Indiana Fever guard Lexie Hull launched FORTA, a performance cosmetics brand, because her mascara kept running by the fourth quarter. "I remember wiping my face with a towel at a timeout and seeing half of my makeup on it," Hull says. "I honestly became used to my mascara running by the fourth quarter."

Hull co-founded FORTA with Sarah Guller, her former Stanford roommate. Hull was a three-time All-Pac-12 selection who helped lead the Cardinal to the 2021 NCAA national championship, recording 10 points and 10 rebounds in the title game. The Indiana Fever drafted her sixth overall in 2022, ahead of most pre-draft projections. She has since won a WNBA Commissioner's Cup and an Unrivaled title. Guller spent years in private equity evaluating consumer brands before the two reunited to build the company.

Eighteen formulas, two and a half years

The brand's long-wear claims rest on a testing standard most beauty brands cannot claim: Hull's actual job. "Everything I wear on the court is built for a specific job, and it's tested under real conditions, not in a lab," she says. Getting there took 18 formula iterations across multiple labs over roughly two and a half years. "A lot of brands say 'long-wear' and mean 'it survives a desk job.' Our bar was: does it survive a WNBA game?"

Hull frames the brand as a rejection of the compromise women athletes have been expected to make. "I'm a huge believer in look good, feel good, play good, so I refused to accept the idea that I need to compromise between performance and beauty," she says. "That's why I started FORTA…because women deserve makeup that can keep up with them."

Guller's investor background sharpened the technical brief. "Most long-wear claims get tested in controlled conditions: a person sitting still, room temperature, a few hours," she says. "Real life means heat, sweat, touching your face and a 12-hour day. 'Longwear' often just means waterproof, whereas sweat contains salt that breaks down products, so we had to solve for that."

The pair also targeted skin compatibility. "A lot of what's available today that does last is either tacky or causes breakouts, so we always make sure to keep our ingredient lists clean and intentional," Guller says.

A Paris pitch with no product

FORTA started with a gamble. Hull and Guller entered Estée Lauder's new brand competition with nothing but a concept. "We had zero product samples or any traction. We were just two girls and a dream," Guller says. Estée Lauder chose them as finalists and flew them to Paris to pitch in person. "Unsurprisingly, we didn't win since we had no product to show, but being chosen as finalists was a huge moment for us, as it validated our thesis behind the brand," Guller says. "That's when I realized this was something I wanted to go all in on."

Going all in meant self-funding. The founders put roughly $17,000 of their own savings into the first production run — an amount Guller clarifies covered only the caps for the setting spray bottles. "It was a lot more expensive than that to fund the full run," she says.

The first week returned $30,000 in sales with no paid advertising. Unprompted coverage followed from Marie Claire, Glamour, Business Insider and Glossy, and athletes including Sophie Cunningham and Genie Bouchard mentioned the brand on their own. "That unpaid pull was the signal," Guller says.

A two-product routine

FORTA's lineup consists of two products, both priced at $26. The Lock & Go Setting Spray is an ultra-fine mist designed to hold makeup through heat, sweat and long days while finishing breathable rather than stiff. The PR Proof Lip Stain is a water-based lip and cheek stain formulated with hyaluronic acid and glycerin; it builds from a sheer tint — wiped away after 10 seconds — to deeper pigment, and is built to withstand food, water and sweat.

Hull uses the routine herself. "First thing in the morning, I'll put on my makeup and finish with FORTA's Lock & Go Setting Spray before I leave the house, so I don't have to think about it again," she says. Of the stain: "It's made with long-lasting pigment that has literally lasted me up to 12 hours before, while still being very hydrating and gentle on the lips. My whole makeup routine is built around not having to touch it up. That was always the point."

With $30,000 in first-week sales, organic athlete adoption and a formula proven against WNBA-grade sweat, FORTA has positioned itself as a credible challenger to conventional long-wear claims — and a test case for whether athlete-founded brands can out-perform lab-tested incumbents.