‘I get a kick out of solving clients’ beauty problems’
ANTONIA BURRELL, 46, lives in derbyshire. She is the founder of antonia Burrell Skincare, a company providing plant-based corrective antiageing solutions for problem-prone skin.
✢ THE IDEA
i’d had lots of different jobs before i decided to launch the skincare brand. i’d worked as a beautician, lecturer in botanicals and chemistry and a teacher, but i’d always wanted to start my own business. i opened up a beauty salon in lewisham, south london, about 10 years ago, and then two more branches. i did love it but something was missing. one day, a very upset client walked in. she said she had acne and wrinkles, felt she looked terrible and was sure i wouldn’t be able to help her. i went away and researched it, and made her a blend of 21 essential oils, based on my training in botanicals, to take away and use. Within two weeks she came in smiling and saying her skin was so much better. that was my lightbulb moment. i wanted to create natural products that could multitask and treat different problems in one go.
✢ MAKING IT HAPPEN
back in 2012, i spent many, many months researching the perfect plant ingredients for everything from dry skin to spots and combination skin. to save money, i put my recipe of oils and extracts in little brown medicine bottles bought on the internet with hand-written labels. i called the first product Pure therapy – a facial treatment to reduce acne and wrinkles and soothe skin. i just sold it in my salons at first. then i realised i wanted to make creams and lotions with specific properties (a cleanser that dissolved in water and became creamy, for example), and had no idea how to do that. i needed to hire a specialist cosmetic chemist. this is very expensive, and i had to sell my three salons to fund it. although i created the products i wanted, it was a disaster – no matter what i did, i couldn’t sell them to retailers, trade or even online. i couldn’t understand what was going on. i was skint and wondered if i’d made terrible mistake. i rented a small treatment room in West london doing facials to pay the bills. i used the products with clients and sold a few that way, but not enough.
✢ BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT
in my spare time, i kept knocking on doors of as many retailers as i could. eventually, urban retreat at harrods agreed to see me and, miraculously, said i could sell my products there. i realised that the way to sell my products is to get customers to experience them for themselves so i did hand and arm massages, as well as having a little stall to sell on the shop floor. i also did facials and for three years my products were used exclusively for the urban retreat facial, so that massively boosted sales. gradually other retailers became interested, including Whole Foods, and the e-tailers beautyMart and Content beauty – that really grew my brand.
✢ STEEPEST LEARNING CURVE
not fully understanding how people accessed my brand. i realised people needed to try it to buy it. now the brand is sufficiently established that people trust my name and buy it through word of mouth.
✢ WHERE I AM NOW
i have seven multitasking products, and a small team of loyal staff who do marketing, sales, accounting and logistics. i have a few exciting new products in the pipeline that are still in development. My ambition is to be a household brand and the number one natural beauty brand in the world.