Dream A Little Dream: Indie Beauty Brand Founders Identify Retailers They’d Like To Win Over

In this edition of Beauty Independent’s ongoing series posing questions to beauty entrepreneurs, we ask 10 founders and executives: What retailers would you be absolutely thrilled to land?

Jacqueline Schaffer Founder, Schique

Sephora. They are truly at the cutting edge of technology, and are always improving and focusing on customer experience. This will continue to make them relevant and keep customers excited about what they are offering.

Lauren Berkovitz CEO, Lauren B. Beauty

I would love to work with Cos Bar because I feel that they are one of the few retailers in a changing retail environment who get it. Their stores are beautiful, and their assortment is so well curated. Their staff is warm and knowledgeable, and you can tell they love what they do and the products they sell. I feel we would be a great complement to their current assortment.

Mariska Nicholson Founder, Olive + M

I would love to land the Four Seasons. I am an Austin, Tex., native and, if you know anything about Austin, you know we are experiencing massive growth as a city. Hotels and luxury condos are going up at an unbelievable pace in this town, posing a lot of stiff competition. The Four Seasons has been here since the beginning of the boom in Austin. It’s been impressive to watch the brand have competition go up all around them, and how they have solidly and gracefully held their ground with their level of excellence and charm.

Having Olive + M in the luxury hotel/spa experience that is the Four Seasons would give us the ability to accomplish three top strategies for further building the brand: to build on our existing strength in the spa channel, provide new natural beauty experiences to the Four Seasons clientele and drive brand awareness while in an ideal setting. I believe the cachet of luxury credentials that the Four Seasons hotel and spa embodies would be a great fit for our eco luxury, pure, natural plant-based formulas.

Betty Guerre Founder, Aim HI Every Day

Neiman Marcus and Net-a-Porter. I’m loving seeing indie brands move into a luxe space and bring awareness to a broader audience.

Maria Mavromatis Founder, Hercules Man

Saks Fifth Avenue. My philosophy is that I am happy to partner with a retailer that loves the brand and its values, whether the retailer is small or large, but they still have to be a good fit. The prestige retailers can get a brand a different level of visibility, which can be beneficial in many ways.

Michelle Ranavat Founder, Ranavat Botanics

There are so many! I love Anthropologie because our brand ethos is so closely correlated. We love taking high-quality materials from around the world, particularly India, and packaging it with just the right amount of vintage inspiration. I would also love to work with more green-focused retailers as well since Ranavat is incredibly ingredient-focused. As a green beauty junkie, I always find myself at home in a Detox Market or Credo Beauty store.

Sara Dudley Co-Founder and Executive Director, The Sunscreen Company

We are making our big push into the U.S. in 2018, leading with our sunscreens for the summer season especially.  Since sunscreens are highly regulated drug products in both Canada and the U.S., our supply is somewhat limited. We are really looking to work with retailers with a large online presence like Dermstore or Free People or with limited brick-and-mortar retail locations like Credo or Detox Market.  

We want to be able to support sales if we were to land these retailers with digital marketing and in-person sales representatives. So, we need retailers with relatively small footprints even if they have huge followings and are really influential in the industry. Of course, I also scour every issue of Beauty Independent for features on retailers and building my list. There are so many gorgeous independent retailers out there, and we will be reaching out in 2018.

Sandy Marion Founder, I AM Organic

Ulta Beauty. Their message is all about promoting positivity and self-confidence to their consumers, which perfectly aligns with our values. From day one, the message I wanted to promote is to love and accept yourself. It is an important message for anyone to hear, especially young women. Their message, their demographic and their longstanding charitable donation work are the reasons it tops my list of dream retailers.

Melissa Christensen Founder, Cannabliss Organic

Sephora is one of our dream retailers. As a leader in the beauty industry, Sephora offers an impressive breadth of products, everything from top brand names to smaller indie lines, all under one roof. Sephora’s open-sell environment would work well with our Cannabliss products. The store’s hands-on displays encourage shoppers to sample and interact with products, and we want every beauty lover to experience Cannabliss firsthand.

Cassy Burnside Founder and CEO, FATCO

I would love to see our products in Whole Foods because they would undoubtedly resonate with their shoppers. The Whole Foods shopper is one that's extremely educated on the chemicals that are found in personal care products. They are also very knowledgeable regarding the use of fat in cooking, so I think the fact that we're using grass-fed tallow would definitely resonate with them.  

I would also like to see our products in smaller boutique beauty retailers like Credo, Follain, The Detox Market, CAP Beauty and Pharmaca for the same reasons. I also think our products would be perfect for stores like Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People.

If you have a question you’d like Beauty Independent to ask beauty entrepreneurs, please send it to editor@beautyindependent.com.