New Customization Concept Mxt Puts Consumers In Charge Of Their Skincare Products

No one knows your skin better than you. Mxt allows you to construct products just for it.

The new artificial intelligence-powered customization concept turns its customers into formulators with two tools: One is a quiz guiding them to products tailored to their concerns, and the other is a build-it-from-scratch system in which they choose product types (e.g., cleanser, serum or moisturizer), formats (there are clay, foaming, milk and mattifying cleansers, for instance) and ingredients. The direct-to-consumer company estimates it can whip up over 40 million possible formulations.

“Mxt is an endless stream of skincare solutions waiting for consumers to find them,” says Mxt CEO and co-founder Jack Davies. “For the more experienced user, it’s a wonderful platform where you can make what you want and, for the more novice users wanting to solve a problem, they tell us what their problem is and we solve it for them.”

Mxt
New customization concept Mxt enables consumers to build skincare products from the bottom up by selecting the product format and ingredients they want to suit their skin type and address their concerns.

The idea for Mxt sprang from a discussion between Davies, and creative agency Collier.Simon founders Jason Simon and Nick Collier, now a partner in the business, about shifts in the beauty industry. Davies, who sold two previous brands he co-founded, Collective Wellbeing and Davies Gate, to Nutraceutical Corp. and had been a client of Collier.Simon, was intrigued by customization, but thought it would be too difficult to realize in a groundbreaking way. Brands the likes of Proven and Skinsei, a Unilever endeavor, had a quiz, and he was motivated to go beyond it.

“To do this right, and not cut corners and sell consumers standard products based on personas, but to produce a novel product using artificial intelligence is a tricky thing to pull off,” says Davies. “It took true expertise in three areas: data science, skincare manufacturing and marketing.”

“Mxt is an endless stream of skincare solutions waiting for consumers to find them.”

After two years in development, Mxt’s build-it-from-scratch system is its groundbreaking differentiator. Customers can select from 60-plus ingredients such as ferulic acid, jojoba oil, kombucha, retinol and resveratrol to personalize products to address an array of concerns from oiliness to uneven tone. In each personalized product, they can add three ingredients, and Mxt’s technology rules out ingredients that don’t work together or for specific sorts of products. Following their product format and ingredient choices, customers receive a rundown of the product they shaped, including a full ingredient list and application instructions. Products are shipped the next day.

“We have a competitive moat around our business because we have the ability to customize on the fly,” says Davies. “Others will try to copy us and some might succeed, but it’s a good business model because it’s a novel business model. It’s worth the extra effort because we’re creating a product playground that the world has never seen before.”

Mxt co-founder and CEO Jack Davies
Mxt co-founder and CEO Jack Davies

Positioned as an entry-level prestige brand, Mxt doesn’t charge a premium for customization. A product fashioned in the build-it-from-scratch system is priced from $19 to $58 depending on the type and ingredient costs. Customers opting for the quiz are recommended three products—cleanser, cream and serum—with a combined price of $90 to $140. Mxt’s products are housed in black and white apothecary-looking packaging that appeals to consumers across gender and age lines. Subscription is not an option currently, but it will be offered soon.

The expectations are high with customized skincare. To ensure its meeting them, Davies details Mxt is initiating a customer service structure to keep tabs on its users to figure out if they’re satisfied with products and encourage them to provide reviews. If Mxt meets or exceeds customers’ expectations, Davies believes it can keep them forever because they can’t readily head to competitors to snap up similar products.

“Others will try to copy us and some might succeed, but it’s a good business model because it’s a novel business model. It’s worth the extra effort because we’re creating a product playground that the world has never seen before.”

For the foreseeable future, Mxt will stick to DTC distribution. Davies notes Mxt has no inventory of finished goods, making it impossible to ship products to retailers, at least at the moment. However, he envisions extending its reach through partnerships with dermatologists’ and plastic surgeons’ offices, and gift card programs. Mxt also plans to collaborate with influencers and beauty professionals on products that will be available on its website.

For its first year on the market, Mxt’s goal is to acquire close to 100,000 customers and generate $3 million to $5 million in sales. It’s attracted angel investors Davies describes as deeply involved in the beauty industry. He declined to divulge the names of the angel investors and the amount of the investment. Beginning in the summer, Mxt anticipates attempting to secure a round of funding to fuel growth.

Mxt
Mxt relies on a direct-to-consumer distribution model. Because it produces merchandise on demand, it has no finished goods to ship to retailers.

“If you are an investor, you get sent pitch decks sent to you nonstop, and they’re often all the same. Nobody in the industry says I’ve already seen this,” asserts Davies, asked about Mxt’s pitch to the investment community. “This is your chance to invest in a company that’s at the start of a new chapter in the beauty industry called customization. We don’t know where it’s going, but we know consumers want it, and we know we’ve built a powerful model to interact with them.”