Tag Archives: Beauty

News

Cosmetic powerhouse Trinny London enlists Excellent Zephyr and Patchworks to beautify business operations

One of Europe’s fastest-growing D2C beauty brands, Trinny London, has modernised its business operations and in turn enhanced its customer experience with the help of the leading digital agency, Excellent Zephyr and Patchworks (iPaas) platform.

Since 2017, Trinny London has exploded onto the beauty and skincare scene with its innovative and high-quality products. Founded by CEO Trinny Woodall, the brand uses a unique diagnosis tool, Match2Me, to generate a personalised combination of products distinctive to each consumer.

Built for a diverse customer base, 43 percent of customers are between the ages of 45 and 54 years old; 22 percent, 22 to 34 years old, and 20 percent are 55 and over. The brand is supported by a loyal, online community, the “Trinny Tribes,” which attract over 100,000 members in over 30 countries worldwide.

Originally conceived as a digital-first business, Trinny London now sells its products instore through the British department stores Fenwick and Harvey Nichols, and has just announced its first permanent retail presence in the U.S at Saks Fifth Avenue. Retail spaces are powerful at driving brand engagement and loyalty in the age of ecommerce, and last year’s Sak’s pop-up was proof of just that, as hundreds of the brand’s Trinny Tribe community members traveled to New York City from across the East Coast and as far as the Midwest to purchase products in-store.

To support the brands projected business growth, Trinny London implemented NetSuite’s solution to optimise its back-end operations. “With a growing product portfolio and multiple sales channels we needed to have real-time visibility across the entire operation, accessible from anywhere at any time. As the UK faces a cost of living crisis and impeding financial challenges, the ability to streamline our operations and make strategic business decisions at speed and with agility is vital to our growth,” commented Taher Khaliq, Chief Technology Officer at Trinny London.

However, due to multiple project complications they looked for additional support and after a competitive pitch, Excellent Zephyr was selected to provide much needed expertise and advice to get the project live.

Having evaluated Trinny London’s technical requirements, Excellent Zephyr prepared a cutover plan and provided the brand with experienced consultants, dedicated technical resources and project management to achieve a successful go-live.

Khaliq continued: “Prior to Excellent Zephyr’s involvement the project had been running for 10 months with no sight of completion. When Excellent Zephyr got hands on, they spent time learning about elements of our business, how we work and what the issues had been to-date. Working around us and our processes, they then took ownership of the NetSuite implementation and got us live within three months of taking the lead.”

In order to seamlessly connect the software to Trinny London’s existing technology stack, Excellent Zephyr enlisted the support of the cutting edge retail integration platform, Patchworks.

Ady Collins, Chief Operation Officer at Patchworks said: “The challenge that many retailers currently face is having an existing, diverse and established tech stack, that struggles to connect and provide strategic data insights. We’re thrilled to have been able to seamlessly connect Trinny London’s software, allowing them to make informed decisions and improve overall business performance, based on data across the entire business. We’re excited to see the results over the coming months!”

Trinny London grew by 330 percent in 2020, with revenues reaching 55 million pounds at the end of 2021. Skincare, which launched earlier this year, and in less than five months now comprises 32 percent of sales.

Ian Moore, Head of Services at Excellent Zephyr concluded: “We’re delighted to be working with such an innovative, fast growth and disruptive brand like Trinny London. Their integrated NetSuite solution can scale to support their ambitious business operations so that they can overcome any challenges head on and can continue to grow their business with confidence.”

Hair and Beauty, News, South West

Virgile + Partners launches the latest H beauty premium destination in Bristol

Global design specialist Virgile + Partners has worked with Harrods to launch H beauty Bristol, located in The Mall, Cribbs Causeway. This marks the fourth H beauty location to open as part of a wider rollout by Harrods to use their longstanding knowledge and brand relationships in the beauty sector to create a first-class, standalone beauty experience for local beauty lovers.

Virgile + Partners’ design follows the principles of the previous H beauty stores, with the free flow design approach guiding consumers along with a bespoke pale grey and blush Italian terrazzo tile floor. Keeping in tradition the H beauty teddy bear, Hari, specially tailored to each local area, welcomes customers at the store entrance.

A highlight of any shopping experience is taking a moment to enjoy a coffee or cocktail with friends. With this in mind, Virgile + Partners designed H beauty Champagne Bar. A circular counter with elegant seating and soft lounge seating in an all-day café, serving not only coffee and sweet treats but also a considered menu of speciality cocktails and Harrods Champagne. The cosy space is fully integrated into the store design and adds to the dynamic buzz.

H beauty includes luxury boutiques such as Chanel, Dior and Kiehl’s, as well as other leading make-up, skincare and fragrance brands showcased in a stunning design concept. The latest H beauty store in Cribbs Causeway, Bristol complements its brand offers with added beauty services including Drybar, the UK’s most anticipated blow dry bar, and soon, Townhouse Nails.

The concept was developed and executed by Virgile + Partners, the Harrods internal team and construction consultancy Kendall Kingscott.

 

Ewald Damen, Creative Director and Managing Partner at Virgile and Partners, said:

“Following the successful openings of Lakeside, Milton Keynes and Edinburgh, we’re pleased to see the fourth store open in Bristol. Staying true to the H beauty concept, H beauty Bristol has been further refined and tailored to its location, giving an added layer to the original design. The façade has been developed to be a dynamic and changing element within the design and creates a strong and welcoming entrance. The development and rollout of these stores show how the retail sector is evolving – particularly in destination and focussed retail with added services.”

Hair and Beauty, News

Thérapie Clinic Celebrates Further Store Expansion

Thérapie Clinic are delighted to announce their latest store expansion, opening clinics in Liverpool, Essex’s Lakeside Shopping Centre, Esher, Canary Wharf and Ealing Broadway

Thérapie Clinic’s latest stores now bring its total number to 57 clinics across the UK and Ireland. 

