Clean Beauty Store Aurum Rose Customizes Skincare Sample Boxes With Personal Attention, Not Algorithms

Clean beauty boutique Aurum Rose owner Marissa Waller has been known to converse with her customers about their skincare needs for hours. Time and time again, she’s noticed the in-depth conversations result in her suggesting products better for her customers’ skin than if they chose products based on a recommendation from a friend, family member or celebrity, magazine article or impulse.

But Waller can only connect with so many people at Aurum Rose, which is located in the small Long Island community Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. To disseminate her skincare advice beyond the store, she’s created The Good Skin Lab, a sampling concept enabling customers across the country to try out a skincare routine comprised of six to seven products selected just for them.

“One of the differentiating factors of Aurum Rose is that I get to talk to customers all day long in our store about the products they are using and how they’re using them, and I find out from brand founders what their best secrets are,” says Waller. “I thought, ‘What if I could build on all that and make a whole different experience for shoppers?’”

The Good Skin Lab begins by customers filling out a digital intake form with fewer than 20 questions. The questions touch upon skincare concerns and goals, allergies, product format and scent preferences, and skincare shopping budgets. Once customers have completed the intake form, Waller follows up with them via an email or phone call if she has further questions about their skincare aspirations and anxieties. Then, she assembles skincare product samples picked from Aurum Rose’s roughly 30 skincare brands to ship out to them.

“The customers are excited about being exposed not only to new brands and new products that they have never thought of before, but also having the expertise of a skincare concierge that they can speak to them about the products, their skin and using the products together.”

Priced at $20 to recoup the costs involved, The Good Skin Lab’s sample box contains a protocol detailing a skincare routine incorporating the products in the box from start to finish. “The customers are excited about being exposed not only to new brands and new products that they have never thought of before, but also having the expertise of a skincare concierge that they can speak to about the products, their skin and using the products together,” says Waller. “You get that added level of service.”

The Good Skin Lab is relevant to customers with varying levels of clean beauty familiarity. Aurum Rose’s online shoppers are quite different from its in-store shoppers. The online group is made up of product-savvy consumers accustomed to buying clean beauty products. In-store shoppers are frequently clean beauty neophytes looking to step into clean beauty merchandise as part of their skincare arsenal.

For the savvy online set, The Good Skin Lab is a vehicle for product discovery and to upgrade a skincare regimen that might not be as effective as it could possibly be. For clean beauty neophytes, the sampling initiative is a relatively affordable way to test products they might be otherwise hesitant to purchase. Waller gives the examples of oil cleansers and serums for oil-timid skincare customers. The Good Skin Lab is offered at Aurum Rose’s physical location as well as on its website.

“I want to be the resource they come back to when they are looking for a new product or change over to a new routine or to get the most out of what they are already using.”

Aurum Rose opened its store four years ago following an e-commerce debut. It was originally called BeauTeaBar, but changed its name to Aurum Rose two years ago. Informing Beauty Independent about the name change in 2017, Waller elaborated that Aurum Rose’s business was doubling annually, and that a majority of its sales were conducted at its store. The Good Skin Lab may help extend its direct-to-consumer reach.

Certainly, customers could turn to subscription services such as Birchbox, Ipsy, Boxycharm and FabFitFun to explore beauty products, but, even the most sophisticated algorithms of those subscription services can’t deliver the individual attention that The Good Skin Lab provides. Waller says, “I really take everything into consideration. I go through every question I have in mind when I have a customer in front of me in the store.”

The attention has paid off so far. In the early going, Waller shares customers are usually happy with five of the seven products in their boxes and convert regularly to full-size products. She stays in constant contact with them to receive feedback on their product likes and dislikes. Products sampled that The Good Skin Lab customers often fall for include Vintner’s Daughter Active Botanical Serum, May Lindstrom’s The Clean Dirt and Ayuna’s The Facial.

For the products The Good Skin Lab box recipients aren’t thrilled with, Waller works with them to nail down replacements. The objective is to foster long-term relationships with customers. Waller says, “I want to be the resource they come back to when they are looking for a new product or change over to a new routine or to get the most out of what they are already using.”