Dr. Lara Devgan’s Multipronged Distribution Strategy For Building A Results-Driven Luxury Skincare Brand

Taking a page from the playbook at Erewhon, which drafts celebrities and brands (think Health-Ade, Olivia Rodrigo, Rhode and Hailey Bieber) to whip people into a frenzy over $18 to $20 smoothies, Juice Press and plastic surgeon Lara Devgan have joined forces on the $10.99 to $13.99 4Ever Young Smoothie, a skin- and nails-enhancing combination of fruits, flax, cauliflower and collagen from Copina Co that’s available at 80-plus locations.

At a time when department stores aren’t the kingmakers they once were, the drink is part of diverse set of distribution and marketing strategies to elevate Devgan’s namesake luxury skincare brand’s profile and sales in all sorts of places where its target consumers eat, sleep, sweat and shop, including department stores as well as hotels, gyms, spas, med-spas and physicians’ offices.

Domestically, Dr. Lara Devgan has landed at Nordstrom, and it’s unveiled a co-branded Firming Serum with hotel Casa Cipriani. Internationally, it’s expanding in the United Kingdom next month through a deal with two branches of the forthcoming Maybourne Hotel Group-owned private wellness club Surrenne and Australia this summer with a rollout at Mecca.

In advance of the expansion, Dr. Lara Devgan entered Net-a-Porter, Violet Grey, Moda Operandi, Gee Beauty, The Webster and Revolve, among other e-tailers and retailers. It’s also at around 50 med-spas and physicians’ offices, Four Seasons Hotel Miami, The Brazilian Court Hotel in Palm Beach, Fla., Equinox Hotels in New York and six Equinox Fitness Club spa locations.

“Right now, we have brands where you can only get them in a doctor’s office, and it’s difficult to purchase them. That limits overall customer awareness of them. Or we have brands that are literally everywhere, but no doctor would actually want to carry them because they don’t have efficacy required for an in-office patient,” says Devgan. “I think what we need to do in the future of this space of medical-grade skincare is marry those two concepts where we have the high-touchpoint in-office level of service and quality of ingredients, but the products are more out there.”

Currently, Dr. Lara Devgan’s revenues are split roughly evenly between direct-to-consumer and the rest of its distribution. In its non-DTC business, 25% of sales come from larger retailers, according to Devgan, who says the brand’s revenues have been doubling annually, and its average order value in e-commerce has increased 67% from last year in part due to selling products bundled together. For example, Dr. Lara Devgan’s $690 Serum Superheroes Collection contains Hyaluronic Serum, Vitamin C+B+E Ferulic Serum and Retinol + Bakuchiol Serum.

“Building valuation for the company means going super deep and being super successful at a smaller number of possible channels.”

Although Dr. Lara Devgan is spreading distribution today, Devgan isn’t afraid to leave stockists. Previously sold on Sephora’s website, the brand isn’t carried by the beauty specialty retailer now. “We’re a very young brand, and these are all very exploratory moments, so right now we are throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks, but I think growth for the brand in terms of building brand equity and building valuation for the company means going super deep and being super successful at a smaller number of possible channels,” says Devgan. “We’re trying to be very measured with our retail strategy because I think results-oriented shoppers are shopping very differently.”

What’s not different about them is they’re on social media like everyone else—and Dr. Lara Devgan is in front of them there. Unlike luxury skincare brands, a group that hasn’t traditionally been early social media adopters, plastic surgeons have been swift to hop on social media to promote their skills.

Devgan has 52,300 followers and 305,800 likes on TikTok and 929,000 followers on Instagram, where she explains plastic surgery procedures, shows her products and posts before-and-after images. She hasn’t paid influencers, but her connections to celebrities boost her social media presence. Kim Kardashian, Bella Hadid, Jennifer Aniston, Mindy Kaling and Adrianna Lima are fans.

Devgan’s social media embrace extends to her brand. On TikTok, the visible lash-lengthening effects of its lash serum Platinum Long Lash has made it a hit. It was one of the first products to go viral with the hashtag #TikTokmademebuyit. The product’s sales have increased 240% since launch in 2019, with a 783% spike at the height of the pandemic. Lest anyone think TikTok users are just snapping up cheap products, Platinum Long Lash is $150.

“Results-oriented consumers want a genuine expert to help them make decisions.”

“I wouldn’t say that I’ve ever done a TikTok dance necessarily, but I do believe in modernity and keeping up with people. When I post lifestyle content on these platforms or talking-head videos, they get much more engagement than before-and-afters. The number of saves, which are hidden from public view, are astronomical,” says Devgan. “I want to make it about the brand, the product and what I do as a qualified surgeon. I think it’s too easy to dismiss especially a female founder or female doctor as skating by on her feminine wiles, and I don’t want to give anyone any excuse for saying that about me. I can hold my own.”

Dr. Lara Devgan has been entirely bootstrapped so far, and it’s been profitable from the jump. Devgan says she has no “active plans for outside funding, but it’s a conversation that we’re having…We’ve grown through basic principles of customer acquisition that has steadily crept up, high customer loyalty and high repurchase rates. We’re trying to build a sustainable luxury brand with results-oriented consumers who want to understand what I have to offer in terms of my expertise in this field.”

While Dr. Lara Devgan’s core consumers span a wide age range from in their 20s to 70s, what unites them is they either get Botox or are open to getting Botox. “We’re not really targeting trend-driven Glossier girls,” says Devgan. “We’re targeting people who want stuff that works and that will extend the lifespan of the medical plastic surgical treatments they’re already doing or people who are not totally ready for putting a sharp object in their face, but they want a little piece of that magic.”

Devgan encounters her brand’s core customers constantly at her Manhattan office on Park Avenue, where she continues to practice plastic surgery and cares for some 100 people a week. A separate company from the plastic surgery practice, there are five full-time employees dedicated to Dr. Lara Devgan. The brand has about 20 stockkeeping units. Platinum Long Lash and $245 Hyaluronic Serum are its bestsellers on a dollar basis. The $50 lip plumper Platinum Lip Plump is its bestseller on unit basis.

Dr. Lara Devgan has stretched beyond topical skincare products to nutraceuticals with $85 Super Green Complex, $85 Collagen Booster Hearts and $85 Melatonin B6 Mood Booster. Additional hyperpigmentation-centered skincare is in its product pipeline. The brand is undergoing a slight refresh that will give it greater carton weight and screen-printed labels.

“Results-oriented consumers want a genuine expert to help them make decisions,” says Devgan. “We’re no longer at a point where we’re searching for good products. We’re at a point where it’s not the lack of products that’s our problem, it’s the excess of products that’s our problem, and we need expertise to cull through a totally oversaturated marketplace.”