The Journey to Innovation: Reinventing Skincare with Serena Advani of Seadrop
Welcome to the latest entry on the Beyond Beauty blog, where we delve into the minds of the beauty industry’s most innovative thinkers. I’m your host, and today, I’m thrilled to share with you the insights from my recent podcast episode with a remarkable guest, Serena Advani, the founder of Seadrop.
The Genesis of Seadrop: A Skincare Revolution
Seadrop is not your typical skincare brand. It’s a trailblazer, transforming the way we think about skincare products. Serena has introduced a groundbreaking concept: skincare in tablet form. Imagine replacing your traditional liquid cleansers with a crushable tablet that springs to life with just a touch of water. This is the innovation that Seadrop brings to the table, or should I say, to the bathroom sink.
Serena’s debut product is a testament to her ingenuity—a hydrating facial cleanser in tablet form that activates upon contact with water. This approach is not only novel but also addresses two critical issues: environmental sustainability and product efficacy. Traditional liquid cleansers are predominantly water and often come in single-use plastic packaging. Seadrop’s waterless solution, on the other hand, comes in zero-waste, refillable packaging, making it a cleaner choice for both the planet and your skin.
A Blend of Science, Business, and Beauty
Serena’s journey is as impressive as her product. With degrees in cognitive neuroscience and operations, focusing on neuromarketing from Penn, and an MBA from Wharton, she’s well-versed in the science and business of beauty. Her tenure as the president of the Wharton Beauty Club, her experience at McKinsey, and her strategic role at Estée Lauder Companies have all contributed to her deep understanding of the industry. It’s no wonder she’s been recognized as a 2023 most influential ESG leader by Women’s Wear Daily.
From Passion to Purpose: The Birth of a Brand
During our conversation, Serena shared her personal story, which began with a love for beauty products and nail art. Despite societal expectations steering her towards other industries, her passion for beauty remained undiminished. It was during her time in consulting, working on projects unrelated to her interests, that she realized the importance of pursuing a career in a field she truly cared about. This epiphany led her to pivot towards the beauty industry, eventually inspiring the creation of Seadrop.
The Inspiration Behind Waterless Skincare
The idea for Seadrop was born from a blend of childhood experiences and professional insights. Serena recounted how traditional Indian skincare recipes, which involved mixing natural powders with water, were part of her upbringing. These waterless concepts stayed with her and later merged with her observations about the beauty industry’s reliance on water-based products and single-use packaging. The result? A vision for a sustainable, water-activated skincare line that honors her heritage while addressing modern-day concerns.
The Challenges of Launching a Skincare Brand
Starting with a single hero product—a cleanser—Serena conducted extensive research, surveys, and focus groups to ensure she was meeting consumer needs. The development process was meticulous, from sourcing biodegradable packaging to perfecting a formulation that maximized the benefits of water-activated ingredients like hyaluronic acid. Every step was taken with sustainability and quality in mind, avoiding the pitfalls of greenwashing that are all too common in the industry.
Embracing Heritage and Innovation
In our discussion, Serena emphasized the influence of her South Asian heritage on Seadrop. The brand is a modern interpretation of time-honored skincare practices, adapted for today’s environmentally conscious consumer. It’s a beautiful fusion of tradition and innovation, resulting in a product that’s not only effective but also kind to the planet.
Final Thoughts
Creating Seadrop has been a journey of passion, dedication, and a deep commitment to sustainability. Serena Advani’s story is a powerful reminder that innovation can stem from our roots and that with the right blend of knowledge and creativity, we can make a significant impact on the world.
Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:00:01) – Welcome to the Beyond Beauty podcast, a platform to highlight the beauty industry’s talent, deconstruct their learnings and spark ideas for your own business. The Beyond Beauty podcast is created by Dilley, the leading creative agency working with the fastest growing brands and beauty. Here, we’ll interview guests from major beauty corporations, creative directors, influencers, founders and risk taking entrepreneurs. Our guests are not only changing the traditional beauty landscape, they are also innovating in ecommerce, branding and digital marketing. Join us as they share valuable advice, how they launch their businesses and most importantly, ignite thought provoking conversations across beauty, tech and marketing. Good morning everyone. Today we have Serena on the Beyond Beauty podcast. So Serena, thanks so much for coming out today to share her story.
