TOASTING THE BUSINESS SUCCESS OF MALLOWS BEAUTY
IT WAS just meant to be a side business.
Albeit a side business which it was estimated could turn over close to £50,000 in their first year.
However, it didn’t work out like that. Instead it made £50,000 in their first month.
Since the company officially started in February 2020, Mallows Beauty has gone from a front room to a parents’ garage, on to an industrial unit and finally a warehouse decked out with a bright pink office.
The number of employees is about to reach double figures. And this month it will open its flagship bricks-and-mortar store in Cardiff’s St David’s Shopping Centre.
It’s fair to say it has been a whirlwind 15 months for Mallows Beauty.
The name and face behind the beauty brand is Laura Mallows, and while the reason for starting the company is a personal one, this personal story is behind the success of the business.
“I’ve suffered with acne for five years and I’d spend every single penny on products that promised the world and never delivered,” said Laura.
“I was always left feeling really down about my skin. I worked in the fashion industry, so people constantly mentioned it, and it made me feel very anxious. I was already suffering with anxiety and depression.
“I looked to the beauty brands and thought, ‘It’s not fair’ – they promote these Photoshopped beautiful models that don’t look like that in real life. And we’re all made to feel inadequate because of that.
“On the front of the packaging it says about shrinking pores, but there’s nothing wrong with large pores, they’re absolutely normal. There’s no skincare product in the world that can change the size of them because they don’t have muscles, they can’t be trained. But there are products out there saying they can and it is a complete lie.
“I felt a little bit angry about it and I wanted to create a beauty brand that was positive, that made people feel amazing and said it’s absolutely fine that you have pores and fine
lines, that’s normal, it’s life. Don’t feel bad about things you can’t change, perfect isn’t real.
“I wanted to help people who felt the same as me.
“And I felt kind of scared for girls growing up exposed to social media. It was tough enough when I was growing up, let alone girls who are growing up nowadays when you have the Kardashians to live up to and the constant perfection all around us 24/7 to make us feel inadequate.
“So that’s how we started. And the whole idea was instead of us getting anything negative on the front of the packaging, about fine lines or pores, it will say, I love my body. It’s all about self-love, to have these products that make you feel good.”
The company started strong, with orders immediately coming in from several big-name high-street stores, such as Skinny Dip and Harrods.
Laura, 29, had contacts in the industry as a buyer for the fashion brand Dune, while her fiancé Ronnie Bourne, also 29, worked in London helping launch businesses, so it is fair to say they complemented each other perfectly for a start-up.
While Laura is the front of the brand, Ronnie stays in the background, and she says he is “invaluable to the business”.
The couple moved to Laura’s home town of Cowbridge in early 2020. Laura was planning to do freelance work while dabbling with her beauty company idea, and Ronnie had a job in Bristol.
Then the pandemic struck. Ronnie was furloughed before he even got to step into his new workplace, and all attention was turned to Mallows Beauty.
Laura had seen the warning signs coming out of China, and as a result of this foresight and difficulties in getting some of the beauty products, they started to produce hand sanitiser.
Her father owns a distillery, which was instrumental in producing the first batches.
They were hoping to get buyers for around 2,000 bottles, but the first order was 10 times that.
“We were hand-labelling 20,000 bottles, sat in our garden,” Laura recalled. “It was insane, we didn’t sleep.” Laura’s dad then started making hand sanitiser for the NHS, so the entrepreneurs moved production to another facility.
The hand sanitiser sales helped the fledgling business but the price of alcohol to make the product rocketed in March and April, meaning they were not making huge profits on it.
They were also conscious the country was in a pandemic and wanted to ensure they were giving back to the community, so they supplied to local care homes for no profit, only making money from the high-street brands.
Since those early days, the rise of the business has been meteoric.
Word of mouth and social media have driven customers in their thousands to buy from the business running from a warehouse in Llantrisant.
While they have experience of the industry, as well as start-ups, they have both been surprised by their rapid rise.
A huge part has been about making Laura the story.
That not only helps sell the products to the big-name high-street brands and independent stores, it also resonates with people directly on social media.
“People buy the products and then message me to say hi, and how much they love the product and the messaging,” said Laura.
“It’s the most uplifting part of it all.” Laura has also embraced TikTok, with the brand nearing 55,000 followers. They have more than 27,000 followers on Instagram.
They have also used influencers, something Ronnie had experience of in his work in London, and after a couple of missteps have found some good people to work with.
“I think it’s more important to develop a really close relationship with influencers, so it is organic and they are invested in the brand,” said Laura.
They are now ready to take the next step of the business – opening a store.
Their unit in St David’s Shopping Centre is currently being fitted out and they expect to open towards the end of the month.
“We are super-excited about launching our first store and really want to make it a pink, positive Mallows Beauty haven,” said Laura.
“I really can’t believe we are opening a shop, it doesn’t feel real. I am so excited and nervous, I really want to ensure it is a success.
“I can’t wait to meet all my customers and have actual face-to-face conversations with people! Seeing what they love and hearing their feedback.”
The shop will see the company employ a store manager and three or four sales assistants, as they do not have the time to manage it themselves. The plan is to make this location a success and then expand across the UK, with stores in prime locations.
“We have learned that spreading ourselves too thin and doing everything ourselves is usually a detriment to the business. We can’t manage all our stores so this will be our trial, which we can hopefully expand to other shops quickly,” added Laura.
“We would love to become a worldwide brand, we are working on plans to be stocked in the US and Europe currently.
“We are so excited about the future. Our dream for Mallows Beauty is to become bigger and bigger – worldwide domination!”