La Luer’s Mira Facial Treatment System sold out twice last year, in April and again on Black Friday. And it wasn’t discounts that convinced customers to clear out the Beacon Award-winning brand’s online stock of the $550 tool loaded with six technologies—LED light, ion infusion, ultrasound, microcurrent, radio frequency and sonic pulsations—because there were none.
“A lot of people were scared to go out to get their beauty treatments during the pandemic and the device was perfect because it was basically your aesthetician in a box,” says founder Nicole Chau. “Then, after the pandemic, our customers go to get treatments, but, when they don’t have time, they can still maintain their skin at home.”
The biggest difference between La Luer’s offering and most beauty devices is its multiplicity of functions. Mira has four modes—detox, tone, lift and infuse—powered by the various technologies it employs, and it addresses an array of concerns, including acne, dry skin, fine lines and dullness. Despite its many functions, it doesn’t take long for consumers to incorporate the tool into their routines. For the first 30 days of usage, La Luer recommends people use it five minutes a day three to five days a week.
Before pivoting to beauty, Chau worked in merchandise and retail planning for BCBG, Trina Turk and Guess. Prior to that, she was prepping for a career as a neurosurgeon. Given her background and experience, she naively thought she was prepared to develop a device from scratch. Instead, she describes the process as “one of the biggest struggles I went through and also one of the most exhilarating.”
It took Chau and a crew of engineers, physicians and scientists a little over two years to bring La Luer to market. Most of the time and initial money went toward toward research and development, patenting the brand’s integration of six technologies, trials, testing and production. The tool was tested for performance, materials and biocompatibility and, once the prototype was built, validation testing or testing to ensure it met its intended purpose was conducted in advance of mass production. Chau recounts, “With each validation test, we produced devices, tested, pivoted, made changes and continued to reiterate again and again until it was nearly perfect.”
La Luer launched with Mira and $32 Hyaluronic Conductive Treatment Gel in January 2019 at the consumer electronics trade show CES alongside companies like L’Oréal, Samsung, Panasonic and LG. Chau was accepted into Sephora’s 2019 Accelerate program following the trade show. La Luer is currently in talks with leading beauty retailers for distribution. It’s already available at select plastic surgery offices.
The brand has established a retail footprint across the pond. It entered Selfridges in August 2019 and, similar to what happened on its website, it sold out at the storied department store twice last year. At the moment, Mira is out of stock on Selfridges’ website, but customers are able to pick up its $129 CryoSculpt Tool and Hyaluronic Conductive Treatment Gel. The retailer has the brand in its “smartech” section on its website. In the store, it’s housed in a tech section.
“It’s been an amazing partnership,” says Chau. “They just work so hard on demoing the product and sharing the technologies and the stories.” She elaborates, “I want to expand into retailers that truly reflect our values and have customers that are very similar to our clientele and also retailers who take the time to educate their customers.”
When the pandemic hit and retail locations closed, Chau focused her energy on creating an experience as close to a retail experience as possible digitally by holding virtual consultations. “Through these sessions, I learned more about what [customers’] pain points are, what their skin routine looks like, their personal skin journey, what a day in their life looks like and how La Luer has helped,” she says. “It allowed me to learn more about who our customers are beyond the typical metrics used to describe demographics.”
She discovered La Luer’s customers are typically women trying to do it all. “Our target customer is someone who works and can’t find time to take care of herself,” says Chau. “La Luer is able to do that for her because you don’t have to use it for a very long time, you just have to be consistent with it.”
Suggestions from La Luer’s customers led to the launches of Cryosculpt and $90 Cellular Renewal Serum. In addition, the virtual consultations sparked the idea for La Luer’s next product launch, a bio-cellulose sheet mask designed to soothe and hydrate the skin. It’s slated to come out by the end of the year.
New devices will take a backseat to other products for the time being in La Luer’s pipeline, says Chau. That could change if La Luer receives a cash infusion in the near future but, even if that occurs, Chau wants to stay true to La Luer’s grassroots efforts. She says, “Yes, you can raise tens to hundreds of millions to start a brand, but it too is OK to start small and scale big, to learn as you go and to build the company up at the rate that success allows you to.”
Chau hasn’t invested in any paid marketing since the launch of La Luer. She attributes the brand’s growth to positive word of mouth. This year, she plans to increase educational content and experiment with influencer and email marketing. Chau says, “What I love about this new digital space and in some ways being a smaller brand is, when something works well, we can easily double down on it and expand and, when something doesn’t work, we can always refine and pivot.”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.