How to create an innovative Beauty product that sells

It takes a village to develop and launch a successful beauty product. The Takeaway of the latest Fab Clubhouse conversation, curated by Alissa Lorentz Arzner and and Jana Bobosikova. July 2021 Los Angeles, NYC, Paris.

Given the complexity around beauty product creation we decided to moderate a Clubhouse discussion on critical factors that make or break product development and launch success. To round up the widest range of experience from different angles, we invited that “village” — experts that offer perspectives from a biotech, marketing and communications, operations and tech startup angle:

• Alissa Lorentz Arzner, CMO of ingredient search platform Covalo
• Jana Bobosikova, CEO of operator EPIC Brands
• Carolina Reis Oliveira, CEO of biotech beauty brand OneSkin
• Liza Bychkov-Suloti, Partner at creative marketing communications agency Shadow

Here’s what we learned from our July 14th Clubhouse chat on “How to create an innovative beauty product that actually sells”.

A few quote highlights to keep in mind:

• Sustainability awareness among beauty product consumers is growing not just on the end-product and packaging level, but also on the ingredient level and entire product lifecycle.” — Alissa Lorentz Arzner, CMO of ingredient search platform Covalo
• “Ensure you have sufficient consumer tests far in advance so you can tweak the product and ensure good reception upon launch.” — Carolina Reis Oliveira, CEO of biotech beauty brand OneSkin
• “Don’t underestimate the costs required to fund true innovation if you want your product to truly stand out.” — Jana Bobosikova, CEO of operator EPIC Brands
• “Plan the seeding of your beauty product launch campaign well in advance so you can prepare sample sendouts and time this immaculately with your launch roadmap.” — Liza Bychkov-Suloti, Partner at creative marketing communications agency Shadow

“Sustainability awareness among beauty product consumers is growing not just on the end-product and packaging level, but also on the ingredient level and entire product lifecycle.” — Alissa Lorentz Arzner, CMO of ingredient search platform Covalo

5 things to get right when creating and launching a beauty product:

• 🧪 Consumer testing: Ensure you have sufficient tests not just to back up your performance claims but also consumer testing so you can tweak the product and ensure good reception upon launch. Make sure you plan these tests far enough in advance so you have time to perfect your product before launching.
• 🧴 Minimize the scope of your launch product(s): Today we see many successful brands launching 1 hero product alongside maybe an additional 2–3 products max. It’s no longer important to launch a whole line in one go — in fact, it could dilute your focus.
• 🏭 Streamlining operations: Don’t underestimate the importance of ensuring your logistics and manufacturing, among other operational aspects, are well organized and can flexibly adapt to changes in demand.
• 💄 Unit economics & cost management: Make sure you have assessed your unit economics and prepare for various scenarios such as higher or lower demand than expected, varying re-order cycle lengths, etc. Also don’t underestimate the costs required to fund true innovation if you want your product to truly stand out.
• 📢 Marketing and communications:
• Be clear on the problem you are solving and set the brand voice and aesthetic across all your channels from the very beginning.
• Today storytelling across various channels is critical and it’s important to keep the coverage going beyond the official launch date so it’s continuous and consistent.
• Since it’s important to physically try out your product, plan the seeding of your launch campaign well in advance — you will want to send hundreds or thousands of samples to a variety of editors and influencers and this needs to be timed immaculately with your launch roadmap.
• Today it’s important to have a credible scientific person speak about your product, whether that’s a dermatologist or the chemist who works on your formulation. Gone are the days where celebrities and influencers can do the work alone — people are becoming smarter than ever and want to understand the science behind your product.
• Walk the talk in terms of sustainability. Not only end consumers, but all the influencers and editors you are sending your samples to will question the carbon footprint behind the shipping, packaging and all other aspects.

