Hey guys, welcome back to Skin Anarchy. Today's a very, very special episode. We are um hosting the CEO of a brand that I've been in love with for a very, very long time. I think I've spoken about them so many times on the podcast, as well as like in my own personal channels. And with the rise of barrier health now in the skincare space, it's really important to understand what brands have been around, already talking about this for many years. So without further ado, please welcome the CEO of First Aid Beauty, Catherine de Aragon. Welcome, Catherine. It's so honored to host you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to dive in, you know, to First Aid Beauty, but I I want to learn more about you, Catherine. Your career has been an amazing trajectory, you know, in the business world. And I would love to understand like what got you into the beauty business, just to understand, you know, what led you into the space?
SPEAKER_00Um, you know, I fell in love with the with the industry very young age. I'm from uh Canada, Montreal. And in Canada, like very young, we use skincare. It's kind of like taught by your mother. It's like kind of like another culture, and very young age, I was using a lot of skincare. And, you know, back in the days when in the US that was not exactly the case. So just got in love and just uh went to business school and ended up in beauty. And I think it's such an emotional and such an important industry, whether it's like protection of your skin, barrier, protection, SPF, you know, I think it's uh we're helping people taking care of their skin and looking good and feeling confident. So I've been in this industry for more than 20 years and I love it even more every day. So, you know, I'm glad I'm able to um help brand grow and having more uh people knowing those brands. So very glad to talk about first aid today.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, I'm excited. That's really interesting because I think first aid is such a unique brand to me, like as a consumer. It stands out so much because as I was saying in my intro, like you guys were always focused on barrier, you know, you're always focused on like what is truly healthy skin. And I think now, from what I'm noticing, the conversation is coming around again, you know, after like what, like two decades of like pushing a lot of actives, pushing out a lot of acids and overexfoliating. And so I really want to understand how do you feel about that? Because first they really stuck to their guns, you know, when it came to this is who we are. We believe in barrier science and we're not changing. So, I mean, I'd love for you to speak on that.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and the brand was founded in 2009, you know, so it's been a long time. And that's funny because we always been talking about sensitive skin, but not necessarily a lot about barrier, even though our main product, Ultra Repair Cream, that everybody knows, has like such a strong clinical claim of strengthened skin barrier in seven days. But we've I don't know why the brand was not really talking about this because I think barrier was not something like buzzy in the market. And we've always been talking about sensitive skin and formulated for sensitive skin. But now that it's a little bit more buzzy because of like recently people using like 12-step routine and overly using product that is damaging their barrier. There's a lot of brand that came in and said, Oh, we invented barrier repair, and now we're like the brand for barrier repair. But initially, I think first aid came first to be uh developing product that is helping strengthen your barrier. So now like you're gonna hear us more talking about that, but that's something that has been existing since 2009, and every formula we're using product to strengthen the barrier of the skin because that will make you better if you
have sensitive skin. So it's kind of like in the same, the same subject. And the goal, but it's not only strengthening your skin, but it's also feeling good about it. And that was kind of like the idea behind First Aid Beauty that Lily Gordon at that time was like, there's such a gap in the market because you have product that is helping solve your problem, but you're gonna buy it at the drugstore and it's gonna be like kind of boring to use, and you're not gonna be proud because the packaging will be ugly and the formula won't be kind of sensorial. So she developed something that will solve your problem, strengthen your barrier, be good for sensitive skin, but at the same time a very luxurious, very nice formulas and kind of nice packaging that you're proud to put on your beauty cabinet. So that's kind of like the idea behind first aid.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love that. You know, and I I it's important that what you mentioned that it started off as a sensitive skin brand, you know, that was who it's meant for. And I think when we think about the science, it's it's interesting how barrier health gets lumped now with sensitive skin because everyone thinks they have sensitive skin, you know, and so it's interesting time right now in skincare because we've let ourselves down this road, right? Where we've done all the peels, we've done all this stuff, and then now it's like every time you go through all of that, you still need that product that you can keep coming back to that's going to actually help your skin and let it heal and let it be normal. And I would love for you to speak on this from like the business side a little bit, if you don't mind, where we have an industry here that is flooded with trends. It's flooded with, you know, the new thing every day. There's a brand that pops up every day. And I would love to understand how do you stay resilient in a market that's ever evolving and it's always changing?
