- Hello everybody! I'm back.
Today we're going to be talking with Karen Young.
Hi Karen! How are you doing?
- I'm great, thank you,
cause we're talking about my favorite subject.
- Okay, so we're going to talk about
how to launch a cosmetics line,
and I've brought to you Karen,
who is a cosmetics or beauty pro
when it comes to this stuff.
- So they tell me.
- (laughs) and so she's going to talk to us
about the landscape, how we can attempt to launch something
and then you're going to give us some tips, right?
- Its some secret tips, secret sauce yes.
- Ooh secret tips! Oh I'm super excited about this.
Okay, so if I wanted to launch a product,
how would I go about doing it?
- Well, first of all you'd need thick skin.
- Oh no! (laughs)
- Believe me I'm sorry.
And a really good idea.
It is very very competitive,
we're launching in the united states,
about 1000 indie brands a year.
- 1000 indie brands.
- It's incomprehensible. And the statistics,
I hate to do reality check here,
- Are not with me?
- The statistics are not good.
- Okay what is it.
- According to Mckinsey, 80% of the launches,
and it's not just in beauty, it's startups in pretty much
any industry in the United States,
80% won't last two years,
But, don't get, don't get discouraged, don't get discouraged
my secret sauce is going to help you out here.
There are things that you can do,
when you jump into the beauty industry,
to at least put, put the meter on your side,
and we'll talk about those,
but it is highly competitive, you need a great idea
that isn't out there obviously,
or a new story to tell
or a new technology, and you need-
- So you gotta be bringing something new to the table,
don't expect to do the same old stuff.
- No because its a very mature, saturated market,
as I'm sure everybody whose listening to us knows.
And its tough to find that white space,
the good news is it is,
its simple, it is not easy
it is simple to launch a brand, thanks to the internet
- Right
- Nobody has to go into Macys anymore,
and there are lots of resources for doing that,
there are lots of, an enormous amount of trade shows,
- Great
- Where you can find experts to help you do that,
but it is, it's a journey.
- Okay so you need to know, you're saying,
there's steps. There's achievable steps,
if you know what the steps are,
you're going to have more success,
but that doesn't mean that it's easy,
you're still going to have to put in a lot of hard work
- Hard work.
- But that's why I've invited you today,
- (laughs) okay, pressure's on.
- Pressure is on!
So you've been in the beauty industry for a long time,
you have a lot of experience, right?
- I do, I do, it's the only industry I know,
which is pathetic, but it's so much fun,
why wouldn't you want to do this?
- And so you've been able to grow with it.
What companies have you worked at?
- I grew up at Estee Lauder,
in marketing and product development.
And then I went to the Lancome brand at L'Oreal,
their Prestige division,
and I was Vice President of Marketing
and Product Development there, for many years,
and that was really when we began to see
the scratching at the surface of small brands.
makeup artist brands, physicians wanting to launch skin care
and I said, you know what,
I'm done with this corporate thing,
I really want to go play on the sidewalk
with these young brands, with all this energy,
so I set up my own consulting company
many years ago, don't do the math,
and um, I split my business, I still strangely enough
work with Estee Lauder, and L'Oreal,
I do projects for them, but my true love
is helping young brands get in the market.
- That's fantastic, because a lot of people that watch me
are small, up-and-coming, formulators,
people who are making their own cosmetic products,
and a lot want to do their own-
- Well kudos for all of you,
because the beauty of this industry, pardon the pun,
there's always room for a great idea,
a new concept, somebody with an authentic story to tell
that's carved out, even if it's a niche market,
and sometimes that's better, that you're really speaking
to someone who has, perhaps, a specific issue,
a specific want, because as I love to tell people
in the beauty industry, as I love to remind people,
we make products people want, not products that people need.
- Ah right.
- Right, although I would dispute that
because we need our beauty products, but I'm just saying.
We make products that people want,
so we have to make them, we have to be passionate
about the products that we're creating
and we have to make sure that we're creating love
so that people are dying and obsessed
to come and play with us.
- Nice, I was going to ask you really quickly
what makes the new world of beauty so competitive,
or was it, there wasn't as many players as one time,
how did things open up?
