Las Vegas start-up launches lipstick with date rape drug detection

Esōes’ new Liquid Lipstick may resemble a James Bond gadget, but its glamorous appearance belies a more serious function. Each stick covertly holds two test strips and a Bluetooth enabled button. With just one drop of any beverage (alcoholic or not), the test strip will detect for the presence of Benzodiazepines – commonly used in date rape drugs like Rohypnol, Ativan, Xanax, and Klonopin.

The Bluetooth enabled button on the bottom of the lipstick tube also connects to an app with a customizable safety plan. When users press the button once, it will send a location to a friend. When they push it twice, it will send a pre-saved message; three times and it can call 911, start recording, or activate one of 15 different safety features.

Speaking to CosmeticsDesign-USA, Joy Hoover, the inventor of Esōes, said the idea for a lipstick with safety features came out of a conversation with her two daughters.

“For 12 years I built a non-profit social enterprise providing resources for people who have been affected by sex trafficking. In July last year, I was talking to my daughters about what we could do next to help people. I always listen to them because they come up with the best ideas. My youngest, who was four at the time, said: ‘well, you like lipstick mom…can we do lipstick?’.​ ​

Hoover relayed how she researched what products were on the beauty market for keeping women safe and was “shocked”​ to find there wasn’t anything. 

Date rape nail polish​

During her research she did discover a patent application for a nail polish that enabled the wearer to dip a finger into a drink to test whether it contained a date rape drug. The product, however, had never come to fruition, she said.

“I reached out to the scientist who worked on that patent via LinkedIn because I decided that if I was going to do this, I needed the best scientist in the US,”​ said Hoover.

Hoover launched the idea of Esōes in her backyard  to friends and family back in October 2021 and raised $25,000 through crowdfunding. This enabled the entrepreneur to create a pitch deck that secured $200,000 from angel investors. With this funding, Hoover brought in engineers and scientists to develop the lipstick and computer software specialists to develop the safety app.

The prototype and app launched six weeks ago, and the start-up was now seeking $500,000 of pre-seed funding to bring the product to market in Q1 2023, said Hoover.

“We are going to start with D2C, but we are also in contact with a few beauty boxes and beauty brands​. Although getting our product in other stores is a big goal, because we consider our product to be an eco-system of solutions, we don’t just want our product in any store.”​ ​

Products, giving back and education​

Hoover said that there were three components to the business: innovative products, responsive giving (reinvesting a proportion of every purchase in survivors) and education.

With regard to the third component, she said: “We offer safe space certification training. We go into businesses and teach them about the nuances of sexual and domestic violence, to give them an understanding of how crime happens. They say it happens in a triangle with a place, a person and a perpetrator. We can’t stop every perpetrator, but we can make a person and a place safer.”​

She said Esōes ultimately wanted to certify the businesses carrying its lipstick to make them into “safe zones”​ for survivors but added that this strategy didn’t preclude the possibility of licensing or white labeling arrangements. The company just had no plans of opening its own stores, because larger stores were "more covert for survivors if they’re being followed or tracked"​, she said. 

The company’s goal was to hit sales of $10m in 2023, which would equate to 200,000 products sold, and international expansion would hopefully follow, said Hoover.

“To start with we are focusing on the US but our patent is global, so as soon as possible we want to start expanding across the globe because we know that sexual and domestic violence as well as date rape drugs and women’s safety are an issue in every geography. Canada and Europe would probably be our next targets,”​ she said.

First 500 lipsticks on pre-sale​

The Liquid Lipstick is currently available to pre-order online for $49.95, in a choice of five shades. The price includes the device, one color and two test strips as well as the lowest level of app access. 

'Lipstick is a $90bn market and the safety industry is worth $6bn, so we sit within a $100bn industry' -​ Esōes founder Joy Hoover​

“We are pre-selling our first 500 lipsticks now and obtaining feedback from users. We also have a four-tier marketing plan to get our name out there. It is really just our plan to get it into as many people’s hands as possible and help them feel safe,”​ said Hoover.

Asked how the brand planned to avoid being too niche, she said: “I am okay with being niche but I don’t think people feel like we are niche  - they see us as an addition to something they already love - lipstick. Lipstick is a $90bn market and the safety industry is worth $6bn, so we sit within a $100bn industry.”​

Femtech attracts investors​

She continued: “Femtech health & beauty is our space and this is a very hot investment area right now. In 2020 there was $600m invested in femtech. In 2022, investment exceeded $3.3bn, so it is very exciting to be in this space right now.”​

With so much buzz around femtech, in Hoover’s view, the beauty majors should also be thinking along these lines. “I find it wild that we are in 2022 and this invention is considered novel. I can’t believe that it doesn’t already exist and that there isn’t more out there to keep us safe. I hope that more and more businesses will partner with us to get it into the hands of their consumers and come up with additional solutions for safety."​ 

However, she pointed out that if the big beauty brands wanted to launch a similar product, they could, and they hadn’t.

“This is profitable, but it is not as profitable as lipstick because it encompasses additional elements that increase the cost. Our passion is not profit. Our passion is purpose and safety. That is really what sets us apart from the main beauty brands.”​

Serious and lighthearted​

But Hoover was keen to emphasize that as well as being a brand with a mission, Esōes had a lighter side too.

“Our brand is bright, it’s fun, it’s inclusive. We did that for a reason because violence is a very serious topic. We can make a joke and laugh on a TikTok dance, but we can also talk about real stories."​

She continued: “We are a team of survivors building this for survivors. You cannot do this work and sit in the pain all day. The way we find hope is by building a community, having fun, engaging the community and being authentic about the experiences of people in that community. By believing that we can and will make a difference. We don’t have to live in a world where we feel afraid. We can build a safer world and I will be damned if I don’t for my daughters.”​