Latest / Skin Anarchy / Elana D. Szyfer, CEO of RéVive Skincare

Transcript

Elana D. Szyfer, CEO of RéVive Skincare · Skin Anarchy

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hi guys, welcome back to Skincare Anarchy.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: This is your host, Ekta, and today I have with me the founder of Revive Skincare, um, Ilana Zeifer.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm super excited because I've been loving your products, Alana.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: So welcome to the show.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited you're here.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, I'm the CEO, but I'm not the founder.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: We have an amazing founder.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, his name is Dr.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Gregory Bayes Brown.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: He's a trained plastic and reconstructive surgeon.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: So he's the real brains behind the organization.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that was my mistake.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so uh, you know, CEO, but you're still, you know, I want to I want to talk about your background because I want to know um what led you to creating this beautiful brand and you know what was the process with working with a doctor and you know all the good things, all the details.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, so it's actually it's um a long story, which I will make short, but um in fact, Dr.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Brown was a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, he um did uh his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, um, and he did a great deal of research, and he was specifically focused on the area of burned wound healing.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so um during um, you know, his internship residency and his internship where he worked with uh burned wound patients, he was doing a lot of research on ways to make burn wounds heal faster.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: It is when a patient is most susceptible to infection.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And if you can have the skin cells take, for example, in a graft more quickly, you really reduce uh the potential for infection and also for fatality.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so through this research, he uh came across some research that had been done by two scientists uh starting in 1960 who ended up winning the Nobel Prize for their research, and it was in the area of epidermal growth factor.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so he started utilizing epidermal growth factor in uh burned wound uh care.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, his burned wound uh care theories are actually part of the official medical protocol now for how the best way to treat burned wound wounds.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And what he found through his research is that if you apply epidermal growth factor um to a wound site, the skin cells will turn over more rapidly and the the burn wound will heal heal more quickly.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, this is you know the background uh that we you know with that he had in mind.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: He then left his residency, he uh became a practicing physician, he went back to Kentucky, where he's from, and he set up a practice there.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he was uh, you know, plastic and reconstructive surgeon.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: So he did um he also did aesthetic surgery, and so he started seeing a lot of patients who would come in to see him and say, you know, Dr.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Brown, I'd really like a facelift or I'd like an eye lift.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, he would talk with the patients and he would say, Can you tell me a little bit about what it is that you're looking for?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and people would say, Well, you know, what I'm really looking for is like that youthful glow of my skin to return.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he would say, Okay, listen, I am I'm happy to give you a facelift, but that's not what a facelift does.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: A facelift tightens the skin.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's really only one thing that can make your skin have that healthy glow, and that's really new skin cells and you know the skin behaving as if it were young again.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so with this in mind, what he kept hearing it over and over again, he started thinking about what he knew about epidermal growth factor, and if this uh if you apply it to skin, you know, skin cells turn over more quickly.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so he thought, well, perhaps this might work from an anti-aging perspective.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: So he started to do some clinical trials, and in fact, he um he found that that that it was the case that epidermal growth factor on skin, not skin that had been hurt by a burn or any kind of wound, but on skin made those cells turn over more quickly.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so what he did actually was he started putting epidermal growth factor in a generic moisturizer and giving it to his patients after their surgery, kind of as like a gift and as a way for his patients to get the word out about his practice.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he always talks about this idea that um uh doctors didn't really advertise and he wasn't gonna do that, but he knew that you know, if people would recommend him, he would generate, he would find more clients.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so people really started loving this cream.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And um so it ended up quite by chance in the hands of somebody who ran Neiman Marcus.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: And they approached Dr.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Brown, and this was in 1997, and they said, Listen, if you can commercialize this, we'll launch you.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so he did.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that was kind of the story of how Riviv was born.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that it's actually centered around like one scientific principle rather than you know a million different ideas.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think that that's something that I see a lot of right now in skincare, is that everyone wants to talk about, you know, all of the overall skin health.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: But when it comes to make, you know, the building blocks, such as epidermal growth factor, you know, there's very little out there that's focusing or hyper-focusing rather on these, like, you know what I mean, like singular ingredients.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: I really love that how you explain that.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for that.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so what's interesting also is that originally epidermal growth factor was actually not available commercially, you know, when Dr.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Brown started working with it.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so what he did um, because you had to extract it from humans.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so what he did was he partnered with a biotech company out of San Francisco, who ended up being one of his first investors to create um epidermal growth factor, uh, you know, in a biomimetic form.