Liht Organics stays firm on strengthening GCC presence
Singaporean organic cosmetics brand Liht Organics was founded a year ago in March 2019 by Nerissa Low. Liht – pronounced as light – translating into ‘Living In Her Time’ began as Low’s self-funded passion project, which encourages a woman
“to live fully in her light, by her rules, in her own time.”
Unlike several beauty brands – world-over – that started at the founders’ kitchen table, Liht Organics didn’t. “I wish I could boast a similar story,” quips Low. “But in our case, right from the beginning, we had to mass produce our products abiding by precise requirements, such as no nanoparticles in the products. It was to ensure nothing gets into the bloodstream. Importantly, I wanted to use USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) certified ingredients. So, we started manufacturing in the US.”
“As such, our growth has been quite aggressive, which is why we had to bring onboard investors quickly and raised $1 million in funding. We have interested investors from the US, Hong Kong for our next round of fundraising that will be centred around market expansion,” she adds.
Liht Organics entered the Middle East in November 2019, through a collaboration with UAE-based retail conglomerate Lulu Group. Today, the brand is present at 22 BLSH stores in Lulu Hypermarkets in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and set to expand the network further. “We are looking to add 10 more stores by the end of this year in the UAE. Towards the second half of the year, we will start expanding to other GCC countries,” Low reveals.
Besides Lulu’s BLSH stores, Liht Organics is exploring partnerships with airport retailer Dubai Duty Free, Landmark Group’s Lifestyle and multibrand beauty retailer Sephora – for the Middle East and India. “The plan is to reach 75 Liht Organics retail touchpoints by June-July this year and touch the 200mark across the GCC by year-end. We are also keen to sign up with Amazon. ae, noon.com and Sprii.com to build our e-commerce presence in the Middle East,” Low points out. “Beyond the Middle East, we are looking to launch the brand in India and Pakistan and enter Egypt at some point.”
However, when asked if COVID-19 will affect the brand’s expansion plans, Low stresses, “While we are aware that the present climate in most countries due to this pandemic is one of much uncertainty, we are not planning to change our course too much at the moment. This may mean a slight delay in our expansion plans, but we are confident we will still be able to fulfil our plans for 2020, barring any major crises should this situation worsen.”
The Liht Organics business has scaled significantly within just a year. Moving back to the past, a few words on how the brand came into being. “I used to have terrible skin and had to take medication and even inject steroids into my pimples every month. I was desperate to find a cure,” shares Low. “I also realised that many beauty products that we use daily actually have chemicals in them, which causes a lot of skin problems. That’s when I decided to switch to organic products. I wanted to use organic and high-performing makeup, but couldn’t find variants. I decided to create my own line of products!”
Low decided to start small, with a range of authentic, safe, clean, glutenfree, cruelty-free, high-performing organic make-up. The brand launched with limited but high-quality products, including organic liquid foundation, liquid lipstick, lip glazer and mascara. These are the brand’s top-selling products in Singapore.
“Along the way, I realised that there is more demand for our kind of products not only in Singapore but around the world,” Low shares. “For example, our research shows that in the UAE cosmetics market, Liht
Organics has a unique position.” Hence, we decided to increase the product range. “We will launch our liquid liners, followed by concealers, colour correctors and blush soon; as well as pressed foundations and eye shadow palettes by the second half of 2020.” So far, liquid foundations, liquid lipsticks and liquid liners are doing quite well – easily our best-sellers here.”
Low claims that Liht Organics is the first ‘real’ organic colour cosmetics brand to launch in the UAE. “Besides our in-depth market research and
Lulu Group’s confirmation that Liht Organics is, indeed, the first organic colour cosmetics brand to launch in the emirates, our products are safe enough to eat,” she stresses. “Everything that we put on our skin, 60% of it gets absorbed by our body. Thus, I wanted to create products that are not only safe but also beneficial. While growing up, I used to hear that make-up is bad for the skin. Rebelling against that idea, I wanted to create a product line that is actually skin-benefiting.”
According to her, even though the Middle East is a crowded beauty market, her products have resonated well. “We are fortunate to have the Lulu Group as our local partner,” she says. “We were lucky that they accepted Liht Organics within their BLSH stores. On our part, the Middle East has always been a market we were interested to enter, because women here are fond of and spend on make-up and appreciate high-quality products. They understand the importance of using make-up that is good for their skin.”
Being able to resonate with consumers, Liht Organics has performed well at the BLSH stores. But how does it complement Lulu’s brand positioning?
“The BLSH concept by Lulu has a lifestyle flavour with an affluent positioning. In that sense, the partnership with Liht Organics is complementary,” Low responds. “Moreover, they found our product range quite impressive. Hence, they decided to be our first partner to launch the brand in the Middle East. We also did a fair bit of market research to align our product image and pricing with what Lulu offers through its BLSH stores. We decided to launch Liht Organics at BLSH stores with 25 SKUs. Owing to positive customer response – our sales increasing by around 50%
on a month-on-month basis – we have decided to add 17 more by mid of
2020 and gradually keep building up. We followed a similar phased rollout approach in introducing Liht Organics at BLSH stores, selecting locations based on footfall and demographics.”
In summation, Low feels that the future of organic and free-from cosmetics is “big.”
“There is a massive shift happening towards organic, natural make-up because people are becoming more conscious and aware of the harmful effects of chemicals from colour cosmetics on their skin, causing long-term health issues. And I am so excited to be riding this wave as one of the pioneers of an organic and highperforming make-up brand,” she states. ■