October 13, 2025 • 28 mins
Picture this: You're at the top of your game at Australia's biggest beauty retailer, then you quit to bet everything on bodycare. Not once, but twice. Sounds like a risky move, right?
When two former beauty executives leave their dream jobs to launch a bodycare brand, the industry pays attention. When that first brand sells out in 72 hours, people take notice. But when they follow it up by launching a second brand that flies off supermarket shelves nationwide? That's when you know you're dealing with serial entrepreneurs who've cracked the code.
Camille and Georgie, the founders behind Bronte and SOMA, share their journey from corporate beauty to launching two successful Australian brands. They reveal what it takes to succeed in the competitive beauty market, the personal story behind the Bronte name (featuring Camille's 99-year-old Italian grandmother), and their honest takes on cult products versus overhyped launches.
PRODUCTS MENTIONED:
Bronte Fragrance-Free Body Cleanser $17
Bronte Sea Salt Body Cleanser $17
SOMA Body Wash $18
Cosmetics 27 Baume 27 Advanced Formula $213 - $281
Maison Francis Kurkdjian Baccarat Rouge 540 Eau de Parfum $300 - $911
Glow Recipe Dew Drops $62
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CREDITS:
Hosts: Kelly McCarren
Guest: Camille Peressini & Georgie Gilbert
Producer: Sophie Campbell
Audio Producer: Tegan Sadler
Hydralyte is Australia’s #1 Oral Rehydration Solution**No. 1 claim based on IQVIA SCAN Mat to 26th July 2025.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Makeup is my therapy.
obsessed and
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I don't
about it.
Hello and welcome to You Beauty, the daily podcast for
your face. I'm Kelly McCarron and welcome to the formula.
Today I'm chatting with Camille and Georgie, the duo behind
Bronte and Soma. Camille and Georgie, welcome to the formula.
You
Speaker 1 (00:34):
have such beautiful skin,
Speaker 2 (00:36):
but how?
What was it like because Mecca.
To a lot of Australian women in particular, is kind
of like a famous person. So just like if you worked, like,
I have a friend that worked for the Kardashians many
years ago, and everyone's like, What was it like? Tell
us everything. Tell us what it was like actually working
(00:58):
at Mecca. What don't people realize about the business? Oh,
I love, love Mecca. I think the business, I think
Joe Horgan is unbelievable. I got a really lucky period.
I was there over 6 years.
And so I joined in 2017, where it was still
very much like a big startup. But it was for,
(01:19):
before kind of the huge rise of Maxima and then
then merged Cosmetica and Maxima Tameka. And so it was
still very much like you could walk over and sit
on someone's desk and say, how are we gonna get
this project done, or how are we gonna land this initiative,
or you could kind of stand at the office and
sort of see everyone.
And it was very, as I say, like a startup.
Like we're all in it together. Everyone so believed in
(01:41):
bringing great customer experience and great brands, and Mecca and
Joe give you the authority to do that. There was
always a saying that do the wrong thing for the
right reason. So if it cost a bit more, but
the design was amazing, or if you could refund that
extra product because the customer, it felt so important to them,
you could really push and push more than previous places
I'd worked that was very like, here are our rules
(02:02):
and our policies and guidelines.
So I think as a business, that entrepreneurial mindset meant
that you could do anything you want. So I started
in retail operations. I then came and looked at a
project on services, then became the head of services. At
the time, they only had makeup, and so we launched
fragrant services and skincare services, and then all of the
wild things you see at George Street in the flagship.
(02:25):
And then what was flagship gonna look like and how
is that different? And then on to new concepts, which
was designing the Bourke Street.
Space and everything that was kind of atypical to product
on a shelf, and how do you push experience and
how do you make customers access some or allow them
to access something they can't easily, and it's all centralized
in this amazing mecca, which is a great word, obviously
for the brand.
(02:45):
So I think the ability for people to evolve in
the space is super fluid. If you're willing to work
hard and you've got an idea, there's total autonomy to
just give it a go. You can write a pitch
and you can come up with the commercials and say,
this is what I want to try, and I think
the business is so open to that.
So, I've always found as a, they've probably moved that
far because they've had great people working for them. But
(03:07):
believed in their stuff, believed in them and gave them
the space to figure it out, like, new concepts, or
head of new concepts. That's not a title that, you know,
you grow up and think, I'm gonna develop new customer experiences.
I'm gonna be the head of new concepts. I never
was like, I'm gonna podcast because they didn't exist. Yeah,
or are you gonna focus on retail experience and what
does that look like? It's, but it can all, you
could just evolve and grow as a person within the business.
(03:29):
And I think, yeah, it's brilliant. There's so many people
I know that have jumped from product development to marketing
over to ops. Like it's just totally fluid, and if
you're willing to work hard, they're so there to support you.
I think as well, there's so many brilliant women working together. Women,
when they are together under a roof, like, the best
jobs I've had.
(03:50):
Uh, yeah, a bunch of really smart, funny, savvy, collaborative,
wanting to work hard and just build beautiful friendships as well. It's, yeah, yeah,
and really care about what doing. That level of quality
always comes out because women have that attention to detail
and they, you know, that last bit matters. You don't
just go, Oh, that's near enough, good enough. to torture
(04:11):
yourself to get to as close to perfection as possible. Yeah. Yeah, that's,
it's women make everything so good.
