THE ELEMIS STORY
A pioneer in the beauty space for more than 25 years, ELEMIS was one of the first brands to remove parabens from products and has always led with the need to innovate. Having the customer’s lifestyle needs at the heart of its proposition is fundamental. “It’s about listening to the client and wrapping innovation around what the client wants,” says ELEMIS co-founder Noella Gabriel. “As the environment changes, so does our skin and body needs. It’s not about jumping on trends; it’s about setting trends and changing the landscape.”
With three dynamic co-founders at the helm, Ms Gabriel together with Sean Harrington and Oriele Frank embrace an entrepreneurial spirit with a personal passion that continues to drive the brand vision forward. “We have incredible integrity; all three of us wouldn’t still be here otherwise,” says Ms Gabriel. “We are open and honest, every ingredient is looked at, and we always question, is there something better?”
With sales in the UK up 18 per cent on last year and double-digit growth of more than 50 per cent in the United States, the results speak for themselves. ELEMIS also continues to buck the trend as in October the brand saw a 19 per cent increase compared with 2 per cent skincare market growth, according to NPD data.
AN EVOLUTION OF NATURE AND SCIENCE
ELEMIS Peptide⁴ Night Recovery Cream-Oil, launched this year, was a phenomenal triumph for the skincare leader. Boasting a 100 per cent success rate in user trials, all testers agreed they “looked like they’d had eight hours’ sleep” after using it. At the core of this product is a new super-botanical that has never been commercially grown called night-scented stock. Cultivated on a family-run farm in Britain, it is high in the essential fatty acid Omega-3 and has an excellent level of vitamin E – an industry first for the brand.
Ms Gabriel says the ELEMIS promise is to deliver products that people need and make a real difference. She says: “Peptide⁴ was designed for the mature millennial, who is time poor and lacking sleep. It nourishes and feeds the skin overnight, so you get that radiant, morning glow. We call it beauty sleep in a bottle and in every country globally it has been a success entering straight into the brands top five.”
For the mature millennial; ELEMIS Peptide4 Night Recovery Cream-Oil (left), Best-selling formula; ELEMIS Pro-Collagen Marine Cream (right)
When it comes to product development, the journey becomes as important as the product itself. Ms Gabriel explains: “The smell, the touch the feel and, of course, ultimately the results. We bring out new products that excite the client texturally. The skin is alive and it needs to be stimulated.”
Beauty editors’ favourite ELEMIS’ Pro-Collagen Marine Cream sells one pot every nine seconds globally. And along with a winning formulation, it is the cream’s texture that plays a key part in its remarkable success. “The after-feel of Pro-Collagen is exceptional,” says Ms Gabriel. “The skin is firm and hydrated, not oily or greasy. It feels like a smooth canvas on which to apply make-up.”
MORE THAN SKIN DEEP
For 2018, ELEMIS will add to its best-selling and multi-award-winning Pro-Collagen range with a brand-new creation, Pro-Collagen Overnight Matrix. Described as the “next generation of Pro-Collagen”, it uses groundbreaking drone peptide technology to target specific areas, where stress has impacted the skin and is most in need of elastin and collagen stimulation. Clinical trials have proven it to “visibly bring back bounce” to improve deep-set lines and delay the signs of ageing.
With soaring consumer demand for vegan products, ELEMIS will also unveil a new Superfood Skincare collection in February. Compiled of a Superfood Cleanser, Day Cream, Night Cream and Facial Oil, the products aim to “balance and strengthen skin with pre-biotics”. With extracts from greens, grains and superfoods, the range will leave the complexion “fresh, glowing and super healthy”. ELEMIS’ Superfood has been designed to target the ever-changing need of the mature millennial.
THE SKINCARE DISRUPTOR
Exciting product releases are not the only innovation from the brand this year. ELEMIS has disrupted the traditional on-counter beauty experience with its new ELEMIS Skin Exchange concept, introduced at John Lewis in London’s Oxford Street. This new concept has led to a 37 per cent increase in ELEMIS’ services since its launch in September.
It’s the evolution of a legacy British brand into a skincare digital disruptor
The new personalised facial experience has the time-poor millennial customer at its heart and comprises three fifteen-minute “skin fix” elements, aiming to deliver “maximum results, in minimum time”.
Ms Gabriel says she designed the new facial concept like a build-your-own salad bar. “You pick your base, then add your fillings and finally the all-important toppings. And wow, what they deliver to your skin is what you will see in the mirror – the results are instant,” she says.
A DIGITAL INNOVATOR
It launched #ELEMISeveryday this year, a new digital lifestyle campaign that handpicked some of the UK’s biggest influencers to celebrate the “little things that make your skin, body and day a little bit better”.
As part of the campaign, it appointed four ELEMIS ambassadors, who “embody the #ELEMISeveryday philosophy and who live it”. The ambassadors have been sharing insights on the brand to their followers with lifestyle tips, articles and all-round inspiration.
“I use the Pro-Collagen range and I’ve never seen such a big change in my skin. The products really work, which is why I keep going back to them,” says ELEMIS ambassador Anneli Bush.
Lifestyle influencer Ms Bush of annelibush.com says the partnership with ELEMIS was a natural one for her. “I absolutely love ELEMIS. They are constantly bettering their products and they really listen to their customers. The Pro-Collagen Marine Cream with SPF 30 is my absolute hero-product and the one I tend to rave about the most,” she says.
It is the first time ELEMIS has brought in a third-party skincare solution and it did so in response to customer demand. “We were constantly seeing influencers talk about how they loved using the ELEMIS BIOTEC Cleanser with their FOREO,” says Ms Gabriel.
Responding to changing environments and lifestyle are key influences in new product development for ELEMIS. But the constant need to innovate and disrupt continues to drive the brand forward to its global success. ELEMIS is now on a significant drive in the United States, embracing a digital strategy to disrupt with relevance through the Superfood launch exclusively online and a game-changing influencer campaign in 2018.
“It’s the evolution of a legacy British brand into a skincare digital disruptor,” says Ms Gabriel.
