LOLI Beauty has reimagined nearly every facet of the skin care business, from ingredients to packaging, from formulation to personalization, from supply chain to conscious commerce. While independent cosmetics and personal care brands are known for innovation and for bringing new solutions and ideas to market; this zero-waste, natural, blend-it-yourself skin care brand led by Tina Hedges is honestly disrupting the industry and giving ‘clean beauty’ consumers a choice that is patently original and blatantly ethical—socially, environmentally, and commercially.
Here, the beauty entrepreneur shares a profile of herself and the brand.
Name: Tina Hedges, CEO and Founder
Indie Beauty Company: LOLI Beauty
Launched: March 2018
Headquarters: New York, New York
Cash flow: LOLI Beauty has closed two successful seed rounds of financing.
Team work: 3 full-time employees and 4 part-time
Distribution: Domestically via our own ecommerce site; off-line at event-based pop-up blending bars.
Years in beauty: Over 20 years
Years at LOLI Beauty: This is my fourth start-up. I helped launch a beverage, a biotech company, a hair care brand and now, LOLI Beauty.
Entrepreneurial experience: My first start-up was in 2005, when I launched an award-winning and record-breaking celebrity hair care brand with Jonathan Antin. We were the first to recognize the enormous power of reality TV. We incorporated the creation of our brand on BRAVO TV’s show “Blowout”. Our channel partners were Barneys, Sephora and QVC. I then went on to help a biotech venture in the beauty space and launched a hangover prevention beverage.
The business: LOLI Beauty is the world's first zero waste, organic, and customizable beauty brand. Our products are 100% waterless, made with up-cycled and sustainably grown, superfood ingredients. Our packaging is reusable or certified compostable.
The wow-factor: The beauty industry has been selling the consumer personal care products made with 80-95% water, preserving and altering formulas with chemicals and over-packaging in toxic plastic. Water (or aqua) is usually one of the first ingredients on the INCI. This means that the products and active ingredients are diluted (so less effective), not to mention preserved with toxins.
Our pure, potent, and personalized products are 100% waterless, made with up-cycled and sustainably grown superfood ingredients and packaged in reusable, certified compostable packaging. We're also the first and only beauty company to be a member of MADE IN A FREE WORLD, a SaaS platform that allows us to assess our supply chain for the risk of people trafficking. LOLI (which stands for "Living Organic Loving Ingredients") is both earth-friendly and people-free.
For our up-cycling of food grade ingredients, we work with global farms to find innovative ways to re-use parts of fruits or plants that would normally be discarded. For example, our Plum Elixir is made with the seed of a rare plum called the Ente plum which was thrown away when making organic prune juice or pitted plums. From a packaging innovation standpoint, we use reusable food grade glass containers. Instead of secondary cartons, we developed 100% certified compostable bags - and we are the first to develop and use this technology which comes from the food industry.
The customer: An urban, millennially-minded, sustainably conscious shopper.
Milestone moment: We’re the first beauty company to be part of Grand Central Tech’s Accelerator Class (recently re-branded as Company).
Advice for fellow indie beauty entrepreneurs: Don’t stop to think. Just get going. Be swift and nimble. Fail fast. Then re-think and try again.
Just one: Asked about her go-to product, Hedges says it’s our PLUM ELIXIR. It’s a serious multi-tasker for face, lips, and hair. It’s made from the up-cycled seed of a very rare, organic Ente plum and is more powerful than marula or argan. The bonus? It’s food grade and smells dreamy – like marzipan.
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Deanna Utroske, CosmeticsDesign.com Editor, covers beauty business news in the Americas region and publishes the weekly Indie Beauty Profile column, showcasing the inspiring work of entrepreneurs and innovative brands.