Phillip McGlade, CEO of Thérapie Clinic, said:

“We’re delighted to welcome Lakeside, Liverpool, Esher, Canary Wharf and Ealing Broadway as our new store locations. We’ve always been champions of the UK and Ireland’s high streets and it’s important that we make our services as accessible as possible to our growing customer base. Our ethos has always been to deliver a superior, medical-led service at a fair and reasonable price and, so far, we have delivered more than 5 million treatments to our customer base – a volume which has enabled us to offer our services at an accessible price point. Despite the challenges of the last 18 months, opening new store locations is integral to our future strategy and our long-term goal is to expand further across the UK high street and internationally, too.”

Thérapie Clinic is the fastest-growing aesthetic medical clinic in Europe, with over 200 doctors on their team. Their facilities offer a wide range of aesthetic medical treatments, including laser hair removal, anti-wrinkle injections, dermal fillers and Clear Braces.

Contract Wins, Marketing, PR and SEO, News

Collection Cosmetics appoints Havas Media Manchester as media agency of record as it plans return to paid media

Collection Cosmetics, the award-winning affordable make up brand, has appointed Havas Media Manchester as its media agency following a strategic review.

Havas Media Manchester will now partner with Collection Cosmetics to harness media in order to raise awareness of key product launches amongst a core audience of 16 to 34-year-old make up lovers, and ultimately drive an uplift in sales. It will be the first time Collection Cosmetics has used paid media in two years.

The media strategy will support the relaunch of Collection Cosmetics’ most successful sub brand, Lasting Perfection.

Collection Cosmetics is also tapping into Havas’ unique village proposition with the appointment of Red Havas for PR services.

Annie Anstey, Head of Marketing, Meiyume UK, said: “Havas Media demonstrated an impressive ability to pinpoint and target an audience representing a growth opportunity. They also showed a thorough understanding of our brand challenge, grasping the direction of growth and taking time to get under the skin of our large product offering. We’re very happy to be partnering with them as we return to paid media.”

Stuart Lunn, Managing Director, Havas Media Manchester, said: “We’re thrilled to have been appointed by Collection Cosmetics at what is a very exciting time for the brand. With product launches and the introduction of a new ecommerce platform in the works, it’s fantastic to be working closely with them to drive growth.”

Science

New Vegan smart-test allows for mildness testing without using animals

A new vegan smart-test allows beauty companies to avoid animal testing and prove product mildness by testing on human cells grown in a lab.

91% of consumers report uncomfortable symptoms on their skin including skin tightness, dryness, itching, burning and redness with over a third of consumers avoiding daily life skin care products due to skin reactions.

Beauty and cosmetic companies are under increasing pressure to produce clean beauty products that can boost wellbeing but also detect subtle differences in mildness on the skin. Vegan testing lab XCellR8 has unveiled a ground-breaking new test for more accurately predicting mildness to skin – that is entirely free from animal-products.

The new test uses human skin cells grown in the lab to detect subtle differences in even the mildest of products or ingredients, providing a classification of Non-Irritant, Very Mild, Moderate to Mild, Moderate or Strong/Severe.

In a two-year project, the new mildness test was validated against human volunteer trials with the lab-based data accurately predicting the rank order of human clinical scores, finally allowing brands to determine ‘how gentle is gentle.’ Producing results in as little as six – eight weeks, the XtraMild Test will enable companies to use credible scientific data to support their mildness claims.

The research also unveiled:

· Nurses know best. XCellR8 grows skin in their labs for testing. Whilst the skin grown in the lab was just as effective at predicting mildness as the human volunteer trials, the researchers discovered that specially trained nurses were shown to measure skin irritation more accurately than equipment that measures the redness and temperature of the skin on the volunteers.

· Sustainability does not need to be expensive. Some of the best selling soaps proved more mild than equivalent market leading facial washes.

· Scientific claims can not tell the whole story. One media favourite claims the low pH level of its facial bar contributes to its mildness. And whilst it was classified as moderately mild, 6 out of the 10 soaps tested were milder.

The test is commonly used to assess new baby formulations such as shampoos, foam baths and body washes, providing critical insights into the mildness of the product and comparisons with leading brands. It is highly relevant for a wide variety of other formulation types including facial soaps, cleansers and other skincare items. The ET50 test can also be applied to cosmetic ingredients, such as assessment of the mildness of novel “mild” surfactants against classic surfactants, replacing the traditional tests which often lack relevance and the required level of sensitivity.

Dr Carol Treasure, CEO and Founder of XCellR8 commented on the latest innovation to come from the company:

“Our company ethos to provide world-leading science with world-leading ethics really shone through with this project.

“Existing tests for mildness aren’t accurate as they were designed for irritant chemicals rather than today’s gentle cosmetic ingredients, and were benchmarked against unreliable animal data. In developing a new more sensitive test, we have been able to prove that in vitro test results are as predictive as human volunteer trials as part of the project design. We no longer need to be dependent on out of date animal data as new in vitro techniques provide such a good model of real-life exposure.

“The research project also allowed us to look at the differences in facial cleansers and soaps in the current market place – and highlighted the mildness of many soaps, ultimately allowing the consumer to choose a product that is as mild to their skin as a facial wash whilst being more sustainably packaged.

“The beauty of XtraMild is that it can bring together R&D and marketing, as formulators can now help marketing teams provide solid evidence for their mildness claims.”

XCellR8 is an exclusively vegan laboratory and provides entirely animal-free safety and efficacy tests to the cosmetics, personal care and chemical industries. Already trusted by leading cosmetic and chemical companies around the world, the company does not use serum, tissues or antibodies extracted from animals.