The Beauty Business of Being Lisa Eldridge – WWD

London – Lisa Eldridge’s first beauty counter at Selfridges sits between Augustine Bader, Gucci Westman and Hourglass. That should tell anyone enough where her brand sits in the industry.

The business has been following a direct-to-consumer model for three years and has dipped its toes into retail and pop-ups to better understand the market.

“I love the history of Selfridges because it’s the first place where cosmetics are seen. It’s featured in my documentary. [‘Makeup: A Glamorous History’] And I shot some of my documentaries there too. It was my first choice for the first door,” Eldridge told WWD.

She spent most of her time on the floor training makeup artists at her desk to transform into mini versions of herself.

Eldridge’s experiences cover both high street and luxury brands. She was Creative Director of Boots No7 for 10 years before joining Lancôme as Global Creative Director in 2015, overseeing product development, advertising campaigns and digital strategy, developing, designing and launching.

For her own brand, she went down the slow and difficult path of owning her IP formulas, rather than buying integrated formulas and putting her name on them.

“It’s gotten to the point where something like Cosmoprof, which has had a lot of trade shows, where influencers go, see a formula and say, ‘OK, I’m going to put my label on that and I’m going to. ‘I’ll launch it in two months’ is good. I’m not knocking it, which is fine, but I think what people want right now is to know if it’s the formula,” Eldridge explained.

In the year In 2016, she discovered a raw material called Filmexel for her foundation at Cosmoprof, and then took it to Sam Farmer, then president of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists.

“I’m constantly reading papers from the London College of Fashion as the young cosmetic scientists are coming out,” Eldridge says.

“At the end of the day, makeup has become entertainment,” she added, adding that consumers enjoy entertainment, but often turn to her when it comes to finding something they can trust for a lifetime.

After starting work on her foundation, she is working on mascara at the same time and will finally release it soon.

“A lot more products are coming out, because now I’ve had five years to develop a lot of these formulas. For my audience, there’s a deep, deep understanding and knowledge of the formulas, so they really appreciate that.” Eldridge said.

This has been reflected in the busyness of her make-up site, which launched in Selfridges last month, as well as her flying in from all over the world to meet the English-New Zealand make-up artist and personally meet and greet VIP customers. Artist.

Elfridge’s biggest following comes from the US, her social channels and her customers. England, Germany, Australia and Canada follow.

“Now I’m growing a lot in Asia. I sell directly from my website, but the chatter in the forums and what I’m getting back is that there is high demand and resale value across Asia because the products are so hard to find,” she explains.

Eldridge will expand into another British store in September, this time Liberty. She is currently in discussions with retailers in the United States and other territories around the world.

“My first startup paid for my second startup, my second. [paid for] My third launch. Anyway, they were like drops at that time. “I was shocked at how much I sold,” she said honestly.

Although the business has so far been primarily self-sustaining, Eldridge decided in 2010 to It took “a very small investment” from Mark Esri, founder of London-based venture capital fund 2021 and a long-time champion of Britain’s small businesses. The first investors by Charlotte Tilbury.

In August of last year, Arlette hired Seymour as Chief Operating Officer to join her team. Seymour previously held the position of senior vice president at Hourglass and was a Hong Kong buyer for Lan Crawford.

I waited three years without anyone finding the right person. [for the role of chief operating officer]. It’s a chemistry thing. I’m excited about some of the bolder things she’s going to come up with, so if I’m happy with it, for me, that’s great,” Eldridge said of her hiring process, praising Seymour’s corporate background.