The Trusted Disrupter: Lisa Eldridge’s Beauty Business on Her Own Terms
LONDON — Lisa Eldridge’s first beauty counter at Selfridges is stationed between Augustinus Bader, Gucci Westman and Hourglass. That should tell anyone enough about where her brand sits in the industry.
The business has been following a direct-to-consumer approach for three years and has dipped its toes in retail by way of pop-ups to better understand the market.
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“I love the history of Selfridges because it was the first place that displayed cosmetics. It featured in my documentary [‘Makeup: A Glamorous History’] and I shot some of my documentary there as well. It was my first choice for my first door,” Eldridge told WWD.
She has used a majority of her time training the on-floor makeup artists on her counter to turn them into mini versions of herself.
Eldridge’s experiences cover both high street and luxury brands. She was the creative director for Boots No7 for 10 years, developing, redesigning and relaunching the brand before joining Lancôme as global creative director in 2015, where she’s hands-on on their product development, advertising campaigns and digital strategy.
For her own brand, she’s gone down a slow and difficult route of owning her IP formulas rather than buying set formulas and putting her name on them.
“It got to the point where something like Cosmoprof, which used to be very much a trade show, was just a place where influencers would go, see a formula and say, ‘OK, I’ll put my my label on that and I’m launching it in a couple of months,’ which is fine. I’m not knocking it, it’s nice, but I think what people really want now is to know what the formula is,” Eldridge explained.
She found a raw ingredient, Filmexel, for her foundation at Cosmoprof in 2016 and then took it to the president of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists at the time, Steve Barton.
“I’m constantly reading papers from London College of Fashion, as the young cosmetic scientists are coming out of their courses,” Eldridge said.
“At the end of the day, makeup has become a bit like entertainment,” she added, where consumers dabble in the fun, but when it comes to finding something they trust with longevity, they often turn to her.
She has been working on a mascara at the same time she started working on her foundation and she will finally be releasing it soon.
“There’s a lot more products coming out, because now I’ve had five years to develop a lot of these formulas. For my audience, they really appreciate that because there’s a sense of deep, deep understanding and knowledge about formulas,” Eldridge said.
This is evident from the overcrowding at her makeup station on the day of its launch at Selfridges last month, as well as a private meet and greet with VIP customers that had flown from all around the world to meet the English-New Zealand make-up artist.
Eldridge’s biggest following comes from the U.S., from her social channels and customers. The U.K., Germany, Australia and Canada follow after.
“I’m really growing a lot now in Asia. I’m only selling direct from my website, but the chatter in the forums and what I’m getting back is that there’s such a high demand and resale price across Asia because it’s more difficult to get the products,” she explained.
Eldridge will expand into another British department store in September, this time Liberty. She’s currently in discussions with retailers in the U.S. and in other territories around the world.
“My first launch paid for my second launch, my second [paid for] my third launch. They were very much like drops back then anyway. I was shocked by how much I sold,” she said, candidly.
The business has been mainly self-funded so far, but Eldridge in 2021 took “a very tiny amount of investment” from Mark Esiri, founder of the London-based venture capital fund Venrex, a longtime champion of small British businesses and one of the early investors in Charlotte Tilbury.
In August last year, she hired Arlette Seymour to join her team as chief operating officer. Seymour had previously held the position of senior vice president at Hourglass and was a buyer at Lane Crawford in Hong Kong.
“I waited three years without having anyone to find the right person [for the role of chief operating officer]. It’s a chemistry thing as well. I’m excited by some of the daring stuff that she comes out with, so if I’m excited by it, then to me, it’s good,” Eldridge said about her hiring process, praising Seymour’s corporate background.
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