So you both had front row seats at Mecca, watching
hundreds of beauty brands either make it or crash and burn.
What were the telltale signs that a brand was going
to be a hit or a bit of a flop?
(04:31):
Bit of a dud, if you will. A bit of
a dud. Well, fortunately, by the time they get to Mecca,
there has been a pretty, pretty extensive screening process. So
not many of the Mecca ones flop, but in saying that,
I think there's definitely, when you look consistently, I had
the privilege of working with at one stage, I think
it was 90 plus skincare brands, and lots of, you know,
(04:52):
your drunk elephants and glow recipes and
Pretty much the best skincare beauty brands in the world.
And definitely, I think there's a consistency around quality of
ingredients and products that perform and do something for your skin.
And customers have got so much more savage, I think
post COVID and understanding skincare and benefits and,
(05:12):
They expect a lot now from their beauty offer, and
I think a sensorial experience without necessarily a skincare promise
or beautiful packaging or a really credible brand story. All
the layers and all the kind of storytelling needs to
come together. It's not enough, I don't think, to have
one element. So we saw pretty consistently, and I think
Georgie would have seen it in lots of the brands
that you worked with in new concepts, that
(05:35):
It's a lot about the storytelling and the layers and
the reasons why behind things, and then the product obviously
itself has to perform and deliver if you expect a
customer to come back and part with their money a
second time and fall in love with your brand. So
it's everything, basically. Like a brand could be the best
product that's ever existed, but if it doesn't have everything else, well,
(05:56):
it's not gonna really make it and cut through in
the market. Yeah, I think you also need to
The why a brand was created. Like, what gap did
it fill or what customer pain did it solve? Particularly
like if you think around retail teams, they get so
much training on all the brands. And so how do
they remember when a customer comes in what to recommend?
So the story, all of those layers and strategy have
to be thought about, then how do you distill it
(06:16):
into like a two second sentence that you can't recall, like, oh, wow,
this brand's amazing. Exactly.
So let's go back to the beginning, you both had
incredible careers at Mecca. What made you want to walk
away from those dream jobs to start the brands?
Maybe we were crazy. I feel like every business owner
(06:36):
thinks that a lot. And we both loved Mecca. Like,
I truly adored my time there. If I was ever
to stay and work for a company, I think that
the role I had and the team and the environment
was perfect. Yeah, their staff retention is really good. Like
everyone I've ever met that works there has been there forever.
It's an amazing place to work. It's really, yeah. And
some of like, I initially came from an environment that
(06:58):
You worked incredibly hard, but you probably didn't form friendships,
whereas at Mecca, I think you equally met like-minded people.
They're incredibly creative and they problem solve. It's a big company,
but it's like a startup, as in, figure it out,
find a way. It's work hard and play hard. Exactly.
It's just sensational. So I think wanting to leave was
something we certainly took our time to consider and really
Thought about, and we would only have done it to
(07:18):
create a brand that we had felt had a real
cut through on it, again, a purpose. Like, no one
needs another beauty brand for the sake of it. Like,
what was the gap it was filling and what wasn't
in market already. And so we really challenged ourselves a
lot around that space. So the time you bought your
makeup and your beautiful fragrance and your, you know, amazing skincare,
You're kind of pretty much out of pocket. And so
then when it comes to body care, you end up
(07:40):
sort of back in pharmacy or supermarket for your body
washes or lotions or kind of big volume products. If
we got to experience some of the beautiful brands at Mecca,
we loved them. But, you know, it might be a
250 mL bottle for $40 and you see your husband
use it half, and you're like, no, no, we're like.
And then also, working really big careers at Mecca and
having little children, you have no time. So you're not
(08:01):
going to the spa, you're not taking care of yourself,
and you're certainly not putting yourself forward.
But really beautiful body care makes you feel amazing, so
we kind of put those elements together and went, well
how do we get this feeling of these beautiful brands
and experiences we get at Mecca.
But make it accessible for everybody every day, because it's
something that we loved and we got a snippet of,
but we wanted more. You know, we want to be
(08:22):
able to have a full 50 mL bottle or a
750 mL bottle, depending on the brand, and your whole
family can use it, and you know, it's clean and
safe and everyone enjoy that experience rather than going, Oh no,
that's mine, that's yours. Don't touch it. Yeah. Who used
it all. So yes, we felt body care was really
a space.
That felt underdeveloped and underconsidered, very much from an accessible
(08:43):
price point. And that beautiful packaging that still looks like
it's really expensive. Camille, the name Bronte has such a
beautiful story. It's connected to your great grandma. How important
was it to have that personal connection to your first brand?
You might make me cry. Um, I always get super
emotional when I, when we talk very close to my grandma, so.
(09:04):
OK, well, look, I'll try and keep it together, but no, we, um,
we spent so long ideating, and we had lots of
different name options and we were going back and forth
and back and forth, and we had some criteria, we
wanted something that,
Was quintessentially Australian, that really showcased the very best that
Australia has to offer, which we hope that the brand portrays,
and when you think around those layers and storytelling. We
(09:25):
wanted something meaningful to us. I think like you said,
we've left our careers, trying to inspire our kids and
hopefully leaving a legacy. Um, so we wanted something that
felt personal. And then it was actually Georgie. So, Georgie
knows how much myonda means to me. She's 99, an
Italian migrant.
