Latest / Skin Anarchy / Nicola Elliott, Founder of NEOM Organics

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Nicola Elliott, Founder of NEOM Organics · Skin Anarchy

• 0:00
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• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: Hi guys, welcome back to Skin Cure Anarchy.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: Today's guest is so awesome because this brand kind of just appeared in my life and I have been obsessed since the day I tried it.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: So without further ado, I want to introduce you guys to the founder of Neon Organics, Nicola Elliott.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the show, Nicola.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you so much for having me.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's so lovely to host you and such an honor to host you.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: I really love your brand.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I, you know, I know we ever, you know, everyone listening, we were talking right before the interview, and I was telling Nicola that I really just this brand is so it's like a hidden gem, you know, in the in the skin nerd community, I feel like, because it's such a beautiful range and it's so efficacious that it works beautifully.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I want to get started, Nicola, with your background though.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: I want to learn all about the brand journey.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: So if you could get us started, um it's funny you should say that because you know, we're obviously new in the States, but we've been going for 17 years in the UK.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: So whilst it kind of seems like that hidden, that hidden kind of gem that you've discovered.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's interesting to hear you say that because obviously that's kind of that's what we, you know, uh used to be the way 12 years ago or more in the UK, and now we're we're kind of you know, we're pretty pretty well known over here and just starting out over there.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really it's really nice actually to hear people kind of discover it for the first time and um and be back to being kind of like a baby brand again.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll tell I'll tell you the background story then.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, absolutely.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, before you say, before you go ahead and tell us, I want to actually comment on that because you're right.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: There have been recently I actually interviewed Medicaid, and uh it was it's not a brand that we talk about here.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: There's so many jobs in the UK skincare market, and I'm just sitting here every time I interview, um, you know, and I'm like blown away by the science and by the innovation.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's nice, it's nice.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think we've got really high standards.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like I think that's quite a British thing, and I I noticed that when I travel, not that you guys don't, I just think we're just quite sticklers in the UK for standards, and I think you know, we have got some good brands at the moment, and yeah, I know Medicaid's uh that's another, I mean, completely different to us, and completely different offering, but it's it's nice that we from this sort of from from our tiny island, we're managing to kind of create those ways with you guys, and and actually where I'm concerned, I think in an area that we always look up to the states and in in terms of how how big the cleaner, greener uh market is, and and the well-being as well.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're very much a well-being brand, but we're about natural ingredients.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, when we launched like 17 years ago, that wasn't there just wasn't a thing in the UK at all.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, and and I know that you guys kind of have a were clearly miles ahead of us where that lifestyle was concerned.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: So, so I think we were always slightly nervous coming over to you that we were sort of almost, you know, are we are we telling, are we telling them how to suck eggs or are they gonna really love it and appreciate the story?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: Because back in the UK when we started, we were too early in many ways with the natural story, we were too early with the well-being story.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we were just, we were, it was the time of cosmosuticals, so that knowledge and that understanding wasn't there.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: So it was kind of, yeah, it was a it was a double-edged sword, I suppose, for us coming out to the States thinking, is it gonna be a really good thing?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: Because they're gonna have that level of knowledge that surpassed where we were in in England, certainly back when we started, or are they gonna be like, you know, we're all over this and all already?
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: But I think I think it's it's been a really, really, really good match.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we are very much about well-being, but I think we make it quite simple and we make well-being about um very inclusive and very much for, you know, not necessarily for people who have got time to do yoga on a beach at six in the morning with a green smoothie, but we're very much about that kind of that that very busy, multitasking uh woman and who's buying not just for herself, but buying for her family.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I think we sort of we appeal to that slightly, slightly different demographic than than probably you know what you guys have served up in the in the really sort of um, you know, the really clean, really green, sort of more evangelist side of things.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, so we sort of fit in a in a in a nice space, I think.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: I agree, and I I think that's a and that's actually a very interesting point that you brought up, or series of points, because I noticed, you know, I actually studied in the UK for some time and from holiday and just going there, and I realized pretty early on when it comes to beauty products or really anything that consumers um they spend their money on and they really kind of you know kind of save up for, right?