- Internet. Honestly, the ability for a brand to speak
directly to the customer today,
because up until, lets say, ten years ago,
you were going through the retailer.
Whether you were in a department store,
or in a mass market store, and you were relying
on the retailer to get your brand message out.
- Okay.
- You could do some television advertising,
or some print, old fash-,
does anyone know what print advertising is?
Nevermind.
Um but today, you have a voice as a brand,
it's your blog it's your website,
- Right.
- You are talking directly to the consumer,
getting that instant feedback.
So there's this intimate relationship
that didn't exist before.
- So we're no longer dependent anymore, right?
Like we can create, our own, our own kind of pathway
and bring our product to people who like it.
- And that's exhilarating!
And it just opens up all kinds of doors,
and all kinds of opportunities.
- Excellent, I want to pause here for a moment
because we have some people here joining us,
Hi Mohammad, it's nice to see you,
thanks for joining us today.
Nina Molina, Hola, how you doing?
Let us know where you're from!
Danny Mondi, I recognize you from an earlier video,
thank you for joining us again, I have Karen Young here,
- This is so cool.
- And, if you've ever wanted to start your own beauty brand
I know I've fantasized about it, but if you have too
we're brought you Karen to talk about some tips,
to get you to be able to navigate the chaos,
that's currently out there in the beauty industry,
right, to help you launch your brand.
So you have some tips for us.
- Well advice. You know it's-
- Okay
- It's tough to, its a difficult, challenging as you know,
complicated industry, it is self regulated,
there is no guidebook saying,
here are the top ten rules to launching your own product,
I continue to say that, number one,
you really have to have a great idea.
And that can be a concept, a product, a technology,
something that doesn't exist, a problem,
something, whatever it is, but it has to be amazing.
And then you have to do your homework.
Because, you really need at the rate young brands
are launching, you really have to know
what's going on out there.
You have to be aware of,
whose playing in the same space I want to play in,
how are they doing it, how are they talking about it,
and what's different with my story?
And how can I get that consumer to come and play with me.
- So not only a cool idea, but you need to know your market.
So that's very important, that's where the business side-
- You need to know your market.
You really do, and sometimes I will have
in young indie owners, say but I want to sell to everybody.
That's not really a target market,
you really do need to define whom you're talking to,
it's like having a conversation.
If I'm talking to you,
we're going to have an intimate dialogue
I want to learn about you, I want to speak directly to you
That's very different from talking to a roomful of people.
- True
- And as a brand, we really want have this one on one
dialogue, so that's very important.
- When you say market, it would be like,
uh would it be like 20 to three to-
- I would even go smaller,
- Smaller? Okay.
- I love to pick a person,
as my target market, so that I really know who she is
what kind of music does she listen to,
what kind of food does she eat,
what does she wear, does she like color,
what kind of car does she drive,
does she have a pet?
Because then I start to know, who she is.
Then my brand can really speak directly to her
not like over her head and to her 14 friends.
- So identify-
- Does that make sense?
- Yeah, identify the persons lifestyle, maybe
- Really intimately, absolutely.
- That's fantastic.
- And then you need some experts in your life,
you need some people to point out the speed bumps,
because there are many.
- That's what I was going to ask you,
how did you learn?
- The hard way.
- (laughs) like we all do!
- Yeah, exactly. I was at Estee Lauder a long time ago,
and actually then marketing and product people
were trained, companies don't do that anymore
there's no time.
You hit the ground running and you figure it out,
same is true of indie brands getting into this industry,
they learn by making mistakes,
so find somebody who can help you point out
where those mistakes might be,
and lets go around them, or over them,
not crash into them.
- Right! (laughs)
There are going to be mistakes anyway, I imagine
- Its inevitable,
because our industry is half science and half art,
creating product is an art,
so there's no right or wrong,
there's no rules, as I said, there's no handbook.
- That's kind of the beauty of it in some way.
- Isn't it? Don't you think?
- I think so, yeah
- I love that
- I mean it's scary, don't get me wrong,
very scary, but also really beautiful.
I want to acknowledge some people who have joined us,
really quickly.
We have IG: skinthana, Hi its good to see you!
I'm here with Karen, and she's giving us some advice
on how to launch a beauty brand.
I also have midsommar, thank you so much for joining!
