“My overall vision for travel retail is the same as in every one of our channels, and that is to share my philosophy. Our reason for being is to help people figure out their skin issues. We lead with education and we try to do it in a fun way. We’ll continue in that path in travel retail.”
That is how Founder & Chief Creative Officer Tiffany Masterson explains the ‘Drunk Elephant Difference’. The skincare brand was founded in 2012, after Masterson, then a stay-at-home mother discovered the Suspicious 6; a ubiquitous list of ingredients often used in traditional beauty formulations that can cause skin disruptions.
The brand has since rocketed to cult fame, building a global community of diehard Drunk Elephant followers who have fallen in love with the brand’s effective, no-nonsense, Suspicious 6-free formulations. In 2019, Drunk Elephant signed a global partnership agreement with Shiseido Group and has now launched into Asia Pacific and EMEA travel retail, with more locations planned in 2022.
Following its global travel retail debut, The Moodie Davitt Report Brands Editor and Digital Marketing Manager Hannah Tan-Gillies caught up with Masterson to discuss the brand’s grand ambitions for the channel. In this exclusive interview, Masterson looks back on the beginnings of Drunk Elephant, the Suspicious 6, putting the consumer first and her partnership with Shiseido Group.
Throughout this fascinating conversation, one thing becomes clear. It is that much of Drunk Elephant’s success can be attributed to Masterson’s commitment to constant improvement and innovation, as she strives to share the Drunk Elephant Difference with consumers around the world.
Can you tell us about the Suspicious 6 and how your own personal experience with them led to the creation of Drunk Elephant?
Our philosophy is what makes Drunk Elephant a unique brand in the market because this really is what we lead with, our philosophy and our reason for being. Our purpose as a brand is to educate people about these commonly-used ingredients that we decided to avoid based on my own personal experience with them.
My skin would often become sensitive, red and inflamed but really it was just confused skin. I was a stay at home mom, and I learned about the Suspicious 6 through testing products myself and through helping people with their skin. Without being a chemist or having any professional knowledge, I would take people’s products, look up the ingredient deck and started to see a pattern.
When you’re not a chemist or a formulator, you just see a big, intimidating paragraph of words you don’t understand. However, when you start putting them apart you see a pattern of preservatives, fragrances, thickeners and antioxidants among other actives. Beauty products may all look different but they all have a pattern to them.
The Suspicious 6 per se aren’t scary. We’re not telling people avoid these ingredients because they are bad for the skin, but because they could be potentially disruptive, which is why we call them suspicious.
So what exactly are the Suspicious 6?
The Suspicious 6 comprises fragrances, essential oils, drying alcohols, silicones, chemical sunscreens and SLS (surfactants).
Fragrances and dyes make the products smell or look prettier, but the bottom line is formulations don’t need to look, smell or feel pretty. These just take up space from other ingredients and are unnecessary and can aggravate the skin.
Essential oils by nature are volatile and can be sensitising to the skin which can make it inflamed and active. Inflammation is the root cause of many skin issues and the fact that essential oils sensitise the skin, mean they don’t belong on skin.
Drying alcohols give the impression of mattifying the skin and are often present in acne products, but they are just a bandage over bigger issues. These dry out the breakout, but cause long-term damage. They help other actives but also dissolve surface lipids, resulting in inflammation.
Silicones may not necessary be harmful, but they block the absorption of other actives. They are heavy and give the impression of moisturisation, but in fact they just sit on top of your skin and evaporate after application.
Chemical sunscreens are great for sun care obviously, but our point in eliminating them is that some people aren’t compatible with chemical sunscreens. There are all sorts of chemical screens in sunscreens and it makes the skin reactive, causing breakouts. Instead, we recommend that people switch to physical sunscreens.
SLSL is a surfactant that strips the moisture from the skin. It causes inflammation and damages the skin barrier. These are in the cleansers that we use that give you that bubbly, squeaky clean feeling. Instead, we recommend gentle, plant-based surfactants that clean the skin without overdoing it.