She kind of moved to Australia with nothing, survived Second
World War, migrated here, and obviously started from scratch. And
(09:47):
the fact that she's still alive today, she's healthy, he's
living on her own at night. She's just incredible, and
she's so with it. She's so with it. She's got
so much personality. Like if any of us have ever
been stuck, we go to her, she's got all this
wisdom and she's just incredible. So Georgie knows how much
she means to me.
And so Georgia was like, Why don't we go with Bronte?
(10:07):
Bronte's Menonna was born in Italy, a tiny town at
the base of Mount Etna. And I've pulled my daughter,
whose first name is Mila, but her second name is Bronte.
It's a bit of an ode to Nonna. So Georgia
was like, That's perfect. And I think we just instantly
both went, That's it. You've obviously got the beautiful Bronte Beach.
It is quintessentially Australian. It's a short form name that
sounds as you.
(10:29):
Pronounce it. It sounds, we wanted something that wasn't tricky
and that, you know, wouldn't trip customers up. And then obviously, yes,
very grateful that we landed on that name because it
means from a legacy standpoint, and it must mean a
lot to your no. It does, it does. However, she
is so savvy. So obviously, we told her that we
were gonna name the brand Bronte, and she was thrilled.
(10:50):
Then we asked her to do a photo shoot.
And she said to me, which I haven't held up
my end of the bargain, so I'm in a bit
of trouble at the moment. But she said, I'll do
this photoshoot for you if you get married or baptize
your kids and you have to pick which one. Italian
Catholic Italian. That is classic Italian. That is incredible. Which
one did you decide on? Well, no, neither at this point.
(11:10):
Neither at this point, but I said to Georgie, I'd
be great, we could do another shoot with Nonna, and
then I said,
I think I'm gonna have to at least get married
or baptize the kids. But she was unbelievable, so we
shot her. I don't know if you've seen any of
the I I I didn't realize it was. It was actually.
So we took her down to Elwood Beach. Obviously, we'd
love to get her to Bronte, but that might be
a stretch. But she, for her age, she wanted no fuss. Like,
(11:31):
don't fuss over me. I'll stand here. Yeah, and we
had all different props and I had different styling.
Options. It was so funny. We had all different colored glasses,
but there was this massive pair of white Pradas. And
obviously being Italian, she was like, Prada's Pratt, like, just,
and she wouldn't take them off. Loved them. And so
the whole day we're like, OK, I'll just leave you
in there. Leave you in those. And we're like, the
day that we fabulous Bronte, we're gonna go back and
(11:52):
buy her the glasses. I think, yeah, she was unbelievable.
Just makes for such, and all our imagery in Bronte,
we want it to feel.
Nostalgic, the brand's designed for millennials, whether it's a shot of,
you know, uh, elderly gentleman at the beach, or really
fresh waves or none, that you look at our branding
and imagery and feel like it's got a connection to
you and your childhood or something you enjoyed that you
(12:13):
grew up with. So having her was super special. That
is so special. I might need to get married. Yeah.
Do it, do it for her.
I unfortunately waited till dementia had hit in to have
the baby that mine was so desperate for me to have,
but she was also desperate for me to get married,
and I did that while she was still of sound mind.
So I've got, I'm like really happy. I know. We
(12:38):
might need to do a rush wedding at the registry,
but mine was actually similar. My, we did 3 years
of IVF and tried incredibly hard to have a baby.
And then my, yeah, Nana was incred like very much
toward the end of her life, and sort of was
in and out of consciousness. But I told her when
I was like, I got my first positive test at
like 6 weeks, and I hadn't told my family, I
was waiting for Christmas. And it was like she just
(13:01):
had this amazing moment that she was totally lucid and
she just understood it and,
Knew it, um, and then when I got now I'm going.
And so she, she didn't tell my mom, and then
just before Christmas, she was like, How's Georgie feeling? And
my mom was like, So what, what are you talking about?
And she, again, kind of came back to and didn't
say anymore. And then I had my son and she
(13:21):
passed away two weeks later.
Oh my God. So did she get to meet him? No,
she was in a different state, but I got to, again,
she was so in and out of consciousness, but she
came to in the conversation when I got to say
I've had him and he's here, so she knew. Oh
my God, that is so special. Do you know how
nice it is to chat to people that love their
(13:42):
grandmas as much as me like we're all.
But how are really strong women in your life, and
that's what we wanted in the brand. There's so many
brands now that are designed for Gen Z's and they're
pastels and they're bright, and with Bronte, we just wanted
something that really spoke to millennials and felt authentic and
real and beautiful and that, yeah, you get to tell
(14:05):
all of these stories and have a real moment that,
because I think millennials so often, you know, we've gone
through careers and had children, we're at a point now
that we're like, what.
Like what, who are we and what are we doing
and all of those memories so much. And yeah, having
those moments where you have someone that you connect on
a childhood or a memory of a grandma, you're like, oh,
that's right, it was phone free and yeah.
