COSMOFACTORY

Deanna: [00:00:00] This episode is about the reduction of production. It's about slow but steady progress in a fast-paced industry. It's about multifunctional skincare and about finding retail channels that are a good match for both a brand and for its customers. My guest on today's episode of the Cosmo Factory Podcast is Pauline Prescott, CEO, and founder of Formulae Prescott Skincare.
Pauline, welcome to Cosmo Factory.[00:01:00]
Pauline: I really, really pleased to be here.
Deanna: No, you're welcome. It's, it's very kind of you to make time to speak with me. Industry observers and trend analysts are talking about something now called slow beauty or slow fragrance. It's a movement that's being led by niche brands focused on small batch craftsmanship, oftentimes natural ingredients, and few if any product launches each year.
And I wanna be clear that these are not. The new brands that have a small assortment, only because they haven't yet scaled their business. They're also not products that are made by DIY or at home formulators. Uh, these brands really connect with consumers who appreciate rarity as an attribute of luxury and who are intentionally buying less.
Now, I don't know if you align yourself with this movement, but Pauline, I have heard you use the phrase sustainability of formulation. Which I understood to be sort of, uh, a more, uh, I should say a less is more approach. Uh, so I'm hoping you'll [00:02:00] tell us about your perspective on multifunctional product formulas.
Pauline: Yeah, well actually I would completely align myself with your, um, with your understanding of slow beauty 'cause that is exactly what we are, we are, um, specialist. Um, perfectly balanced formulations made in small batches. Um, we are 95% food-based ingredients, and I would add slow beauty, but also smart beauty because our formulations, I call 'em smart formulations, uh, you know, they are multifunction formulations intended to give the maximum amount of nourishment, comfort, um, and, um, to, to your skin while also being kind to the environment and fitting into honestly, just a busy person's lifestyle.
So we've spent, we normally take about 18 months to develop a formulation.
Deanna: Can you just give us an example? Help us think about and why that is. In fact, an aspect of sustainability.
Pauline: Well, uh, when we create, [00:03:00] and I'll talk about our, our, if you like, our Cornerstone product, it's tri, so Trium is an oil-based cleanser, but those, the oils that we use to cleanse your skin are in. Incredibly nutrient dense. So we are using wheat germo oil 21, skin enhancing benefits. We're using black current oil.
Black currents have 500 times more antioxidants in them than a blueberry. And a blueberry is a superfood. Um, we're using pomegranate oil. We're using enzyme exfoliators that are very gentle on the skin so that even people with psoriasis or eczema, uh, sensitivities and there are increasingly, uh, consumers with these issues now, uh, can use our products.
Um, and then we're using, uh, natural hydrators on it as well. So. Our mission is really to make. To make the most nutrient dense skincare, a consumer confined that is natural while still, um, being kind to the environment because we're actually taking steps out of, out of the skincare process. So you don't need an exfoliator if you're using Trione because it has a natural exfoliator in it.[00:04:00]
And it's a pumpkin exfoliator. So it comes from a food extract. Uh, you don't need a retinol cream because our product has carrot tissue oil in it, which is loaded with vitamin A, which is a natural retinal. It's nature's natural retinal. Um, you don't need an eye maker remove it because these products are so gentle that the oils in this product will actually remove even waterproof mascara.
So whilst we're creating really careful. Carefully curated formulations for consumers. We have a very, very keen eye on how does this impact the environment, because we find now that consumers are increasingly aligning themselves with brands that have the same social values as they do.
Deanna: Mm-hmm. And tell me if I'm putting words in your mouth here, but that sort of, you don't need an exfoliator. You don't need a retinol, means you don't need the packaging that goes along with it. You don't need the production of an additional product. You don't need, you know,
Pauline: You don't need the proponent, you don't need the cartons. You don't, you don't. And on [00:05:00] most of our products, um, don't have water in them. Uh, some of them touch water because some ingredients are water soluble. And once an ingredient is touched water, I can't say it's not, uh, it's a waterless environment. But for example, our spritz, it's a coconut water base, but it has touched water because it has algae in it.
So, um, it's, you know, but, but we also, if you're really going to say we're, we're environmentally conscious, water is one of the most precious resources on the planet.
