Handmade In English County Hertfordshire, Evolve Beauty Lands On Shelves Stateside At Credo

When your first foray into skincare formulation is creating a luxe line with Bono, what do you do for your second act? Laura Rudoe decided one brand wasn’t sufficient for a follow-up. She created two brands — Evolve Beauty and S5 Skincare — that have gained significant traction in many of the U.K.’s most coveted retailers, including Content Beauty & Wellbeing, Planet Organic, Fenwick and QVC. She’s now brought Evolve Beauty stateside with its sister organic cosmeceutical range S5 Skincare to come after it in the fall. Beauty Independent spoke to Rudoe about the myriad benefits of small batches, making beauty products with U2’s lead singer and breaking into Credo.

How did you get into skincare?

I came into skincare in 2005. I was a management consultant. I went Harvard Business School because they have a very strong social enterprise program. Everyone thinks they are super capitalist, but what was drummed into me while I was there was do what you love. What I realized I loved was ethical consumer brands. I went in thinking I’d work at a non-profit, but I came out going I do like capitalism, but I want to do something ethical. I want to do something where the ethical nature of it is built into the product. I think that’s really interesting because, the more you do, the better you do. When I came out [of business school], I actually had a huge opportunity to start up a new skincare brand. I was working with a team of Irish investors, including Bono, to start up a brand called NUDE. I wrote the business plan for Nude. I was their first employee. I knew nothing about skincare in 2005, nor did Bono, nor did any of us. We were learning as we went.

Natural and organic was in its infancy then. There were lines like Weleda, which had been around for a long time. The positioning [of Nude] was all about trying to make natural really desirable, trying to get into a department store. We launched it at Selfridges and Harvey Nichols, and all these department stores in the U.K. Then, we were in Space NK and Sephora. We launched concurrently into Selfridges and Whole Foods. It was a big budget project. We had all these supermodels involved in promoting it. It was the most amazing learning experience for me.

I started off as business development and, then, I was head of operations and development. There was only four of us in that founding team, and I was running the backend. I realized I loved formulation and design. I was that annoying consultant that taught herself everything. So, when the lab would say something is not possible, I would say, “Well, actually…”

Being a quick study and learning a lot, I got myself into a position of knowledge about ingredients and that helped us push the boundaries on NUDE. At the time we were doing it, what was possible was still quite limited. Over the last 13 years, it’s just been such an explosion of possibilities in terms of ingredients. [Back then,] we were trying to reflect what we thought consumers wanted, going to the ingredient manufacturers and going, “Why did you put parabens in that ingredient? We won’t buy it from you if it has parabens,” and really develop an alternative. It wasn’t just us. There were lots of conversations going on. The supply chain responded to that.

The [consumer] awareness has grown hugely in the past 13 years. It’s gone from being this super niche thing to being much more mainstream, which is exciting. Evolve looked very different when I launched it. I was experimenting with eco-friendly packaging. Instead of an elevated positioning, we made it a super accessible, but appealing, mainstream positioning, making something accessible.

How much did it cost you to launch Evolve Beauty?

When I left NUDE, I decided to launch my own range on a much smaller budget, tens of thousands of pounds. I’ve self-funded it, bootstrapped it all this time, and I’m not planning to take [outside] money anytime soon. I don’t need it. I’ve been able to grow very slowly. If I’d taken money earlier, I’d not be where I am now. There are very few investors who could be as patient as I’ve been.

How many storekeeping units does Evolve Beauty have?

About 20, we have skincare, body and hair care as well. We’re always launching new products. We’re just about to launch a new mask.

What’s the latest product you have launched?

Our Hyaluronic Eye Complex is our latest launch. Everyone wanted a version of our Hyaluronic Serum for the eye. So, we put select ingredients in just for the eyes and gave it a different delivery mechanism to give you the benefits of the lymphatic drainage. We’ve sold about 1,300, and we’ve had some feedback from people saying the product is not coming out [or] they don’t know how to use it.

The good thing about doing things in small batches is we always have a backup. So, that  feedback led us to make a tweak to the communications. We recommend users ‘shake to wake’ the product, so the product gets on the roller ball and then comes out more easily. I’m really hoping we can educate people to use the roller because I think it a nice added benefit.

Do you have a specific strategy for new product launches?

I think the range can be filled out a bit more. So, my plan for the next year is to expand our moisturizer range. We’re adding a lighter formula in the autumn that’s more antiaging. Then, in the spring, we’re going to do a detox [cream] for more combination skin.