Once I eliminated those six ingredients from my routine and the routines of my family, friends and customers, they all saw the difference. The Suspicious 6 philosophy kept proving itself over and over as we were developing the brand. There was nothing out there like this, and I realised that there’s a place in the market for Drunk Elephant. A brand which offers safe formulations, without the Suspicious 6. I wanted my philosophy to provide hope that people would be able to find solutions to their skin problems.
How has that ‘trouble-shooting’ approach influenced your creative process and product development strategy with Drunk Elephant?
I look at everything from the viewpoint of a consumer. In my day to day, I come across things all the time that could be reimagined with our philosophy. I look at the nutrition, health and wellness of my ingredients and I apply the same philosophy with everything I make. It’s really exciting to reach for a product like deodorant that’s not Drunk Elephant – and you think “Oh – I can make a deodorant with the Drunk Elephant philosophy. How can I bring something different to this product?”
I developed the brand to resolve my own skin issues and that way of thinking has really stayed with me. It’s important to always put the consumer first by giving them something unique and truly effective.
I put myself in the consumers’ shoes all the time and ask myself. Would I want a brand to cut corners, would I want a brand to be more concerned with profits over quality? That’s how I started this business. I told my investors, don’t expect me to cut corners. If people are going to spend money on my line, they are going to get the best product available.
We’re going to act like a big brand right away – because that’s what people are paying for. I won’t feel good unless I knew I was creating a product, from formulation to packaging, that I would be proud to use myself. Through that approach, we’ve never paid for advertising. Organic word of mouth has been key to Drunk Elephant’s fast rate of growth and success.
I have never discontinued a product. My goal is to keep making the products that people love even better than they already are, even the best-sellers. The fact that I will never stop trying to make products better, even they are selling well, builds genuine consumer trust.
What is your overall vision for the Drunk Elephant brand in the travel retail channel?
Launching in travel retail with Shiseido is a big milestone for us and we’re absolutely over the moon.
My overall vision for travel retail is the same as in every one of our channels, and that is to share my philosophy. My mission is to educate consumers about this new approach to taking care of skin and help them find solutions for their skin woes.
In travel retail, Drunk Elephant’s goal is to spread awareness about this philosophy. Our reason for being is to help people figure out their skin issues. We lead with education and we try to do it in a fun way. We’ll continue in that path in travel retail.
We will reach the travel retail consumer in a happy, fun and colourful way – that stops them in their tracks. We ask consumers to give us 30 days through our travel-friendly ‘Drunk Elephant Littles’ formats, so people can grab a set and see what our products can do for their skin.
The Littles, which we hope to see all over global travel retail, enable consumers to really experience our philosophy first-hand without investing a ton of money. Our goal is to reach those people who may have not heard of Drunk Elephant and introduce them to our incredible skincare philosophy.
Could you give us an overview of the impact of COVID-19 on the business – how are you adapting to the new normal?
From a business perspective, we had growth in 2020 even if some of our brick and mortar stores closed. The self-care trend went crazy which fuelled our sales. We launched hair and body in 2020 which was very well received as those categories were very resilient during the pandemic.
Over 60% of Drunk Elephant’s workforce has been remote, and so luckily our operations weren’t too disrupted in that way. We know how to work remotely and we work well together as a team. We’ve been very fortunate to be flexible during that difficult period. Having our way of working, going about business and maintaining that sense of control, unity and shared common goals to keep spreading the word made the pandemic tolerable. Thankfully, we never had to let anyone go. We remained focused on the business and I think it’s as good and positive as it can get.
How do you maintain the commitment of the Drunk Elephant community that you attracted as an independent brand while recruiting new consumers as part of a wider group?
After the acquisition, one of the first things I did was to write a love letter to our consumers.
I wanted to let them know that I’ve done everything I can to keep our values, our priorities, our ways of doing things, our formulas and our people intact. Shiseido Group would not have wanted to buy us and change us. The reason they bought us was because of what we were doing as an independent brand, the consumer we were able to reach and the community we built.