Deanna: Mm-hmm. No, that's super helpful. Thank you for all of that. many of the slow beauty brands that I alluded to in my opening room. And I'm, I'm glad you see a bit of a parallel there with, with what you're doing. Many of these brands do have artisanal production facilities. Facilities that they own, as I believe, um, you've done with Formulae Prescott, something a little bit more conventional in so far as you've partnered with a manufacturing facility.
Um, but maybe we could call it a community-based approach to production. I, I'd love to, um, hear you. Explain sort of the ethics that have guided your choice of manufacturing [00:06:00] partner over the years.
Pauline: I'm glad you raised that because most people don't think about. Um, when they're talking about sustainability, they don't think about the manufacturing process. Um, we are working with an extremely talented, uh, cosmetic scientist and she's a family run business. Um, and what specifically I love about working with this lady, besides the fact that she's enormously talented, is that she has her factory in a small town in the uk. I go to work with her. Um, I'll work, I'll go and I'll see somebody on the floor packing products. I'll see someone, um, from a fill line. I'll see somebody in the accounts department when I go and stay in the local bed and breakfast. 'cause I'm there for a few days. I will see the half of, I'll see parts of her staff working in the cafe.
I'll see them working behind the bar. I'll see a whole community of people working there. She's got two generations working in that, in that, um, you know, in her facilities. And that sort of speaks to me about keeping. About keeping, if you like, a community [00:07:00] together, instead of, instead of a lot of those young people having to go into London or Bristol to get a job, they can actually stay and work in a, in a community, you know, factory or warehouse.
That's, um, very successful.
Is thriving because. That factory is there, that warehouse is there, and my community benefits from it, and I feel good about that. It's sort of like community sustainability. So there are lots of ways to think about sustainability. There's environmental, which is boxes and waterless products and refillables, and then there's the commercial part of it, which is the formulation and the multifunction by taking out products.
And then there is this piece that speaks to the extended family about people being able to live and work in the communities they want to live and work in.
Deanna: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I'm, I'm curious, you know, it's important to you and not clearly important to the folks. In that community, but does your customer care? Do they even know about the type of production that's behind a brand like this?
Pauline: Well, I always try and make the point when there's an opportunity to, so people say You are actually supporting. [00:08:00] Local communities, living and working in the, in the places they wanna live and work in, uh, where they've gone to school, where they've grown up, where their friends are, where their family members are.
And when we are looking for new partners in different parts of the world, I mean, it is not a coincidence. Even our warehouse, not, and our partners in the United States, our family run businesses, now I'm judging anybody else and taking on a much more, um, you know, scalable commercial organization to work with.
This is just how we like to support. Business and industry because we're a family-run business, we like to support other family-run businesses, and it speaks to me as an owner and I think when I speak to this at conferences and events, other people relate to it.
Deanna: No, that's interesting to hear. Now, so I don't love to generalize, uh, but I am going to say that beauty retail typically prefers large product assortments and frequent launches. I'm wondering how a brand like you're describing fits into the retail space.
Pauline: Well, it's a challenge. I've been told many times that I need more skews and I go, we will never be that [00:09:00] brand. Never. Um,
Deanna: Mm-hmm.
Pauline: and I hate to say, you know, I mean, I like to use an analogy, but you know, I said everybody understands multifunction when you talk about a cell phone. They understand this. There was a time, unfortunately, I remember it when a telephone just made phone calls. Now it's your wallet. Now it's a payment device. It's a calendar, it's, it's, you know, GPS, I mean, who walks around with maps anymore, they're just obsolete. So we all understand the need for that when it comes to a phone, but we haven't really embraced it in the skincare business. And the reason we haven't is just so much money in it and so clients, they don't want to, especially if you're a large corporation, you can't really take those skews out of your, out of your lineup. It's really difficult to do when you've got shareholders. So I think all the innovation in Smart Skin Care and Clever Formulations is coming from the smaller companies who can afford to do that.
And what will eventually, in my view happen is these bigger corporations will simply buy them.
Deanna: I believe that, that your brand, um, has, has this a sizable [00:10:00] presence in what we might think of as in-flight sales. I'm curious to learn more about this for myself, but also of course for our listeners. Why did you choose that, that sales channel for your brand?
Pauline: Well, the entire concept, um, behind the skincare, uh, range was really born out of, out of my own need to solve a problem I had, and at the time I was living and working in Singapore and, and in Hong Kong, and I was working for a very large financial services organization, and I had a global job. My family was in London.
