COSMOFACTORY

66 - Slow Beauty, Slow Fragrance, featuring freelance beauty writer and consultant Katie Becker
Deanna: [00:00:00] This episode is about slow beauty. It's about traditional artisanal production, about high value rather than high volumes. It's about the luxury of rarity and intentionality. And it's about a shift in consumer spending and a market opportunity for Savvy Brands. My guest on this episode of the Cosmo Factory Podcast is freelance beauty writer and consultants, Katie Becker. Katie, welcome to Cosmo Factory.
Katie: I'm so [00:01:00] glad to be here.
Deanna: in past episodes, Cosmo Factory listeners have heard a bit about changes in beauty, consumer purchasing behavior. We've heard the term under consumption, and a few guests have shared anecdotal evidence that there are beauty consumers.
Definitely choosing to buy less, uh, sometimes for financial reasons, for sustainability reasons, or even just as a lifestyle choice. Um, and quite recently I interviewed Pauline Prescott, um, and I did say in that episode a little bit about what I happen to know about the slow beauty movement, um, not so much as you perhaps. Uh, so to start us off, Katie, will you please share your definition of slow beauty?
Katie: This is very much inspired by what we've seen happen with slow fashion before, that slow food. Which is a more thoughtful, artisanal approach. So for me, in beauty, this shows up kind of in two ways. One is in how something is crafted, so the process of its [00:02:00] creation and development, um, and. And there is no formal definition yet, by the way.
Um, but that sort of reminds me a little bit more of slow food. And then I also think of it similar to slow fashion, just in terms of speed of production. So even if a brand is producing kind of the more traditional way, just. Reducing the number of launches and having them feel more intentional. Um, I also feel falls under slow beauty.
So it's sort of two approaches and maybe eventually there'll be a more formal definition for it. But right now those are the two lanes I'm seeing.
Deanna: Perfect. Perfect. And I have to say, it was fun for me to hear you talk about your work when we spoke the other day. You know, writers and industry observers like you and I very much, uh, follow our intuition when deciding what to write about. Uh, and, and over time and through experience, I would say that that intuition matures into a skill we learn when we can really trust our [00:03:00] own sensibility. We learn to know what it feels like when something we're noticing is significant. Um, I, I'd love to hear about what you have observed that led you to believe that slow beauty has truly emerged as an opportunity across all product categories.
Katie: So I've learned that once I'm feeling something personally, it'll probably take at least another five years until it becomes a trend and then maybe 10 years before it becomes a mainstream trend. Um. So I was starting to feel fatigued on launches when I was working on staff at l, especially with celebrity launches.
And this was just a little bit before COVID, um, everybody launching a beauty brand. Um, you know, I think a lot of people look and at the beauty industry and feel that, oh, you know, there's high margins here. We could make a lot of money. And I just sat through so many desk sides with founders that just didn't know that much about the industry, but [00:04:00] seemed to have dollar signs in their eyes.
And um, and not to mention just like the fervor of direct to consumer. So I would say probably 20 18, 20 19, I was just kind of. Feeling exhausted. And I ended up leaving my full-time editorial role partially for that reason because it just felt like too much to cover and I, and so then we started to see, I think some brands started to talk about this very early on, would've been.
And I guess brands have, there have been many brands over the years that have said the same message as Augustina Spotter had, but with the one just, you need just the one cream. Lo and behold, they've launched several other brands or other products since then, which is fine. Um, but then we also started to see this happen with Road One.
I think their tagline is one of everything good, or something so. This idea of very intentional and I, and we see this word intentional showing up on brand decks and descriptions and about us pages more and more [00:05:00] these days. So there's been a buildup to it. And then I started to see the word actually show up.
So there's this fragrance brand fern, um, that's really. Started to own the space that we'll talk a little bit about today. And then there's this really great makeup brand by makeup artist named Farrah edi. She has slow beauty on her website and she really launches things one at a time, and they're quite pricey, but they're very coveted and they feel extremely intentional.
Um. And so I would, I wrote the story for Mary Claire earlier this year, but it really got on last year is when I felt, you know what? I really think readers are gonna start to have an appetite for this, especially, I wrote it specifically about fragrance because fragrance talk is so crazy and in a great way, like I love the fact people are being educated on fragrances, but you'll see these influencers with walls of fragrance behind them.
It reminds me of the beauty closets that I had at l and s and w. And I'm going, each one of those [00:06:00] fragrances is a couple hundred bucks at least, if not more. I mean, it's just totally crazy to me that that would be aspirational for a consumer, especially with something like fragrance that's so personal and intimate and takes a while to get through.
And um, so that's when I felt like it was a good time, especially to talk about slow beauty in regards to fragrance, but I'm seeing it across categories.