We have a big panel of customers, like 1,600 of them, that are waiting to test product. Once the products have been safety tested, we send them out. When you can make small batches, you can do that. Sometimes, we do things like a competition to name the product. Rainforest Rescue was named by a customer. We had about 1,000 entries. Then, we picked the top five, then the winner. 

What’s the price range for Evolve Beauty?

The cheapest product in the range is the Daily Detox Facial Wash, which retails for $20, and the most expensive is the Hyaluronic Serum, which is $40. In comparison to other products I see on the market of that quality, [it’s] a very affordable price point.

One of the philosophies is to use really effective ingredients. Some of them are high-tech green ingredients, [and] some of them are natural oils and butters. [We] put them in a natural or organic base and use a few of them in a really good percentage, instead of just sprinkling it in. In almost every product, you’ll see at least one of those ingredients. [For example,] our Moisture Mist has moringa peptides in it. Moringa peptides are a type of protein that actually detox the skin. In Africa, they use it to purify water. It helps get rid of all the micro-pollution particles that stick to your skin.

What is Evolve Beauty’s bestselling product?

Our Hyaluronic Serum is our best seller, 10 to one.

Why did you decide to open up your own factory?

Evolve launched in 2009, looking very different. We were working initially with a family-run manufacturing partner. In 2014, I decided to bring it all in-house. I did it because I wanted more control over the quality. I wanted to be more innovative. You’d have to make thousands of products, and you wouldn’t even see the finished product because it would just ship out. I wanted to do smaller batches so we could be more experimental. That’s what we do now. We make small batches and, if things go well, we increase the batch size. We can get an order from one of our distributors for 1,000 Hyaluronic Acid Serums and can turn that around rather quickly.

This month, we made 80,000 units. It was our biggest month to date. We usually do about 30,000, but we did a big subscription box in Denmark for 50,000. That was huge for our team. We’re still making the product by hand, so we had to add more people. That took us about a week.

Where is Evolve Beauty carried currently?

We’re basically in Europe at the moment. We’ve worked with a  few distribution partners for a long time in countries like Spain, Germany and the Netherlands. We’ve got newer, bigger distributors in some of the Scandinavian countries. They’re growing like crazy.

We’ve also started working with QVC. I’ve gone on QVC. It was amazing, getting to tell our story to a totally different audience. It’s a huge opportunity for us. My sales director is our main guest now. She’s great. She goes on and says, “This is why this product will change your life.” A few years ago, we spoke to them, and they said their audience was not interested in that type of product. Then, they came to us and said, “Well, they are interested now.” The requirements are crazy, and the claims are really tricky, but they’re a great partner.

We’re mostly online with places like Naturisimo beauty. We’re in Planet Organic, which is like Whole Foods in the U.K. We’re in Fenwick on Bond Street. Now, we’re starting to go into other Fenwick Stores. We’re also going into Brown Thomas. It’s a bit like Barney’s. It’s the nicest department store in Dublin.

In the U.S., we want to build things steadily. We want to work with Credo [and] really build awareness. Stores that have those early adopter audience who are super aware, they are our heartland audience. You have to start there and build your awareness first. I don’t think you need to rush having too much physical distribution. So, we are going to expand in the U.S., but right now we’re focused on Credo.

What is like to launch at Credo?

Credo has taken most of the skincare with a few exceptions. We’re going into six of the eight with all of this line and, then, two of them are taking the [Radiant Glow] mask. A mini of it is going into one of their summer promo bags. Prince Street and Boston didn’t have space for a new line because those stores are a bit smaller. We worked with [Credo] before. We have a second line, which is smaller. They approached us back in 2012 when they only had the San Francisco store. At the time, we didn’t have an on the ground sales rep. So, we were too small to work with them then, but we were still in touch with them. They’re such a great partner for us in the U.S.

Tell us about your other line.

Our second line, S5, is a more high-tech, treatment-focused line. It’s focused on problem skin: sensitive skin, acne-prone skin, pollution. It’s a higher price point. I do use some of the same ingredients in both lines, but, with S5, I’m really packing it in. I’ve got a little bit more margin to play with. We’ll be launching that [in the U.S.] in the autumn, though, it’s in Ayla in San Francisco.

Pretend we’re a retailer. Pitch us your brand.

The brand is named Evolve because it’s about making those small steps in your life towards being more healthy, improving without trying to change the world. Lots of tiny changes you make in your life can make a big change to your health, your consumption, your wellbeing.  

Everyone wants products. Consumers don’t want to make compromises. They want products that are just as good as mainstream products. They want the natural alternative to those products they can see in the drugstore. That’s what the Evolve range is all about.