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: So making it available commercially, um, replicated, you know, of human origin, but replicated in a laboratory.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: And and then that's really interesting.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Wasn't that really expensive though?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like how much money wanna be able to do that?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it it definitely was expensive, which is why he um was very smart to work with the biotech company and make them his investors.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow, yeah, that's brilliant.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's really brilliant.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like you basically told them this is where your product's gonna go and it's going to sell.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to talk a little bit more now um uh with Raviv in terms of the science that's carried out and you know, really kind of keeping things like you know, I guess to traditions, you know, like to tradition, like in terms of um keeping up with the science that's coming out, keeping up with the research and the discoveries.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Is it still, you know, around epidermal growth factor, or have you guys expanded into other realms of skin health?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, great question.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we have um we now um utilize, we do utilize epidermal growth factor um in this biomimetic form.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: So we actually call it um uh biorenewal protein.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: We use three different fragments or of the original fragments that come from epidermal growth factor.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Each one of them is their own biorenewal protein.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: So one is a biorenewal protein, one is a biovolumizing protein, um, and one is a biofirming protein.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and those remain the building blocks of our products and all of our products, with the exception of anything that you end up washing off your face, uh like a cleanser, for example, um includes at least one of the biorenewal proteins and often more.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we have started then also formulating um with other ingredients in addition to the biorenewal protein, but always as a complement to them.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: And that's interesting.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I think you know, complement-related, you know, products that come out later is is definitely, you know, it makes sense.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: But then that leaves me wondering, you know, in terms of keeping things minimalistic, if you were to like, so what do we really need for our skin?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's really the question I'm trying to ask.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what do we need for it to be healthy and turning over at a reasonable rate?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because I feel like there's so many products, right, that are like, well, it's for cell turnover, like retinol, or you know, obviously retinol, but like exfoliation, for example, they say if you don't exfoliate, you're not gonna have good turnover.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: So what is that like balance?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, do you discuss that in the review of meetings?
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like you guys go over stuff like that?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'd really go to the show.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, you know, one of the if you look at many skincare lines, you know, they have um 50, 60, 70, 80 products, you know, I think after being in business for um 25, it's almost 25 years, we have a pretty small range.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: So what we you know, first of all, Dr.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Brown's uh most uh his philosophy that he would tell you above and beyond anything and everything is that the number one anti-aging product is sun kit, is a sunscreen.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that the number one thing that anybody could do for their skin um is to wear a sunscreen.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the first thing.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then he always says, you know, really, if you only are going to use one thing from our line, what he recommends is the original product, which is still the first cream is still really the best-selling cream.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it's a product called moisturizing renewal cream, and it is a combination of the our biorenewal protein.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there are some moisturizing agents in there, but glycolic acid.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's um what's in the product.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so what really and it's recommended only for night.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so really what it does is it kind of works on skin cell turnover in two ways.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: In a very short-term way with glycolic acid, which um is is as we know uh really an exfoliant to skin.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so that is what Dr.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Brown, you know, says on on an immediate basis, uh a glycolic acid will help resurface uh, you know, the outer, the outermost layers of your skin, and that's really what helps to return a healthy glow to skin also.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then on a longer term basis, the biorenewal protein will we say help skin behave as if it were young again.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why we we word it that way is because healthy skin turns over uh essentially once every four weeks.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: A healthy skin cell will rise to the surface and turn over every four weeks, and as we age, this slows down, and that's why you know skin becomes more dull, um, etc.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is really hello?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think you cut out we're at that normal healthy rate.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's um, you know, that's really what Dr.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Brown would say if you use that at night and then you use the sunscreen during the day, that's a great start.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now we do also we do also include now, you know, other products.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: So lots of products for daily care, such as a cleanser, a toner, um, we have uh, you know, eye cream.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: But oh my god, I want to talk about your eye cream though, for real.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm I really want to pause and talk about your eye cream because it's phenomenal.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like it is so good.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: I've been using it for like I think a week now, and like my eyes just like I have to like like I was born with it.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's definitely something I've had to like struggle with in my life, you know what I mean, in terms of like just self-image, right?
