Cameron Alexis Moore can thank a potential romantic encounter for giving her the idea for Flaunt Body, her soon-to-launch intimate skincare company. Prior to a date, she experienced a terrible reaction from shaving her bikini area with an old razor. In a pinch, she reached for a facial sheet mask she had ordered off Amazon and applied it to her red, bumpy skin to lessen the irritation. Moore recalls, “It wasn’t really for that, so it didn’t address the issue entirely, but it did kind of reduce the inflammation and make things more comfortable.”
Moore stopped by a co-worker’s going-away party before meeting her date and told another woman there about her shaving debacle. “I’m not one to openly talk about what I do for dates or how I prepare my intimate areas, but we hit it off,” she says. “When I was done telling the story, the woman was like, ‘There needs to be something for that,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, like a face mask for your [bikini line].’ We went back and forth about what you need to do to relieve ingrown hairs and irritation and, then, we talked about the pros and cons of shaving versus waxing.” At some point, a sizable group of women joined the conversation and began sharing grooming horror stories. Moore says, “That’s when I realized that there was something here.”
She promptly started tinkering with formulas. Moore works as an interior architect in Houston by day and was formerly an executive manager for a high-volume cosmetics department. She isn’t a cosmetic chemist. Her highly reactive skin, however, caused her to create bath and body products for personal use in the past. “So, I had a lot of the ingredients on hand to play with, but it was very primary,” says Moore. “I was using paper towels to try to mimic the masking effects a little bit.”
“No one really wanted to explore body masking or do a custom mask without a large quantity order. It took a lot of researching and Google searching to find the manufacturer that I have now, who said, ‘We realize the trend here. We want to work with you. We can do a lower-quantity order.”
Basic as it was, Moore’s prototype was effective. “I am so prone to irritation and ingrown hairs and, after using my homemade mask, it was so reduced that I didn’t see any,” she reports. “I had a good friend try it, too, who’s also prone, and she didn’t get any bumps either.”
Flaunt Body is currently taking pre-orders on its first product, Post Shave Bikini Line Mask, which Moore expects to have in stock by the end of January. It’s designed to fit the contours of the upper thigh, and the material has been upgraded from a paper towel to plant-based bio-cellulose.
The journey from the homemade mask to the market-ready version was two years long. Moore explains, “Even though sheet masks have been so popular, no one really wanted to explore body masking or do a custom mask without a large quantity order. It took a lot of researching and Google searching to find the manufacturer that I have now, who said, ‘We realize the trend here. We want to work with you. We can do a lower-quantity order.”
“I would like to see it in stores because it is one of those things that you may see online or maybe a friend recommends it, but seeing it in a store kind of solidifies that feeling of, ‘Oh I’ve heard about this, maybe I wasn’t tempted to buy it online, but, now that I see it, it’s something that I’ll try.’”
The manufacturing hold-up cost Moore an investor and made her rethink the brand’s launch strategy. “Initially, I had an investor for a full brand launch with six products,” she says. When the investor dropped out, she decided to self-fund and launch with a single stockkeeping unit. So far, she’s invested roughly $25,000 into the business. To support Flaunt Body, she secured a second job in the beauty section at Kuhl-Linscomb, and put her bonuses and tax refunds toward its development.
Moore has a sales goal of $55,000 for Flaunt Body’s first year. She based the number off of the Bikini Line Mask, which retails for $9 for a single mask and $40 for a pack of five, and two additional products. She plans to come out with an Exfoliating Scrub in a stick form that’s intended to help prevent ingrown hairs along the bikini line and a Brightening & Correcting Derrière Mask.
As for distribution, Moore is exploring several avenues: direct-to-consumer, traditional retail and waxing locations. A distributor has signed on to spread the Bikini Line Mask in the Houston area, and Moore is heading to Indie Beauty Expo in Dallas to gain broader exposure. She says, “I would like to see it in stores because it is one of those things that you may see online or maybe a friend recommends it, but seeing it in a store kind of solidifies that feeling of, ‘Oh I’ve heard about this, maybe I wasn’t tempted to buy it online, but, now that I see it, it’s something that I’ll try.’”