SPEAKER_00That's a very good point because it's very tempting to see, like, oh, those trends, and then some brands are going after that trend and will invent some product in like three months and launch to market. And then everybody's talking about this ingredient and like the other day it's another mask or another TikTok phenomenon. But I think we need to evaluate the science behind the trend, you know, and for Forsade Beauty, we don't develop product in three months. We develop product, it takes years to develop. So we we want to be careful about not launching something because it's a trend, but what is the need of the consumer? How can we help people fix their problem, have their sensitive skin? But yeah, it's tempting as like the young people in the team, they they want to be trendy, they want to be buzzy. But I think there's like a beauty of being behind like our DNA and not going after that trend, but going after the science. I think that for me, that's kind of like the north star for us and not going after that. However, it's good to listen the trends and listen like what the consumers are saying, what the community is saying. And that's very interesting that some of the product that let's say our KP body scrub, right, was really developed for helping your KP, your strabber skin. But there were some people using the product because they wanted to exfoliate before they get a tan. And so uh suntan, you know. So so then we start talking about, oh, you can use it for KP, but you can also use it before your tanning. So we're listening to the trend to give like more maybe additional usage to our product, but that we're not starting with the trend to develop the product, we're starting with the need in the market and the people needs in their skin. So that's kind of like we we treat trends um at first aid.
SPEAKER_01That's yeah, I like that. And I I really, really like that product, by the way. That's one of my favorite products, the KP body scrub. It's amazing. And you know, that's one of the biggest questions I had for you was because first aid has created products that are still they're the best
ones, like in the industry when you look at them. Like I know the ultra repair cream, for example, obsessed with it. I've been using it for years, can't find a dupe, you know what I mean? Like I can't find anything else that works like it. And I know I've promoted the KP scrub myself, like to my entire family. I'm like, this is the best one, you know.
SPEAKER_00This one, yes.
SPEAKER_01And so, you know, that's where I get so many questions because you guys are a brand that has grown over time, you've been around, but you still produce products that are just like they hit really hard and they don't like there's not much that can replace it. And so I guess from when you look at it from a scalability component of a brand, what do you think is really important for entrepreneurs to understand that are maybe entering the beauty space, you know, and they want to create a product that is going to outlast the test of time, that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00I think it's going like the brand idea and the DNA of the brand needs to stay true throughout the life of the brand. So for me, like whatever is your story, some people have a story with like they will use ingredients that you find in the ocean. Some people, it's something else. First AD, as I said, was to find something that would was problem solution, good for skin, and was kind of like a more luxurious experience than your product that you were finding in the drug initially in the drugstore. So that's our foundation. So we will never formulate, we will never launch something that is not based on the DNA. And we've tried, and and you know, a few years ago, we kind of like went off track and we launched product that was really not in that kind of problem solution Samsung skin, and and we decided to discontinue those products because you know they were not what the brand is about. Another thing that we we will never launch is that if we try to develop a product and we add formula and we test it and it's making people react, then we will we will decide not to launch it. So for the sensitive skin aspect is through to our DNA, and we will never launch something that is stripping people's skin. For example, retinol, right? So we were trying to find something with anti-aging and like one of the most popular ingredients, uh, retinol, is not really good for sensitive skin. So we spent like three years researching and we found like a very specific technology about encapsulated retinol with slower delivery, then it's less irritation, then it was really suited for sensitive skin. Another example are facial radiance fat, that's probably a third best product, and everybody knows. You know, exfoliation. When you think about exfoliation, you think about getting sensitive and it's stripping people. But we've did like we spent a lot of time developing this product. So we made it with two acids, glycolic and lactic, which is a gentler acid. So then this like combination is giving like real exfoliation, but without the irritation, like the mouse of the um exfoliator. So all this to say that when you try to develop a brand, very stay through to who you are, and the idea behind the brand needs to remain throughout.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Like finding like what are you really trying to do and just kind of stick to that and build around it.