Speaker 2 (00:00:53) – Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:00:54) – Serena Advani is the founder of Seadrop, the brand reinventing skincare as tablets instead of liquids. Her debut product is a first of its kind, crushable, Just Add Water skincare tablet that activates into a hydrating facial cleanser upon use with the tap water you already have at home.
Speaker 1 (00:01:11) – While traditional liquid cleanser is about 90% water and stored in single use plastic Seadrop’s, Waterless Cleanser comes in zero waste, refillable packaging for skincare that’s cleaner for both the planet and your skin. Serena holds degrees in cognitive neuroscience and operations with a focus on neuromarketing from Penn, along with an MBA from Wharton, where she served as a president of the Wharton Beauty Club. She previously worked on beauty diligence at McKinsey and in global brand strategy at S.A. Lauder companies, including Bobbi Brown and she has recently been named a 2023 Most Influential ESG Leader by Women’s Wear Daily. Amazing, Serena, we’re so excited to have you and to share your story of how you got started in the beauty industry, how you started your own company. So we always like to take it back to where it started. How did you get started in the beauty industry? Where did you know that this was an industry you wanted to pursue a career, and where did it all begin?
Speaker 2 (00:02:08) – I always loved the beauty industry from the aspect of a consumer, and I found the skincare products, makeup products and nail art products in particular really fun growing up.
Speaker 2 (00:02:18) – But they were never taken that seriously. As an industry. Coming from a South Asian background, you’re nudged into other industries health care, tech, whatever it may be, and I ended up finding my creative outlet while pursuing the degree in the science business side of things in nail art. When I was younger and I was 13, I ended up getting certified in nail art in India, actually, and I loved it. And that was my way of disconnecting, doing nothing for a bit, and I just found it really fun. I put that aside and around ten years later I was working in consulting where after my first project, where I was working pretty long hours in an industry that I didn’t really care that much about. Between us, it was construction equipment manufacturing, which, if you know me, is just not really my favorite topic to work on. After that experience, I realized that if I’m going to be working this hard, then I want to work on something I care about. And I’ve always really cared about the beauty industry and the joy that it brings to people, which is how I switched my career focus while in consulting to a lot of beauty diligence.
Speaker 2 (00:03:21) – And that’s what led me to work at Estee Lauder. That’s what inspired me to want to stay in the industry. Now that I’m starting to Seadrop.
Speaker 1 (00:03:27) – So you’re switching from consulting and then you go into a C Lauder companies, I know, I don’t even know if we overlap there. I was there for a moment too, but it’s such a great company. You learned so much, and especially with their brand portfolio and learning about like these trend forward brands, maybe like a two phase to the heritage as a Lauder brand, skincare like Clinique and more. So when you’re in the beauty industry and you’re sitting there, when did you come up with the idea to start your own line? Like, are you probably sitting there saying, wow, there’s so much that goes into a brand from marketing and operations, hiring people, breaking into the retailers, your direct to consumer site. There’s so many changes happening in digital and social media. That’s a big jump to go from a really amazing set of companies early in your career to starting your own brand.
Speaker 1 (00:04:12) – So how did you make that pivot? Yeah, it’s.
Speaker 2 (00:04:14) – Definitely a really big pivot from the way of doing things at a larger company, for sure, and a really great place to learn. I would say that I got the inputs I needed to come up with the idea for Seadrop in two ways. One was actually pre pre working in beauty. It was just when I was a kid I learned all of these Indian just add water skincare recipes from my mom and my grandma because they’ve just been passed down in my family for generations. We would mix powders, turmeric, chickpea flour, sandalwood with water at home and transform these powders into really great efficacious skincare in our kitchens. I remember thinking that those products really worked, but at the same time, in the US, people don’t really want kitchen do it yourself skincare. But I remember thinking there’s something to this waterless concept. Then 20 years later and I’m working in beauty and I’m sitting in the Lauder offices downtown in New York, and this is back in the day pre-COVID, with the open floor plans.
