An Integrity Revolution in Cosmetics By Molton Brown
As one of the worlds few remaining independent, privately owned cosmetics companies, Molton Brown is know to most as creators of quixotic bath, body and grooming luxuries.
You may have first encountered the brand in the intimacy of a luxury hotel room, but rather than spending its money on promoting itself aggressively, Molton Brown has spent the last 30 years quietly revolutionising the beauty industry.
Molton Brown is different: the deeper you dig the better it gets. Founded in 1973, the Molton Brown salon in South Molton Street, Mayfair opened with a policy to suit the cut to the face, rather than following fashion.
The duo went against the grain of the synthetic seventies, banning hairdryers and creating a range of plant based products when they failed to find quality natural formulas. The first Molton Brown products were handmade in the salon, using natural aromatherapy and plant based ingredients.
When Dale Daxon Bowers joined the team in 1978 she brought with her many years of experience as a research chemist in the beauty industry. This, coupled with a passionate desire to create a range of inner-directed, elemental products, secured her place within the unique set-up that was Molton Brown.
In the 1970s the cosmetics industry was dominated by male marketers. Marketing departments worked out how much women were prepared to pay and prices were determined long before the products were even formulated.
Labs designed products to minimise costs and maximise profits, using synthetics and animal testing and most of the investment was allocated to advertising, creating idealised, unattainable images of glamorous wonder women. Molton Brown decided to reject this and go a different way.
The result was a revolution in philosophy and practices which remain at the heart of Molton Brown: products created to meet a customer need, not formulated to suit a price point or a marketing objective; a constant search for new and better natural ingredients; safe science; no advertising or supermodels; no gimmicky packaging; no over claim for the products; no Third World manufacturing.
In the late 1980s, the ownership of Molton Brown passed to a new management team including ,b>Dale Daxon Bowers and
. The complete product range and South Molton Street Emporium were given a modern reinvention and the company successfully entered new markets including hotels and airlines.
Molton Brown has many firsts in its 30 year history: first in UK to list ingredients; first in UK to commit to never test on animals; first to talk about wellbeing; first to directly import Dead Sea Salts; first to make soap using vegetable oils; the first to bring Chinese ingredients to the mainstream; first to pioneer a non fragrance led approach to bathcare, instead opting for product effectiveness and inner therapeutic benefits.
Molton Brown strives to provide an honest alternative for customers, bucking industry trends by banning pseudo-science, bogus philosophy, superficiality and overclaim. Everything Molton Brown does is built around the products; the formulations are the company’s heroes.
Dale Daxon Bowers explains the company’s unique approach to marketing: “Rather than spending money on advertising we plough our profits into pioneering innovative formulas and services for our customers. We like to accompany them on their journey through life - appearing in places that they frequent, creating a slice of home away from home. Combined with a busy international on-line and by mail shopping service and a presence in many of the world’s finest lifestyle stores, our customers know that wherever they are, their treasured Molton Brown therapies can be found. There is somehow more value in building your reputation through this type of word of mouth recommendation.”
Molton Brown’s 30th anniversary year saw one of the company’s most concentrated periods of growth since it all began. With ten Emporiums across the UK with another ten set to open over the next year in the UK and in the Middle East; expansion in the USA continues apace; a new spa enterprise with a new range of professional treatment formulas; and a line of new generation healthy skin products already launched at retail.
For further information visit Molton Browm`s website: http://
www.moltonbrown.co.uk.
Related stories on Spas-Weekly:
(05/08/02) The Molton Brown Travel Spa at Heathrow Airport
New Age Traveller from Molton Brown
(25/09/03) The lotus flower awakens…a new dawn in spa evolution from Molton Brown
——-