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I always look for products that really do like create a firming effect for my eyes.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I've never found like, you know, for example, I've never found an eye cream where I felt like that was an option for me.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like for me in my mind, it was always like, well, I have to go, I have to go get cosmetic surgery because and I'm really not like for me, I'm not against it, but I'm definitely not the person that would ever get anything done, like even like Botox.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, you know, for me, this cream has just been amazing.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: It works.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: Mitosis is like visibly different, you know.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I use some other stuff that I really like for it, but I really love the eye cream.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I would love if you tell us more about um what's really in it and some cool stuff, you know, some cool things about the cream.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sure.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, you're cutting out.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: I can't hear you.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: Alana, can you hear me?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Two biorenewal proteins in it.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: It has uh both um our biorenewal and then it has our biofirming uh protein.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so that's really why I think you see that that firming effect.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: And interestingly, um, you know, the this idea of firming, um, because Dr.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Brown is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon and not just a um a dermatologist, one of the things is that he thinks about uh skincare and the skin in general from a three-dimensional perspective, not only a two-dimensional perspective.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so that's you know, one of the things that he he also knows is that, you know, the trough under the eye, dark shadows, all of these things can really contribute to, you know, the look of perceived age as opposed to your your real age.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so um those are things I think that he really took into consideration um in in doing some of these uh early formulations.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: And what's interesting is that although it's a you know, this is a brand that was um started with a single cream, we and I think we're kind of known for our moisturizers.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um we when we look now at sort of our best-selling products really around the world, um, almost half of them in our top 10 are eye products.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that makes sense because you make phenomenal eye cream.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: That is one of the things.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I, you know what I need to make sure you have what the product that's become a best seller for us really around the world is an eye mask.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: And um, the mask is something that you can, it's a cream, it's something you can put on uh, you know, and wear and and uh wipe off, or you could put it on and you could sleep in it, and you know, the product will kind of absorb into skin.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um but it is something that really um adds a great deal of hydration around.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: Wait, so this is wait, wait, I'm not gonna interrupt you, but this is like a leave-on like eye mask, like one of those, like a crazy oh my gosh, that's amazing.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: I love those because I hate the like the patches, like the ones that are just like put it on top of your skin, those do nothing for me.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: They don't even work for me.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna we're gonna need to make sure you you try this, and then you know, okay, you'll tell me what you think.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, of course.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: No, please keep going though.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: You were explaining um what it does, so we can leave it on overnight.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can leave it on overnight, um, and really you you really wake up.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: It it has it's not a permanent, but it has a temporary tightening effect um around the eye, and then it's very packed um with different types of um humectants, and so you know, the eye area immediately looks brighter, it kind of fills in the you know, the the hydration is kind of drawn, driven into the upper layers of the skin, and so you know the fine lines, especially ones that come as you are more and more fatigued, um, you know, really get filled in with with hydration.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a it's great, you know, if you're going out or if you have to get a Zoom call and look refreshed.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that that product has actually become our number one product globally.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I love that you said that because I I want to make this point actually, because I was thinking about it the other day that I feel like different um, you know, people people with different color skin, like we have different issues in terms of the eye area, especially.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I was thinking about this because I remember I was interviewing a dermatologist and they mentioned, um, I believe it was Dr.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: Vellis, she mentioned how the only real difference between darker skin and lighter skin is the thickness of the dermis.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: And in the eye area, I've noticed like I don't get puffiness as were like versus like one of my friends who might have you know lighter skin, she'll get like puffier, you know, under-eye areas.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: I get like like circles, or I don't even want to say circles, but like lack of hydration.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: So, like what you just explained from for somebody like me, I feel like I have the under-eye skin type of I need hydration versus like caffeine that just depuff is depuffs, you know.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I I think that's interesting.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's I yeah, I really um, you know, the eyes uh are an area of concern for so many people, but for so many different reasons.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so actually, you know, when you talk about you know this notion of like, well, what do you really need?
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, why do why do skincare brands have so many products?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah you know, there are, I think there are a multitude of different things that that kind of appeal to different customers.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, for example, uh, you know, I think traditionally people think about uh skincare brands as, okay, well, either, you know, dry skin, oily skin, acne, or some kind of, you know, age, age prevention or you know, yeah, age, you know, age age cure, if you will.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, I think people kind of are a little bit more nuanced about what they're looking at about their skin and really, you know, um dis skin discoloration uh caused by many different factors, you know, anything from acne, and you still have some pigment in your skin to you know melasma that could be caused either by sun damage or pregnancy or allergy or different things, you know, that uh is definitely, I think, a very specific concern that can certainly, you know, there are some elements of um healthy skin cell turnover that do address that.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I think in those instances you do need some other ingredients.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so that's you know, some of the reasons why uh brands, and certainly we have tried to create some additional products, is to really address those specific types of concerns.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I think that we're all so focused on like, you know, I know, like, for example, the Fitzpatrick like different um skin types, right?
