Founder Friday with Liz Agresta: the secrets to building a $15m beauty empire 

In advance of her to start with-at any time trade demonstrate in Italy, entrepreneur Liz Agresta located out that her items had been remaining held up in customs. Undeterred, she went on to current likely buyers with vacant labelled bottles stuffed with drinking water.

“I nevertheless remember expressing to just one of the fellas with me, ‘Well, you know, we have either hit the nail on the head in this article or we have totally skipped the mark’,” she laughed.

A few brief yrs later on, her line of self-tanning, sunshine care, and skincare products and solutions Australian Glow is rumoured to be valued at $15 million, with a bottle of her prime-rated self-tanning mousse reportedly selling every single 70 seconds around the world.

The inspiration for the beauty brand arrived from her possess pores and skin struggles.

“From my teenager yrs by to my 20s, self-tanning was one thing I cherished to do. But when I turned 30, my delicate skin commenced to have a significant reaction to some products,” Liz defined. “I was carrying out all this to search good and it experienced the reverse result.”

She took a deep dive into the sunshine treatment and skincare current market and realised there was house for an organic and natural self-tanning brand name with sustainability at its main.

“We had the plan and then it came to a point in which I experienced to point my income in which my mouth was. So I determined to give up my job and make the initial financial investment of all around $25,000 from my possess cost savings.”

Considering the fact that hitting the shelves in early 2020, Australian Glow can now be observed in 15 countries. It has occur to be witnessed as a market chief in sustainable splendor for sensitive skin.

Liz is understandably all smiles when she talks about the “amazing feedback” Australian Glow has obtained.

 “I feel, provided the present-day instances, all people is attempting to be sustainable in their strategy to daily life. And to see a splendor brand name out there, producing huge improvements and wanting to have an impact, has been seriously good for our shoppers,” she shared.

Going world

Liz recognized early on that the Australian self-tanning current market was “quite congested.” So in its place of heading the classic route, she made the decision to begin Australian Glow with world wide trade reveals in 2019.

“That’s wherever the genuine good results came from. We satisfied with tons of important shops from about the entire world, loads of distributors who completely beloved our story,” she uncovered.

It was in Bologna, Italy at Cosmoprof, a single of the world’s most significant investing displays, that she identified herself outfitted with only a smaller suitcase of products. The rest were held up in customs and not likely to be produced in time for the clearly show.

“It was fairly embarrassing! I bear in mind experience so sheepish filling up the bottles with the other stalls looking at us. But then, through all 3 days of the demonstrate, our stand finished up having the most interest and foot website traffic.”

Australian Glow was launched in big merchants in March 2020 – in the week lockdowns were implemented about the world.

It was an understandably demanding circumstance, and a person she managed with a little one on the way. Nevertheless, she stayed the course.

“Life’s been really chaotic! My son was born in May perhaps 2020, a several months into the small business. But becoming a mum is my selection 1 priority and I’m blessed to have a whole lot of family support,” she added. “It’s been an appealing, wild journey the previous handful of many years.”

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Constructing a sustainable manufacturer

Participating in a portion in shielding the world was critical to this entrepreneur.

Australian Glow was the 1st tanning brand to make their component checklist clear for customers to know just what goes in it.

“Being modern is what drives me. Australian Glow was also the 1st tanning brand name in the world with sustainable packaging – when you finished your bottle, you could invest in a refill sachet that was produced from recycled plastic rescued from the ocean.

“We use 80 per cent much less plastic on these refill pouches than an real bottle. It was this attribute that blew the minds of buyers at the to start with trade demonstrate we introduced at.”

They will also be switching from utilizing labels to straight printing on the packaging, to make the merchandise more recyclable.

A short while ago, Australian Glow announced that it would discontinue its facial bronzing mist because “it are not able to be created employing sustainable packaging.”  

Liz explained, “We are ceasing production of Australian Glow Facial Bronzing Mist inspite of it being 25 for each cent of our revenue and it getting our #1 product in the Usa. Even however our spray takes advantage of Bag on Valve engineering that is fewer destructive than other aerosols – it is the proper conclusion if we are to go on as a worldwide chief in sustainable packaging for the magnificence field.

“We do not want to develop any confusion that aerosols of any type are setting pleasant. Aerosols generally consist of hydrocarbons that lead to local weather alter and are identified to improve occurrences of most cancers and respiratory disorders in human beings. Most aerosol cans are also lined with epoxy – a kind of plastic that make these cans not possible to recycle. This is versus what we stand for.”

Very best advice acquired

For Liz, whose merchandise is now offered around the globe as a result of massive-identify vendors like Macys and Ulta Attractiveness (US), Priceline (AU), and Superdrug (Uk), the very best advice she acquired was to simply “take a phase again.”

“Starting out, I felt like I experienced to say indeed to each retailer or distributor who reached out,” she confessed. “I learned to get a move back again and really make an educated decision that you are happy with. It’s not doable to make sure you everybody.

“You could hear the accomplishment tales of a business, but at the rear of each individual story is someone doing work definitely, truly challenging. We make issues, we master alongside the way, and we get back again up just about every time we’re knocked down.”

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