Kate Somerville And Dana Jackson Reveal How Much Money They Think Is Really Needed To Properly Launch A Beauty Brand

Last year, Julie Fredrickson, former CEO and co-founder of Stowaway Cosmetics, told Vogue Business that it takes at least $1.5 million to launch a beauty brand.

During the Beauty Independent In Conversation skincare and body care webinar on Wednesday, Kate Somerville’s namesake founder indicated Fredrickson underestimated the amount required to develop a beauty brand. She advised beauty entrepreneurs to amass as much as $3 million to lay the foundation for success. Somerville relied heavily on traditional public relations tactics to raise brand awareness in the 2000s, but suggested influencer partners, sampling programs, patents and trademarks should be priorities today.

Beneath Your Mask founder Dana Jackson, who joined Somerville on the webinar moderated by Nader Naeymi-Rad, co-founder of Beauty Independent parent company Indie Beauty Media Group, figured $1 million would be the ideal sum to start with. She admitted she didn’t account for the array of expenses involved in initiating a brand at the inception of hers in 2012. Beneath Your Mask has gone through three packaging designers and switched screen printers. Jackson encouraged fellow founders to focus their investment on direct-to-consumer infrastructure and social media advertising.

“I’m always under budget because I’m always running to be frugal and really looking at the bottom line,” she said. “But all the mistakes that you are going to make along the way add up.”

Somerville faced a dilemma she’d rather forget that taught her the importance of intellectual property. Her brand’s exfoliating hero product was originally called Kate in a Jar in a nod at her celebrity clients’ desire to tote skincare solutions from her Los Angeles skincare clinic home or on set. The product was on Sephora, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom shelves until it was yanked due to a lawsuit from another brand over the name Kate in a Jar.

“It devastated me,” remembered Somerville. “I thought, ‘Oh my god, it’s over.’” It wasn’t over, though. She turned the obstacle into a positive by hosting a naming contest that resulted in Kate in a Jar becoming Exfolikate. Somerville said, “I always tell people building their brands to keep your mind open to those shifts because those can be the best shifts of your life.”

As Kate Somerville was getting off the ground, it’s largest expense was entering QVC. The investment was worth it for Somerville, who touted the television shopping network’s ability to communicate founder stories and convey product education. “QVC literally paid our bills,” she said. No matter the retailer, Somerville underscored it’s crucial for brands to go into it with a plan because of the upfront capital required of small businesses to roll out at retail, and the long duration between satisfying orders and receiving payment. After Kate Somerville sold out on a QVC appearance, Somerville said her team spent three years playing catch up and manufacturing enough merchandise to distribute to other retail venues.

Kate Somerville has endured trying stretches for the country as well. It went through the Writers Guild of America strike from 2007 to 2008 that shut down Hollywood production and sparked considerable job losses, and the concurrent Great Recession. In difficult periods, Somerville stressed it’s imperative for brands to pay close attention to the needs of their customers, and adapt messaging and business strategies accordingly. She said the current economic and political climate is nothing like she’s been through before, but she welcomed it because she holds it’s tinged with hope. She said, “This is the time of great change. Whether it’s women in business or women of color in business, this is your time, go out and get it.”

Jackson has always celebrated and highlighted the Black community, but she reminds Beneath Your Mask’s consumer base that it’s a luxury brand, not only a Black-owned brand. “Why that positioning is so important within our communities is because we do buy luxury, we are luxury consumers, and I feel like you should also be able to create it,” said Jackson. Amid the pandemic, she continued the silver lining is people have been able to slow down and absorb what’s going on around them. That’s caused them heed the Black Lives Matter movement.

“Where I come from is what makes me. It’s what gives me my hustle, my drive. It’s very difficult to knock me down.”

Speaking to budding entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities that have the deck stacked against them from the beginning, Jackson recommended harnessing negative circumstances to fuel ambition rather than serve as a setback. The Chicago native and Los Angeles resident said, “Where I come from is what makes me. It’s what gives me my hustle, my drive. It’s very difficult to knock me down.”

Prior to Beneath Your Mask, Jackson was a business manager in the music industry, an experience that exposed her to Black entrepreneurs and helped ignite her entrepreneurial aspiration. Jackson said, “The difference between me and everybody that grew up around me—My brother was murdered when I was 15. My father was addicted to drugs when I was growing up.—was that this exposure absolutely changed my life.” Being diagnosed with Lupus and Lupus Nephritis nine years ago changed her life, too. It led to her turning to herbs, supplements, nourishing foods and self-care to maintain her health and, ultimately, led her to establishing Beneath Your Mask. Currently, the brand is available at Neiman Marcus, Credo, Bergdorf Goodman and Beauty Heroes.

Somerville suffered from eczema as a child while growing up on a farm in Central California with her football coach father and a mother who was in and out of her life as a result of alcohol dependency. She used goat’s milk from the farm to soothe and treat her skin, and had a head for business even at a young age. She’d buy old fruit from farmers and resell the product at markets.

Following school to become an aesthetician, Somerville worked in dermatologist offices in LA preceding the opening of her skincare clinic. The clinic is a hot destination for facial services powered by cocktails of products and cutting-edge aesthetics treatments. With high-profile clients Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan flocking to it, Somerville became well-known in the beauty industry before introducing her skincare line in 2004. In 2015, Unilever acquired Kate Somerville and brought it into its portfolio of prestige beauty brands.