“The [fragrance] category needs innovation to survive, to stay modern and be relevant to today’s consumer,” Francine Gingras, president of Beauty Boost tells Cosmetics Design.
She founded the company with Josephine Sullivan, Beauty Boost’s creative director, and FragranceLock, which launched just last month, is the indie beauty brand’s first product. Gingras hinted that the company has a few things in the pipeline. But for now their focus is squarely on FragranceLock.
FragranceLock “will help to expand the category and educate consumers on the role fragrance plays on our wellbeing and increase the conversation to engage more consumers with the category,” Gingras says.
Product logic
FragranceLock is a spray, formulated with acrylate copolymers and oils, that makes perfume last longer. “Consumers have been wanting a solution for some time,” believes Gingras. “With the long-lasting beauty benefit market (face, eyes, lips, nails) in full swing, it was a perfect time to innovate in the fragrance category and provide the consumer with an effortless easy solution to longer-lasting perfume.”
The concept first came from Sullivan who casually asked why there isn’t a product to make fragrance last. “Building on the top coat, primer, setting and finishing spray trends, that seed of an idea eventually turned into FragranceLock,” Gingras tells Cosmetics Design.
But an idea does not a product make. “Creating a formula was challenging,” admits Gingras. “Most suppliers would rather work with big companies vs independents, sell you what’s on their shelf vs creating new formulations, but we eventually found the company CosPro Inc whose CEO Paul Mazzotta instantly got what we were trying to create and believed in our concept. He has been a great partner,” says Gingras.
Innovation generation
Some of the most obvious things are revolutionary. Keying in on the opportunities and ideas that have market potential is something of an art. “If you are looking for white space, I think you have to know the category, live the category and understand how the category makes a difference in the context of people’s real life,” Gingras tells Cosmetics Design.
Having worked in the cosmetics and personal care industry for years, with companies like Elizabeth Arden and P&G, Gingras knows the value of consumer intelligence: “There is a lot of information and data today but a practical, low-tech approach takes you inside the hearts and minds of consumers who have the insights you seek,” she tells this publication.
Dynamic whitespace
There will always be whitespace in fragrance, cosmetics, and personal care “because our world changes and consumers' needs evolve,” says Gingras.
So, the key to finding the products that are missing is staying tuned in to those changing consumer needs, expectations, and lifestyles. Consumers today view value in many ways. “Money saved is the old paradigm. Money still matters but so does the consumer’s time, product benefit/results and ease of use, to name a few,” Gingras says. “A long-lasting fragrance finishing spray that gives women the benefit of feeling confident, beautiful and sexy all day long, without interruption or reapplication,” is valuable to consumers short on time and eager for convenience.
FragranceLock fits in with other current consumer expectations too: “FragranceLock is gender, age, and skin-tone blind, made equally for all consumers,” notes Gingras. And beyond that, “we chose the finishing spray route vs a primer to allow the fragrance to interact with personal body chemistry . The same fragrance smells different on everyone (due to hormones, diets, medication, dry or oily skin types) and this allows that unique customization to take place first, creating a personal signature with that scent before locking it in.”