Speaker 2 (00:05:14) – And I remember overhearing our product development team talking to our packaging team talking to supply chain, and people were talking about how one all of the products are packaged for the most part in single use packaging, usually plastic. And the reason why they’re packaged that way is because these products are mostly water, and that water can be really difficult to package. For example, in like paper it would just disintegrate. The second thing I learned about in these open floor plan offices is that artificial preservatives are added to those skincare. Because of the water. And as a science background myself, I’ve taken the chemistry classes. I knew this, that water breeds bacteria, but I didn’t put together that. The reason why we’re having all of these, not only sustainability, but then also product quality factors in our water based skincare just because of that water. It wasn’t until then I was in business school that first year when I put it all together and I was like, okay, I learned this when I was growing up. I learned this about the water and skincare in working in beauty, and I put them together and I was like, what if we could bring that same concept of water activated skincare to life in a way that’s not only freshly activated and rooted in the heritage I grew up with, but then also I was like, If I’m going to do it, let’s make it zero waste.
Speaker 2 (00:06:28) – If we’re reinventing skincare anyway, let’s find a way to make it sustainable and solve these other problems while we’re at it.
Speaker 1 (00:06:34) – Amazing. Oh wow. You’re really taking a lot of different angles and bring it into one product. So you’re looking at the sustainability side. You’re also looking at how we’re just our waste. Right. Or and this ingredient formulation of saying, okay, there’s very few simple ingredients that all you need to use to get great skin. Yet we’re if you look at the back of the average cleanser or moisturizer, there’s there’s sometimes 20 or 30 ingredients. And then a bigger issue too is a lot of times the word fragrance can mask, I believe, up to 100 different ingredients that mostly are not good for you and for the planet. So you’re really solving a lot of issues building this company. Wow, this is so impressive. Very impressive. So thank you. Yeah. What was the first product that you started with and like how I’m always so curious about how entrepreneurs say what is like the hero skew.
Speaker 1 (00:07:19) – What am I going to start with. Do you expand. Do you keep on adding in SKUs or is it are you really trying to keep a curated set of products, and how does that product evolution evolve on top of finding suppliers? It’s not just the formulation, but it’s also the packaging design. Bring it all together, the operations and shipping. How did that all evolve? I know that’s probably a multi-part question. Yeah, no.
Speaker 2 (00:07:43) – That’s a really great question because there’s so much that goes into the operations behind a skincare brand, and most consumers never know. I don’t even think I had enough appreciation when I was a consumer. For everything that goes on behind the scenes. To answer your first question, when it came to product development and what I wanted that first product in our pipeline to be, I went about it in a couple ways. One, I come from the consulting background and it’s very structured in how we solve problems there. And I actually just ran a survey of around 200 consumers in the target segment, and I asked them, what category are you most likely to switch to a new brand for in your skincare routine? And overwhelmingly, I heard not only from the survey, but also from the dozens of focus groups I conducted pre-launch that people were willing to try out a new brand via their cleanser first.
Speaker 2 (00:08:34) – And it makes sense intuitively, because it’s a rinse off product. It’s one that doesn’t typically cause, like extreme irritation the way a really strong serum or moisturizer might. And the other piece is, when it came to formulation, I was researching ingredients that would be best activated with water, and a lot of the ingredients that we’ve seen that come in that water activated form work best in the cleanser because you’re adding water to a cleanser, whether it’s a liquid, gel, foam or a powdered tablet. So that’s why we were able to make the most of these ingredients, like our trial ironic acid blend of three molecular weights of hyaluronic acid that are all water activated in this cleanser format. When it came to all of the other pieces, I know you asked a couple questions around like packaging and the development of the product. I just to boil it down, I wanted to make sure that when we’re doing this one product, since we only launched with one skew, we do it right. And that’s why trying to find the right packaging that not only looked really beautiful and felt fun to use, quality is at the forefront of everything we do.