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's like people get so hyper-focused on a type that they forget that there are certain things that just overall make skin feel more plump, like hydration or you know, brighter, like vitamin C.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: There are just certain things that our skin needs.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I really like that about Ruviv because your products, I feel like, appeal to just skin, you know, rather than like, oh, it's only for dry skin.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, yeah, and it's really that's how I feel about it.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: And every time I put it on, I'm not thinking like, well, I can't use this product because I'm not dry today, you know, because so it's it's gonna be too greasy.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's like I don't have to worry about that with your line.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what I love the most is this like thought you don't have to think about are my skincare products gonna do what I need them to do at the end of the day?
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: Because they are.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: And that's in right now in the market and the industry, I feel like that's one of the most important like hallmark things that a product should be able to do, in my opinion at least, is like, you know, you should be able to grab it and say, I can rely on this product everywhere I go.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: And for me, it's your eye crate, you know?
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: So well, I thank you.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, I I told you the beginning of the Reviv story, but I actually only became um involved with Reviv a little over three years ago.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the what happened in the middle is that Dr.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: Brown became very successful.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the brand became very successful at Neiman Marcus to the point that he really had to choose if he was going to practice medicine or run this business because he was doing both.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: His nurses were his salespeople, his office manager, as he says, was his CEO, CFO, see everything, is what he says.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: And um so he um ultimately decided to to leave the practice of medicine and to run the brand, and he made it very successful, and he was ultimately approached by several different companies to purchase the brand.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and this was about um probably 12 years ago at this point, and um he sold the brand to a company called Alticore, and Altacore is the parent of Amway, and they purchased another brand at the same time, which is very well known, Laura Mercier Cosmetics.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: And what they did was they put the two brands together, and so there was one team for both Laura Mercier and Reviv.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um not only finance operations, you know, purchasing warehousing, but also sales, marketing, creative, etc.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: No way!
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: I would have never guessed that they were linked.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's cool.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: So what happened was that uh, you know, makeup obviously became very uh a huge category, and Laura Mercier was already bigger than Ravive when Altacore bought the company.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so there was really a great amount of attention, you know, paid to Laura Mercier and much less attention um paid to Revive.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think the very positive thing is that they really did right by the brand in terms of um maintaining a very high level and quality of product development, of creative, of keeping the distribution you know very elevated and tight.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: But there wasn't the brand didn't grow a great deal.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so uh in 2016, Alticore decided to sell both Laura Mercier and Reviv because you couldn't separate them, it was one team of people and you know one budget to Shiseido.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so okay, so Shiseido uh bought uh both brands, they were very much looking to add a color brand to their portfolio, but you know, Shiseido has lots of skincare brands, they have Clay Depot, they have Shiseido.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there's some other brands that they have in Asia that are not distributed here in the US.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so the brand, while Laura Mercier and the Laura Mercier team were kind of being integrated into um into Shiseido, Reviv was sort of hanging out on the outside.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's where um I work with a group of investors of private equity called Tangram Capital Partners.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: They had been watching Reviv for years.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, they had actually reached out to Dr.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Brown through LinkedIn, but at the time he never read his LinkedIn, so he didn't know.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: And they kept approaching Shiseido and saying, We know you're not selling this brand, but we'd like to buy it from you.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, Shiseido said yes.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so we went through a process of um figuring out how we could take Reviv out of Shiseido, because by that point all the employees were integrated into Shiseido.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: So what we did at the end of 2017 was we bought the brand, the intellectual property, the existing business relationships, whatever inventory there was, and we basically started a new company.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um the most the most important thing we did was when Dr.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Brown sold the business, he remained involved from a press and product development point of view, but he no longer had any ownership of the business.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so he invested with us, and we gave him equity in the business.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: So he is now a you know a partial owner again, uh, and he's on the board, and he's very involved uh, you know, with us.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's made you know a real difference uh to the business overall.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, the what you mentioned before, like this idea that you should never really have to think about it, that you just want to use a product, and no matter where you are or sort of what's happening with your skin, it works.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was when we were doing diligence around the business.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like, should we buy this business?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Should we not?
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: What's good about it?