5 ingredient trends to have on your radar (and a few more search-based trends):

• 🤓 End consumers now care a lot about ingredients: Whereas before the media mostly covered finished beauty products, today talking about ingredients has become mainstream. Consumers are also educated like never before and care about what’s in their products. This trend has paved the way for skincare brands like The Ordinary, which boasts minimalistic formulations consisting of 1–2 highlight ingredients that make up the core of their marketing strategy.
• 📚 Storytelling around the ingredient: Not only are people interested in the efficacy, but they want to hear the origin story, where it comes from, and why the founder decided to incorporate it into their products.
• 🌿 People are looking for natural yet performant ingredient alternatives: The most searched ingredients on Covalo reflect this trend and include Bakuchiol, ingredients derived from plants such as mushrooms, aloe vera, CBD, tea tree oil, etc. and pre or probiotic complexes that support the skin microbiome claims.
• ⚗️ But the classic performant ingredients are still in high demand too: These classics include retinol, hyaluronic acid, niacinamide & ingredients used to create chemical skin exfoliators like AHAs, BHAs and PHAs.
• 🧼 Sustainability on the ingredient level is growing in importance also to end consumers: The sustainability conversation in the beauty industry with end consumers focuses mainly on packaging and waterless formats, but there is growing awareness within the industry around sustainability on the ingredient level in everything ranging from the production process to its ecotoxicity and sourcing. We predict this will trickle down and become increasingly communicated by brands to end consumers and not just within the B2B sourcing and manufacturing space.
• 📈 Ingredient search trends: If we look at Covalo’s search data, “Plant extracts”, “oils”, “acid”, “powder” and “surfactants” have been among the most searched keywords in 2021, and the most used sustainability claim filters this year have been “Natural”, “Plant-based”, “Vegan”, “Botanical”, “Cruelty-free” and “Biodegradable”, with “Plant-based” and “Upcycled” filters making the biggest jumps in usage compared to 2020.

Read more about our fab ✨🔥⚡️panelists:

Alissa is CMO of Covalo, one of the largest beauty ingredient and formulation search platforms used by thousands of brands, contract manufacturers, suppliers and other industry players around the globe. Covalo makes beauty product development fast and easy by connecting industry buyers with suppliers, and by featuring industry-relevant filters such as sustainability and performance claims, as well as certifications. Alissa previously worked for a specialty chemicals company where she saw how challenging it can be to not only find the right ingredient because the market’s so fragmented, but also to formulate, test, and find the right packaging when creating a finished beauty product. She is half American, half Thai and resides in Germany.

Carolina is the CEO and co-founder of OneSkin, Latin America FaB Chapter Leader and member of the Science of Beauty Collective — She holds a Ph.D. in stem cell biology and is an alumnus of IndieBio, the world’s leading biotechnology accelerator. She relocated to Silicon Valley from Latin America in 2016 to co-found OneSkin, a longevity company on a mission to extend the health of your skin and body. Along with a team of five PhDs and longevity scientists, OneSkin have identified a novel proprietary peptide, OS-01, which is the first compound validated to reverse your skin’s biological age, and is the main ingredient of their flagship product, OS-01 Topical Supplement. Carolina is Brazilian and lives in San Francisco.

Jana is the CEO and founder of EPIC BRANDS, a female-led brand operating firm with an executive team hailing from across the globe. Originally from Prague, now based in Santa Monica, Jana and her team manage innovation-centric, future category-leading brand operations + multi-platform, international revenue growth of the businesses, both strategically and on a day-to-day basis. With an EPIC understanding of end-to-end operations, value chain, performance metrics, and cash-flow requirements in the beauty and wellness sectors, in two short years, Jana and her team at EPIC have helped multiple brands accelerate from $0 — to $10M in 18-months.

Liza is partner at SHADOW, a creative marketing communications agency focused on public relations, influencer marketing, events, and content development. As a leading PR and marketing expert, Liza maintains extensive relationships with fashion and beauty media, leveraging her expertise in brand development, strategy, feature story procurement and deep relationships within the broadcast community to service SHADOW’s clients. She employs creative strategies that thoughtfully utilize media to introduce, shape and re-launch brands, products, personalities and executives. Her unparalleled industry expertise and creative energy have been sought out by powerhouse brands including La Mer, Moroccanoil, Sun Bum & Baby Bum, e.l.f Cosmetics, Keys Soulcare, Conair, ColourPop, Florence by Mills, Dior Beauty and more. Liza was recently named one of PRNews’ Top Women in PR in 2020. She is from New York City and currently resides there.

Feel free to reach out to the panelists via LinkedIn if you have any questions!

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