Beauty is a £4billion a year business, and guess what, it's the beauty rebels who are really making a mark. Nadine Baggott chats to the industry's creative thinkers, the innovators who are pushing beauty boundaries to bring us the most ground-breaking, innovative products. Read the full story in HELLO!, out now.
While companies such as L'Oréal and Estée Lauder dominate the beauty industry, they are on the lookout for smaller, more creative brands and are fast snapping them up. In the past year, IT Cosmetics, Too Faced and Becca have all been bought, joining the likes of Frédéric Malle, Killan, Le Labo, GlamGlow and Rodin. Despite the number of big-name brands on the market, it's the beauty rule breakers who are grabbing all of the attention in the industry.
Among them is DECIEM founder Brandon Truaxe, who has just shaken up the idea that you only get what you pay for in skincare with the launch of The Ordinary, a range of anti-ageing, high performance skincare serums and creams that cost between £4.90 and £12.
"I knew what active ingredients cost from launching Niod and Hylamide and I was shocked that so many very cheap but very effective ingredients like hyaluronic acid, vitamin C and vitamin B3 could be put in a standard cream and sold for hundreds of pounds," he said. "If I tell you that I still make money on my products, would you ever spend hundreds of pounds on a product again?"
Meanwhile Farah Naz, cosmetic chemist and founder of EX1, had to break down a massive beauty barrier when she couldn’t find a foundation that suited her skin colour.
"I was on the quest for a high-quality foundation that matched my olive skin tone. There was a glaring gap in the market for affordably priced foundations that literally micro-matched skin, so as a scientist I started analysing human skin tones. I looked at pigments and formulas that were on the market and I knew that I could do it much, much better. After two years of blood, sweat and R&D, I launched EX1 Cosmetics."
Farah added: "Large companies are resistant to change as they are too scared of failure and taking risks. In fact, the real risk lies in keeping things the same."
Read the full feature in HELLO!, out now.