For First Aid Beauty founder and CEO Lilli Gordon, a career in finance just wasn't cutting the mustard. After a stint at skincare brand Fresh, where she helped grow the business into a luxury skincare line, she turned her attention to creating products for fellow sensitive skin types. The business-savvy beauty lover created FAB skincare in 2009 and today, the products are sold in SEPHORA across the US and now Australia.
Here, Gordon reveals what it was like starting a skincare line from scratch and why details are absolutely paramount to success.
From finance to Fresh
For most of my professional life, I’ve been in the business world, in finance to be specific. And then, about 20 years ago, I was lucky enough to join Fresh where I was a partner of the founders, Lev Glazman and Alina Roytberg. Lev and Alina are both amazing, creative, talented people, but at the time, they had very little business expertise. They brought me on as their partner to help grow the business, expand it and really take it to the next level. It was an incredible experience. I’d go to work and say, “Is this really work?”
During my years at Fresh, in addition to successfully growing the business, I helped negotiate the sale of a majority interest of Fresh to LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. That industry knowledge I gained at Fresh was key to starting First Aid Beauty.
Turning a passion into a project
I founded First Aid Beauty because I was tired of sensitive-skin products that were ineffective, seemed so medicinal and contained harmful and irritating ingredients. I did my research and learned that others felt the same way! Drugstore classics like Cetaphil, Aquaphor and Eucerin are considered workhorse products, but once I looked into it further, I learned some of these popular formulations date back to the early 1900s!
Needless to say, science has evolved to allow us to create highly effective formulations with gorgeous consistencies that are free of harmful ingredients. I was inspired to update the drugstore classics with skincare that was modern, scientifically advanced and incorporated luxurious formulations and chic packaging. It’s important to me to create products that people really rely on generally and also for specific, emergency problems. Every household has a first aid kit and every household needs First Aid Beauty products!
I am not a chemist, but I do get very involved in product development and formulation. We're very hands-on with all of the products, suggesting ideas as well as giving direction. We work closely with a couple of incredible chemists who help bring our ideas to life.
"Especially in the beauty industry, more than any other industry – the difference between something good and something great is attention to detail. Details are absolutely paramount to success."
First Aid Beauty’s apothecary-chic packaging really captures our 'rescue and preserve' spirit. Distinct visuals and branding include striking rays and our hallmark life preserver. It is really important to me that our packaging emphasises intelligent copy that clearly identifies skin condition, ingredient benefits and key features for a consumer-friendly experience.
For me, my favourite part of starting First Aid Beauty was the fact it took every single thing I had ever done in my life and brought it together under one umbrella. I found that really, really exciting. I think that's the key thing for me is that I really knew what it would take to do this, and I think a lot of people don't.
SEPHORA and beyond…
I knew early on that I wanted to work with SEPHORA as our first retail partner, so I cold-called a SEPHORA buyer, who agreed to a 'courtesy meeting' since SEPHORA is also owned by LVMH, like Fresh. I had my deck and I had my computer and the buyer loved it. She loved the concept, and she loved how buttoned-down it was because I had a lot of business background that beauty entrepreneurs usually do not have, and that really comes through. Our big break was absolutely launching on SEPHORA.com in December 2009 and then into 140 stores the following month, growing to a full national rollout and then expansion internationally.
The Australian market is a particularly dynamic and growing market and skincare is one of the strongest performing categories. Australian women are beauty savvy and sophisticated consumers. We’ve been selling into Australia on the SEPHORA website since February last year and the brand has been a top performer. SEPHORA has been an incredible partner of ours since we launched and we’re thrilled to partner with them to formally launch FAB in the Australian market.
Image: Gordon with VP of sales John Bain
