Tailor Skincare started when we took a deep dive into what truly goes into our skincare. We discovered that there are some particularly questionable skincare ingredients which find their way onto your skin, into your bloodstream and interacting with your hormones.
A chemical can end up in your skincare with little to no regulation or testing, and we know that's not acceptable.
We also believe in cruelty-free beauty, making animal testing a no-go (duh!). That might leave you wondering, how does Tailor test their ingredients and products to ensure they're safe for me to lather on? We've always believed in transparency, and this is no exception.
We thought the launch of our new gem Awaken was the perfect time to take you behind the scenes and teach you about our product development process. We’ll take you from start to finish, so you can rest assured the Tailor gems you use on a daily basis are safe and are exactly what they say they are!
How was Awaken created?
The creation of our latest gem, Awaken, started from you - our lovely customer!
Every time we asked what our customers were wanting in their skincare regime, an eye cream was always the most requested product. So, we knew we wanted to craft an eye cream for you, but we had to ensure we found the perfect cruelty-free, natural ingredients that are sure to make a difference.
Here at Tailor HQ, we’re obsessed with caffeine, but not just in coffee form. The results that caffeine can yield for your skin is just amazing!
Caffeine is a known vasoconstrictor, which means it restricts blood vessels and the flow of blood. By doing this, it can soothe your skin and help to reduce inflammation, puffiness, eye bags and redness.
It can even help the microcirculation of blood in the skin which in turn helps reduce discolouration under your eyes. Goodbye puffy under eyes!
Want to know more about this incredible skincare ingredient that you never knew you needed? Check out our blog about the Benefits of Caffeine In Skincare.
So, once we had our key ingredient, it was time to turn to the drawing table and see how we could package it into a beautiful gem for our #tailortribe.
Brainstorming
We had our idea - a caffeine based eye cream. But we didn’t want to stop there. We wanted to really make this a product you’d love and one that actually gives you results!
We brainstormed for other natural, vegan ingredients that would help brighten the eye area. The world is our oyster and there are so many exciting ingredients to use which can benefit the skin.
How do we choose? We asked you of course. What do you want to see from us? Which ingredients do you love? We also referred to our sources to discover the latest scientifically tested natural skincare innovations.
What are they you may ask?
We're members of the NZSCC a group of gurus who keep us in the loop with what's going on globally. We also keep up to date with the trends emerging from Cosmoprof and other leading edge industry events.
Based on their scientific validation, we chose key ingredients to formulate with. The tricky part is we know exactly how our ingredients benefits your skin BUT we aren't allowed to tell you exactly how they work.
Why? There's legislation that prevent us from sharing all the amazing benefits our active ingredients, as this enters medical product territory, which is governed by an entirely new set of rules.
Seems a bit backwards, right?! We value customer education and encourage you to learn all the amazing things about our ingredients we know but can't share - Paula's Choice Ingredients Dictionary is a great place to start.
Create our formula
Now we've got our idea, it's time to formulate our new eye cream! This is the super sciencey bit. We scope out the best supporting ingredients that help boost the benefits of our hero ingredient, Caffeine-Extract, most of which will have their own benefits for your skin too.
We love using natural lipids and oils in our moisturisers and balms, and we only choose the most gentle preservatives and surfactants. Yes, we did say preservatives - more on this when we get to challenge testing.
Introducing our second ingredient - Hyaluronic Acid. Another powerhouse ingredient that works fast to hydrate and plump the eye area. Known for actively drawing water into the skin, hyaluronic acid provides moisture to your delicate eye area, and over time, helps to minimise fine lines.
While the Caffiene-Extract and Hyaluronic Acid is working hard at revitalising the skin around the eye, we also incorporated an incredible ingredient that instantly brightened those poor, tired eyes - Golden Mica.
We sourced the mica responsibly via the responsible mica initiative. Our Golden Mica provides subtle shimmer to help reduce the appearance of dark circles. Ditch your concealer and disguise signs of a late-night with this naturally brightening eye cream.