SPEAKER_00And especially because now people, you know, are very savvy and they there's social media, there's you know, all the LLMs, and people are very informed about brands, product, ingredient, and they will research and they will tell you if it doesn't fit your brand. So you need to be very careful about you know where you go with your brand and how you evolve over time.
SPEAKER_01That's a really good point. I was trying to like also point out, even with like all the data now that we have access to, like if you go online right now and you look up what's really gonna help me, say you use tretinoin too much, you know, and you've destroyed your skin barrier, what's gonna help me? And then you look at, like, for example, first aids formulas, they're made for sensitive skin, but they're really made to help you out. Like, that's where I feel like the brand was made for sensitive skin, but even as it's evolved, it's made for people who are like, you know, maybe they don't have sensitive skin, but they're dealing with something, you know. So it's like having that ability to transition different like niche groups, like consumer groups, that's very rare to see in a brand, you know?
SPEAKER_00We like to think about our consumers as like different tribes. So we identify like a few tribes and we we spend a lot of time, you know, we're part of PNG now, we we have a lot of access to a lot of research. So we are doing a lot of research and Ross with some we sit with consumers for like hours and days, and then we just learn about them talking about brands and skincare in general and first aid beauty and specifically at the end. And so there's not like one consumer that's buying first aid, there's many tribes, and one of it is we call it like the simple girl, the person that just like wants simple product that works and is tired of the trend and is tired of going to social media and that the simple girl. And then we have some other tribes that is more like really trying to find a problem, and we have like many other tribes like that. That's how we try to adapt our messages, but we're not adapting our product, you know. We we stay true to our product and our science and our ingredients,
but we adapt our messages based on like the type of consumers that we think we are relevant for um in the market.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. No, it definitely shows, you know, I guess one of my big questions is also like being a bigger brand now, you know, that than you guys were back when you launched. I'm sure you've dealt a lot with people trying to duplicate or trying to recreate what first aid is. How do you think from a business angle, how do you deal with that as a larger company? And I mean, do you ignore it? Do you kind of learn from it? Like if they're trying to dupe you, or how does that work?
SPEAKER_00Being bigger and successful brings a lot of competition, right? People are trying to dupe you, and that's like a reality of any brand in the market that has some success, right? So most recently, I think we've had a lot of dupes, especially with Ultra Repair Cream and KP and the facial radiance pad, like kind of like our aero product, or a lot of dupes. But we don't ignore. We buy the product, we tried it, and we try to find why we have uh superiority claims. And every time we are superior versus the competition. And whether it's by the ingredient we use, the concentration we use, because it's more suited for sensitive skin because of the ingredient that we formulated, is it like the pads? Is it like the fabric that we use that is more gentle? Um, all of that makes it that our product is always uh superior, and then we try to educate our consumers about our superiority. So we're not trying to, you know, reduce our price or we always have like this accessibility price in mind because we want the majority of people to have access to our product. So accessibility is very important. But at the same time, you don't fall in the gap that you need to reduce your price if you have some dupes. We're very confident about our product. We spend a lot of time formulating, testing, and we know people consumer love it. So we just need to explain it why we're spare versus uh competitors.
SPEAKER_01I I like that. I've seen the dupes, but they're not the same. So for anyone who's yeah, they're really not like you can tell the quality difference immediately when you when you try both at the same time. And that's why I asked you because I think you guys do such a good job of that. It's like there's really not you can't reproduce first aid beauty, like you just can't do it, you know, it doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00It took time to formulate, and yeah, so uh I encourage people to look at dupe and like look at the concentration of the acid of any ingredient that is important for that product. Uh look at the concentration, look at like the combination of ingredients and look it up and try it if you want. But I know a lot of people that just come back to first aid just because it's really meet on its promise.
SPEAKER_01You know, I want to ask you because I know that when a brand gets acquired, you know, especially by a giant like PNG, you know, sometimes there are changes that come to the brands like or architecture on some level. I feel like first aid has done a really, really good job of staying the brand that we always saw it to be. What I mean, I would just like to hear your thoughts on this, you know, in terms of like, what is it that you have to stick to no matter who is like owning a bigger share of the brand at the end of the day?