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's all about quality, more so than how many things can I buy.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, now I'm sure things are very different because everyone is overburdened with too many products, you know.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: But I did notice there's a definite difference in the way consumers um, you know, hold on to products and you know what they choose to keep, because it it's like everything has a place.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas I I've noticed in American consumerism and just the way we are, it's more of like, well, I want to try this and this and this, and you interchange things every day, you know, and it's it's just so different.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: How people I think um use their products in these two different um, you know, geographical regions.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it's interesting to me how you know the UK skincare brands, you know, such as Neon and Medicaid or anyone is it's transitioning because we are getting truly blown away because the science is there, you know, the the research is there, the the consumer reviews and the actual, you know, uh what do you call it, experience you could say, of the brand, right?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like yeah, all so it's really kind of like a big movement, I feel like that's happening.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's very interesting.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think um, I think we're kind of a tough audience in some ways in the UK.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: We're probably not as kind of as open and welcome welcoming as you guys are, maybe.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe that makes for maybe that makes for you know some pretty tough product development.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I don't know.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: I always I always think and I trained as an aromatherapist, and you know, the brand as you know is about well-being solutions, helping with sleep, with less stress, boosting your energy, lifting your mood.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: And and as I say, I trained as an aromatherapist and it was very integral to creating those blends myself in the early days.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: However, I think I've always stayed in this position of a consumer, and quite often now, clearly we're a much bigger team, and there's there's a whole lot of us in RD and developing new products and new fragrances.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I always try to, before I get too involved in you know, new formulations that that they'll bring to me and I'll want to discuss, I think, just stay in the place of the consumer.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, does this thing work?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Does it smell amazing?
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: Is it moving the dial when it comes to those with those well-being sort of what we call internally need states?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and and I think that's a really important place to stay because um because you know, uh consumer is king and um and and we have a we have a tough market here, and I've got to look through her eyes at all times.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I look through the eyes also of her other kind of pain points that she might have during her day.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's that's also really, really important.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, waking up in the morning and and and having you know an early morning meeting and uh kids screaming and having to get out of the house, and you know, I kind of think through how can we help with our own therapeutic solutions, how can we help give that natural burst of energy?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then I think, you know, kind of what are those are the moments during my own day that you know I think are reflective of other families' sort of pain points.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it might be arriving at work totally frazzled because you know you've done the you've done the school run or or you've already been to the gym and and and you know you've got that 9 a.m.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: meeting and and and and then the day goes on, and you know, you're needing that kind of boost of energy sort of at four o'clock rather than reaching for a you know piece of chocolate cake or or whatever and and then helping you sleep on an evening.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: So we were always we were always created to to be that well-being brand and to help through 100% natural fragrances, but to do it really for those sort of small steps in in that every woman's life.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: And and as I say, not just for her, I mean, the majority of our products are bought by women because 87% of the household purchasing in the UK is still but done by women, but it's very similar in the in the States, I know.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: But but she's also she's not just buying Neon as a sort of selfish purchase for just for her.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: We she's typically buying a candle to light in the family home to create, you know, a moment of calm at the end of the day.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: She's buying pillow mists, impacts of four.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, we sell more than impacts of one to give, you know, one her her side of the bed, one husband's side of the bed, two to the kids.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: So she's very much buying Neon for um for those for those kind of lifestyle moments.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: So um, yeah, sorry, jumps all over the place there.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: But it's a bit of a brand, a bit of the brand story and a bit of kind of how how our how our um consumers using the products, but yeah, no, no, absolutely.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: I think that that's an incredibly uh beautiful way to to really put it because it it really shows, you know, I know that um every can every entrepreneur, you know, in the beauty space wants their products to really fill this white space, you know, as everybody calls it, but it's really about practicality, you know, and and many times it's not that there's a white space, it's more so that the space and what it's being filled with is just not practical enough to use um, you know, in all moments of our life.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, I I completely understand um when it comes to the functionality of products in terms of how they fit in, how easily they fit into our daily, you know, uh, you know, just everyday movements, right?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: If you really think about it, that's very, very important.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: And it's truly brilliant.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, if you master that, I mean that's a that's a very strong or hard feat.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, it's it's it's it's it it is a white space, but it it's difficult because um because we we we see ourselves as a well-being brand exclusively.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: And actually, typically, you know, we're in Nordstrom, you know, in the States, and and and it's difficult because you usually you'll speak to the store and they'll go, I love the story, I love the brand, I love the ethos, I love the products, but actually are you a beauty brand or you're a home brand?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like no one neither, we're a well-being brand.