More than 500 companies applied to participate in the upcoming Food-X cohort. Only 8 were selected. Among them, All Beauty Water, a company that sells three versions of its eponymous nutrient-rich beverage. The drink comes in cucumber aloe, strawberry acai, and pomegranate rose.
All Beauty Water will spend 14 weeks at the business accelerator, a company that strives to “help food entrepreneurs bring their products and services to market at super speed,” according to their site. The experience includes business training sessions and coaching as well as workspace and funding. Food-X has three fulltime experts on staff and works with 60 industry mentors to guide founders and their companies to success.
On the up and up
Camille Varlet, CEO of All Beauty Water, has been making headway with her beauty-from-within drink brand for some time now. In 2015 she was telling Cosmetics Design about the “enormous opportunity [that exists] for brands to encourage consumers to think about beauty from a lifestyle perspective and push the message that health = beauty.”
And with every initiative the company gets closer to realizing that objective. Late last year, for instance, All Beauty Water was named as an F-Factor approved beverage (the New York City – based nutrition center behind the credential selected All Beauty Water as a “healthy swap” for sugary Vitamin Water). All Beauty Water is also gaining distribution partners around the web and around the country, recently adding Jet.com and select Safeway stores to the list.
About this latest opportunity, Varlet tells the press, “I’m really excited to be joining Food-X as I think the network and support provided will help me push the All Beauty Water mission of skincare from within forward and get us one step closer to changing the beauty dialog and encouraging healthy food and beverage choices to become part of a woman’s beauty regimen.”
Momentum
Andrew D. Ive, managing director of Food-X, agrees that beauty from within makes good business sense: “It’s about time that women get a beverage that is designed exclusively for them. All Beauty Water is packed with taste, designed with a unique set of nutrients to deliver goodness from the inside out and yet has absolutely no sugar. It’s time to stop smearing creams on the outside and nourishing from the inside,” he says in a press release.
Corporate brands are investing more in the category now too. In January Burt’s Bees launched a collection of powdered protein shakes. Jim Geikie, that brand’s general manager, sees beauty from within as a logical brand extension. “For three decades, Burt's Bees has connected people to the beauty, wisdom and power of nature. And for just as long, we've held the belief that real beauty and well-being should be nourished from the inside out,” he says.