SPEAKER_00I was not part of the acquisition. I came after the acquisition. But you know, like being part of a big group for um a brand like us, that's some pros and has some cons, right? So the pros is you have access to more resources, you have access to more research. The the research of development of Fructuring Gumble is outstanding. And you get access to so many, so many talent and resources. So that's really amazing. At the same time, you need to stick to some rules. But it's good for the consumer at the end of the day that we're more regulated. Like we've always been very rigorous about our science and our legal and testing, but now it's even more rigorous. So it we're becoming even more safe because of all of this PNG science that we have our research and development. So sometimes we're a little bit slower to launch some products. So at the end of the day, I think for the marketers, sometimes it can create some frustration because you cannot go as fast as you would love. But at the same time, for the consumers, I think for me, like when I buy something that I really care about, I'm looking for like sometimes brands that are owned by big companies because they are going through much more rigorous testing. That's something that people don't necessarily understand when they there's more like indie brand. And then it's, you know, sometimes could be in a, you know, it goes to market very fast. In three, four months, you have a new product coming out to life. But has it gone to all the testing? I'm not sure. You know, the US market is not that regulated. So I would say pros and cons, but at the end of the day, for the consumer, I think it's a plus.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, definitely. No, I mean, I think that the access, what you mentioned, is huge. You know, having access to better like scientists, all of the lab stuff, I can see that being a huge, huge asset. You know, I always wonder because people tend to demonize when brands become part of a bigger family. You know, like PG is such a big family of brands. I think a lot of times consumers maybe confuse that with like, oh, we're diluting the brand's value, but it's I don't believe that either. I'm the same way you are. Where it's like if I see a brand has access to all of these like wonderful things, like, you know, better science, more accessibility
to integrating the new and emerging research, like that makes me more confident as a consumer as well. So I think that's a really good point that you brought up.
SPEAKER_00But also, I think what makes uh first aid duty special, you know, it was uh born in Boston, and we still like today, I'm talking um to you from the Boston office, and we kept this kind of like heritage of like the initial team that built First Aid, and not like all of the team is there, but there's a lot of people that were there from the beginning to uh through acquisition and then became PNG um employees. And now I think we are still able to keep that kind of like genusicois and uniqueness to the brand because we kept those offices, we didn't move to Cincinnati, you know, where PNG headquarters is. So we keep some kind of like the culture of first aid. Um so I think that's very special, and that not all the brands that are integrated are like that, but I I feel like we kept or like we were saying you feel first aid is still like unique and didn't lose its DNA because I think that reason that we have this small team that you know kind of created first aid um in Boston, and that's very unique. I live in New York, but I travel back and forth to Boston because I think this is very unique for to first aid.
SPEAKER_01I love that. I love that you guys kept a small, tight-knit group, you know. That's really good to hear. That was one of my questions for you is like managing a team, you know, that is so multifaceted, you know, from a leadership standpoint. How is that, you know, because we don't really get to hear much about that from the leadership standpoint of like, you know, what does it really take to run a brand like this that's always growing? You guys are always introducing innovation into the space. What are some like, I guess, words of wisdom you can give us if any, you know, future leaders are in the audience, you know, any budding leaders in the audience for them to understand about leading a team?
SPEAKER_00I would say like agility, flexibility, adaptation, resilience are all qualities that are super important. I think also the strength of having people coming together is very important because we're born in Boston, we have people in Boston, now we have some people sitting in New York, we have some people sitting in Cincinnati. So we're not always together physically. But once in a while we come together in the same location, we spend some days together. I think this is very important, like the human interaction that we lost during COVID, and some brands like are still to this day remote and never together. But I really believe that, you know, even if you're flexible and you adapt and all of that and you collaborate, and I think there's a very benefit of spending time physically together and build some human interactions. So I really believe that's important that you need to keep the time for that in your busy schedule. And you know, we have always 10,000 things to do. But I think that time to spend the time together is very, very important.