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: We're about those well-being moments, and and and so whilst that's you know, that's great to be pioneering something and really heading up that space, it also is quite a challenge because it doesn't fit probably in many places where where people would typically um that typically exist.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I know if you're buying a candle, we we talk an awful lot about you know, we're not we are not just a nail candle, it's not just a nice smelling candle.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, there's a whole raft of brands out there where you can buy beautiful smelling candles from lovely perfumers, and and many of them I appreciate myself, but that that's not we're what we're about.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: We're about the candles.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: If you buy them, you burn them and and they fill the room with fragrance and you breathe that in, and that's a what they work as well-being treatments, because they've got, for example, 10% essential oils in each in each candle.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: So they're all they're not about it's not about a lovely candle, and it's not about a nice smelling bath oil, and it's not about a shower gel.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: And actually, even the natural credentials, it's not we are natural, clean, green.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: I know people have different different ways of describing that, but we are a natural brand.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: But actually, it's it's not about that.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: We use natural ingredients because we can only get the well-being benefits if we're using 100% natural, pure essential oils.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: So we're we're these things are important to us, they're pillars of the brand, but we really exist to help you with those with those well-being moments, and we do that through the aromatherapy.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: So it's so it's brilliant.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: We're very it's a very unique concept, um, but it but it's not something that anyone else is is doing in that way, because you know, typically uh a shower gel is about something that smells nice, and and that's that.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean, you know, my view of it, honestly, and I and I think really I think you and I are are very much on the same page and understanding with this is that you know, I have been, for me personally, always involved or interested in things that are like, you know, you could get at like metaphysical stores or you could buy candles and incense and beautiful just things that created an ambiance.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't about the individual problem, more of the about the experience you were trying to create with those items.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember um, you know, being a teenager, and you know, you get very curious about where things come from, what's the right, you know, most uh, you know, uh pure form of something if you're trying to like, you know, get a scent or an oil.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: And that whole experience is really what I, you know, with Neon, when I look at your products, it's almost a beautiful, like, you know, artisan kind of collection of just someone's like best aromatherapy, ambiance, just setting a mood of self-care products.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's like it's so curated.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: That's how it feels like, you know, it's it's going through the product um, you know, offerings.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: You don't there's not a single product that's just a fluff product, if that makes any sense.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: Because I feel like yeah, a lot are geared towards more setting the mood and and the overall environment, right?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like that self-care environment.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: They have these redundant.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I think, you know.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I think one, I think something that way we where we're really different is everything that leaves everything that leaves our sort of head office or a warehouse or whatever, and every any product that's developed has to take two boxes for us.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: One is that it is purposeful, that it, you know, that it actually does the job, it helps you sleep, it, you know, it it it works to deliver that well-being benefit.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: And and we do that through incredibly complex blends, quite often using, you know, up to 24 different essential oils and putting them in at the highest legal concentration.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that's really, really important.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: Then they're tested on thousands and thousands of people constantly.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: So, like the the tests and the claims that we have and the testimonials that we get, that's incredibly important.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: But the second part is that that everything has to be really gorgeous and lust afterable, you know, it has to smell amazing, the blends have to be really very sophisticated.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: They have to be able to stand up next to a synthetic counterpart and and smell as lovely and and look as lovely and be as gorgeous to use.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: And actually, what typically, you know, I've always found is that brands will take one of those boxes, but not two of them.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they'll either be purposeful and you know have very clean inkies and you know uh use using or be very uh functional in that kind of way, but they won't they won't have that lovely, gorgeous um aspect to them.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: They won't make me smell as nice, they won't be as sophisticated, they won't feel as good, the efficace, efficaciousness in terms of the um how tactile they are, that that's that's not there.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: And and the look, you know, the look and the design is is not there.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: Or you'll have the other way around, you'll have a brand that that is gorgeous and and you know, and is this lust after all, giftable, gorgeous um fragrance, box, marketing, advertising brand, but actually it's just it's just a a nice smelling, lovely product.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so when we launched Ningham, it was really, really important to us that we had those two, that we sat very much in the sweet spot of those two those two sort of residents, et cetera.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: So so it wasn't just one thing.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: And and that's that's still quite difficult to do, you know.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: Quite often something will will kind of get pretty far in the product development process, and we think, you know, it's absolutely gorgeous, but it's not purposeful enough, or conversely, you know, my God, this really, really works and it's fantastic, but it just isn't beautiful enough, or it just doesn't smell gorgeous enough.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so we go back to the drawing board with it, and those two ticks are really, really important for us.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, I think I think that's quite unique, and I think that's probably the hardest part about developing the brand.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I can definitely understand why, you know, it really is goes back to the concept that I, you know, was trying to articulate earlier about this, you know, you see there's two types of people, right?