(14:29):
So after the success of Bronte, you launched Soma, and
what made you think, we need another brand. Was it
always the plan to have the two? Oh, it definitely
wasn't the plan to have 2, but equally, I think,
from a strategy standpoint, where we'd landed with Bronte, we put,
I think being our first one, it was such a
labor of love, and we put so much time and
(14:51):
energy into all of the details and all of these
layers and storytelling and ingredients and packaging.
And it got more premium than I think we anticipated
in terms of the quality of componentry, the ingredients, the
active skincare. I think coming from Mecca and being in
that skincare role, I got a little bit personally kind
of fixated on products that do what they say they're
(15:14):
gonna do and found a passion within skincare for more
of your erm-led brands or your brands that had kind
of active ingredients and
I could tell we're going to do something and have
a benefit, and felt like you were getting value for
your money. And so I think as we developed Bronte
and Formula, we had so much to learn, and we
had quite onerous clauses leaving Mecca. So we did a
(15:34):
lot of desktop research. And then by the time we
got out into the market and were able to talk
to manufacturers and chemists and start the actual development, we
thought about it so much and wanted to develop this
beautiful brand. But it also meant that it probably wasn't.
As excessively priced as we had anticipated it would be.
We're still very passionate about accessible pricing and it's not,
(15:57):
it's not. It's, it's definitely not mecca prices, but we
actually then still felt like, hang on a second, we've
sold for, we've definitely sold for a gap and we're
giving a beautiful, efficacious product at a reasonable price. But
it's still left this space for grocery, and I think
Georgie articulates it the best, but just this wanting more
from the grocery offer.
Yeah. So I think with, initially our idea started around grocery,
(16:20):
cause as I said, we would work at Mecca, have
all these beautiful products, but then, you know, we'd be
realistically shopping at 9 at night before the world of
Click and Collect with our kids and like, what do
we need and what's available, and you're looking at like
this tiny selection, and it just felt like nothing was
kind of hit the mark. It felt, you know, very
maintenance Monday daily essentials, and we had that crave to
want more. So that's where the idea started. But as
(16:42):
Camille said,
We, we do love a premium experience and sense, we
got incredibly, I think we were so passionate about the
poor and the lather and all of these elements that
our chemist, I think, was ready to shoot us because
on top of it, we were like, and we want
it to be clean, and we meet credo clean beauty standards.
And so all of those elements made,
Grocery a bit trickier. But as Camille said, we were
(17:03):
learning so much. And so, in getting Bronte to its
beautiful place, we found this very interesting space and trend
we think happening in beauty. There's prestige, and then there's grocery.
But actually a lot of
people like, what is in the middle? You know, what
if I want more, but I can't quite get to there, like,
what does that look like? And so there's interesting offers
from a retail perspective, like Atomica and I see a
(17:26):
door and change Atomica. I went to the Melbourne store
and I was like,
This is everything that is missing in the market, like
in store, retail. And great brands like Ordinary, and then
you've got like LaRoche, but then you've got, you know,
interesting Australian founded brands. And so we were like, actually,
it makes a lot of sense if we want Bronte
to be accessible, if it's the fatigued mom millennial, she's
(17:49):
probably gonna grab it at 9 at night, Priceline, Atomico,
wherever it might be open, or does she want a
prestige experience in a department store. And so we're like, actually,
there's this interesting landscape for Bronte.
But there was still a gap in grocery. And so
when the opportunity came to co-create with Woolworths, it wasn't,
we certainly didn't have the capacity. We didn't have a team,
(18:09):
but we couldn't say no. Like we were like, Oh,
we definitely feel passionate. We've certainly thought about this space.
We've done all the strategic. You know the customers there.
We know the customers there, but yeah, how do we
do a version that commercially can work? And so once
we kind of had unlocked that piece, which obviously volume helps.
It meant that we just sort of ran it both
as quickly as we could. So year one, obviously, we
(18:31):
have So and Woolworths, and by the end of the year,
Bronte will have found its home in a few retailers. Oh,
that's so exciting. Just a product of not being able
to say no. Yeah. Bronte is positioned as bringing skincare
level actives to body care.
While Soma focuses on that luxury fragrance experience at supermarket prices,
(18:52):
so how do you differentiate between your two brands without
cannibalizing each other? Yeah, I think it comes back to
exactly that. There's different trends in market and different customers
that have different kind of likes, demands, wants, expectations, and
I think
Both, fortunately for us, skincare and skinification, so skinification tends
(19:13):
to mean, yeah, taking skincare ingredients and applying them to
other categories and other products that they weren't necessarily in before.
So if you think about hair care, there's been this
skinification of hair care, scalp care, people taking skincare actives
and putting them in hair care now. And it's not
dissimilar to body. People expect
More from their products. Um, but then equally, there's this
(19:35):
trend around fragrance, and fragrance is having such a moment.
And I think fragrance at all levels, people buying into
super prestige offers and wanting to spend or being comfortable
enough to spend the, the $540 for their baccarat, and,
you know, savoring this moment and saving up and buying
into luxury perfumes. But that trend has flown all the way.
