FastCompany
These Natural Beauty Brands Are Using Big Data To Give Skin Care a Makeover
By: Elizabeth Segran
Store associates at Follain are used to hearing people’s intimate secrets. Tara Foley, who founded the natural beauty chain in 2013, says it’s not unusual for employees at its locations in New York and Boston to be the first to learn that, for instance, someone is pregnant. That only makes sense when you think about the nature of the business. “Doctors advise women to stop using certain chemicals during their pregnancy,” Foley tells Fast Company. “So they come here as soon as they find out, looking for alternative beauty products.”
Unfortunately, it is not always good news that brings people into the store. Follain often sees customers who have recently been diagnosed with serious illnesses like cancer. When patients are undergoing a harsh treatment that makes their immune system vulnerable, like chemotherapy, they are generally encouraged to stay clear of toxins in their creams and soaps, and research shows that over 90% of cancers are caused by lifestyle factors, including pollutants in products. “Sometimes, it’s the first time that they realize that chemicals in their skin care are carcinogenic,” Foley says.
Natural beauty techniques have existed since the dawn of civilization, but over the last half century, they’ve been eclipsed by big pharmaceutical companies and conglomerates—from Johnson & Johnson to Estee Lauder—that manufacture ingredients in labs. You might have come across the occasional bottle of natural soap or shampoo in a health food store, but until five years ago, few had managed to break into the mainstream. Clean brands like Beautycounter, Bite Beauty, and Juice Beauty are now gaining traction, but for every success story, there are also dozens of smaller brands that are struggling to find customers.
Foley wants to give them a platform.
Today, she’s relaunching Follain’s website to make it a place where consumers can learn about the most effective natural beauty brands on the market and, importantly, find the appropriate combination of products for their specific needs. Follain is already very selective about picking brands—it only stocks 57 of them. And it only stocks a couple of each brand’s products, ones it has tested to ensure they deliver on their promises. Until now, customers would learn about these products by speaking to knowledgeable Follain store representatives, but starting today, online customers can get the same kind of customized recommendations. This kind of education and personalization, Foley believes, is necessary to convince consumers to give natural beauty a try.
In Foley’s experience, many consumers turn away from natural brands because they believe they are ineffective and unable to address problems like acne, rosacea, or wrinkles. Part of this has to do with the fact that the industry is so fragmented, so brands creating problem-solving products are often lumped together with brands that pour some random oils into a bottle and call it a miracle lotion.
But part of it is also that consumers believe that you need to suffer, on some level, for beauty. “There’s this pervasive notion that the toxins in products are actually what makes them work,” Foley says. “But when you think about it, that makes no sense at all: Skin care problems are often a result of imbalances caused by toxins.”
DATA-DRIVEN BEAUTY
Follain is partnering with brands that take a rigorous, science-based approach to natural beauty. One of them is True Botanicals, a two-year-old startup founded by Hillary Peterson, a former marketing executive at Levi’s, and Christina Mace-Turner, a former director of content strategy at Apple. Like many of Follain’s customers, Peterson came to natural beauty after receiving devastating news—in her case, she learned she had thyroid cancer two decades ago. “I started learning more about what causes cancer, and I was shocked to discover how unregulated the beauty industry is,” she says. “There are many dangerous ingredients outlawed in Europe that American companies are allowed to use.”
Back then, there weren’t many mainstream natural beauty brands on the market, so Peterson began looking into what it would take to create her own natural skin care line. The problem, she discovered, is that while lab-concocted ingredients are scientifically tested for efficacy (sometimes on rats), the powers of natural ingredients tended to be shared by word of mouth or passed from generation to generation in traditional communities.
True Botanicals, which is based in Mill Valley, California, has invested heavily in building a team of chemists and scientific advisers who can help create formulations that work. They include Terrence Collins, a professor of green chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University, and Kurt Schnaubelt, the founder and scientific director of the Pacific Institute of Aromatherapy. The brand also does clinical trials, much like the bigger beauty brands do. It has discovered that its anti-aging serum works better than Crème de La Mer across every test measurement from wrinkle reduction to increased hydration, and its acne regimen outperforms Proactiv+ in reducing acne lesions over time.
The Good Stuff: a nourishing body oil with plant oils and minerals. [Photo: courtesy of May Lindstrom Skin]
Mace-Turner, the True Botanicals’ CEO, who came from the tech world, was surprised to learn exactly how the beauty industry works. “In their labs, beauty brands are often trying to find cheaper chemical equivalents to the natural ingredients that are known to work,” she says. “Our products sometimes cost five times more to make than a non-natural brand. The only way the economics of our business work is because we sell primarily directly to consumers, without the added retailer markup,” she says.
The brand’s website lists ingredients in each product and explains what each does. Camellia seed oil, for instance, fights free radical damage that causes wrinkles, and calendula flower extract is antibacterial. Partnering with Follain is useful, Mace-Turner says, because it serves as a sort of marketing engine, helping consumers discover products that work for them and learn about the brand’s philosophy.
