Customizable Skincare Brand Rose & Abbot’s New Campaign Highlights The Individuality Of Women And Its Products For Them

Customizable skincare brand Rose & Abbot is celebrating the uniqueness of women in a digital campaign featuring a diverse group of six influencers to highlight its ability to tailor formulas for customers’ unique needs.

The campaign, which incorporates the hashtag #breakthebubble and was created in-house, includes influencers using the handles Moonmaison, Chicwithcurves, Flowerhitsthebigtime, Codyckennedy, Glossedangeles and Autumncymon in unedited photos. Brand manager Gabriela Leme chose them because they spread messages of self-love and embrace wide definitions of beauty.

“It isn’t easy for us to advertise. If you’re a makeup brand, you might be able to show your approach with 40 different foundation colors, but we don’t have 40 different foundation colors,” says Jennifer Douglas, CEO and co-founder of Rose & Abbot. “Everybody’s skin is different and, in this campaign, we want to show that. We’re showing no one has flawless skin. We can produce more than 10,000 different moisturizers, and we can solve most of the problems of any skin type, no matter your ethnicity or lifestyle.”

The brand whips up personalized skincare remedies after visitors to its website answer a series of questions covering skin issues, stress levels, water intake, environmental surroundings, and preferred scents and bottle designs. A 1-oz. moisturizer is $39, and moisturizer recipes are 98% natural. Customers receive products in three to five business days.

“Everybody’s skin is different and, in this campaign, we want to show that. We’re showing no one has flawless skin. We can produce more than 10,000 different moisturizers, and we can solve most of the problems of any skin type, no matter your ethnicity or lifestyle.”

Rose & Abbot isn’t the first skincare brand to emphasize inclusivity in its advertising. Unretouched models star in a campaign from professional brand Babor, and Glossier’s campaign for body wash and lotion Body Hero showed an array of body shapes. However, makeup brands such as Fenty, Wet ‘n’ Wild and Milk Makeup have taken the lead with imagery challenging societal beauty norms.

Older women have often been left out of skincare and makeup brands’ campaigns, even those aiming to be inclusive, and Rose & Abbot’s campaign is no exception. Douglas explains the decision stems from the brand’s moisturizer formulas that aren’t designed to combat wrinkles. The brand’s target demographic is 18- to 40-year-old women.

“Right now, we’re not capable with a natural product to work on those specific skin concerns,” says Douglas, referring to wrinkles. “I don’t want to have orders from older women, and we can’t meet their expectations.”

“You should start with just a few micro-influencers who are really interested in natural skincare and build a relationship with them directly, ask them for feedback and, if they like the product, they post about it, and it’s not a paid post. At the moment, paid posts aren’t working for small brands like us.”

Since launching in September, Rose & Abbot has learned a great deal about what’s effective and not effective for advertising. Google AdWords have proven to be not effective, and Instagram and Facebook are comparatively effective. An influencer seeding effort run by an outside agency that involved sending moisturizers to 100 influencers didn’t net “any return on investment,” according to Douglas. She reasons 100 influencers are far too many for an emerging brand to cultivate.

“You should start with just a few micro-influencers who are really interested in natural skincare and build a relationship with them directly, ask them for feedback and, if they like the product, they post about it, and it’s not a paid post,” says Douglas. “At the moment, paid posts aren’t working for small brands like us. We want to reach a customer base that’s familiar with natural ingredients and educated in the natural skincare space. They’re interested in influencers giving honest reviews without being paid.”

She shares Rose & Abbot has invested an amount in the low six figures into the #breakthebubble campaign. “We would like to see followers and brand awareness lift. If we can do that, our long-term goal is, in three to six months, to gain more revenue,” says Douglas, projecting the brand’s sales could break into the “low six-digit area” this year.

“They [customers] are giving honest feedback, and we can adjust their formulas. We can also send a second version if we have new ingredients for their skin type. The interaction and engagement with our customer base is good – and that’s what they want. They want to get the perfect product for their skin.”

Douglas has a history in the beauty industry predating Rose & Abbot. She’s the founder of four-year-old German natural beauty e-tailer SPAtacular and its physical offshoot SPAtactular Beauty Bar in Dusseldorf. Rose & Abbot is headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif., and named for the streets Rose Avenue and Abbot Kinney Boulevard in the nearby neighborhood Venice. Customized skincare, Douglas admits, is a whole other beast from her earlier beauty businesses. She says, “We can’t do what everybody does and just produce 10,000 or 50,000 pieces.”

The upside of customized skincare is, when customers request formulas be tweaked in certain manners, they can be changed to meet their demands. “We are doing a good job with reorders,” says Douglas. “They [customers] are giving honest feedback, and we can adjust their formulas. We can also send a second version if we have new ingredients for their skin type. The interaction and engagement with our customer base is good – and that’s what they want. They want to get the perfect product for their skin.”