Making allies of skin around the world

SINGAPORE — Allies of Skin founder Nicolas Travis is not yet 30 years old, but he already owns a skincare line with a presence in 12 countries, which made S$700,000 in revenue in its first year.

The 29-year-old Singaporean launched Allies of Skin last year with just one product. The brand’s claim to fame is that the ingredients used in its products stimulate collagen production in the skin, encouraging cellular renewal and repair.

It has a modest four products in its current range, but Travis has grand plans to expand to 25 products by 2019.

Although Allies of Skin is a new brand, it has been touted as one of the hottest new offerings in skincare. Its 1A All-day Mask (S$109), for example, is designed to be worn under makeup and sunblock without needing to be rinsed off, and is designed to revive tired, stressed skin. The brand also launched a hydrating chemical peel in March, which is purported to be the world’s first hydrating hypoallergenic chemical peel (Bright Future Overnight Facial, S$159) “formulated for exfoliation with intense hydration”. According to Travis, the effect is equivalent to a salon facial.

Its other products include the Molecular Saviour Toner Mist (S$79 for 50ml) to boost skin moisture, and the 1A Overnight Mask (S$139) to hydrate and smoothen skin.

Travis, who was named in this year’s Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 list, worked at Ogilvy & Mather developing social media campaigns for nine months before venturing out on his own. “It just wasn’t fulfilling for me anymore. I felt like doing something different,” said Travis, who has a degree in pharmaceutical management, and a Master of International Business from Grenoble Graduate School of Business in France.

“It was a dream to have my own skincare (line),” said Travis, adding that he had written a business plan for it as part of his master’s thesis. So when he decided to quit his job and venture out on his own, he dusted off his thesis and decided to have a go at the real thing.

The original business plan, however, was based on start-up funding of S$1 million. “I realised I was never going (to get) S$1 million (funding), but I could scale back and start with one product that nobody else had,” said Travis.

When he left his advertising job, Travis had put S$150,000 into the business with funds he earned from an investment made with money from a university internship when he was studying in the United States. His two elder siblings also invested S$100,000.

In 2013, he spent three months talking to laboratories around the world before settling on one from the US. Travis then worked with the chemists there to create various formulas and produced 12 revisions over two-and-a-half years before achieving a product he was happy with.

“I was trying to create something clean. No synthetics, no parabens, no alcohol,” said Travis.

Allies of Skin launched in 2016 with just that one product: The 1A All-day Mask. Within a year, sales had reached S$700,000, and Travis said he expects revenues to hit S$2m in 2018.

Seeing the enthusiastic response to his product in Singapore, Travis decided to take the brand global.

“Singapore was a good test market for an indie brand. (But) Singapore itself is very small, it’s not enough for us to focus on Singapore alone, so we have to go overseas. It’s always been my dream to build a global skincare business,” he said.

It took him six months to break into the US, United Kingdom and Canada, and he did it by “cold-calling”. His efforts paid off as his products are stocked at Space NK (US), Nordstrom, Anthropologie and Bloomingdales.com, and can be found at major e-tailers such as Net-A-Porter, Mr Porter and Barneys.

Allies of Skin has also made it to France and is stocked at French beauty retailer Oh My Cream, and can also be found in Russia and Poland. This year, he expects to enter the Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Italy and Germany markets.

The skincare line has also attracted the attention of investors. Earlier this year, an investor from the US and one from Thailand pumped a further S$350,000 into the business.

“We are very much focused on creating more products. In the next four years, it’s about launching more products and rolling out in all the luxury stores to create awareness and have a physical store presence,” Travis said.

Allies of Skin products are available at https://alliesofskin.com as well as at selected Naiise stores.

Other Singaporean beauty brands that have gone global:

Handmade Heroes

Lynsey Lim started the brand selling her products from a booth at pop-up markets. It has since ballooned into a global brand with products stocked in Singapore, Malaysia, the United States and the United Kingdom. Handcrafted locally, Lim’s products feature natural ingredients such as extra-virgin coconut oil, cocoa butter and almond oil. Harper’s Bazaar awarded her product, the Butt Kickin’ Deep Detoxing Coffee Scrub (S$21.90), the Best Cellulite Buster in its 2016 Beauty Awards. Handmade Heroes products are priced from S$6.90 for a lip balm to S$24.90 for a clay face mask.

Visit https://www.handmade-heroes.com for more information.

DrGL

DrGL began as one woman’s journey to solve her skin problems. Aesthetic doctor Dr Georgia Lee, who used to suffer from inflammatory hyper-pigmentation, created her own skincare products in 2009 to treat her pigmentation. Today, DrGL can be found in Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Lee’s products are made for Asian skin types and climate, and feature an extensive selection for face, makeup and hair. They are priced from S$28 for a Sun Protection Lip Nude lipstick to S$288 for Solution Hair (Anti-aging) hair serum. Her eye product, DrGL Eye Repair, won an award in the Her World Beauty Awards 2016 for the best brightening eyecare. Other products available include DrGL’s Sun Protection Mist and DrGL Restore Gel Mask.

Visit http://drgl.com

Skin Inc

Founder Sabrina Tan launched this brand, known for its serums, in 2008. From one store in Singapore, Skin Inc is now distributed to over 350 outlets in 100 cities across Asia, Europe and America, as well as online on Sephora. Tan used her 11 years of expertise in the technological industry and worked with Japanese and American scientists to develop serums that can be customised to address consumers’ skincare concerns. The brand’s products — crowd favourite My Daily Dose serum, wireless spa device Optimiser Voyage and multi-masking hydrogel sheet mask Facial In a Flash — are all made in Japan, with no added scents or parabens. Prices of Skin Inc products range from S$17 for a mask to S$398 for the optimiser voyage device that claims to repair and renew damaged skin cells.

Visit http://www.iloveskininc.com for Skin Inc products.