Speaker 2 (00:09:35) – I also wanted to make sure that it was sustainable and that ended up taking, you know, quite a bit of time. Definitely not more time than product formulation because that comes first. But we really sought out a refill system that was truly biodegradable and designed to disintegrate at its end of life. We use only FSC certified paper for our packaging, and we use soy based inks so that they’re designed to be curbside recyclable and actually disintegrate. Because often in beauty, there’s a lot of greenwashing. You’ll see something that looks like paper, but it’s lined with plastic on the inside and it’s never really recycled. That packaging piece was really core to our mission after we secured the formulation and the product concept.
Speaker 1 (00:10:16) – Amazing. That’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of details and researching and finding vendors and navigating like, who is the right fit? I’m sure there’s a lot of details there, but before I’m sure we could talk about that more. One question I’d love to explore is about your heritage and how does your heritage bake into this process? Let’s take you.
Speaker 1 (00:10:34) – Let’s take us back to your family. What you’ve learned you. It seems that there’s a lot of rituals to of what your mother and your grandmother taught you and what maybe is not so natural. To someone here who’s so used to everything on. It’s like an instant gratification. Like I would go on Amazon and then you’ll get a cleanser and or it’s more just like marketing is pushing on you versus I think a lot of cultures are more into bringing like rituals through their pipeline of their family that have worked for generations.
Speaker 2 (00:11:02) – Yeah, that’s why crop is actually really personal to me, partially because of that family history where it’s nice to know that this same concept that has been used by women in my family for generations, like this, has been true for most families in South Asia, going back hundreds of years. It’s nice to know that same concept is resonating with consumers today, and it’s really cool to see that these concepts that I took for granted growing up, because I had access to that knowledge just through family.
Speaker 2 (00:11:29) – It’s nice to now bring that same concept around freshly activated skincare to life. For American consumers who want something really effective, they’re looking for rituals that really enhance their skin health. And also just like mental health, with having something that’s a relaxing ritual. It’s really special to me to bring that from that family history to life here in a Durham tested, allergy tested, clinically tested approach. The other piece I’ll share, which I don’t think I’ve even shared that publicly yet, but I think it’s just such a funny story. I was actually named after a beauty salon in Bombay in Mumbai. Oh cool. I like this because actually it ties into an essay Lauder Holiday party. I’ll get a second, but I was yet named after the salon called Serena Salon. My mom just liked the name. Like she decided to name her firstborn daughter after the salon she would walk by and just liked the name. That’s it. Didn’t think much of it. Honestly. Never visited the salon when I was younger. I didn’t really just.
Speaker 2 (00:12:26) – It was a story of, oh, look, so funny. She was named after a beauty salon, and at this point I was working at Estee Lauder and everyone was like, it’s funny. Now she works in beauty. I was at a holiday party for Bobbi Brown and was in line getting food. It was an intimate holiday party, getting food from a buffet, and I compliment the woman in front of me for her earrings. I was like, they’re beautiful, where did you get them? And she tells me, I got them from Mumbai from this jewelry store. You should go if you’re ever in India. She doesn’t know my name at this point. She doesn’t know anything about me. And then she goes. If you ever do go. There is this really great beauty salon right next door. I know the owner. You should check it out. It’s called Serena’s Salon. And I remember I got chills because I was like, this is not a common Indian name. I wonder if it’s the same person.
Speaker 2 (00:13:13) – I call my mom on FaceTime at the party and I’m like, is this the location? I get the Google Maps pin sharing screens and she’s. Yeah, that’s the salon I named you after that.
Speaker 3 (00:13:24) – And this woman.
Speaker 2 (00:13:25) – Frances, at the holiday party, she puts me in a group chat with the owner of Serena Salon. Her name is Marissa and she is the original Serena’s daughter who operates the salon. And we end up meeting because I end up going to India. This is January 2020 for a cousin’s wedding right before the pandemic. So I really snuck that trip in and I end up meeting the owner of Serena Salon, who is a delight, and she and I have actually become friends. I ended up seeing her again a couple of weeks ago, and it was so cool hearing about how the beauty industry served as this path for her mom and her to become trailblazers, and one of the first female entrepreneurs in the city. They were one of the first few women to own a salon at all in India, because in Bombay, most of them were operated by men.