Deanna: Yes, yes. No, that's so interesting. Thank you. I'm curious too, about maybe the cultural mood, even beyond beauty. I've personally seen a bit of commentary about people stepping away from what we might call urgency culture, but I wonder what you're noticing in society at large that might also be informing this slow beauty movement.
Katie: I think that is perfectly said. Stepping away from urgency culture. I, yeah, people are totally burnt out and we're also seeing it happen with, I, I think we're seeing it happen with social media. I personally taken a huge step back from social and I can't help but hear other [00:07:00] people talk about it as well.
Um, just reducing the amount of consumption, whether it's media or products in general. Um. I think this sort of existed before in an altruistic sense of, you know, reducing consumption, but that's been a conversation since like the seventies, you know, in a way. Um, and just has sort of grown and grown in certain pockets.
I think the reason it's happening now is I think people are so fatigued on social media and all of the things to buy and all of the ideas and. You know, on social there's videos of like how to organize and it's like how to organize and streamline your life and, um, Marie Kondo your life or whatever, but then their bottom line of these influencers will be, buy all of these containers and spend hours organizing your fridge or what, you know, it just doesn't make any sense.
And I think people are just kind of done with that. And um, I think people are getting a little bit more interested in real life. And I also think that there, [00:08:00] that. Being online has become such a stressful place.
Deanna: Certainly
Katie: are just a little bit more interested in stepping back from the fervor of everything.
Um, and that there's always something new. And, and the other thing is that I've noticed is there's so many good products out there. Every once in a while there'll be something that's really far and above something that I've tried before, but there I think consumers are getting a little bit of a sense of like, okay, it's another lipstick.
Like I already, like the one I have.
Deanna: Mm-hmm.
Katie: even drugstore products are pretty great.
Deanna: Right. Right. No, that's very helpful. That's very helpful. You said to me in an earlier conversation, Katie, that so few brands own Slow Beauty, and I, I'm curious to know what it looks like for a brand to have solid footing in the world. Um, would we call it slow moving consumer goods? Uh, [00:09:00] you, you know, you've, you've mentioned, um. A little bit here that helps our listeners understand your work, but I, I will just clarify. You write for consumer beauty magazines and online publications,
Katie: I do occasionally will write for, um, some trade, but for the most part it's directly, yeah. To real people in the US
Deanna: Yeah. No, that's perfect.
I don't, I don't, I, maybe I don't get to speak with real people as often
as you do, but, but you mentioned, um, this article you recently published on Slow Fragrance. I would love for you to share a summary of that piece, maybe almost as a case study to help us understand better, you know, what Slow Beauty is, what Slow fragrance is, and, and how these slow brands, um, are really connecting with consumers.
Katie: Yeah, so I went to go visit this FRA fragrance brand in San Antonio, Texas called Cultus. Artem. They're sold at Bergdorf. They're, you know, it's a luxury product. The price tag shows it, and they're, um. They're just, they're a completely vertical operation. We're seeing this with a few [00:10:00] other fragrance, uh, brands as well.
But, um, they create their fragrances down there. They, um, do all of their own regulatory, which is nuts, but awesome. And they fill everything by hand and package it up and send it out. And they maybe have 10, maybe less, maybe eight fragrances. They're not launching on a big calendar like some of our, you know.
Some of our big beauty companies where it's just, I mean, I don't have to name names, but as an editor, when I get the sort of like first half launch fragrance launches and it's 25, 30 fragrances that are coming onto the market just for like the first six months of a year, um, this is a really opposite approach.
And the idea is that this. The, the, the fragrances take a while to develop and there's these very specific stories around them and they're a smaller operation and the plan is to stay that way. And what was really interesting in that I felt field dovetails into [00:11:00] this cultural conversation that we're having is when I went to go visit them.
The staff takes a lunch break. It's a small team. They take a lunch break and they actually sit around a table without their phones or laptops, and they have, they have lunch together and it feels so good. It's such a like relieving feeling. Um. And just to be in that space. And I think that maybe in some ways this also came a little bit from COVID and people working from home and getting like a little bit more balance in their life.
For some people, not everyone had that experience during COVID. It feels sort of reminiscent of that, where I think there is this appetite for slowing down. Um, and so I report reported also about a few other fragrance brands that are in this pulse, this brand for, in the uk for example. Um, uh. You would ask this question about brands owning that space?
I, I, I just get a feeling that it, that there's this pendulum swing moment that [00:12:00] I feel that we're about to have because there's such a high, like people are doing fragrance, wardrobe, fragrance, layering. What I'm noticing with these brands that I reported about is, um, the Ray Contour in Australia is another one that talks about slow fragrance, um, is they seem to be on the forefront of a desirable feeling.