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: You did there's people who um always want the new thing, and then there's people who really love what they have and they display it and they put it, you know, it's it's every the interaction they have with those products is totally different than something that just comes and goes in their life, like you know, disposable things.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the difference between these, the brand that you've created and the fact that it is so curated, has the experience behind it.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's many, many years of consumer feedback.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: That's very important, but more importantly, I think you're taking it to a step which the American consumer is not used to, which is this fun this different level of functionality.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: Of you know, for example, I just want to, you know, cite the example of uh the luxury intense intensive skin treatment candle.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: That's one of my favorite because yeah, it it's it's a gorgeous, gorgeous idea.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I just like you know, when I first saw it, I was just like, this is brilliant.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like, absolutely, I mean it's for everyone listening, it's shaped like a cup, but it's like you can pour a beaker, actually, it's shaped like a beaker and you can pour out.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_02: And the oil inside is actually for skin treatment and it's packed with like the best stuff.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_02: And you know what I really love, uh Nicola, that you did is that yes, you're talking about the organic side of the brand on the website where you tell us, you know, these are the oils, but then you also, you guys are also telling us why, in terms of the vitamins and the you know, the actual molecules in there that we want for good, you know, nutrient-rich products, right?
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: I really love that.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: I love that you did that.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh do you know what it's so funny?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: So that that product is just such a runaway success in the States, and and it's a really interesting story, actually.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: So we have we have stores in the UK, we've got six stores in the UK, and in three of them, we have had treatment rooms.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: So um, we launched near treatments, which were brilliant, and we still do an awful lot of near treatments in the UK, and we worked them with naturopaths, so you could go in and you could have a treatment for sleep.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: My feeling was always, you know, you you shouldn't have to go to five different people to help you with sleep, or five different people to help you with de-stressing, or whatever.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: What if we brought together all those sort of elements from different naturopaths and you had uh this ultimate treatment, which kind of had a mixture of you know, um cranio head massage and different shiatsu and reflexology, etc., to sort of really work towards that end goal.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: And as part of that, we decided to devise this product that you're talking about, which is this intensive skin treatment candle.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: And the idea was what if we did a candle, a skin treatment, but in a candle.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: So essentially you would light it like a candle and it would fill the room with fragrance, but it would be formulated at a very low melt point, so you could pour this warm, this warm, gorgeous um liquid on the body and massage it directly in, and it would be full of, as you said, all these really amazing vitamins and minerals that would go into the skin and it would work as this treatment.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: And it was just like such a runaway success because obviously it feels amazing and it leaves your skin so ridiculously soft because it is a it is a very rich treatment, right?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like I use quite often, sometimes just a tiny bit on my hands or feet and decobotage, and and and it smells amazing because you're obviously soaking in all the essential oils, but all the goodness as well.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: And and this became like this amazing kind of runaway treatment success in all these five-star spars over here, and then we thought, and we would we were just doing these in these kind of like quite big, you know, clunky, relatively industrial-looking jugs, and then we were like, hey, we could do this in like a really beautiful vessel, and they could be relatively, don't have to be too big because you only need a tiny bit of it, and it could work as an intense skin treatment candle, and that's what we did, and we sold it, and uh, we do them in two fragrances.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: We do one in real luxury, which has got 24 essential oils, and it's all about de stressing, and then we do one, which is our tranquility perfect night's sleep one, and that's got 19 essential oils in, which is about preparing you for a good night's sleep.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: So, same product, but just in two fragrances, and um, and yeah, you guys, it it's really interesting.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: It took the UK a while to understand that, but the US have just run away with that concept, and you guys, I think it's like the number one product for you out there, so it's cool.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: I I love that product.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_02: Brilliant product.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_02: I'm telling you, it's like you know, it's like you have a candle, but you put it by your bath.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like it's like a bath necessity at this point, you know, it's just a nice you just light the candle, and then you know, you're not even thinking about it, but it's your treatment right there.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's the most practical thing you could think of.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so I love it.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm a huge fan as well, you know.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm I'm in that demographic.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um very, very, very intense.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: But I always find as well if I've gone on holiday or my legs are kind of a little bit scaly or something, if you put that on, it's like an absolute fixer because it's so rich and it soaks in in such a nice way.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's uh good one.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and and one thing I wanted to actually ask you about, um, and and the reason is because this actually came up on another interview I was having with a um a fragrance line.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: And and I love that I'm seeing more and more of this is the idea of people are now, I feel like, or entrepreneurs are now going away from this idea of naming scents and fragrances um based on, you know, just kind of wild names, right?
