“Every mistake is a stepping stone in the river of life” I said to a bus driver this weekend. We were talking about the silver linings of failures, and I’ve seen a lot on this on social media recently – which is great. Perfection can be exhausting and it doesn’t happen overnight. And if you’re launching a beauty or wellbeing brand, (any brand!) what are the big pointers on the road to getting it right"
This year, for some reason, a lot more new brands have been entering the 2018 Beauty Shortlist Awards (probably because there are so many more around). I love this time of year – the 5-6 months of judging – as the awards give us a really sharp, eagle eye view of what really works and stands out in a big, very crowded arena. There’s so much to get right.  Formulas, packaging (I’m the harshest judge on the packaging front…barely readable brand names in thin, pale grey font on all-white boxes – !) Faulty or  stiff body oil beak pumps, stick-on labels not stuck on properly, fire hydrant facial “mists” ("), lip balms that don’t twist up properly, balms so hard an elf could skate on them. A never-ending list!

Creating a brand, marketing it (properly) and getting to the point where it’s (finally) profitable is no easy road. But there’s no let up in the number of new launches around at the moment. The skincare market has been saturated for years already, but brave f...