that freedom comes when you earn your own money. She gave him her example: Mendes watched her mother do all kinds of jobs, from selling Easter baskets to her neighbors to working as a housekeeper and later as a bank teller. Now 50, a decade into her Hollywood career, Mendes has also led a life of many acts.

Since he acted in his last film, Lost River As of 2014, Mendes has become a mother, fashion designer, children’s book author, and co-owner of a successful home cleaning products startup, Skura Style.

After taking an equity stake in 2022, Mendes helped Skura, founded in 2017 by Linda Sawyer and Alison Matz, expand its marketing reach and even product design. Forbes It estimates the business generated $7 million in revenue last year and is on track to generate $20 million in 2024.

“I started using it and loved it, so I contacted the founders and loved their story,” she says. Like Mendes, Sawyer and Matz left behind prosperous careers to become entrepreneurs: Sawyer was the longtime CEO of North America at Deutsch Advertising, while Matz was the magazine editor at Meredith and Condé Nast, including the magazine Brides. With her new role as owner, Mendes has taken an interest in all aspects of the company. “I want to be on calls with investors, I want to talk about boring things, like how tall our box needs to be to fit on a certain shelf. “I’m up for everything.”

Mfinally was born in Miami and moved to Los Angeles when she was still a child. She didn’t grow up with any plan to act. It wasn’t until her twenties, when a Hollywood agent discovered her photo, that she considered the industry, remembering her mother’s advice about supporting herself. “She just wanted to make money and be financially independent,” she says. “My goal was to buy my mother a house, buy a house and just put money in the bank.”

He began with roles in music videos in the 1990s, including Will Smith’s “Miami,” and made his film debut in the The corn boys in 1998. Then, in 2001, he got his big break: a role in Training Day with Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke. “I loved studying the character’s background and what they wanted in a scene and breaking down a scene,” Mendes says. “All of that is still exciting to me.”

The academic approach paid off: Mendes starred in hit films such as Hitch, Faster, Furier and the movie that changed his life, Crossroad, which she starred in alongside Gosling in 2012. Despite her success, she says she never loved being in front of the camera. So when his first daughter, Esmeralda, was born in 2014, Mendes paused his Hollywood career and never looked back. “My ambition was still there. But suddenly it turned to something else,” he says. “My whole focus became my home. “That’s where my joy comes from.”

And although Mendes stopped acting, she never stopped working. In 2015 she launched a beauty brand. now discontinued, Circa Beauty. And from 2013 to 2020 she partnered with New York & Company to design collections of dresses and pant sets and jackets for women. “It was really an ideal job for me, because I kept my creativity and I love connecting with women,” she says. “I was very satisfied while doing that.”

He doesn’t care if people think he sacrificed his film career for Gosling’s. “I don’t listen to social nonsense,” he says. Since he took on more responsibilities at home (he jokes that being a driver is his daily job), he has been nominated for two Oscars, including for his portrayal of Ken in the film Barbie (2023).

The decision to join Skura Style happened to Mendes organically during his time at home with his daughters. He fell in love with Skrubby Sponge Antibacterial Sponge first as a customer; she was hooked by its disappearing monogram design. “It actually fades with use, within a week or two, as a visual indicator of when it’s time to throw it away,” Sawyer explains.

Mendes initially approached the co-founders in 2021 to see how they could work together. The three first met over Zoom and immediately clicked, they say. Additionally, Mendes was excited about the idea of ​​joining a team founded only by women. “The acting roles I found most challenging were when I was involved in a very male cast,” she says. “I’m a girls’ girl and I need that feminine energy around me.”

Since becoming co-owner in 2022, her involvement has led to television appearances and increased commercial interest in the brand. “She’s been an incredible partner in the conversations we’ve had with merchants,” Sawyer says. “They tell us: ‘She shows that she is involved as an owner of this company and this brand.'”

It is also an integral part of product design and development. The Skura Style x Eva Mendes collection, which includes her beloved Skrubby Sponge, is inspired by Cuba. The collection is available in more than 220 Target stores nationwide, marking the brand’s first step toward further expansion. The co-founders say this is just the first step in attracting an entirely new market. Meanwhile, the company continues to produce microfiber wipes and dishcloths, and Mendes is working on new products.

While Mendes knows that sponges aren’t exactly “sexy,” that’s precisely the point. “I wanted to be the face of this. He wanted to take that risk and get motivated by people saying, ‘Why? sponges?’ ” she says. “There was something about it that really appealed to me. I thought, ‘If we can make a beautiful, fun, happy, sexy sponge, then great.'”

Translated by Maria Gracia Santillana Linares.

MORE ON FORBES

ForbesThe Billionaire Who Brought The Magic Of Messi To MiamiBy Justin BirnbaumForbesCanelo Álvarez Trains His Business MuscleBy Brett KnightForbesBad Bunny Takes Us To The Meeting Of His Empire Of Sports, Fashion And EntertainmentBy Maria Gracia Santillana Linares