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: They're more so going towards, well, this is a happiness scent, or this is a well-being, you know, aromatherapy or you know, positivity.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I absolutely fan.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a huge fan because it's so transparent and it's so honest.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I love everything about it, right?
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_02: Because this fragrance line that I was telling you about, they're in their scents are like that.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: Like they have, you know, the happiness, positivity, all that.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I also noticed with your line, you have the happiness-scented candle, you know, and um, that's how you're describing some of your your fragrances.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I really want to get your opinion about, you know, how has that response been in terms of consumers like, you know, responding to the name or just being, you know, gravitating towards it?
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: Because this is a new marketing strategy.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: I've never seen it really like this before, you know, in the beauty industry.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, for us, you know, the reason the reason why we do that is because obviously we we create fragrances that are about changing your mood.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: So it it you know that is what it's what it's for.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, I have one called Perfect Night's Sleep, which is interesting because I remember selling it in the early days to a spa over here, and um and they love the story, but they thought a bit like you said, you know, this is just kind of a bit of a marketing strategy, and they said, Oh, it sounds nice, it's something I said, no, no, no, this has been devised to really, really help you sleep because you're going to ingest that many of these essential oils as you breathe in that it's gonna really help you sleep.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: And and I think she sort of took it with a lit, she really believed me, and she lit it when um and her her therapist was doing the treatments, and she rang me like three weeks after and said, This is ridiculous.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: I can't sell these candles, my therapists are going home, they can't do treatments in the room with them.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, What do you mean?
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: And she said that they're you know that they're burning these candles and they, you know, they feel like they have to go home and go to bed at like five o'clock.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, it's a sleep candle, it's got so many essential oils in that as that fragrance is released into the air and they're breathing in, you are sending them to sleep.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: You cannot have them using that out the side of doing their treatment.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: And she was like, Oh, you know, it's like the penny sort of dropped.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: She was like, She just thought I just called it that because it was kind of like quite a nice idea, or you know, sort of relatively evocative of sleep memories or something like that.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, no, it's called that.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: Much like the happiness one is, much like the de-stress one is, much like the energy boost is because actually it's only got pure essential oils in there.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: So it that that's you know, that's what it's about.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: It is a treatment within a jar.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: So um so sort of a word of warning I would say on that is you've got to be careful that it doesn't become something that people go, oh, that sounds quite nice, and they call a candle sleep or something, but it's only got a fragrance in there that smells like lavender.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: The fact is, you can only genuinely help someone with those well-being benefits if you're using 100% natural essential oils.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: And the reality is the vast majority aren't doing that.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's a very difficult thing to do with projects, it's a very difficult compound to be using.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_02: And um that's what makes it even more interesting to me is that I'm sorry I cut you off and I want you to finish what you're saying, but I I wanted to say that it's very important that um people understand that you're doing this and you're actually pioneering this entire um, I would say, niche of the, you know, just self-care products, you know, that market, right?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's not about just, oh, I named a candle happiness or I named a candle well-being.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's really about bringing people an idea of, well, this is how products can be formulated to elicit different emotions, which are actually coming from neurological connections that are being triggered in your mind, you know, in your brain.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, that concept, um, you know, without going so hard into the neuroscience of it, um, it comes through with the quality of the products.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's such a specific and such a unique niche right now in this market.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm not seeing a lot of brands do that, honestly, Nicola.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: I I Neon and I think that's pretty much it in your category.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: And it's that other brand I was telling you, the the heart company with the fragrances.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: They're like completely, they're not even like in the same market.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, those are the only things I've seen, and but they're doing it, they're killing it too in their category.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like, you know, I see the brands that you guys are going, you guys are doing these really unique and amazing ways of approaching self-care, but it's only two or three of them, but they're killing it, you know what I mean?