SPEAKER_01That's great. That's really good to hear. I guess my question also lies in the sense of like you're in a market that's so overcrowded, you know, and now everybody is really catering to sensitive skin at this point. I know about 10 brands that are indie brands, you know, that are catering to sensitive skin. But then where do you integrate when it comes to the most new innovative things? You know, because I know there's always new research, there's always new ingredients coming out. Where is that trigger point for you guys where you say this is worth us looking into and putting our RD dollars towards this versus let's assume this is hype? Like, for example, I'll give you an example. Azulene is coming up now. You know, it's coming out of K Beauty, everyone's talking about the ingredient azulene, and it's like a C O X L O X dual pathway inhibitor. Anyone who understands inflammation, that's a huge inflammation blocker. So that's interesting, but at the same time, ingredients like that don't have a lot of data behind them. You know what I mean? Like they're new and they're buzzy and everybody's talking about them. As a brand, as the scale of you know, first aid, how do you make that decision of we're gonna get behind the science and we're gonna wait on this one?
SPEAKER_00We don't innovate by ingredient because something is buzzy. We innovate by what's the next problem to solve, you know? So that's very different. And then with that problem to solve, like what are the ingredients that we can use to solve that problem? So we start with the problem. For example, right now, uh we we hear a lot about uh weight loss, right? People are uh using a lot of GLP1 to lose weight, and that's creating some problem in the face, on the body. So then can we have those people come up with a product that would held that problem? And then we're gonna research what are the ingredients that we can use that would be safe for
sensitive skin, but that will fix that problem. Instead of just going with like, oh, this ingredient is very buzzy, let's do this, because that's gonna fade. And then like in a year and a half, it's gonna be a next one and a next one and the next one. So I think by starting with what problem to solve, then the problem will remain, right? In two years, even though the the buzz is is maybe um something, something else, the problem that we're trying to solve would remain for people. So I think that's a very different approach.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that is. No, that's that's a very understandable approach, you know, if you think about it. Like I think that's way better than following ingredients. For example, like going back to like the ultra repair cream, for example. I've used that product, I think, in like 15 different scenarios in my life, you know, like whether it's like I have sun sensitivity, I have retinoid sensitivity, whatever, you know, but it always works for me. So it's like literally proving your point, where it's like it was made to create a solution. And that solution is always going to be there, no matter what, you know, no matter what your skin is going through. But you know, I think one thing I do wonder about is with the way the industry changes, I'm sure. It's kind of like tricky, right? In terms of like, we're a big brand. We have to stay on top of like staying relevant, staying interesting for our consumers and also future consumers. How does that work for you guys? Because you're very focused on like, you know, sensitive skin, barrier science, like these are your try-and-choose. Like, where does that real innovation come in for you then? You know, we're gonna now expand our portfolio and we're gonna cater to like a new audience. Like, does that happen? Or I mean, how is that?
SPEAKER_00I think the uniqueness of First Aid Beauty also is that we solve problems for face and body, and we have authority in face as well as body. If you think about our product, so you have a lot of uh product for face, but you with key pee and uh this body franchise, we we have a lot of product for body. Also, with ultra repair cream, for example, it's a product that people use for face and body. As you said, like you might use it for uh after sun, or you can use it for just your face moisturized during winter, or you will use it for moisturizing your body. So it's very multi-use, and there's not a lot of brands that can claim that they are as good for face and body. So I think our universe of innovation is much wider because we are not thinking about like face issue, we're talking about like a people's body issue problem to solve. There's a lot of things that the beauty industry, like the fancy skincare brands, are not talking about, but we can fix, we can talk about it because we're first aid beauty. So that allows us to be a little bit more broad in our universe of innovation. So it's very interesting when we think about what's the next innovation because first of all, we test. So we have a lot of ideas and then we test them and what's relevant for the first day beauty and what's going to be the size of price and will be appealing to a lot of people. But our universe is so interesting that we can solve even things that people don't talk about.
SPEAKER_01I love that. I mean, you guys are doing a great job. So it definitely shows that you're you're definitely hitting all of the all of the points, you know. And I really love to see that. And I'm glad you brought up the body care thing. That was actually one of my questions because First Aid was for me one of the first great body care brands I ever discovered, you know, and I was so blown away because at that time nobody was talking about body care. I think right now it's definitely blowing up. I'm sure you've seen it where last two, three years, all about body care, you know, everyone's doing it, but you guys were like, you're like one of the only brands in the market when no one was talking about body care. How is that? Like, because even with your body care, the skews that are in the body category, they're very tried and true. They're not like every year you're coming out with a new body care. How does your team view that category of skincare, you know, in terms of like the innovation side?