For our Awaken gem, instead of using silicon, we use Milk Thistle Ester, a natural and nourishing alternative that enhances your skin’s protective barrier.
Research sustainable packaging options
We're not just passionate about your skin; we're fearlessly committed to the environment too. We want to be sure that our gems come in sustainable, clean packaging. Right down to the box they come in, which are printed with vegetable inks, so you can still pop them in your home compost.
Awaken comes in a tube made from 50% (PCR) plastic, sourced from milk bottles. Post-consumer resin (PCR) is an environmentally-friendly packaging option that many manufacturers are using in support of recycling programs, consumer demand, and to reduce their impact on landfills.
PCR plastics are the recycled materials from existing PET bottles and other plastics. An important consideration for our continued efforts of making sustainable packaging.
We opted for 50% (PCR) plastic simply because 100% is too rigid, so you can’t be squeezed out. Which would make it practically unusable.
Last but not least, an added treat for the delicate eye area - the Awaken eye cream is delivered through a unique ceramic tip that soothes, cools and depuffs upon application.
Test product stability
Once we have a sample of our new gem, Awaken - which we love in every way, shape and form, it's time to ensure it passes stability. We need to make sure that all of our products are shelf stable. Meaning they remain the same from the day we make them, to the day they are opened by you, right through to the their best before date.
If you didn't know, our products do expire. But believe us when we say, that's a good thing!
This is because our skincare is made with healthy natural ingredients. It's best to compare this to your supermarket shopping - every item in the fresh food isles are healthy + beneficial for you to eat, and they all have expiration dates (opposed to processed, packaged goods which can last forever!).
Skincare is the same; natural skincare does expire as it contains skin-nourishing ingredients to give you that goddess glow. So, when a product passes stability, we celebrate! If it fails, we go back to step two and reformulate to ensure the product will remain at its best for its entire life span.
Challenge testing
Challenge testing involves dosing up the product with high levels of yeast, mould and fungus. Gross and unsanitary, yes, but necessary! By doing this testing, we can ensure our product is safe and can withstand even the most warm and damp bathrooms.
This is where a preservative is key - we can't just put beautifully nutritious natural ingredients in a bottle, close the lid and hope for the best. Without a preservative, microbes will flourish and chances are, they aren't the good ones. All of our preservatives are safe and certified to be used in natural skincare.
Trial and test the gem
Up until this point, we've assumed that you're going to like this new gem, but we need to find out for sure. Enter: consumer testing.
This is when we invite a group of our family and friends to try the product and tell us (no holding back!) what they really think of it. We only want to create the products you want & love, so this feedback is crucial.
If the new product isn't loved by our Testers, it's back to the drawing board. BUT if they do, we're ready to launch. This is the exciting part!
Share with our #tailortribe
We launch our new gem and celebrate with you! What's the point in celebrating if it's not with friends, AMIRITE? But, before we send the product your way, we put on our photography hats. We're so proud of our new gem, right down to the packaging, so we want to capture it in all it's beauty. We grab the camera and the gem and snap away, so that we can then share with you guys and you can start celebrating with us!
You guys are the reason behind Tailor. We wouldn't be here without our #Tailortribe! We always like to give our tribe a little something extra when launching a new product, a bit of pizazz and some love. For the release of Awaken, we collaborated with two of our #WellingtonLocal friends to create an energising Wake Up kit. The kit included delicious Brazilian single-origin coffee beans from Mojo Coffee and a gorgeous hand-crafted Tajimi ceramic cup from Acme, paired with Tailor Awaken.
The crew at Tailor HQ got hands-on and lovingly packaged every single Wake Up Kit, getting them ready to ship 'em out to the tribe.
To those of you who got your hands on the Awaken PR Kit, we hope you managed to have a relaxing self care moment with the goodies inside! If you missed out this time around, make sure to keep an eye on our Instagram page for updates so you don’t miss your chance in the future!