Through now into supermarkets where people saying, Hey, I actually
(19:57):
really love a fragranced experience, and fragrance isn't taboo. And
if you work really hard to make clean fragrances that
don't have phthalates in them and nitro masks, and if
you can kind of clean up the process, which I
think fragrance had come under a little bit of scrutiny
for a time there around what was in fragrance, and
still is in some fragrances, and there's some hormone disruptors
and things that
If you're not particularly knowledgeable in space, you might end
(20:19):
up picking up. But I think people are a lot
more receptive at the moment to fragrance and all sorts
of fragrance. And so fragrances though. No one wants to
go into supermarkets. No, the lemon myrtles are cheaper people
tell me that they don't like lavender, I'm like, it's
because you've smelt like the budget lavender. I love lavender.
(20:39):
When lavender is done well, watch, watch this space because
we would love to do lavender well that's um but
I think that's the biggest difference. It's, yeah, Saa is
this beautiful, fragranced experience. It's accessible, it's easy. It's not
promising the world in terms of skincare actives and that
(21:00):
it's gonna transform you.
Skin, it's super hydrating. It's got some niceinamide in it.
It's got aloe. It does have beautiful ingredients, but really
the experience is about the packaging, the aesthetic, the elevation
of your bathrooms, and then the sensorial experience of the product.
Whereas Bronte will, and even more so when we look
at the NPD that we've got coming, help you treat
(21:21):
different concerns, change.
You know, the feel or the color or the texture
of your skin through either tools or ingredients, which we love,
especially coming into summer. Yes. So hopefully, yeah, customers can
see the difference. And actually, I think as well, retail strategy,
they won't be sitting side by side, and we've hopefully
(21:41):
found them both at homes that really make sense for
where the customer's shopping. Different customer needs a different brand.
I've got a juicy question for you. As Mecca insiders,
what are the cult products customers ask for all the
time that are genuinely worth the hype, and what are
(22:03):
some overhyped products that make you go oh.
Well, I, I can, I'll take 2. I've got, so
there's this one brand that is a little known French brand,
a love brand of so many of the Mecca team members,
and it punches, I think, well above its weight in
terms of sales versus probably the brand awareness. The brand
(22:24):
is Cosmetics 27, and the founder is an incredible French woman,
her name's Michelle.
Uh, she actually worked at L'Oreal at one point in time,
and she's a chemist and had an injury and then
went and couldn't kind of heal her skin from a,
a skiing injury. And so she developed a product with, um,
particular ingredients that are well known for the healing properties.
(22:46):
And then she created this product called Balm 27. And
it is this decadent, beautiful moisturizer straight to Mecca to
for your face, but obviously you could use it on
your body, but it's an incredible, quite a rich.
Thick moisturizer.
And it is divine. And once you use it, unfortunately,
you will probably not be able to not use it. Uh,
(23:09):
she's since gone on and created, there's a rich cream
and an everyday. Um, and the product is incredible. So
that is the one that if you haven't bought Balm
27 from Cosmetics 27, you absolutely should. It is worth
the money. I think it's about.
220 2. It hurts greatly and we certainly, as we said,
(23:32):
all of our time and energy and funds are going
to our businesses. We do not have the cash, but
that's the one thing that when you go without it
for long enough, you're like, I just, I need it.
My partner's 9 years older than me and partner, because
I haven't got married yet. But, um, he, no, no pressure, Sean,
but he used Balm and used it every day.
And then, what does he think? Well, I know, well like, well,
(23:54):
this is when I had my discount. And then when
I finished, I was like, well, we're starting a business,
you can't have your balm anymore. And so he stopped
and it was so funny because we had photo in
my phone of when he was using his balm all
the time, and then when he'd stopped, and there's a,
a beautiful girlfriend, or now girlfriend, but she used to
work for me at Mecca Jordan, and she's obsessed with
Cosmetics 27.
And I sent her the photos. I was like, Sean
(24:15):
with balm, Sean without balm. And we're like, Well, I'm sorry, Sean,
you just need to get your balm back. Yeah, sorry.
You're looking old as food. You're you're looking a bit old.
So he's got his balm back, and it genuinely, his
skin looks a million times better. He doesn't have botox
or fillers, and he's not that way inclined as a male.
Him and his choices, but he loves bum. And it works.
(24:37):
And then the overhyped, I would say, is your al
de Janeiro sprays. Oh, unless you're 10. Like overhyped, they
don't last very long. The ingredients behind them, I just
think people can do better from a fragrance standpoint. Yes, actually,
I completely agree with that. That's a good one.
Did I steal your thunder with balm? I thought this
Thunder with balm, but I also think of moisturizer. Yes,
(24:59):
there's lots of serums and gels and whatever it might be,
but actually, if you just put on a great moisturizer,
you feel it's a bit like why we started with
the essential ras with Bronte, a really great shower and
a really great lotion goes a long way to making
you feel enormously better. So I have to see these, like,
Shaun should be their promo. Yeah, basically. Yeah. So my pics,
(25:20):
I mean, I love and adore.
