Europe’s Buzziest Beauty Start-ups

GLOSSOM

Glossom is a Berlin-based software company focused on beauty services founded by Fatih Girisken and Isaiah Pegues. Its app was launched at the end of 2016 and the services side of the business about one-and-a-half years ago.

Most recently, Glossom has been working with L’Oréal and the beauty group’s partners to create a review widget.

“We close the gap between the consumers and the brands, where we create systems that allow brands to push new products or products that they’re testing to consumers and receive authentic feedback that directly embeds in their web site,” explained Pegues. “We make it one seamless process, from the time a person actually receives the product from one of the brands. They review it, upload it, and the brand can actually push the content directly to their web site within a few seconds.”

In the case of L’Oréal, products are reviewed by Glossom’s community and uploaded to the Glossom application. Next the Glossom-sourced videos are embedded directly onto a L’Oréal web site, most recently for L’Oréal Professionnel’s new Steam Pod, found at lorealprofessionnel.com/int/steampod-3.

You May Also Like

Industry sources estimate Glossom makes about 100,000 euros in annual sales.

View Gallery

Related Gallery

Proenza Schouler RTW Spring 2021

It is the brainchild of Yoann Assouline, Johan Adida and Fanny Adida, who set out to build a nutria-cosmetics laboratory with the aim of producing Europe’s leading beauty gummies brand.

Lashilé Beauty, which was launched direct-to-consumer but quickly rolled out to French pharmacies (to be in about 2,000 of them today), markets a range of eight gummies, including Good Hair, Good Sun, Good Skin and Good Detox. Its most recent additions were Good Slim, Good Diet and Good Burn. A bottle of 60 gummies sells for about 25 euros.

The brand retails online via its own e-commerce and pharmacies’ platforms. It has run a TV campaign in France and advertisements on social media.

Lashilé Beauty is entering the U.K., with a launch soon on Lookfantastic.com and an introduction in a big drugstore chain expected in early 2021.

The brand, which offers a subscription service, too, generates sales of approximately 15 million euros per year, according to industry sources.

Lashilé Beauty Courtesy of Lashilé Beauty

MA COIFFEUSE AFRO

Rebecca Cathline recognized that most women of color in France do not have access to a salon specializing in their type of hair. So she and Emmanuel Derozin, now serving as the company’s chief technology officer, launched the Ma Coiffeuse Afro application four years ago. Through it, Black and mixed-race women can easily book stylists for at-home appointments and learn about products meeting their needs.

The platform, which involves more than 300 stylists, has built up a significant following, especially among Millennials. To date, Ma Coiffeuse Afro has 150,000 users and 186,000 Instagram followers, while its site counts around 10 million total page views and 360,000 monthly views.

Industry sources estimate Ma Coiffeuse Afro rings up about 90,000 euros in sales yearly.

The brand last week expanded its In Haircare vegan ingestible range — which began one year ago with capsules cocreated with the app’s community — with dietary gummy supplements. A bottle of 180 gummies is priced at 70 euros on inhaircare.co.

The next step geographically is for Ma Coiffeuse Afro to expand into another European country.

Ma Coiffeuse Afro Courtesy of Ma Coiffeuse Afro

PROVERB LIFEFUELLED SKINCARE

Luke and Kirstie Sherriff launched Proverb Lifefuelled Skincare three years ago, with the stated aim “to make amazing, clean, natural and organic products that are better for human health and performance, the planet and its people.”

“Our mission is to make refillable products cool to a generation that want to engage with them,” explained Luke Sherriff, a former professional rugby player, who has channeled his knowledge of health for elite sportspeople into Proverb.

Kirstie Sherriff, his wife, has developed beauty schools and an organic spa product line, plus treatment protocols for spa therapists.

Based in the U.K.’s Midlands region, Proverb counts 10 products, with the most recent addition being a refillable natural deodorant in January.

Prices for Proverb products range from 15 pounds for hygiene products to 50 pounds for a fragrance. They are sold directly on the brand’s own platform, Proverbskin.com, as well as through salons and gyms in the U.K. and Dubai. The brand has been carried in the House of Fraser’s Beast men’s skin-care section.

Upcoming is an upgraded Proverb web site, allowing people to build their own deodorants, starting later this month and a new eco-conceived headquarters in a converted barn. Proverb hopes to be certified as a B Corporation in 2021.

Industry sources estimate the brand’s sales this year will reach about 120,000 pounds.

 

VeraLab

One of the most recent successful companies in Italy’s beauty scene is the entrepreneurial venture of Cristina Fogazzi, a social personality best known as Estetista Cinica (or Cynical Esthetician).

As owner of the Bellavera beauty salon in Milan, Fogazzi created a blog to share her experience and answer questions from local beauty aficionados. Her bubbly, girl-next-door attitude and pragmatic suggestions rooted in self-acceptance and body inclusivity quickly gained her a large following — now counting 722,000 users on Instagram — which eventually convinced her to capitalize on her influence and launch the VeraLab skin- and body-care brand in 2015.

Boosted by catchy communication and affordable prices, the brand’s business boomed exponentially to generate 29 million euros in sales last year. Then during the pandemic, Fogazzi’s business made 39 million euros in the first nine months of 2020, with online sales accounting for 35 million euros. Overall, the company’s goal is to hit 50 million euros in revenues this year.

In addition to e-commerce, in 2019 VeraLab opened a flagship store in Milan. The brand is also distributed in Fogazzi’s salon and more than 60 retailers in Italy, including the Rinascente department store and the Pinalli perfumery chain. Last summer, a VeraLab Beauty truck sold products across Italy.

From VeraLab. Courtesy of VeraLab

Source: Read Full Article