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_02: So it's really cool, it's really, really cool.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's it's good to know.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's always nice as well when you see brands.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: I I'm always really quite chuffed when you see brands and sort of either the natural space or aromatherapeutic space, because I as I said to you before, you know, we were we were early to market with this.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: And whilst that was great and has been great in many ways, because we are market leader in the UK, certainly, it was difficult because we were telling a story from scratch and trying to explain to people about you know making decisions for themselves as to whether they what they wanted to put on their skin and not just sort of blindly buying things and and having and educating themselves as to the ingredients that they wanted or that they didn't want on their skin.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and also talking to them about, you know, aromatherapy.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: And it be it was it was it was a difficult thing to do because um because there weren't anyone else doing it.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: And now I think you know, we followed the food market is is very interesting.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was early to sort of spot that people were becoming a lot more interested in what they were putting in their bodies and always sort of believed that it would therefore follow suit that that you that they were interested in what they were putting on their bodies.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um so we could sort of foresee that trend and and that was all fantastic.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: But but yeah, the flip side of being early to something like this and and pioneering it is that you you don't have nobody else is doing it, and and and so now it is really nice to see that that market and that interest has grown because we're all sort of going in the same direction, and and that's only helpful for us, you know.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: No, I absolutely agree with you.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I, you know, I'm really excited to see what you do next because I, you know, I can't say it enough.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a huge fan of the brand.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_02: I think you have so much vision and and you can see it, you know, in the product.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's not about you know empty flattery.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_02: I I like to tell people, you know, because I think quality speaks for itself, right?
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's it's a quality brand, and and when I can pick up one product out of the line, see, this is like my own personal like uh test I do, Nicola, where I it's like, you know, if I look at a product, okay, blindly, if I picked one product from this line and really tried it and gave it a you know a solid like go, right?
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_02: Would I love it?
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_02: And if I can do that, then that means that that brand is solid, you know, like they have done it right.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I really feel like I could do that with any of your products.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you're it just shows with the quality.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm very excited to I hope you guys listening.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_02: I hope you've um really, you know, learned something about the brand and just learned about the UK markets.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think it's such a cool movement.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna lie.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: This is really turning into this like emergence of the UK beauty, you know, uh scene in like self-care and you know, aromatherapy and all these amazing other areas of you know, just caring about ourselves, right?
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_02: I I love seeing that.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's like that's good.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, it's always it's always good good to be in a pack.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm glad that we're doing some cool things over here.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm you know, I'm I'm just really, really glad that you guys uh, as I said in the beginning, kind of really understanding and and getting on board with getting on board with what we're doing, and I'm particularly loving that intensive skin treatment candle.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's cool.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, it's the best, uh it's the best thing.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_02: I've never seen something like it.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I hope everyone listening, go check it out.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna link everything for the art on this episode.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: But Nicola, it's such a pleasure and so such an honor hosting you.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: I really, really love Neome so much.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you for coming on to the show.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having me.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks ever so much.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks.
• 31:00
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• 31:03
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• 32:03
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• 32:08
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