Mecca's fragrance offer, love, dip teak. Oh, the fragrances, uh,
and the knowledge of the staff that work in. I've
walked in there and like told them my preferences before
and they've just gone, Oh, you'll love this. And they
just so good. They nail it every time. Yeah. I,
I also think with fragrance, I mean, skincare and if
you're going in for skincare or makeup, it's kind of
(25:41):
got to perform or do something. So you're trying to
also figure out what do you like, what's it got
to do, whereas fragrance, you know if you love it
or not. You take, there is no rules. Just smell
it and enjoy it.
So, anything dip teak, obviously home and candles, but I
am probably quite biased to the Barrado scents. I love
a smokyudie. They have some really, really great scents in Barrato.
(26:02):
All right, looking ahead, what's next? Very excited for Bronte's
summer campaign. So I think with Body Care, we always
said it had to be on a shelf.
Because to feel it, we've worked so hard on the scents.
I think our Bronte sea salt is like second to none.
I just, every brand in every scent category, I just
love and adore that scent. So, to be on a shelf,
(26:24):
we feel passionate about testers and sampling, but we have
some really fun summer campaign ideas cause obviously the brand
so leans into that. We wanted to bottle the Australian lifestyle.
And again, very nostalgic millennial. So, I grew up in Queensland,
surf life saving culture.
So very, very excited for Bronte to have its home,
but then we activate it in the way that we
(26:45):
had always imagined. If you want to take SoMa. We've
been working on lots with Soma. We obviously had this
incredible opportunity to partner with Woolworths and create something that
we knew the customer wanted, but you're equally a little
bit constrained with Woolworths. You work on a range review window.
It's every 12 months the range review opens up, and
we were so grateful for the opportunity to arrange the
(27:06):
body wash. But we'd always envisage.
more. So when you think around aesthetic led or design-led products,
scent experiences, it obviously lends itself to many more products
outside of just a body wash. So there is lots,
and we actually were fortunate enough to be up here
talking to, um, the category manager and our buyer at
Woolworths yesterday, presenting a lot of newness to him. And
(27:29):
he left smiling and excited. So I think we, we
might have hit the nail on the head with a
few of the, hopefully all of them, but at least,
at least a few of the things that we showed him.
So watch this space. Hopefully everyone can have a lot
more so in their lives probably about 6 months' time. Well,
thank you both so much for joining us today. It
has been so lovely. We've gone on many different before
(27:59):
and afters and the balm, but I've really enjoyed it
and I know that the Uies will too, so thank
you so much. Thank you for having us. Thanks for
having us.
Thank you so much to Camille and Georgie, that was
just such a good chat. If you want to try
their products, you can have a look at Bronte online,
although it will be coming to stores soon, and Soma
can be found at Woolies. We'll see you next week, bye.
Makeup is my therapy.
obsessed and
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I don't
about it.
Hello and welcome to You Beauty, the daily podcast for
your face. I'm Kelly McCarron and welcome to the formula.
Today I'm chatting with Camille and Georgie, the duo behind
Bronte and Soma. Camille and Georgie, welcome to the formula.
You
Speaker 1 (00:34):
have such beautiful skin,
Speaker 2 (00:36):
but how?
What was it like because Mecca.
To a lot of Australian women in particular, is kind
of like a famous person. So just like if you worked, like,
I have a friend that worked for the Kardashians many
years ago, and everyone's like, What was it like? Tell
us everything. Tell us what it was like actually working
(00:58):
at Mecca. What don't people realize about the business? Oh,
I love, love Mecca. I think the business, I think
Joe Horgan is unbelievable. I got a really lucky period.
I was there over 6 years.
And so I joined in 2017, where it was still
very much like a big startup. But it was for,
(01:19):
before kind of the huge rise of Maxima and then
then merged Cosmetica and Maxima Tameka. And so it was
still very much like you could walk over and sit
on someone's desk and say, how are we gonna get
this project done, or how are we gonna land this initiative,
or you could kind of stand at the office and
sort of see everyone.
And it was very, as I say, like a startup.
Like we're all in it together. Everyone so believed in
(01:41):
bringing great customer experience and great brands, and Mecca and
Joe give you the authority to do that. There was
always a saying that do the wrong thing for the
right reason. So if it cost a bit more, but
the design was amazing, or if you could refund that
extra product because the customer, it felt so important to them,
you could really push and push more than previous places
I'd worked that was very like, here are our rules
(02:02):
and our policies and guidelines.
So I think as a business, that entrepreneurial mindset meant
that you could do anything you want. So I started
in retail operations. I then came and looked at a
project on services, then became the head of services. At
the time, they only had makeup, and so we launched
fragrant services and skincare services, and then all of the
wild things you see at George Street in the flagship.
(02:25):
And then what was flagship gonna look like and how
is that different? And then on to new concepts, which
was designing the Bourke Street.
Space and everything that was kind of atypical to product
on a shelf, and how do you push experience and
how do you make customers access some or allow them
to access something they can't easily, and it's all centralized
in this amazing mecca, which is a great word, obviously
for the brand.
(02:45):
So I think the ability for people to evolve in
the space is super fluid. If you're willing to work
hard and you've got an idea, there's total autonomy to
just give it a go. You can write a pitch
and you can come up with the commercials and say,
this is what I want to try, and I think
the business is so open to that.
