Legacy beauty brands generally take decades to reach a level of market dominance which sees them leak out into the popular consciousness.
Several have achieved this; brands with names that will be recognisable even to people whose engagement with the beauty industry is limited to toothpaste, soap and anti-dandruff shampoo.
You’ll know them – those like the brand which has become synonymous with luxury skincare, La Mer. While the beauty industry may have a fluffy exterior, it is a particularly lucrative, yet saturated and intensely competitive, market.
New companies attempting to eke out a niche and reputation must face off against behemoths with marketing budgets to match their status, and most new brands fail within their first year.
The results were amazing. A skin graft was avoided. Scarring was avoided
The global skincare market alone was valued at over $145 billion in 2020. Though it has certainly thrived and penetrated popular awareness as a symbol of haute skincare, luxury brand Augustinus Bader – with its now globally recognisable royal blue bottles – only launched in 2018.
While existing brands offer ranges featuring hundreds of products designed to be used synchronously in complex regimes, the new name in premium skincare launched with just two products – the cream, for oily and balanced skin, and the rich cream for dry skin. Three years ago, at the height of Korean-inspired multi-layered skincare routines, this was a single product declaring itself all anyone needed.
In an interview, Gwyneth Paltrow declared that she uses the rich cream at night, and countless celebrity endorsements followed. The brand became the talk of beauty editors all over the world, winning countless awards.
Among others, actresses Courtney Cox and Melanie Griffiths invested in the company. Since that launch, Augustinus Bader has grown at an almost unprecedented rate, rising above legacy competitors to become one of the most recognisable names in luxury skincare within three years. Sales of £7 million in 2018 rocketed to £70 million last year and continue to grow.
Bader himself is director and professor of Applied Stem Cell Biology and Cell Technology at the University of Leipzig. He has the sort of mellow, gentlemanly …….
