Makeup artist Miriam Azoulay has worked for a number of high-profile magazines – Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Glamour, Vanity Fair and Allure among them – and now she’s working with high-profile retailer Ron Robinson.
Azoulay’s Mirigal High Voltage Oil has hit the shelves of the renowned two-unit Los Angeles concept store and landed on its website. “It’s very validating,” says Azoulay. The validation is similar to the feeling she gets when people browse her makeup portfolio. Azoulay explains, “When people see the covers of the Vogue magazine that I have in my portfolio, it’s a credential. [They think,] ‘She has a Vogue cover, for sure she can do this job, let’s book her.’ When they see my product [at Ron Robinson], it gives it authority.”
Azoulay’s experience as a celebrity makeup artist helped win over Ron Robinson. “She has a true knowledge of what products are effective,” says Karen Meena, vice president of buying and merchandising at Ron Robinson. While competition in the oils category is fierce, she believes the $128 Mirigal High Voltage Oil’s blend of organic, quality ingredients appeals to shoppers.
Beyond the product’s contents, presentation was important to Azoulay. Mirigal High Voltage Oil’s white rubber pipette and the trim around it are custom. “I wanted it to be vintage gold,” says Azoulay of the cap, adding a clear plastic cup on top of it isn’t a mere design element. The cup prevents essential oils from evaporating. Meena is a fan of the look. “We loved the bottle and label design,” she says. “The whole package is branded with a clean, modern aesthetic that fits our store.”
The brand name Mirigal is a nod to Azoulay’s nickname Miri and her maiden name Gal. She called its first product High Voltage Oil to underscore its potency. It contains prickly pear, argan, sweet almond and rosehip seed oils. “There’s nothing that’s been diluted or vaporized,” says Azoulay. “I keep the oil the same way after we blend the nuts. We wait until we get the pure, concentrated oil at the bottom of the barrel. That’s the one that goes to Mirigal.”
Azoulay’s passion for essential oils developed in her native Morocco, where her family tinkered with various mixtures for generations. “All along I had it in the back of my head that I was going to put this bottle together,” says the makeup artist whose beauty career began in 1997. “I never used creams on the face because I didn’t get the look I wanted. I liked the transparency and the light that the skin was giving me when I was using oil. As my career went along, I only used oil on my clients.”
After spending nearly two decades traveling around the world for her job, Azoulay turned her attention to her serum and took advantage of her built-in focus group to refine it. “I was asking the models what they thought of the scent or the texture,” she shares. “I finally came up with a formula that worked and that got the best response from my models.”
Adriana Lima was one of the models testing early iterations of High Voltage Oil. “[She] used to tell me all the time, ‘Miriam, you need to sell it,’” recounts Azoulay. “I used to give little samples out of my kitchen to the girls as a gift.”
Before putting the product on the market, Azoulay insisted on three requirements. “I wanted the color of the oil to be gold because I thought gold was more appealing,” she details. The formula also had to absorb immediately. “I did not want to have any film or greasiness that’s going to make me have to use tons of powder to matte the skin down,” says Azoulay. Finally, the scent had to leave a lasting impression. “People say the scent reminds them of something from a long time ago,” notes Azoulay. “It seems like it has a history. It has a story.”
Azoulay mentions that main ingredients used in High Voltage Oil can only be harvested in small batches three times a year, which means Mirigal isn’t going to be everywhere overnight. Azoulay is comfortable with slow growth, but would still like to amplify the brand’s message with marketing efforts.
“Eighty-five percent of [Mirigal.com] customers reorder. So, most of the people who bought it are already on their second bottle. This is what keeps me going,” says Azoulay. “It’s reaching more customers, which is the problem I’m having right now.”
Outside of bringing in marketing help, Azoulay’s goal for 2018 is to launch two more skincare products under the Mirigal brand. “I only want to have three products,” she says. “The other two are so perfect for the High Voltage Oil. It is going to be like a set. One is going to work with the other.”
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