So, I've always found as a, they've probably moved that
far because they've had great people working for them. But
(03:07):
believed in their stuff, believed in them and gave them
the space to figure it out, like, new concepts, or
head of new concepts. That's not a title that, you know,
you grow up and think, I'm gonna develop new customer experiences.
I'm gonna be the head of new concepts. I never
was like, I'm gonna podcast because they didn't exist. Yeah,
or are you gonna focus on retail experience and what
does that look like? It's, but it can all, you
could just evolve and grow as a person within the business.
(03:29):
And I think, yeah, it's brilliant. There's so many people
I know that have jumped from product development to marketing
over to ops. Like it's just totally fluid, and if
you're willing to work hard, they're so there to support you.
I think as well, there's so many brilliant women working together. Women,
when they are together under a roof, like, the best
jobs I've had.
(03:50):
Uh, yeah, a bunch of really smart, funny, savvy, collaborative,
wanting to work hard and just build beautiful friendships as well. It's, yeah, yeah,
and really care about what doing. That level of quality
always comes out because women have that attention to detail
and they, you know, that last bit matters. You don't
just go, Oh, that's near enough, good enough. to torture
(04:11):
yourself to get to as close to perfection as possible. Yeah. Yeah, that's,
it's women make everything so good.
So you both had front row seats at Mecca, watching
hundreds of beauty brands either make it or crash and burn.
What were the telltale signs that a brand was going
to be a hit or a bit of a flop?
(04:31):
Bit of a dud, if you will. A bit of
a dud. Well, fortunately, by the time they get to Mecca,
there has been a pretty, pretty extensive screening process. So
not many of the Mecca ones flop, but in saying that,
I think there's definitely, when you look consistently, I had
the privilege of working with at one stage, I think
it was 90 plus skincare brands, and lots of, you know,
(04:52):
your drunk elephants and glow recipes and
Pretty much the best skincare beauty brands in the world.
And definitely, I think there's a consistency around quality of
ingredients and products that perform and do something for your skin.
And customers have got so much more savage, I think
post COVID and understanding skincare and benefits and,
(05:12):
They expect a lot now from their beauty offer, and
I think a sensorial experience without necessarily a skincare promise
or beautiful packaging or a really credible brand story. All
the layers and all the kind of storytelling needs to
come together. It's not enough, I don't think, to have
one element. So we saw pretty consistently, and I think
Georgie would have seen it in lots of the brands
that you worked with in new concepts, that
(05:35):
It's a lot about the storytelling and the layers and
the reasons why behind things, and then the product obviously
itself has to perform and deliver if you expect a
customer to come back and part with their money a
second time and fall in love with your brand. So
it's everything, basically. Like a brand could be the best
product that's ever existed, but if it doesn't have everything else, well,
(05:56):
it's not gonna really make it and cut through in
the market. Yeah, I think you also need to
The why a brand was created. Like, what gap did
it fill or what customer pain did it solve? Particularly
like if you think around retail teams, they get so
much training on all the brands. And so how do
they remember when a customer comes in what to recommend?
So the story, all of those layers and strategy have
to be thought about, then how do you distill it
(06:16):
into like a two second sentence that you can't recall, like, oh, wow,
this brand's amazing. Exactly.
So let's go back to the beginning, you both had
incredible careers at Mecca. What made you want to walk
away from those dream jobs to start the brands?
Maybe we were crazy. I feel like every business owner
(06:36):
thinks that a lot. And we both loved Mecca. Like,
I truly adored my time there. If I was ever
to stay and work for a company, I think that
the role I had and the team and the environment
was perfect. Yeah, their staff retention is really good. Like
everyone I've ever met that works there has been there forever.
It's an amazing place to work. It's really, yeah. And
some of like, I initially came from an environment that
(06:58):
You worked incredibly hard, but you probably didn't form friendships,
whereas at Mecca, I think you equally met like-minded people.
They're incredibly creative and they problem solve. It's a big company,
but it's like a startup, as in, figure it out,
find a way. It's work hard and play hard. Exactly.
It's just sensational. So I think wanting to leave was
something we certainly took our time to consider and really
Thought about, and we would only have done it to
(07:18):
create a brand that we had felt had a real
cut through on it, again, a purpose. Like, no one
needs another beauty brand for the sake of it. Like,
what was the gap it was filling and what wasn't
in market already. And so we really challenged ourselves a
lot around that space. So the time you bought your
makeup and your beautiful fragrance and your, you know, amazing skincare,
You're kind of pretty much out of pocket. And so
then when it comes to body care, you end up
(07:40):
sort of back in pharmacy or supermarket for your body
washes or lotions or kind of big volume products. If
we got to experience some of the beautiful brands at Mecca,
we loved them. But, you know, it might be a
250 mL bottle for $40 and you see your husband
use it half, and you're like, no, no, we're like.
And then also, working really big careers at Mecca and
having little children, you have no time. So you're not
(08:01):
going to the spa, you're not taking care of yourself,
and you're certainly not putting yourself forward.
But really beautiful body care makes you feel amazing, so
we kind of put those elements together and went, well
how do we get this feeling of these beautiful brands
and experiences we get at Mecca.