I was based in Hong Kong. My home office was New York, and my husband was in the Carolinas. I was one of those people who always on planes, so I had every accident that you could possibly imagine. I had products taken at TSA, I had them leak in my luggage. I had them stolen from hotel rooms. I left them at home by mistake, all of that.
And so I just thought that what I was experienced was an issue that just I had and I've come to learn, is an issue that all busy people have. And so. When we created the products, a, a very large part of why [00:11:00] we created them the way we did was to make them easy for busy people to travel with as well. So you don't have to have four products in your case, you can have two.
Um, and so we are uniquely suited to the consumer who travels constantly. And so when we launched the products, um, there was a really interesting article written by a lady called India Knight, um, in the United Kingdom. She's a beauty editor and she said we were the best travel product that had, she had discovered.
And as a result of that, the airlines contacted us.
Deanna: Yes.
Pauline: I'd love to say it was a strategic choice, but as much as anything, it really was, um, it really was something of an accident. It has been a channel that has embraced us fully. We do really, really well with those channel partners. Um, and we will always, um, we will always take care of our travel retail partners and we now have nine different international airlines around the world.
So they're a big part of our, of our, uh, retail.
Deanna: Yeah. No, that's fantastic. And [00:12:00] can you help me think about what's different, there travel retail buyers and distribution services or, or how, how does this all work?
I'm, I'm asking for myself, but also maybe for other brand leaders who haven't considered this opportunity.
Pauline: So, um, there are, there are a number of, I'm gonna call them agents who represent the major airlines, and there's probably three major ones, maybe four of them now that cover the vast majority of the major international airlines. Um, and so once you get traction, I, I actually went to the airlines directly, initially.
Um, because we were unknown and those agents really wanted to know, deal with a known quantity and a known brand. Not, not too dissimilar from a standard distributor who, you know, they're very, it was about taking on a new young brand. They'd rather take on a more established brand with a, with budget and visibility.
Um, so initially I started approaching them myself, and we, we got into a number of airlines, our, uh, ourselves. But then once you get into one. You get attention. They all look at the same. They're all these buyers all know each other,
Deanna: [00:13:00] Yes.
Pauline: all know each other. Um, it's not difficult if you have an airline like EasyJet or you have an airline like Norwegian Airlines and everyone, all the buyers in Europe are going to know you very quickly.
If you have any airline, as we do like Emirates, everyone in the Middle East is going to know you fairly quickly. Um, and because our products are designed to remove steps from the process, you know, we are a really great fit. For, uh, the traveling consumer and also, you know, especially in the Middle East where we're doing so much business and growing so quickly.
Uh, we are a luxury product. I mean, our products are, are made outta food ingredients.
Deanna: Mm-hmm.
Pauline: you know, we're. So I, for anybody looking to get into it, if you are a very new brand, I won't, I won't tell you. This is easy. It's, it's gonna be a challenge. But if you have a unique story that will speak to a traveling consumer, then I would reach out to these people and, you know, introduce your products.
And the conference is, the travel conference is a great way to do that.
Deanna: [00:14:00] Sure, sure. No, that makes good sense. You know, our industry, uh, the cosmetics and personal care industry is often described as being a fast paced industry, and, and I think that's. Air, but certainly change does take time. And this idea of slow beauty, um, I feel kind of silly saying it out loud, slow beauty is moving slowly.
what can we learn from your experience and the progress you've made over the years?
Pauline: Well, it, I honestly thought, and I think this is part of my IVT coming in from a business world to the business, I thought once I had a solution that was wonderful, that was really, um, uh, consumer friendly, that was easy. I thought everyone would embrace it. But it's been, it's been a, a tougher journey than I anticipated, but I've learned something from the whole process.
And I, and I'd now say that, uh, pioneers take all the arrows, right? So when I go to see a retailer, they will often ask me, can I launch more products? And I'll go, oh, well, I could, but no. Um, and, uh, you know, how many products do I have in the [00:15:00] pipeline? And I go, well, you know. We, we, the whole message about, about our brand is we'll never be 30, 40 SKUs.
That's never gonna be who we are. We don't wanna do that. That, that person, there's somebody else doing that probably much better than we would anyway. And it, it just doesn't sit well with our, our philosophy. Um, but it has been, it has been something, the journey, I mean, we have won, I think over 35 awards in the last two and a half years.