Nina Melina, you're from Argentina!
This chat is amazing, thanks for sharing
Well thank you Karen, for being here!
I really appreciate it.
And sharing your expertise with all of us.
So remind me again,
what companies did you work for previously,
before you launched your own-
- Before I launched my own?
- Exactly.
- I was at Estee Lauder, for many years,
on the Estee Lauder brand,
and then I was in L'Oreal working on the Lancome brand.
Then I said, time to be an indie! Let's join the fun here.
- And it sounds like you're really busy,
so there's plenty of indie brands to help out.
- Its so much fun, the industry is just great,
And despite the fact that no one seems to know
where the economy is going,
everybody wants beauty products, I mean,
you know, why not?
Can't have too much red lipstick,
really I must have 500 of them.
- Its very uplifting, right, you know.
- It is!
- Cosmetics is a play space now,
- Truly
- Even more so than I think it was in the past.
- Good point, yeah.
- Exactly, so save your questions for Karen,
I'm going to let you continue with the advice,
but if you have any questions,
save them towards the end and we'll make sure
to try and get them all answered.
All right, what other advice do you have for us?
- Well there's the question of money,
this doesn't happen for free,
- We forget about that don't we,
don't come with empty pockets.
- I know, I have a reality check tab on my website
and one of the reality checks is,
it will cost twice as much as you think.
- Twice as much as you think.
- And people hate hearing this,
but the fact is,
while you can make a product in you kitchen,
and have a neighbor build a website and put it up,
there's a lot more to it than that.
- Okay
- And creating formulas, buying packaging,
influencers, you need a marketing strategy
to drive people to your website,
all of this costs money, and the issue is
because of the enormous competition,
you need enough money to stay in the market.
So, you launch, but what are you going to do
for the first two years?
While you're building your audience,
- You know I didn't think of that, it takes-
- Nobody does.
- Two years? It takes two years! Like to launch?
- Usually it takes four.
- Four years?
- It usually takes four years on average.
- Phew, so be patient, its not impossible,
she's saying not impossible, be patient.
- Be patient is excellent advice,
it takes twice as long and costs twice as much,
as everybody thinks its going to.
Because you have to find the right ingredients,
and find the right formulator, and find the right packaging
and you think you've got a website,
and tomorrow you change your mind.
I want the home page to look...
It takes a long time.
- So it's really just like life,
where you know, you intend to do this certain thing,
and you kinda like, take this weird-
- It is like life, yeah, it just takes longer.
- It just takes longer (laughs)
- You just sorta have to love the journey,
you have to love doing the homework,
you have to love discovering that you don't know
as much as you thought you knew,
- Right.
- You have to love the exploration,
because that is part of the process,
and the more time you spend doing your homework
the better off you will be, once it's,
once it's your turn to get that formula in that packaging,
and get it on your website.
- That's great, now one thing you mentioned earlier
that I want to bring up,
is that you also mentioned,
that you have to follow the trends,
Is that correct?
- Well, yeah, you have to sort out what's a fad,
and what's a trend.
- Oh That's a good point, okay.
- And there are some enormous trends today
that are very consumer driven,
and we all know the wonderful power of today's consumer,
she's really the one, making decisions
certainly about what she's purchasing,
and the old, the old days of advertising driving something
as we used to say, Madison avenue driving the trends, no,
its the consumer today.
- Wow, so it's you! You guys are more in power.
- No, its completely, completely true.
And I would say the biggest category that's affecting
the beauty industry, is this notion of,
well, health and wellness,
and as you all know, it's not just beauty,
it is nutrition, it is managing stress,
it is getting enough sleep,
it is exercising, getting fresh air,
having a significant other in your life,
we know, is excellent for your health.
So beauty is only one piece of that.
And consumers are very aware of that today,
they don't think that, if my skins not great,
if I just get the right cream it'll fix my skin.
Not if you're not sleeping, spending hours on an airplane,
eating garbage food, and never getting outside
and getting some clean fresh air.
- Right
- So I think that's really, if I had to pick one,
that is the biggest consumer driver.
She's looking at all parts of her life,
she's trying to buy more nutritious food,
and food and beauty are very linked,
so at the same time she's reading ingredient labeling
on her beauty products, saying hmmm,
do I understand what's in here?