A feeling that feels very relieving is often a very powerful emotion to market with. And I feel like this meets our feeling of relief right now. Um, so. In terms of brands owning the space, the really tough thing is if you do it well, then you're expected to make more money and then you're expected to produce more products.
So very few brands come in and own it and say, we are going to be a very limited run because they don't want to. They're sort of. They don't wanna corner themselves into something where they can't make more, a lot more money in the future. But we're noticing like Fared has this very clearly, and then this [00:13:00] brand Fern where they do seasonal drops, they only do a number, a certain number of them.
You kind of have to be in their books. Um, and what's so interesting about it is their packaging isn't anything special. It's very sustainable. It's very simple. They have, um. Sort of standard issue bottles, but their marketing and their world that they're a part of is extremely powerful. And if you go on their Instagram, you can see these incredible, um, like art videos that they've made.
Um, it's very artisanal and craftsmen, and they're, and they have a wait list and it's become very cool. Um, but also very, um, it, they just. Because they do so few releases, it shows that they, it gives you the feeling that they respect their product, that they feel like each product deserves its time and its moment.
And, um, that I think translates,
Deanna: you're full of insights, Katie. I'm so glad we're [00:14:00]
Katie: I, you know, marketing is emotional,
Deanna: Mm-hmm. No, no. You're spot on. You mentioned these ideas of fragrance wardrobes, fragrance layering. Um, you know, I, I completely agree. We see, you know, sample kits being very normalized, especially in the e-commerce channel. Um, and that sort of just builds into it. Fragrance consumers in particular have, have many reasons to buy and try almo, almost too many fragrances.
Um, uh. I've seen a, a bit of indication, you know, on the supply chain and of things that, that I watch, um, that this might be a diminishing trend. And I, I wanna share one example. It, it still gives consumers the opportunity to buy a lot of products, but it's, um, maybe less in terms of. Scent, like you, you
mentioned fragrance being, you know, more of a very personal or intimate experience.
Um, and, and maybe there's not a reason for any individual to have a a thousand different perfumes at their fingertips. But there's a, a manufacturing company, um, on Cote [00:15:00] Cosmetics that showed me a new concept earlier this year, which like I suggested includes multiple fragrance products. Um, but it's more of a.
A perfume routine, like we would think of a skincare routine, uh, that centers around one fine fragrance. It's a, a routine that starts with a fragrance primer, a relatively conventional perfume with top, middle and, and base notes. There's a fragrance gel then for use throughout the day that refreshes just the top notes, um, and the evening, uh, a serum that emphasizes the base notes of the perfume.
And then finally at bedtime, there's a, a hand cream that's sort of the idea of a scented relaxing ritual. Um. But, but it is, you know, still a multi-product concept. And, but I, I feel like it's bringing us back closer to that signature scent idea that maybe, um, when they developed this concept, they were also recognizing that the consumer doesn't want, you know, a very large wardrobe.
I'm not sure I'm, I, I'm, I'm, I'm guessing here, but I wonder if you have sort of further thoughts or observations or, [00:16:00] um. this ties in for me too about something you said earlier, this idea of, um, consumers and the education they're getting, um, about fragrance, that they're sort of on a fragrance education journey, if I can be esoteric about it.
Um,
is there a correlation between consumer familiarity with perfume and this, um, you know, desire you see for slow fragrance?
Katie: Yes, in some ways. what we've noticed with social, I think for editors. There is a time where it sort of felt threatening to have other people reporting about beauty stuff, and then I realized that what's so cool about social is everybody's getting educated about these products. So in a way it actually makes it so that my articles could be more sophisticated.
The. Subjects that people are interested in, there's a bigger appetite for beauty content. That's actually the plus side to this, is everybody's sort of becoming an expert and everything [00:17:00] theoretically should become better for that reason. And I think we really did see that, especially like, I think makeup was a front runner there.
It's so visual. It makes more sense for that to have happen than we saw it happen with skincare. And I think now we're seeing it happen with fragrance. And early on when social was starting to really boom, and there were sort of makeup artists that were just quote unquote, nobody's in, you know, they weren't leading shows backstage who were coming up on YouTube and on Instagram with these massive followings.
And I remember speaking to the makeup artists for Dior, Peter Phillips, and I said, what do you think about all this? Like, what do you, he has quite a big following, but there are these other people with a way bigger following and you know, for traditional editorial world, it's like all that matters are people like, you know, Peter Phillips or Guido Backstage, just the authorities on makeup.
And he, I expected him to have, you know, this. I expect him to feel sort of like threatened or skeptical and he wasn't. He said, what I love about it is that [00:18:00] everybody's sort of going to makeup school together. It's like makeup 1 0 1 and. Um, that just elevates the conversation, you know, like I was saying earlier, it just elevates the conversation for everybody and they'll got, get caught up to a more sophisticated makeup application and, you know, it's.