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: The thing that people said to us over and over and over again is the product works.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um so that was really what we held on to.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: We were like, listen, you know, you don't you can find a brand that's really hot, but it's hot because it's on trend, it has great distribution, you've just signed a great influencer, some celebrity posted about it.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, exactly.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: We kind of felt like we have here's you know, we actually have the engine.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now we just need to kind of like shine up the car around.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, you've done the hard work, you know, the hard work is there, it's it's there, and it's it's timeless, and it's a beautiful, you know, foundation on which you can grow so much, you know, especially, you know, I look at it from the size perspective of there's so much growth that is possible with Reviv.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you have such a great product line as is, and you know, that really should be at the heart and focus of all consumerism is finding products that really work, in my opinion.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, for me, when I started this podcast, that was one of the biggest driving factors was like, you know, finding brands like yours and and really highlighting because you know, everyone loves trends.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, let's be honest.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: We all love trends, we all see them or whatever, but that's not gonna, that's not something you're gonna hold on to for years.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's not gonna be a product you're like, oh my god, this is my coveted product or my coveted, you know, moisturizer, like Olay, you know, think of oil of Olay.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like how many people have moms that always have the Olay bottle on their, you know, night like vanity.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I mean with like quality.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, exactly, exactly.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, there one of one of the like really um the things uh that I always find uh interesting but also super authentic about Dr.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: Brown is that for many years he has been doing personal appearances in you know different retail stores around the country.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: And there are times when, you know, we will go with him to do a public appearance, and someone has been coming back to see him for many years and using the product for many years and saying that they they really credit how they look, what people say about their skin to the product.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, you can't, you sort of can't get more authentic than that.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the fact that you know you really still watch it happen um is great.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, interestingly, during COVID, obviously we were not, you know, stores were not open, we weren't traveling, he wasn't traveling to do personal appearances, but we learned how to do them virtually, and you know, people loved, they still loved seeing him one-on-one.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, I bet.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, everybody wants to know where like the mind behind the creation, right?
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like always gonna be curiosity.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: I love that that he does that because there's very few, like, you know, real founders that that that do not only do that, but they have a real reason to, which is basically creating a legacy and and watching it grow and watching people really, you know, like they they start off and you have seven years later where you can come back and be like, look what your product did for me.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's beautiful.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: I I I've been in, yeah.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've been on public appearances with him where people will bring their pictures.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so it's that that part is is really amazing.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now, one thing I want to ask you, Alana, and if you if you can't disclose, that's totally fine, but I've always been curious about like long like brands that have been in the industry for a long time, such as Reviv, and you know, they've been there and people know about them.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: How has that been during the whole COVID thing in terms of sales or financially?
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: Has it been hard or has it been kind of like steady?
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like your customer base is your customer base, and you know, that's how it is.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's been, I mean, I'm happy to talk about it.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: I it's honestly been a little bit of both.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, stores closed, and um, and so when stores closed, you know, our we really assumed the worst.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: And um we kind of expected that stores were closed.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: They had a most, you know, department stores and specialty stores carry healthy inventory levels, that they were gonna use those inventory levels to um uh really fuel whatever they needed for dot-com.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so we kind of felt like, wow, we have probably are not gonna have any orders for several months.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we kind of predicted based on that, you know, sort of forecast, we then forecasted our expenses that way.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and had to make a lot of cuts to mostly to field sales team, unfortunately, because you know, stores were closed.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um and to, you know, we made decisions that we wanted to stay in inventory with the product that we had as opposed to launch new products.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we decided not to do any new launches uh last fall as a result.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you know, for a period of time, you know, business was really tough.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the only place that was kind of doing business, um, and that business was amazing, was you know, dot com.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: So our own.com, as well, you know, review skincare.com, as well as all of the e-commerce businesses that we um of our brick and mortar partners, as well as um the businesses of um we we opened some new e-commerce businesses, um, specifically uh because you know they were doing so well during COVID.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I do have to say that one area that was new for us that did really, really well was China.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we really uh when we uh bought the business in you know at the end of 2017, one of the things we realized pretty quickly was we didn't have a business in China, but we had a lot of uh customers there because when they were traveling to either to the UK or to the US, they were buying the brand at Harrods, at uh Space and K, at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City or Saxfifth Avenue in New York City.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so one of our the first things that we did was really focus on finding a partner to work with to do cross-border e-commerce in China, and so um that benefited us a great deal last year because you know, the Chinese first, you know, in the beginning of COVID, they COVID hit them earlier than it hit us, and so we knew it was coming.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, that was the first thing, and then the second is, you know, while they were all home uh and in lockdown, they were buying very extensively online, and our business is 100% e-commerce uh in China.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then the second thing is, you know, what happened uh and remains the case today is the Chinese are not traveling outside of China.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: So while our businesses that rely on Chinese traveling customers, like a Harrods business or a Bergdorf-Goodman business, uh have still not, you know, sort of come back to the 2019 pre-COVID levels, yeah.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of that business is happening now in China.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um with people buying online.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and so we've been able to kind of benefit that way.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: Would you say that for e-commerce and skincare, China is like one of the best markets then for like skincare?
