This is an episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, which features candid conversations about how today’s trends are shaping the future of the beauty and wellness industries. More from the series →
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It’s no secret that natural deodorant gets a bad rap. Clean beauty consumers looking for brands that leave out ingredients such as aluminum have long complained of having trouble finding something that works.
These frustrations were what inspired Sarah Moret to found body-care brand Curie in 2018. Aluminum-free deodorant has come a long way since then, as Curie’s latest news shows: The brand launched into 4,300 Walmart locations nationwide on August 22.
On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Moret tells the story of the early days of the brand and the pivots she made along the way, including the introduction of hand sanitizer when deodorant buying fell off a cliff during the pandemic lockdowns. She also talked about her experience on the hit show “Shark Tank,” and why it was as good for exposure as it was for fundraising.
What the Walmart expansion means for Curie
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“The value of launching with a partner like Walmart is they are everywhere. And our customer base is super diverse; we have customers all over the country. So it’s [important to have] that huge footprint, especially for a product like deodorant. Most people use deodorant every day. So if you run out, you want that accessibility — and we wanted to give our customers that convenience of being able to shop Curie anytime, anywhere. That was one really attractive thing about Walmart. And then second, they are really investing in these emerging brands — these cleaner, more natural brands. They’ve been an incredible partner to work with, and they’re giving us a lot of support. They recognize that this is our first big retail launch, and they’re helping us through the process.”
On the pivot to hand sanitizer
”Going into 2020, we were just starting to gain momentum. In January or February, we signed our contract with SoulCycle. And later, in the spring, we were able to launch in all SoulCycle locker rooms with our deodorant spray. It was a really exciting time in the business. And then, boom, March 2020; the pandemic started, lockdown started, and people overnight just stopped buying deodorant. It was a very steep cliff. I don’t know if a lot of people are aware of that, but deodorant was one of those things that was really impacted. … It was terrifying. And I knew I had to take quick action in order to pivot and find another product that was going to fill that gap for us. Hand sanitizer was something we were already working on, so we were lucky in that we already had the manufacturer secured. I think we even had already approved our formula, at that point. We were planning to launch our hand sanitizer in October of that year. So I just got on the phone with our manufacturer and with the bottle manufacturers, and I was like, ‘How quickly can we get this made?’”
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On the marketing benefits of ‘Shark Tank‘
“It paid off for us. It really was a 10-minute commercial. And it’s helped us acquire customers — not only the day we aired, but also — ‘Shark Tank’ re-airs again and again, and again. We got a ‘Shark Tank’ update. ‘Shark Tank’ truly has been the gift that keeps on giving.”