I like that. I like that everybody is falling in love with makeup and having the opportunity to become more sophisticated with it. So I think that is happening with fragrance and I think that's a lot of the excitement is people are developing more sophisticated palettes and they are, once people fall in love with fragrance, it's a really fun subject to nerd out on.
So. Even though you can't smell fragrance on social, it's still a really popular subject I think. 'cause it's fun to talk about it and it's, so going back to the marketing conversation, it's so emotional. Um, there's also the status symbol around fragrance and especially discovering something that hasn't been found before.
It's sort of like the Li Labo, you know, af. You know, like long tail of that is [00:19:00] people wanting to discover the next big fragrance. Um, so with that, I think everybody's sort of taking it all in. I mean, it, everyone's almost like a baby beauty editor in a way where they want to, to try it all. And then I. As beauty editors get more seasoned, and as people get more seasoned in the market, I think they sort of pair back to what's really worth my time?
What do I wanna invest in? And the thing that's particularly interesting to me about people buying so much fragrance right now or in the last like year or two, is fragrance is so personal. And so the idea that you would have this in this enormous wardrobe of fragrances when theoretically it's this super intimate product.
Um, was always kind of contradictory to me. Um, don't ask me how many fragrances I have. I have a ton. Um, so I'm a huge hypocrite in this regard, but I don't take, I don't bring that many, you know, I have exposure to a lot of fragrances. I don't bring them all home. I know what I like and, um, I'm really picky about what comes [00:20:00] into my house now.
Um, but I, so I do think that as the consumer becomes more thoughtful. It's sort of like with fast fashion where there's inherently an appetite for slow fashion. And I think with beauty there's inherently an appetite for slow beauty, um, because people wanna purchase thoughtfully and they wanna feel that what they're buying is the real deal.
And, um, that it has, uh, the soul behind it.
Deanna: No, that's excellent. Thank you. So my last question for you, Katie, uh, is about what we can learn from other industries. Do you have notes on slow food, slow fashion, maybe slow something else before we finish up? What can we learn from in, in terms of other industries?
Katie: So we know that slow food is a pretty technical definition. Come, you know, coming from Italy originally and has this whole history and you know, people who have really ushered its progress and gave this [00:21:00] big international phenomenon. Slow fashion is, I think, even more political than slow food. Um. But has a, is grown a pretty tight definition, I think.
And it also is really, um, it. Kind of ripe for hot takes on social. Um, what really counts as a slow fashion and kind of finger pointing and this and that, that can be like good for marketing and attention and virality. But I think with slow beauty, um, what I would like to see is a tightening of the definition and also.
Brands, if they are going to go into this space being really clear about what their corner of the space is. Because you don't wanna go in just saying slow beauty without having to find it in a way that's sustainable for your brand. So like we were talking about at the beginning of the podcast, maybe you're [00:22:00] still using traditional.
Commercial methods of like mass producing your fragrance, but you're only gonna do one big launch a year or something like that. Um, or you have a super artisanal style of production. Make sure you really, you know, I talked to, I, I've talked to a few brands that define themselves as slow fragrance brands, but they have.
Really, they're just small indie brands. They're still producing a high number of fragrances per year, and they aren't actually producing in-house. They're just, they're white labeling from, um, big producers all fine and all brand and all fragrance. They're all brands that I love and wear, but I just wouldn't put them in the slow fragrance category because they don't actually have a definition that'll stand up when somebody pokes it.
So that if somebody wants to be in this. Base, or they have one particular launch that they want to talk about being a slow [00:23:00] for, you know, because of the way that it was created and. Or use adjacent language that speaks to slower intentional production. I think that all works. I do think that there's a big white space opportunity for a brand to super duper on this, um, and to create the definition to create an entire world around slow beauty and what that means, and whether that remains the definition five years from now.
It doesn't have to, it can evolve. But I think it would be really special for somebody to define what that means, have some receipts to back it up. When I try to look into some of the environmental information that helps support, um, the slow beauty movement, it's actually quite hard to find hard, you know, some like hard numbers on that.
So. Slow fashion seems to have access to that in a different way. Um, and I think there's an opportunity for whoever wants to own the slow beauty idea, to do some of the research and [00:24:00] bring that education aspect that we know consumers have an appetite for. Um, and yeah, maybe start a whole big new conversation.
Deanna: \ Katie, it was so fantastic to hear your ideas and insights, uh, here on Slow Beauty. I, I thank you for sharing your time with us and for being a guest here on Cosmo Factory.
Katie: Thank you for having me.