INDUSTRY INTERVIEW
Modern moves
Meet LIZ MORRIS: CEO of Modern Chemistry Labs (formerly McConnell Labs), who shares her plans for the beauty manufacturing company & its clients
On 7 October, the industry learned of McConnell Labs’ rebrand, and appointment of nail industry authority & finance expert, Liz Morris as CEO. The manufacturer and company behind Light Elegance Nail Products has transitioned to Modern Chemistry Labs (MCL), and its success formula will be built on ‘high-performing products, clear communication and reliable execution for brand partners’.
A former financial analyst & corporate controller in the semiconductor sector, Liz transitioned into the beauty space 15 years ago and has worked as a nail technician, salon owner and distributor. She is also founder of The Nail Hub, a digital educational platform and resource for professional nail technicians and DIY enthusiasts.
Liz used and sold Light Elegance products early on in her career, forging a deep respect for the brand and people behind it. This evolved when she created ATTAIN Cosmetics, an e-commerce beauty brand, and she comments: “I no longer looked at products as a nail professional, educator or distributor. I was a founder putting my own money, reputation and launch timeline in someone else’s hands. McConnell
Labs became the manufacturing partner behind ATTAIN, which gave me a different perspective on the company.
“As a customer, I was able to see firsthand what was special about the organisation: the scientific talent, formulation expertise, manufacturing capabilities and foundation the McConnell family had built over decades. At the same time, I could see opportunities to make the customer experience, communication and processes even stronger. What started as a relationship with a brand I admired, evolved into a true customer-manufacturer partnership, and gave me a 360-degree view of the business long before I imagined I would one day be leading it.”
My leadership style
“I don’t think I’ll ever be the kind of CEO who sits in an office and only looks at reports. I need to understand how things work: what happens on the floor, what customers are experiencing, where people are getting stuck and why something that seems simple on paper might be difficult in real life. I don’t need to be the expert in every room, but I do want to understand enough to know what questions to ask, where the risks are and how the pieces fit together.”
As part of MCL’s restructure, the company has acquired ATTAIN Cosmetics, which Morris says is ‘pretty unique – as we operate one of the brands that uses our own manufacturing’. This manufacturing continues to take place at McConnell Labs’ original Redmond, Oregon facility.
What led to your appointment as CEO of Modern Chemistry Labs (formerly McConnell Labs)?
LM: After the McConnell family decided to sell the business, McConnell Labs was acquired by Impact Equity Partners at the end of 2025. Stephanie Hooper had joined the company to lead business development, and reached out to me to better understand the customer experience and the business from the outside in. What started as a customer-discovery conversation quickly became something much bigger, and our initial business meeting continued for 14 hours! We spoke about Light Elegance, contract manufacturing, distribution, customers, culture, operations, the changing beauty industry and what the company could become. Because I had experienced the business from so many angles, I could see opportunities and challenges through a very different lens. The CEO role was discussed early on – yet I believe that leadership has to be earned, and people need to respect you because of what you contribute and whether you are willing to do the work alongside them.
Rather than immediately stepping into the CEO position, I chose to work as a consultant in June 2026. I wanted to understand the business and prove that I could add value, before asking anyone to see me as their leader. By the time I decided to accept the CEO role, it felt less like being handed a position and more like the natural next step in the work we were doing together.
Job duties
“I’m not sure an ‘average week’ will ever exist for me. One morning I might start by looking at cash flow, inventory or production capacity, and an hour later I’ll be on the manufacturing floor talking through an issue with the team. From there, I could be meeting with our chemists about a formulation, reviewing Light Elegance strategy, working through something for ATTAIN, talking with a contract-manufacturing customer or filming educational content. This variety is one of my favourite aspects of the role. I get to move between the big-picture strategy and the very practical details of how the work gets done.”
What does the acquisition and your appointment mean for Light Elegance and ATTAIN Cosmetics?