Staying active on social media and listening to consumers is also key. From day one my goal was to build a team who are great at what they do and can help Drunk Elephant stay true to our DNA, our vision and who we are. I didn’t want to sell the brand unless I had that assurance and we certainly found a great partner in Shiseido.
In what ways are you creating synergies and leveraging the strengths of Shiseido Travel Retail to grow the brand?
Shiseido Group is a known as a leader in travel retail and has been the best partner in helping us expand in the channel globally. We’ll continue to work together to bring the Drunk Elephant vision to life, making sure that we are recognisable anywhere in the world.
We will continue to educate, entertain and attract the consume following our Drunk Elephant Difference philosophy. To have this global partnership with Shiseido enables us to get things done efficiently and in a global way. We feel more powerful than ever with Shiseido by our side.
How has the 2019 acquisition by Shiseido Group translated into new business development?
We’ve been so busy since the acquisition. In the domestic market, we’ve expanded into Germany, Mexico, the Middle East, France, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Serbia, Brazil, Japan, South Korea and so much more. It has been a ton of work for my team and it’s been a labour of love, but with Shiseido, the expansion has been seamless.
We’ve also launched in Asia Pacific travel retail EMEA travel retail. Launching in those doors has allowed us to reach new consumers and share the Drunk Elephant Difference in all these new environments. We’re also launching in even more countries in 2022.
We expand slowly and carefully into new countries, where we can see there is demand for brand on our social channels. The wonderful thing about our partnership with Shiseido is that it allows us to accelerate the pace of expansion. There are already teams on the ground, making our dreams a reality in a much faster way and so we’re going to keep taking their lead in identifying the major targets.
How important is China to Drunk Elephant’s expansion strategy? How have Chinese consumers reacted to the brand, and what is the potential of this market?
I’m incredibly excited about China, which offers such a big opportunity for Drunk Elephant. We launched in Tmall cross-border in 2019 and have been really pleased with the results. Although we’ve only scratched the surface, were excited for the potential there. The challenge is spreading our philosophy and introducing a different way of thinking.
Chinese consumers are very traditional, so I think that if we can do it right and educate on the difference and uniqueness of our beauty philosophy then we can really do well in this market. We’re not just trying to fit in, we’re trying to bring something different.
A lot of brands go into the China market by creating products that they think will be popular with that consumer, but we want to do it differently. We want to introduce the brand, showcase our philosophy, and set ourselves apart. It’s a lot of hard work to make sure that translates – but it will be an exciting journey. Our strategy will be the same. Grow the community through outreach and word of mouth, do whatever it takes to make an impact and help people with their skin.
Drunk Elephant recently expanded its skincare range to cover hair and body products as well – what other categories are you exploring in the future?
We’re focused on our core line which is skincare and we are going to keep expanding and reformulating products. Body care and haircare will expand in 2022. There are other categories I have my eye on, but right now we’ve got a lot of work to do on the categories we already have out there. I’m interested in every category and I’m excited to try my philosophy with very unexpected products.
Can you tell us more about the ‘Drunk Elephant Difference’ and what makes Drunk Elephant an appealing brand for the travel retail channel?
I love the idea that new consumers can discover us while they are travelling at the airport and that existing fans now have more ways to enjoy our brand.
The Drunk Elephant Difference is the philosophy and it’s so exciting to get it out there. I think customers will be really attracted to the bright colours of our brands. More importantly, I believe that the Littles will be a very attractive concept in travel retail. They were developed to be a 30-45 day supply and enables consumers to test out our Drunk Elephant philosophy. Once they try it out for themselves, you won’t be able to keep them away.
Once you convert a customer into a Drunk Elephant fan, they’ll be a fan for life. Consumers rely on and trust our products and we don’t take that lightly. Products need to be something that makes a difference in their lives. That’s how we formulate and operate and that’s what makes me confident that we will succeed in the channel.
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