Emotional connection — create a brand that has an emotional connection. It’s core to how you create a brand that women want.
Inan era where conscious consumerism is on the rise, the beauty industry is undergoing a significant transformation towards cruelty-free and ethical practices. This series aims to highlight and celebrate the brands and individuals who are at the forefront of this movement, showcasing their commitment to ethical sourcing, animal welfare, and sustainable production in the world of cosmetics. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Lorrie King, co-founder of Caire Beauty.
Lorrie King is co-founder of Caire Beauty, a skincare brand specifically designed to enhance skin health and skin cell generation for women over 40 experiencing menopause and hormone decline. Her brand goes beyond the typical beauty and skincare conversation to help women embrace the peri- to post-menopausal stages. As a beauty industry veteran, she was previously president of skincare start-up SiO Beauty, CMO at Boots US, and has provided strategic leadership in licensing translated celebrity brands, including Halle Berry, Celine Dion, and Elizabeth Taylor, into beauty powerhouses.
Thank you so much for joining us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?
I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur and in looking at my beauty career over the years, my co-founder Celeste Lee, and I were always taking note of the questions we were commonly asked. And one big one as we approached 40 was, “What is happening with my eyes? Why am I getting these bags?” There really wasn’t a product that addressed this particular issue, of what we now know is hormone decline, effectively.
Sheer curiosity led us to meetings with scientists and through that, we discovered that hormone decline is a key contributor to the deterioration of the skin’s fabric. So, we wanted to see if we could find pathways into the skin that are different because of the way we are formulating the product. Caire was really created to support women with maintaining the health and longevity of their skin as they age up.
Going back further, however, I have a master’s in business and focused on entrepreneurship. So, I’ve always been passionate about entrepreneurship as a pathway towards building something from scratch. When I graduated, I went into finance, but to help pay off student debt, I started working on the side at the Yves Saint Laurent beauty counter at Bloomingdale’s. That was my first introduction to skincare and where I learned what it was supposed to be doing for the skin. I started my beauty career with Elizabeth Arden and it just launched from there. It led me on this journey in realizing that women and men truly love beauty and are loyal to it when it’s the right product.
Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
When you work in an industry like the consumer product industry, you’re constantly innovating. There’s constant competition and there’s a momentum that happens in cycles two to three times per year, so it’s demanding. Coming from that background, I knew exactly what to expect as I entered into this new endeavor because I lived it and watched it.
So, I knew I needed to find balance between being a risk taker and being patient while also staying grounded. You have to believe in yourself and make sure you’re having some fun. Joy in my day was key for me. As an entrepreneur, you have to make sure you’re always taking care of yourself and those around you who need your care. So many of us run, run, run and then we run out of steam.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
- Curiosity — In terms of being observant. In marketing, which is where most of my career was in beauty, creating something from nothing that people will buy takes incredible curiosity and a good dose of imagination. It’s what led us to create Caire Beauty.
- Creativity — I’ve always considered myself to be creative whether it was in how I styled myself with unique accessories and colors, or prepared unique meals in the kitchen or created new beauty initiatives. Though I didn’t always see it, I knew I craved creative outlets. At one point I started a jewelry business called “To Bead or Not to Bead” because I needed a creative outlet during my Finance career. I think this has been instrumental in my pursuit of entrepreneurship.
- Discipline — Hard work and discipline were instilled in me by my parents. It’s just a part of who I am. I’m not a disciplinarian, but it’s the practice of discipline. And this is also discipline with self care too. For instance, I meditate every morning and I will no longer work a full weekend. I work to find time for myself, my husband, family and friends.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that might help people?
One of our core objectives is to expand our presence in retail. We’re in a number of small retailers, but we’re wanting to expand. But we need to make certain we have the right tools in place and that we’re prepared for this next step in our retail journey. So we applied to the SEED SPOT retail accelerator to get the foundation in place. The program has been valuable in getting us ready to work with distributors, focusing on our key actions needed to prepare for larger retailers and making wonderful connections.
As a small, women-of-color-owned business, successful fundraising and a strong focus on cash flow are key because it supports our future needs for innovation. Now that we’ve secured our patent on our moisturizer, we can push that patented approach into all of our formulations allowing us to deliver truly unique products to enhance skin’s health and vitality.
Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of our interview. What inspired you to embrace cruelty-free and ethical practices in the cosmetics industry, and how has this commitment shaped your brand’s philosophy?
Even when I was working for other beauty brands coming up in my career, I was working on innovations that were around clean and natural or more environmentally friendly, and that is just a part of something that I’ve leaned into. It opened my eyes to the full lifecycle of a product and how I can develop brands that can also support jobs, community, women, etc.