LM: For Light Elegance, it means focus, investment and a commitment to protecting what has made the brand so important to professionals for so long. Its depth, versatility and technical sophistication are exactly what working nail professionals need when they are customising solutions for different clients, and I want to preserve that – but I also want to strengthen innovation, education, consistency, support and the overall customer experience.
ATTAIN was built for the person who wants quality, education and a simpler path into gel nails, whether they are an enthusiastic at-home user, someone developing more advanced skills or someone who may eventually decide to become a nail professional. Its product line is intentionally more concise and multi-purpose, with fewer barriers to entry and a strong emphasis on learning how to use the products well. In the nail industry, there are working professionals and at-home nail enthusiasts, and in the middle: people who are learning, becoming more technically capable, taking education seriously and often discovering a career they never knew they wanted. That middle matters to me.
MCL is in a unique position as it supports sophisticated professional systems through Light Elegance, creates thoughtful and approachable systems through ATTAIN, and uses education across both to help people become more knowledgeable and capable at every stage of their journeys.
What does your career move mean for The Nail Hub?
LM: The Nail Hub began as education and business support for nail professionals before it grew into distribution and retail. As I step away from being primarily a retailer, I want to bring it back to those roots in a bigger way through The Nail Hub Business Solutions: practical education, tools, strategy and support that help beauty professionals build healthier, stronger businesses. More of my personal leadership and entrepreneurship content will also move onto the Liz Means Business platform, where I can talk more broadly about strategy, manufacturing, leadership and what it takes to build and grow a company.
I’m not walking away from nails or from professionals. I’m looking at the entire journey more holistically and asking how we can support nail lovers responsibly, from the first spark of interest through to a professional career and business ownership.
Having built your own brand, what did you learn about the challenges faced by beauty business owners when bringing products to market?
LM: Building ATTAIN taught me very quickly that having the idea is usually the easy part. There are so many decisions afterwards that seem small on their own, but are all connected: from formulas and curing to packaging, regulatory requirements, education and marketing. As a founder, you hand a manufacturing partner something you’ve spent months or years thinking about, along with a significant amount of money, and suddenly an idea that has lived almost entirely in your head becomes dependent on an team of people to bring it to life. Sometimes, what you need most isn’t an immediate solution – it’s communication. I never want to forget what it feels like to be the founder on the other end of that relationship.
MCL’s chemists, quality team, operations and manufacturing personnel all work under one roof, which creates an opportunity for clients to have a more connected relationship with the people developing and producing their products.
What does the rebrand to Modern Chemistry Labs represent?
LM: For existing customers, the things they trust most about McConnell Labs remain intact: the people, technical expertise, manufacturing capabilities and commitment to quality. We knew we wanted the next chapter of the company to feel future-focused, but we also felt strongly that we should not erase the history that got us here, and the name, ‘Modern Chemistry Labs’, was the idea of Alyssa Allen, our head chemist. The MCL initials give us a subtle thread back to McConnell Labs, while the new name better reflects where the company is going.
The McConnell family built something incredibly special. Their work created a technical foundation, a manufacturing legacy and a reputation in nails that we have enormous respect for. We want to honour that legacy, while giving Jim, Lezlie and their family the space and privacy to step into their next chapter, as we take responsibility for this one.
The rebrand is not about distancing ourselves from the past; it is about carrying the best parts of that history forward without asking the family name to represent every direction the company may grow in from here – and we are growing beyond nails. I want MCL to be the manufacturer that founders trust when the product really matters, and I want customers to feel like they are working with people who understand both the science and stakes behind what they are building. Modern Chemistry Labs gives us room to tell that broader story, and to me, the name represents both continuity and possibility.
www.modernchemistrylabs.com / www.lightelegance.com @modernchemistrylabs & @lightelegancehq
Scan to view Liz’s video detailing her journey to CEO.
My priorities
“I want to make the business stronger by investing in people, scientific capabilities, equipment and production capacity. I am keen to improve planning and operational systems, and to modernise the customer experience so that clients have a clearer understanding of where their projects stand, what comes next and what is needed from them.”