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: Without question.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and that's not for Reviv only.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's you know, I spent I've spent my entire career in uh essentially in beauty.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: I worked for many of the large global companies, and you know, even uh 10 years ago when I worked for um the Estee Lauder brand outside of the US, 10 years ago, China became our number one market and really a you know a very important focus for us.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes, China is um a massive, you know, market for all luxury goods and without question skincare.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, I had no idea.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's really, really interesting to me.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I wonder what Chinese consumers like really value compared to like American consumers when it comes to skincare, because there's so much over there, right?
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like in Asia, there's so much innovation technology around skincare, especially with like you know, Korean beauty and then Japanese beauty.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I just that's crazy that they have such a huge market or a huge demand, even though their market is also very saturated.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, one of the things that you know I think works um in Rabiv's favor in a market like China is that there's a very strong focus on performance and and sort of science.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so that that helps us, but there's also a very strong focus on heritage and storytelling, um, understanding, you know, where the product comes from.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I think that is another piece of the sort of Revive DNA that has been um really helpful in making the brand successful.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, can you hear me?
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, yes, sorry, I lost in here for a second, but I can.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: No problem, no problem.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, no, that's that's very fascinating um in terms of what you said with the tradition, because I completely agree with you.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think if I, you know, like just looking at the line and and seeing that there's 25 years of work and innovation and you know, just discovery behind this, like I feel much more comfortable because I know that everything is probably well, not probably at this point, it's been tested by real people, and that's a huge asset, in my opinion, for any company, much less a skincare company.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I could I can see that, you know, and I know that you know in Asian like society and culture, there's a lot of, like you said, there's a lot of emphasis put on tradition and heritage and and you know, the real story.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I love that.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: I love that you know, Reviv aligns with that.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the the other great thing about um about doing business in China, I mean, just sort of one of the kind of differences, if you will, or unique elements.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: So when Chinese customers um fall in love with your product, you know, often they don't know um what the English name is, or you know, they're not able to read the name.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't we don't overlabel our the names of our products in China, we don't use um Chinese, you know, subnames on our products.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: So what ends up happening is they give nicknames to products, and so you kind of know you've made it if your product gets a nickname in China.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's so cool! I didn't know that.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, so for example, like we are moisturizing renewal cream um is called um the little green jar.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: We have a very well-known neck cream, um, and it happens to come in a pink jar, so it's called the rose cream.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then the um the other um we have a new interesting name.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: We have um a serum that's a volumizing serum, and it's actually something that is used really um just in certain areas of the face.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, some people may use it all over, but we kind of use it in the areas of the face where you you lose the most volume, and it has a very rich and thick texture and it's and it's clear.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so it has a new name in China and it's called Saliva Serum.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh what?
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's really cool.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes, um, we we we love China as a market, we love learning about the customer, and um, it's it's been a great, it's been a great opportunity for Reviv, you know, as we're kind of on this journey to grow the brand again.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's really been one of one of the bright spots for us.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's that's amazing, and you've definitely educated me a lot about the Chinese market.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know all that, so I want to thank you, and I want to thank you for everything you've told us today, Iana.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: This has been such a great episode, and I've learned so much information.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: Hello?
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: Can you hear me?
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: You also mentioned vitamin C, and we are about to launch a vitamin C product that has taken us uh almost four years to bring to market.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so as soon as it's available, I will send it to you and you'll let me know what you think.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, and thank you for announcing that on our show.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: I would I love that.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_01: And everyone listening, please take, you know, take some time to check out Review's website and really, you know, browse the products.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: They have some amazing stuff.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's it's stuff that really works and you're gonna want to have over and over and over again in your bag.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I just want to say I definitely back the line.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_01: I am I'm so excited that Ilana that you came on the show.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: I want to thank you so much.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_01: And anybody listening out there, if you have any feedback or comments or questions for Ilana's team, leave them in our concept art um and we will pass them along.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate your time and great to meet you.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: Great to meet you.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_01: Hey guys, so I hope you love that episode.
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