My co-founder Celeste and I have just always been environmentally conscious. And sustainability and ethical practices are really about who you are. When we first launched, we didn’t create new packaging. We went to a packaging supplier and bought odd lots of jars that were going to end up in the landfill. Then we purposely went to all glass, and in our jars and serums, the caps are aluminum coated, not plastic because they’re more recyclable. We don’t use any bubble wrap, and have opted for paper tape and tissue paper. It’s all been very conscious. We try to extract out all those things that are commonly added on in the industry, like coating on paper.
How do you ensure that your products meet both ethical standards and consumer expectations for quality and performance?
Our lab verifies that we are cruelty free, vegan and non GMO. We also have the Conscious Beauty Collective seal, which looks at all of the ingredients and production practices. We’re also nearly entirely natural, but to ensure consistency and stability, we use the cleanest preservative we can.
Can you share a challenge you faced while transitioning to or maintaining cruelty-free practices and how you overcame it?
Celeste and I have been in the beauty industry for a long time, so we were able to anticipate many of the challenges that might arise. We knew how to make sure things were cruelty free, there wasn’t a learning curve so to speak. There are challenges we have on a day-to-day basis, but nothing that has prevented us from maintaining our ethical practices.
In terms of building the business, there have been new challenges with navigating our retail presence and obtaining the certifications you need to get into certain retailers. There are also so many certifications a brand could pursue, but which is most valuable and which is going to help us with retailers going forward? But the SEED SPOT accelerator has helped us narrow the focus and prioritize which to pursue.
In your opinion, what are the biggest misconceptions about cruelty-free and ethical cosmetics, and how do you address these in your marketing and education efforts?
People believe natural is better, but natural isn’t stable. Natural can irritate. It creates allergies. It can be poisonous. They aren’t always amazing. For instance, certain vegetables have oxalates on them and that’s a poison that protects them. It’s their armor. There are certain vegetables that have more of this and it can cause severe skin irritation. So, there’s a big misconception that natural is good. There is a lot of great natural, but there’s also a lot of great chemically made or synthetic.
It’s a matter of it not being a forever chemical. The reason Celeste and I started Caire Beauty with the serum and mask was to give women something that was all-in-one and did not have any microplastics in it. There’s a hidden ingredient called polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and it’s in some of the biggest brands out there, and it’s like Saran wrapping your face.
It’s about how to ask the questions to make sure you’re consciously clean. So many beauty brands don’t deep dive on the ingredient level — it’s more about the feel. For example, PVA makes the product feel silkier on the skin yet has this hidden microplastic.
So it’s not about chemical avoidance, but not using forever chemicals and also knowing what the chemical does in the product and your skin.
Based on your research or experience, can you please share your “5 Things You Need to Create a Successful Cruelty-Free Brand”?
- A whitespace opportunity — not a “me too” product. Something that’s truly breakthrough.
- Emotional connection — create a brand that has an emotional connection. It’s core to how you create a brand that women want.
- Quality — quality of ingredients and packaging. Think about touch and visual appeal.
- Have an authentic voice — and treat your consumers and others with authenticity and genuine kindness. Be supportive. If they say a package didn’t arrive, trust them and send them another one.
- Have heart — show compassion for all of your stakeholders, from customers to employees to partners and vendors.
Looking ahead, how do you see the future of the beauty industry in terms of sustainability and ethical practices, and what role do you hope your brand will play in this evolution?
They’re getting more in tune with it. We still have a long way to go, but we’re making progress. And while the beauty industry continues to innovate — and it has to be done at every level from ingredients to packaging to shipping — it won’t happen if stockholders demand better margins year over year from the big cos. It’s up to entrepreneurially consciously aware founders to negotiate and advocate for sustainability.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
This company is about creating something that stands for women’s confidence, independence and their ability to do what they want to do and command that. The reason we’re called Caire is, the “I” in Caire is for the “individual” woman. The woman who is incredible, innovative, intriguing — all of those amazing “Is”.
That’s why my co-founder Celeste created “The Marvelous Mrs. Menopause” event — to help women understand what’s going on with them mentally and physically. So that they can take on this part of their lives and embrace aging up. We are again partnered with Let’s Talk Menopause at this year’s event and it’s created a groundswell and a place for women to talk about this important issue that’s not often talked about.
What is the best way for our readers to continue to follow your work online?
Connect with us at cairebeauty.com and follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/caire_beauty/).
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.
About the Interviewer: Wanda Malhotra is a wellness entrepreneur, lifestyle journalist, and the CEO of Crunchy Mama Box, a mission-driven platform promoting conscious living. CMB empowers individuals with educational resources and vetted products to help them make informed choices. Passionate about social causes like environmental preservation and animal welfare, Wanda writes about clean beauty, wellness, nutrition, social impact and sustainability, simplifying wellness with curated resources. Join Wanda and the Crunchy Mama Box community in embracing a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle at CrunchyMamaBox.com.