Speaker 2 (00:14:09) – And hearing her whole story and the inspiration behind it, I know, I know, it might be out there. Part of me is there’s a lot of meaning behind that industry to me, the behind the beauty industry to me, and being able to now create in that same space really just means a lot. And, you know, crazy small world story, but it keeps me going and it’s nice to now also go back to Marissa from Serena Salon and share updates on what’s happening with Seadrop.
Speaker 1 (00:14:32) – What a small world. I think it’s there’s so many interconnection points of people coming together and saying or it’s like a spark, right? It’s like a moment of saying, keep going. You’re building something. You’re doing something great. It’s a sign on that subject to of entrepreneurship, especially within the beauty industry or mentorship. Entrepreneurship is definitely a very tough road. It’s definitely one of those things where I’m sure most people say, oh, I could just go back to corporate and I would get my bimonthly paycheck and take your Social Security and your 401 K, etc. we all know the benefits there, but there’s something about building a company that is so special and so rewarding and teaches you to like, move differently, think differently, respond differently.
Speaker 1 (00:15:12) – It also gets everyone out of their comfort shell. You need to network more. You need to call different vendors. You need to learn almost every skill set under the business umbrella. So have you had any mentors that have helped guide you, or do you mentor other people? Or what advice have you been gifted that you want to share today? Maybe it’s words you live by or something that someone once told you that’s forever just stayed in your mind as like kind of the voice of reason or that spark you need on a daily or annual basis.
Speaker 2 (00:15:42) – Definitely. I think it’s so important to lean on mentors. Tours, whether it’s a formal mentoring relationship or an informal one, just seeking out advice from people who’ve been in your shoes or know the space that you’re in. I would say that I get not only advice and mentorship from my former coworkers, for example. They’ve been incredibly helpful, advising me on the pricing, on the branding, on the strategy of how I’m growing the business. But I also feel like I get some of the best feedback as an entrepreneur from my customers.
Speaker 2 (00:16:13) – The consumers themselves are the ones that are actually, that’s what this whole company is all about. And hearing from them directly on what they like about the products, how it makes their skin feel, what messaging pieces they want me to play up that has been so invaluable on just keeping that line of communication a two way street. The other piece I’ll say is that, yeah, this is a challenging role. It’s not for the faint of heart. It’s exhausting being an entrepreneur. And you especially for me, I’m doing this in a very scrappy way where I am really trying to get creative with how we go about launching the brand. For example, when it came to sourcing packaging, I found this jar that I really liked, but it was pretty expensive in terms of a component where I was sourcing it from. It was a supplier based in the US. I ended up Google reverse image searching that product to find the direct supplier, and that’s where I ordered it from. In terms of our photoshoots, we weren’t hiring an agency.
Speaker 2 (00:17:08) – We ended up. Me and one of my interns rented a camera from her university, and we went to bed, Bath and Beyond before it closed and they had a little bathroom display. We asked permission. We cleared it out. We did a little photo shoot with the bathroom display with our product in the store. Like that’s how we’ve been operating. So I think when you’re operating with that scrappy mindset, reaching out to everyone, you can go into all of the different founder networking events. There are so many of them in New York at least, and getting advice from whoever you can has been so helpful. It could be investors, other founders, friends who just, you know, speak consumer. And the last piece I’ll say is there is a such thing as too much advice. So use your own judgment to decide what’s right and trust your instinct. To some extent, it’s always good to gather as much information as you can, but then be really mindful about taking feedback, because not everyone can be right, and you do have to rely on your instinct to some extent.
