This Beauty Entrepreneur Is Changing the Industry With an Accessible Under-$15 Brand

Photo: Courtesy of Colette Laxton

Any investment in knowledge pays interest, even (and especially) when it comes to the beauty industry. With so many brands available in a highly competitive market, how do consumers see through the marketing clutter and educate themselves in order to make informed purchasing decisions? Thankfully, The INKEY List is imparting the beauty of knowledge to their ever-growing community.

Founded by Colette Laxton and Mark Curry in 2018, The INKEY List is the ultimate affordable, accessible, transparent, and efficacious skincare brand, born from a belief that better knowledge powers better decisions. Frustrated by the lack of transparency and education in the skincare industry, Colette and Mark saw a clear gap in the market for a skincare brand that actually informed their customers about what they were buying. Having seen platforms full of communities that were turning to each other through the confusion about products, ingredients, and what brands were telling them, they knew that knowledge needed to be at the heart of their business.

In this episode of WorkParty, Jaclyn sits down with Colette to dive into The INKEY List’s information-driven mission and the challenges of creating a beauty brand while simultaneously educating their customer.

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On having a co-founder…

“It blows my mind that people have companies on their own. Having a co-founder to scream at, to cry with, to celebrate with, I honestly commend and I’m in awe of anyone who can do it on their own.”

“This is more than a marriage we’re talking about because this is your future, this is your finances, this is your life. Having someone you can 100% trust is the cornerstone of any co-founder relationship.”

On democratizing skincare…

“The single-ingredient products were driven by this idea of democratizing skincare and making it as simple as possible for everyone to understand, but if you want to make it accessible to everyone, then the price needs to be accessible too.”

“To create every product under $15 has been crazy hard to do, but it’s also a challenge from a customer perception perspective. Teaching consumers that you don’t have to pay $50 for a serum is actually the biggest challenge that we face.”

On breaking into a competitive industry…

“It’s not about what you do, it’s about why you do it, and we so clear from the outset about what our brand’s superpower are: knowledge and education.”

“As an entrepreneur, if you can find a point of difference, start with “why” and really understand what you’re doing and why.”

On launching at Sephora…

“We launched with Sephora in the U.S. within six months of our brand launch. We didn’t even have a warehouse in the U.S., and we had to take on extra funding in order to afford the stock to support Sephora.”

“We were scrambling behind the scenes and had no idea how Sephora worked. They were talking about endcaps and fixturization, and we were nodding and smiling, then Googling what to do.”

On navigating tough times…

“People are going to tell you you’re idea is rubbish or it’s never going to work, just stay in the game. Keep that passion that you’ve got inside you and just stay in the game.”

On being an entrepreneur…

“You literally give up your life. There’s no part-time entrepreneur, and I would say I’ve definitely given up three years of my life. It looks really cute and fun, but it is so much hard work.”

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