But that doesn't necessarily translate into acceptance into the retail space. So. I think the travel space is a wonderful place for us to, to really build our footprint and to get visibility. Um, because you know, it's less crowded and, um, you don't have the same pressure to have lots of different skews that you do in a retail space.
But in, in, in fairness, retail is coming, is changing. Um,
Deanna: Mm-hmm.
Pauline: because I think consumers are requesting it. And when we look at, when I talk to a retailer and they say, well, Pauline, we want you to have 15 SKUs on the shelf, a shelf. And I say, well, you are [00:16:00] not considering velocity. You're just not considering that at all.
If I give you 10 and they walk off the shelf, it's better than 15 that sit there.
Deanna: Yeah, no, that's interesting to hear. And you know, I, I've talked this, talked about this idea of slow beauty several times now during our conversation and, and something else that has come up, um, with folks I've interviewed here on Cosmo Factory is this idea. Called under consumption. Right. Um, and some people have have called it that directly.
Um, other people are, are sort of just noticing the way that consumers maybe are buying less and are, are finding ways to keep the consumer engaged or interested, um, in more creative ways. But I guess if, if this is a movement within our industry, um. Whether it's, you know, consumer driven or led by brands like yourself.
Um, I guess how can the industry itself step up and be more supportive?
Pauline: the, the ch most of the challenges we have are on [00:17:00] the distribution piece of it because we've now, we now have partners that we know, um, love working with us, you know, on cartons, on, on formulation, uh, on, on new. Uh, refillables and those sorts of things. And I think in terms of componentry, all of that, you know, is, is sort of coming about and it's, and you know, the components and recycling all these things that are now much more front of mind than they were five years ago, for example.
it's, it's really the distribution and the retail and it's really, unfortunately it's driven by, um, the difficulty for a younger brand trying to do this slow beauty is. It's driven largely by how many skews the store can, the staff own commission based on how many products they sell.
And so they'd rather sell another range that they can sell more products in. So it's, it's really the structure of how the retail businesses work that inhibits. The pr, the, the successful launches in a lot of retail outlets. Now, there are some exceptions to that because there are [00:18:00] now, there are organizations that are much more focused on clean beauty, that are much more focused on so slow beauty,
Deanna: a little bit concerned when you describe the retail space that we're setting up a divide, right? Between sort of the conventional retail model and this one that supports slow beauty in a different way, and it's sort of an either or situation.
Do you see a transition happening in beauty? Yeah.
Pauline: Well, I do. It's just not going fast enough, you know, so you always want these things to go faster, right. But, um, I think I, I honestly think retailers in front. Um, I think, you know, and I go into the department stores. I'm always looking at new products and I go into, um, specialty stores, specialty stores and skincare stores.
Um, I think those are gonna be okay, but the larger stores, I think they're in trouble 'cause nobody in there. Um, which is why when I look at John Lewis in the UK and we were gonna launch with John Lewis a couple of years ago now, 11 of the stores we were going to launch at are going to be, um, they're gonna be [00:19:00] homes.
Deanna: Mm-hmm.
Pauline: into, um, real estate to, to make homes outta 'em so that it's changing. Um, I do think I, I, I mean, I'd loved it to have changed a little faster, but I do think that the model that we have at the moment doesn't really make it easy for, for slow beauty, clean beauty to really make an imprint, um, and get as much space and time as they, as they really ought to.
But things are changing and consumers are demanding it. And, um, they're becoming much more aware. And when I talk to people about Velocity and I say, look, you know, if I tell you the, the resale rate on that on Trium is 52.4%, you know, once somebody buys this product, they come back and they buy it over and over and over and over again. Um, you know. I mean, even the emails we get, we, we uh, we get a lot of emails from people with damaged skin. When we created these formulations, we were liaising with renal specialists. We were re liaising [00:20:00] with chemotherapy and oncology specialists. You know, what can damage skin tolerate? What is nutrient dense feeds?
People who have damaged skin, what can psoriasis tolerate? I mean, normally they don't like water because that's very drying. So lots and lots of education around the creation of these formulations, and when, when I come to speak to those and I, even when I speak to retailers, they actually love it. They just, um, it's just their structure is not really set up to support it very well.
Deanna: it's, it's very helpful to understand all that. I, I appreciate your, speaking with us, helping us think about luxury, multifunctional, skincare in a whole new way. Pauline, I appreciate your being a guest today on Cosmo Factory.
Pauline: It's my pleasure.
Deanna: I. [00:21:00]