Speaker 2 (00:18:02) – , and then your final question on a piece of advice that really resonated with you, one that really sticks out to me is actually from a college friend. She told me that one of her advisors told her, if anything takes you less than five minutes to do, then do it right now. And I think that is some of the best advice I’ve ever heard. It is so easy to let those small tasks pile up, and each one takes five minutes, but you just don’t want to do it. The best advice is to just do it right now, and then you’ll have that short term memory load lightened for the rest of your day, and you’re just a lot more effective with everything else.
Speaker 3 (00:18:35) – That’s great.
Speaker 1 (00:18:36) – Those are two really good pieces of advice. It’s true. There’s so many little things that can just pile up throughout the day, and you just need to crank through it. And that way you can go into the deep work for the projects that might take four hours or take you two weeks to complete.
Speaker 1 (00:18:48) – And I do agree with you that sometimes we were served so much advice, and I think not everyone has. People walk up to them and share advice. I always joke like I could get a stranger walk up to me on the street and say, I’m going to share a piece of advice with you. I’m like, I’m never going to see you again, but why are you sharing advice? And I think it’s definitely there’s some type of like energy that people feel open to sharing things or not. But especially as an entrepreneur, I’m sure everyone is just sidetracked with advice from how to hire people, how to find vendors, marketing, get into retailers. How do you go on your own for direct to consumer? Even social media right now is just ever evolving. So it’s really important, like you said, to understand which pieces of advice you’ll move forward with and then which ones you’ll just keep on the back burner, or maybe someone else it could be a better fit for someone else. On that subject, let’s dive into marketing.
Speaker 1 (00:19:37) – So I know you have an amazing background in neuroscience. So how did and I believe you had a specific path in neuromarketing within your studies. So let’s talk about that. How do you use your education to expand and grow and really have this competitive edge in marketing? I think marketing right now is a very complex world. I used to joke that entrepreneurs would start a company. They put ten K a month into some type of Google or Meta ad, and it would just like work on its own. And now digital marketing, even especially within the past six months, has become so complex because of the competition, because of TikTok’s entrance, the algorithms are changing. There’s a number of other things that are happening, so let’s talk about marketing and neuroscience and how they came together.
Speaker 2 (00:20:22) – Yeah, no, it’s definitely such a different landscape now versus the DTC world in 2017, where you just put money in ads and let it run. You have to get so much more creative and scrappy now in terms of how that neuroscience plays a role in my marketing strategy, I think I can answer it in two ways.
Speaker 2 (00:20:40) – One is that, yeah, my background was in a really new field called neuromarketing. Where researchers are taking the same technologies from the medical world, and they’re applying these neuroscience tech into marketing decision making to understand consumer behavior. For example, it’s taking things like an fMRI or eye tracking to understand people’s emotional responses to different media cues. And I’ve operated with the learnings from those fMRI type neuroscience research in mind as I was developing Seadrop. And while I will say I don’t have the budget to go run a full medical study on the branding and the ads, I’ve been trying to take the insights from what I learned there on where. Just doing this, I was working in a the Wharton Neuroscience Research lab as an undergrad, you see, okay, this is where people’s eyes go to first when they’re on a website, or that there are certain colors that people respond to when it comes to calming them or associating something more nourishing and calming. Which is why we chose these greens and blues for Seadrop. So that was definitely a part of our marketing decision making.
Speaker 2 (00:21:44) – But then the second piece, the reason I feel like that neuroscience background has been really helpful in thinking through the product experience. It’s not just that studying science gave me the chemistry knowledge to work with the formulator and come up with a great formula, but it was also thinking through the mindfulness aspect of using your skincare products and of your daily routines that I’ve been now able to focus on with Seadrop my undergrad and get neuroscience. But I also ended up learning about how the neuroscience of mindfulness and meditation works. When I was an undergrad, I participated in this ten day long silent meditation retreat called Vipassana. I don’t know, have you heard of it? Have you know?
Speaker 1 (00:22:24) – But ten days of silence sounds delightful. That sounds so Zen.
Speaker 2 (00:22:27) – It’s Zen. But I will say it’s not fun because you can’t read. You can’t have your phone. You’re like.
Speaker 3 (00:22:31) – Bored.
