After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011, Cynthia Besteman left behind a lucrative career as a residential real estate broker to enter the beauty industry with a mission to improve women’s skincare and self-care. Now, she’s busy inking retail deals for her brand Violets Are Blue.
Besteman’s first major retail break came in 2016 when Violets Are Blue landed at Anthropologie a year after it launched to consumers. That milestone was followed up last year with its debut on Credo’s shelves and this year with a premiere at Nordstrom. Similar to Violets Are Blue’s progression in Anthropologie, it’s beginning on Nordstrom’s website before possibly entering stores.
“I love starting online and proving what you can do. It helps you figure out how your brand will grow at a retailer and, for small brands, small runs are way better than a 5,000-piece order that you have to scramble to get ready,” says Besteman. “And it helps them figure out what they should bring into stores, and they can set us up for success in the stores.”
Violets Are Blue’s incremental retail advancement has sparked not-so-incremental sales jumps. The brand’s revenues have doubled or tripled on an annual basis, and Besteman projects they’ll surge 150% to 200% this year. Violets Are Blue divides its natural skincare assortment into a Signature line for general application and a Beloved line designed for cancer patients. It donates Beloved products to Mt. Sinai Dubin Breast Center in New York, and 10% of all product proceeds are designated for the donation program.
“I wanted to create skincare for women in treatment to keep their skin healthy. Your whole world turns upside down with a breast-cancer diagnosis, and you feel that every decision is affecting your body and your health. I wanted to give women one less thing to worry about.”
“I wanted to create skincare for women in treatment to keep their skin healthy. Your whole world turns upside down with a breast-cancer diagnosis, and you feel that every decision is affecting your body and your health,” says Besteman. “I wanted to give women one less thing to worry about. They could get products that were about being healthy and beautiful, and that they could trust would be good for them.”
The path to distribution expansion hasn’t been totally smooth for Violets Are Blue. In the process of readying products for delivery to Anthropologie, about 2,000 of its deodorant bottles leaked. “I was upfront with Anthropologie and told them, ‘We have a quality-control issue. I will start anew and make sure you are getting what you are sold,’” recounts Besteman. “I was petrified to make that phone call because I was afraid they were going to drop me, but not once was there any pushback. They simply said, ‘Let us know when you can have them in.’ My thinking shifted to doing whatever I had to do to get into stores to realizing stores wanted me. I shifted away from a place of fear.”
With an eye toward store pick-ups, Besteman prepares ahead of time for distribution gains, but doesn’t pull the trigger too far in advance. “I say to a new brand owner, ‘Don’t buy those 10,000 pieces because you’re saving 25 cents a unit. Chances are you will change packaging or branding,’ but I always thought big. I considered, ‘What do I need to do for a big order?’” she says. “By the time they [Anthropologie] came to me, I had already lined up a large manufacturer. I told them initially, ‘I have no business for you now, but I will have you on speed dial when I get a big order.’”
“I was petrified to make that phone call because I was afraid they were going to drop me, but not once was there any pushback. They simply said, ‘Let us know when you can have them in.’ My thinking shifted to doing whatever I had to do to get into stores to realizing stores wanted me. I shifted away from a place of fear.”
Violets Are Blue’s Signature collection contains a dozen products priced from $9 to $52, including the bestselling Deodorant, Facial Cleanser and Facial Serum. “The brand has a less-is-more vision. You don’t need five products for your face, body and hair,” says Besteman. “The serum is created for your face, but you can morph it to do whatever you feel is necessary for you. You can use it on your cuticles, lips, hair and feet.”
A deodorant containing magnesium will be released soon. “Magnesium is something I feel is extremely beneficial for women, and studies show it is easily absorbed through the skin,” says Besteman. “It helps with migraines, digestion and menstrual cycles.” She adds 100 testers have given Violets Are Blue’s forthcoming odor buster positive reviews.
The brand’s customers are primarily 30- to 60-year-old women. However, Besteman notes Violets Are Blue’s demographic stretches older to customers made aware of it through an AARP The Magazine article that caused the brand’s sales to triple in January and February. “We are great for people who want to experiment with green beauty and change from Olay or Neutrogena because of our ingredients and price points,” she says. “It’s also for any woman or man touched by breast cancer.” Among Violets Are Blue’s ingredients are carrot seed, coconut, shea butter, and castor, black seed and argan oils.
“We are great for people who want to experiment with green beauty and change from Olay or Neutrogena because of our ingredients and price points. It’s also for any woman or man touched by breast cancer.”
Putting Violets Are Blue’s products in prominent retailers has established it as a green beauty brand to contend with, but Besteman isn’t finished spreading its message and merchandise. She views spas and smaller retailers as opportunities and is looking abroad as well. Besteman is interested in ramping up the presence of Beloved products in hospitals and cancer centers, too. She says, “I would love to see the medical world embrace green beauty for treatment.”
For the moment, though, Besteman is trying to appreciate her accomplishments so far. “Sometimes you get bogged down in the day to day, and it’s hard to step back and go, ‘Wow, look at what I’ve done,’” she says. “I try to really on focus on my why and creating beauty products and partnerships that matter.”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.