- Right. So it's the wellness trend.
- It really is, it's huge.
And you know, that leads us into,
wellness for the planet, which is sustainability,
and that whole gigantic topic of sustainability,
and recycling, and clean beauty,
is then feeding right off of that
very holistic approach to taking care of ourselves.
- That is-
- Its a huge driver.
- Fantastic. I was going to ask you one more question.
I don't know if you can share it,
- Oh okay.
- But maybe some, brands that you've worked with?
And areas that you've worked with them in.
So while you think about that,
I'm going to look to you guys,
I want to know if you guys have any questions for Karen,
she's helping us understand what it takes,
to launch your own cosmetics line,
So if you have any questions, feel free to ask them now.
Let's see who's joined us in the meantime,
I've have um two people who've joined,
Hi, it's nice to see you, thank you for joining us,
I'm with Karen, and we have fairentosh farms,
hello thanks for being here, I really, really appreciate it
So do you-
- Such fun.
- Do you have any examples to share with us real fast?
- Favorite, favorite brands, favorite indie brands?
- Sure, that'll be great
- Some I've worked on, some I haven't,
I think just some of my favorites,
that come to mind.
- Okay
- There's a relatively new brand,
from a woman who has a long history in the industry,
but she named the brand BeautyPie,
and if you've-
- BeautyPie!
- I know isn't the name adorable?
And she's working directly with contract manufactures
to keep the pricing down,
but because she's an industry expert,
she's making sure they're fabulous high quality products,
- Great.
- So that's a current favorite,
a company called Body Stones, which is skincare,
she, this is a former pastry chef, who lives in Brooklyn,
and started using, finding organic shea butter,
because she was having some skin issues of her own,
molding the shea butter in pastry molds,
and making these wonderful, what she calls body stones,
in beautiful shapes, and she chose a kind of shea butter
that has a very low melting point,
so it looks like a bar of soap, but its quite soft,
and you actually rub it directly on your skin.
- Nice, okay.
- Beautiful, very simple ingredients,
and she packages the stones in bamboo,
so it recyclable, reusable material,
and she has an amazing story,
I love the whole pastry chef coming in,
Again, food moving into beauty.
- It's a good example of, how you were saying,
you want to have a trend, which is the wellness,
but then having your own take on it, having your own.
- And that's why it's such a good example,
because, there's plenty of shea butter around,
but here she's combining her love of food and pastry,
using her pastry mold, and saying you know what,
I want something real clean and pure on my body,
because I want to know exactly what's going on my skin.
- Right, that makes sense!
So we have two comments,
Vincent says "that's such a great idea"
that is pretty neat, what I'll do is,
I will link to the brands that you've mentioned,
so you know, if your aspiring to launch you own brand,
you can-
- Take a look,
- Look at the brands, yeah, maybe get some ideas of your own
Nina Molina says, "What is the knowledge I should have,
chemistry, biology or just a thirst to make it?"
- Well if you're not a chemist or biologist, hire one.
Because what you need is the passion and the energy,
because its a long journey,
you need the energy, the passion and the goal.
So if you're really driven to create something,
if you're not a chemist or biologist,
find one of those to be part of your team,
and use their know- you know what
you can't be an expert in everything.
- That's a good point.
- Right you can't!
- There's so many things you have to deal with.
- And that's why one of those key things you need,
is a really good team, you can't do it all.
In the beginning most founders do,
and that's great, so you learn a little bit about all
of those categories,
but at the end of the day you can't do sales,
and finance, and product development, and legal,
and distribution, I mean, oh my god.
-How do people find their teams?
- Homework.
- Homework. Do your homework.
- And join organizations, in the category.
So if you, if you want to launch beauty products
come to trade shows
- Yes, just like this! We're at a trade show right now
In-Cosmetics in New York City.
- Exactly, join Cosmetic Executive Women,
network and start building a resource list
of those people you know you're going to need.
- That's great, build your community,
and we're going to leave on that note.
If you want to continue, with this discussion,
then you can catch us next on Facebook, okay?
Look me up, and this beautiphile on Facebook,
and I will put some information about you
and some of your articles into the description
later on, this video, so that you guys can check them out,
okay?
All right, see you later, bye!