Speaker 2 (00:22:32) – But you’re learning this really mindful meditation technique that what I really liked about it, it’s not a religious course, it’s actually free. And you pay what you wish at the end and it’s trusted by a lot of executives.
Speaker 2 (00:22:45) – So that was my rationale for picking this one. But they basically teach you this technique on observing sensations on your body. And it helps you not only regulate your emotions and the highs and lows of whatever’s going on in your life, but it teaches you this technique for mindfulness that you can use in every other part of your life. I remember not only experiencing it, I went for two of these, but then I also ended up writing a paper on it, on the like neuroscience behind consciousness and mindfulness. And I remembered seeing that there is really something to taking a minute in your routine, taking a step back and experiencing all of the sensations on your body. And when I was creating Seadrop, I really wanted to create something that gives you that time to take mindfulness a little bit of space, to be aware of what you’re doing and have that sensorial aspect to your routine. And that’s why when you see each of these tablets, each one is crushable and you have this moment of self-care where as you crush this tablet, it’s something really sensorial.
Speaker 2 (00:23:46) – It feels soft on your hands, very easy to crush, but it’s something that you feel a little bit differently than any other part of your routine. You would.
Speaker 3 (00:23:54) – Just take some.
Speaker 1 (00:23:55) – Water and apply it to your face.
Speaker 2 (00:23:57) – Yeah, and I can actually show you you just take a little bit of water, just like doing this on my desk, and it folds up into a face wash that’ll take off all of your makeup. But it’s just such a, like, sensorial experience, getting all the bubbles and everything that I wanted to bring that into this experience, because it shouldn’t just be limited to when you’re at a ten day long silent meditation retreat, it should be something you can incorporate into your daily routine.
Speaker 3 (00:24:21) – .
Speaker 1 (00:24:21) – And especially it’s like when you start your day, it’s like how you start your day is how your day is going to evolve and how you end your day is probably has a big effect on how you’re going to sleep. And are you calm and you’re relaxed. And especially for people that that do wear makeup, washing your skin at night is so important.
Speaker 1 (00:24:36) – Getting everything off and just having that time for you. It’s like whether you’re a 20 year old girl or you’re a mom of three kids, it is. You need those moments. So I love how you’ve incorporated that. That is really special. I love that, yes.
Speaker 3 (00:24:48) – Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:24:49) – And it’s also probably good for travel too. I always think of like when you have all your minis and then maybe especially when you go to Europe, right? There’s so much more strict in Europe than they are in the US of the number of liquids you can have. And by the time you have your sunscreen, your moisturizer cleanser, and you have a foundation and shampoos, conditioners could go on. But if you have these tablets, that’s going to really help you just travel in a more friendly experience.
Speaker 3 (00:25:12) – Which is I.
Speaker 2 (00:25:13) – Totally agree, this is the world’s most travel friendly skincare product because I had the same experience. I was had a lip gloss get confiscated for being over the liquid limit. I was like, this is ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (00:25:24) – This is barely a liquid. It’s, I don’t know, so thick. And yeah,, so the travel aspect of it is very real. I tested it myself, and I brought a two year supply of syrup with me in a carry on internationally, and it was totally fine. So definitely the travel aspect of it has been really. And we’re finding that a lot of people try Seadrop for travel first, but then they end up repeat purchasing because they just like how it feels on their skin, and it allows them to keep the same cadence of their routine when they travel by bringing the same product, instead of using a worse travel cleanser and a smaller bottle that you never know will. If it’ll run out halfway through your trip with the Seadrop tablets.
Speaker 3 (00:26:07) – .
Speaker 1 (00:26:07) – Amazing. So how are you finding your customers? How are you doing your marketing. How are you structuring everything.
Speaker 3 (00:26:11) – We’re in the.
Speaker 2 (00:26:12) – Earliest phases where we have a couple things in place. One is we’re working with influencers and creators who are excited about the product, actually meeting with them one on one to start getting the word out in that way.