SPEAKER_00There's a lot of buzzy body skews in the market right now, but a lot of them are fragrance-led, right? There's a lot of brands that are leading with their fragrance. And we we will never
lead by fragrance, right? We're not that brand. So we're there to help you fix some problem. So for body, like we were very strong in KP. KP is a very, very strong skew for us. And we have learned some very natural fragrances because we know people like the fragrance in body. But in terms of like what's next, you know, we have ingrow hair pads that are becoming such a strong skew because it's resolving ingrow hair that you have ingrow hair pretty much everywhere in your body that people are using it, men, women, so it's becoming very big. And then so we're now thinking, what's the next? So are we gonna be launching a like a shower gel? Probably not, because it's uh are we just like a body lotion that you can find everywhere? Probably not. Is it helping a problem? No, you know, we're thinking uh in the I'm not gonna reveal it, it's gonna be coming soon, but in the GLP one space where people have like a lot of saggy skin and just like aging skin, what product can we come and help people? So that's gonna be our next innovation next year in that body GLP1 to help people with the saggy skin. So I think that's a problem that people of every age and every gender have. And then so we're working on something that what's gonna really work and solve a problem that is probably on sexy, but um, not that the product exists to solve that problem.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that's I mean, that's awesome though. I I really like your approach and I like that you're you guys are sticking to it and you're not trying to be everything. I feel like a lot of times I've seen so many brands like just doing this podcast, like I I get to see so many different brands, and I always wondered myself as a consumer, I'm like, why are you guys you're really good at this one thing? Like, stick to it, hone in on it, build it. But you know, it's really cool to see a brand like First Aid grow to be the size you guys are and still stay so tried and true to your original messaging. It's really, really refreshing to see that. So I guess like just my final questions. Um, they're a little bit more on business and leadership side. As a strong leader in this industry, you know, I would love to get your opinion and your advice for anybody who wants to enter the beauty space in a way that's that's centered in this way, you know, that they want to help brands or, you know, they're interested, like any advice, any business advice or career advice you could offer in terms of like growing your career in the right way in the right trajectory to one day maybe lead a brand, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think for me, like as young talent try to enter the space, I would say, you know, go to do your studies, go to probably business school or something, communication or PR or something related to that. But then the young generation is already following influencers and social media, and they probably know that much more than what I knew when I was, you know, 20 years old. Uh, but I would say like my advice is if you get to that business and you you have that your first opportunity, um, I always tell my team, like, change job and do a lot of like if you want to go to marketing, do a lot of function in marketing. So do first year
in influencers and then go to PR, and then you can go to social media, and then you can you can go to brand marketing. And I think trying a lot of things like early on, like your first 10 years, I will say learn things that are outside of your like job. I think that's what's gonna make you a strong marketer or strong brand person, and and just be curious, try a lot of things, but also be curious outside of beauty and and see what other categories are going. And you know, it's a mix, right? You know, it's like product, it's about relevancy. So what culture, go out there, read, be curious. Um, there's so many things that uh will make you a better brand person, a better marketer, and just um just be humble that it's changing every day, that there's some years that's gonna be great, and you're gonna meet all your objectives. And there's some years that you know the industry will be a little bit tougher on you, and then you you'll need to be more resilient and learn to pivot and change your strategy. So I think it's a wonderful industry. It's changed like it. I think it changed like 25 times since I'm in this industry. And sometimes some makeup will be bigger, sometimes skincare will be bigger, but um, it's gonna come back, it's waves, and trends are coming and go. But I think being curious is like one of the most important things.
SPEAKER_01I love that. Well, thank you so much. That's I really appreciate your advice and for anyone listening. Um, I hope you know you guys found this useful. Make sure you scroll down in our show notes, check out first aid beauty. But thank you, Catherine, so much. This is such an honor to host you and learn from you.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much for having me.