Purpose of work: How bareMinerals creates a "naked beauty" community to share their influence

"Clean", "conscious" and "cruel-free" beauty products are rapidly surpassing the toxic and harmful competitors in the huge (over 50 billion US dollars) female beauty market in the past.

However, Leslie Blodgett was a pioneer woman-which means it can be traced back to the mid-1990s-she first revolutionized skin care because she asked a hesitant question called Bare Escentuals: she could say yes The first truly clean mineral cosmetics.

A few years later, Blodgett often sold out her loose powder foundation kit (with applicator brush), touted its clean USP late night on QVC, and reportedly earning $1.4 million per hour.

By 2011, the New York Times referred to Blodgett as the "Queen of Beauty," a huge influencer in the industry: "Beyond Estee Lauder."

Around that time, Shiseido, Japan's largest cosmetics group, did not blush and spent $1.8 billion for the brand.

"It was sold. It became a little irrelevant," Giles Karamand, president of Bare Escentuals, who runs the bare mine and the BUXOM brand, told us first. It lost its way in the 78 subsidiaries of this behemoth. It is struggling in an increasingly competitive market. "So, when I joined three and a half years ago, I needed to restart it if you wanted," she said. "I went back to the roots that Leslie established. I said,'Did you know? We are a brand that really cares about our users and cares about using minimal ingredients-we don't need to put the entire kitchen sink on your skin . We care about mankind and the earth."

Who makes up your community?

"We really need to go back and make [brand] more relevant to our users," Scalamande said. It has a bit of vanilla since it was sold, and then it spread. "

Scalamandre was influenced by Lead With We Company Toms, Warby Parker and Patagonia. "I think these are brands that really do what they say." But Blodget-and her followers-are still the touchstones of restart.

"Leslie becomes the girlfriend of everyone who has used naked mines," Scalamande said. "I mean, she created this community of women who shared stories with her. She traveled all over the country and became a social pioneer because it was 25 years ago."

The emergence of chat room technology has hit the road travel community. Within a few hours of Blodgett’s first appearance on the channel, BareMinerals’ chat room was packed with hundreds of eager voices, gathered together in what we now call “viral”.

Blodget herself recalled this experience in her book "Quite Good Advice" published in 2020: "I have never heard of the word'community' being used as a business term." She has jumped in, Listen, mix, and become an idol. Blodgett left Bare Escensuals in 2016 to become a full-time student-an amazing story in itself and a summary of the self-confident, unconventional spirit she founded for the company.

Today, Scalamandre reports that customers of bareMinerals are still passionate about the brand and its purpose-to create clean, conscious beauty that is good for the skin, good for the community, and good for the planet. "I mean, these women are very loyal and are our core users because we...talk to them about the challenges they face. We adapt to what they are doing."

And celebrate them-the community-instead of looking inward and making the company a celebrity. "All of this is under our mission to help women feel satisfied with themselves, their communities, and their impact on the world."

Despite the ups and downs in the past few years, bareMinerals is available in 5,050 stores in 21 countries and regions. The company reports that "a full 30% of American women use the brand."

Its Original Foundation with only five ingredients ranks first among well-known brand mineral foundations in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Scalamandre admits that this is not to say that a brand cannot lose the trust and reputation of consumers overnight. For example, the brand community of bareMinerals increasingly wants to know questions such as "Where does your mica come from?" She noticed. "We say that our procurement is ethical because we have every supplier" to ensure their own ethical procurement. Now the company is reviewing "the overall transparency of the blockchain," Scalamandre said. "It allows our suppliers, their suppliers and their suppliers to solve this problem. It is not easy."

As the cleaning company cleaned up its supply chain, it restricted more than 2,500 ingredients, including more than 1,400 ingredients banned by the European Union. Three-quarters of its formula is vegan and includes every new product since 2020-its goal is to be completely vegan by the end of this year.

Note that the industry leader in cleaning formulas has not made perfection the enemy of good, Scalamandre believes, in terms of operations and distribution (Blodgett is known for her "always set low standards" advice). Although the company seems to be constantly pushing its own standards to create safe, responsible, and effective products, it regularly reviews and revises its ESG goals and has already made some bold progress in sourcing, packaging, and recycling. To achieve higher sustainability.

In the last aspect, customers of bareMinerals can request a bag through its feedback, recycling program, to help ensure that their "beauty container"—in some cases even competitors’ products—is usually dumped in the trash. In the burial site, reusable plastics can be recycled or reused.

"This small bag is the 15 dollars we are absorbing," Scalamandre admitted. "But because we believe that our consumers will love us more, because we are helping her make an impact in the world-and other brands are not doing so. Therefore, we think it provides us with a competitive advantage. In addition, we Knowing that it deepens our connection with consumers."

To further strengthen these community connections, bareMinerals' Power of Good Fund supports women's empowerment. Focusing on education, it works with charity partners Room to Read and Girls Who Code (because girls who receive equal education will continue to earn higher incomes, have a say in making decisions that affect them, and are more likely to live Healthier life). Currently, 1% of all purchases will help to change women’s lives—US$1.35 million has been raised in the United States so far. The goal is to expand the fund globally and make donations total more than US$5 million within five years.

Purpose of work: How bareMinerals creates a "naked beauty" community to share their influence

Lay the foundation through storytelling

"When I talked about this brand, I went back to the roots that Leslie built around the whole story of the product-minimal ingredients, clean ingredients-I said,'You don't even know that you are a clean brand, which is now A big movement in our industry. You have been clean for 25 years! So, I think we must announce and seize this opportunity."

However, "to be truly transparent," Sclalamandre said, "we are still in the infancy. We have our pillars, we have our foundation, and we are actively doing things. But I think we need to do better in communication. This is my mission in 2022 to truly make this brand [more conscious], integrate it into everything we do, and make it more integrated into the brand’s DNA."

"I didn't enter this industry because of vanity," Scalamande said. "I entered it because I like the fact that after women put on makeup, they have more confidence in themselves and are better to themselves. So, for me, that's why I like this brand. Because it really makes Women feel that they are beautiful and tell them that they are beautiful. This is the voice of the brand. It is warm and authentic. It does not stipulate what women should do. It is really about "how do you feel?" you look beautiful. "

However, under the impact of traditional media gimmicks, what will ordinary women see when they look in the mirror? Scalamandre said: "They are frustrated because they don't look like the filtered face on Instagram." These faces bombarded them, including cosmetic models. So, what about Hailey Bieber, the main model of bareMinerals, who has previously rotated for Ralph Lauren, Guess and Tommy Hilfiger. Isn't Bieber the woman most women might see when they look in the mirror?

Scalamandre said: "We want to stop the filter movement," the company has promised to launch in 2022. "You are pretty in the first place. Did you know? We won't modify it—nor should you."

If you want to learn more about goal-oriented companies, such as bareMinerals, check out the Lead with We podcast here, so you can also build a company that changes consumer behavior and our future.