Speaker 2 (00:26:24) – The second way is by running partnerships with brands that we align with, and trying to do really thoughtful collaborations with them in ways that we can introduce more consumers to the brand. A couple that we’ve done recently are with Monos. We gave away a suitcase and a Seadrop cleanser as part of a travel collaboration, and with Ronnie Loungewear, which is a sleepwear brand that we collaborated with on a nighttime routine giveaway. Another way that we’re planning on reaching out to more consumers is actually with more like, innovative ways of getting the word out via the press. For example, we were just on the national TV for the first time last week, which has been really great because we had news reporter actually talk about how she uses this to take her makeup off. She uses it for travel. And I think that kind of authentic storytelling from other people that are excited about the brand makes a huge difference. At the same time, we haven’t run any paid ads yet, but we’re about to start. And I think that just getting the word out with the right creative will be super, super important.
Speaker 2 (00:27:24) – And that can be not only amplifying the creators that we’re working with, but then also doing a lot of our own in-house content creation that we can now amplify with paid media.
Speaker 3 (00:27:34) – .
Speaker 1 (00:27:34) – It’s great. Amazing. I love it all. I think we are running out of time. So we only have one more question left. I know we could talk forever about skincare and entrepreneurship, so it’s been incredible. It’s our last and final question. It’s one of our favorites. It comes from a mel Robbins podcast and it is about where are you sitting in the stands in your life? And what it means is imagine you’re at maybe a football game or a basketball game and you’re yelling at the player or saying, why’d you run down the sidelines? Or why did you throw the ball to him? Or maybe you’re sitting in the theater and you’re wondering why the actor gave a monologue a certain way, or why the ballet dancer exited stage left versus stage right, or the outfit they selected and they can’t hear you. And maybe you’re yelling.
Speaker 1 (00:28:14) – Maybe you have thoughts in your head. Maybe you’re turning to your friend. And in many ways, that same mentality happens within our own lives where we’re sitting in the stands, we’re watching something we’re doing or we’re not doing, and maybe we’ll put a post-it note on our mirror saying, we’re going to do this by the end of the week. Maybe it’s in our iPhone notes, maybe it’s something it’s going to take five years to complete. Maybe it will, like you said, maybe it’s just a five minute task that you need to get done today. But is there any place in your life where you feel you’re sitting in the stands and you’re looking forward to diving on into the field and making it happen, as they say?
Speaker 2 (00:28:46) – I think that it’s interesting in that I often take a step back and I’m like, oh my God, what am I doing? It’s I feel like sometimes I’m looking at myself in the stands in kind of shock at how much progress has been made over a short period of time, and how all of a sudden this brand that I dreamt up, like truly in dreams, is now real.
Speaker 2 (00:29:04) – The thing that keeps me going and that keeps grounding me is being really mission driven. And really for me, I am just crazy passionate about this concept of waterless skincare, and I think the piece that keeps me going and that keeps me looking back, justifying the decisions that I’m making, is the passion for the mission to bring this to life and set this new standard for skincare.
Speaker 1 (00:29:25) – Amazing. I think waterless skincare is a place to be, especially with a sustainability impact. The travel and just everything that’s going on with the ingredients. I know we’ve all seen the benzoyl peroxide nose this week about acne cleansers, and that’s pretty scary because there’s a lot of ingredients or products that are affected by the ingredients. So I think it’s amazing what you’re doing. And in terms of bringing the ritual, bringing your heritage, starting a brand, waterless skincare sustainability. So you should be really proud, Serena, and thank you so much for sharing your story. And where can everyone find you and Seadrop Skincare?
Speaker 3 (00:29:58) – Yeah, you can find us.
Speaker 2 (00:29:59) – At Seadropskincare.com and you can follow us on Instagram at Seadrop Skincare. It’s been so lovely chatting with you, so thank you so much for having me on today. And if anyone has any questions about the product or wants to chat with me, you can also reach out to me directly anytime.
Speaker 1 (00:30:13) – Perfect. Thanks, Serena. Thanks so much for sharing your story and we’re excited to see Seadrop continue to expand and grow, and you’re doing amazing things. You should be very proud.
Speaker 2 (00:30:22) – Thank you so much.