But make it accessible for everybody every day, because it's
something that we loved and we got a snippet of,
but we wanted more. You know, we want to be
(08:22):
able to have a full 50 mL bottle or a
750 mL bottle, depending on the brand, and your whole
family can use it, and you know, it's clean and
safe and everyone enjoy that experience rather than going, Oh no,
that's mine, that's yours. Don't touch it. Yeah. Who used
it all. So yes, we felt body care was really
a space.
That felt underdeveloped and underconsidered, very much from an accessible
(08:43):
price point. And that beautiful packaging that still looks like
it's really expensive. Camille, the name Bronte has such a
beautiful story. It's connected to your great grandma. How important
was it to have that personal connection to your first brand?
You might make me cry. Um, I always get super
emotional when I, when we talk very close to my grandma, so.
(09:04):
OK, well, look, I'll try and keep it together, but no, we, um,
we spent so long ideating, and we had lots of
different name options and we were going back and forth
and back and forth, and we had some criteria, we
wanted something that,
Was quintessentially Australian, that really showcased the very best that
Australia has to offer, which we hope that the brand portrays,
and when you think around those layers and storytelling. We
(09:25):
wanted something meaningful to us. I think like you said,
we've left our careers, trying to inspire our kids and
hopefully leaving a legacy. Um, so we wanted something that
felt personal. And then it was actually Georgie. So, Georgie
knows how much myonda means to me. She's 99, an
Italian migrant.
She kind of moved to Australia with nothing, survived Second
World War, migrated here, and obviously started from scratch. And
(09:47):
the fact that she's still alive today, she's healthy, he's
living on her own at night. She's just incredible, and
she's so with it. She's so with it. She's got
so much personality. Like if any of us have ever
been stuck, we go to her, she's got all this
wisdom and she's just incredible. So Georgie knows how much
she means to me.
And so Georgia was like, Why don't we go with Bronte?
(10:07):
Bronte's Menonna was born in Italy, a tiny town at
the base of Mount Etna. And I've pulled my daughter,
whose first name is Mila, but her second name is Bronte.
It's a bit of an ode to Nonna. So Georgia
was like, That's perfect. And I think we just instantly
both went, That's it. You've obviously got the beautiful Bronte Beach.
It is quintessentially Australian. It's a short form name that
sounds as you.
(10:29):
Pronounce it. It sounds, we wanted something that wasn't tricky
and that, you know, wouldn't trip customers up. And then obviously, yes,
very grateful that we landed on that name because it
means from a legacy standpoint, and it must mean a
lot to your no. It does, it does. However, she
is so savvy. So obviously, we told her that we
were gonna name the brand Bronte, and she was thrilled.
(10:50):
Then we asked her to do a photo shoot.
And she said to me, which I haven't held up
my end of the bargain, so I'm in a bit
of trouble at the moment. But she said, I'll do
this photoshoot for you if you get married or baptize
your kids and you have to pick which one. Italian
Catholic Italian. That is classic Italian. That is incredible. Which
one did you decide on? Well, no, neither at this point.
(11:10):
Neither at this point, but I said to Georgie, I'd
be great, we could do another shoot with Nonna, and
then I said,
I think I'm gonna have to at least get married
or baptize the kids. But she was unbelievable, so we
shot her. I don't know if you've seen any of
the I I I didn't realize it was. It was actually.
So we took her down to Elwood Beach. Obviously, we'd
love to get her to Bronte, but that might be
a stretch. But she, for her age, she wanted no fuss. Like,
(11:31):
don't fuss over me. I'll stand here. Yeah, and we
had all different props and I had different styling.
Options. It was so funny. We had all different colored glasses,
but there was this massive pair of white Pradas. And
obviously being Italian, she was like, Prada's Pratt, like, just,
and she wouldn't take them off. Loved them. And so
the whole day we're like, OK, I'll just leave you
in there. Leave you in those. And we're like, the
day that we fabulous Bronte, we're gonna go back and
(11:52):
buy her the glasses. I think, yeah, she was unbelievable.
Just makes for such, and all our imagery in Bronte,
we want it to feel.
Nostalgic, the brand's designed for millennials, whether it's a shot of,
you know, uh, elderly gentleman at the beach, or really
fresh waves or none, that you look at our branding
and imagery and feel like it's got a connection to
you and your childhood or something you enjoyed that you
(12:13):
grew up with. So having her was super special. That
is so special. I might need to get married. Yeah.
Do it, do it for her.
I unfortunately waited till dementia had hit in to have
the baby that mine was so desperate for me to have,
but she was also desperate for me to get married,
and I did that while she was still of sound mind.
So I've got, I'm like really happy. I know. We
(12:38):
might need to do a rush wedding at the registry,
but mine was actually similar. My, we did 3 years
of IVF and tried incredibly hard to have a baby.
And then my, yeah, Nana was incred like very much
toward the end of her life, and sort of was
in and out of consciousness. But I told her when
I was like, I got my first positive test at
like 6 weeks, and I hadn't told my family, I
was waiting for Christmas. And it was like she just
(13:01):
had this amazing moment that she was totally lucid and
she just understood it and,
Knew it, um, and then when I got now I'm going.
And so she, she didn't tell my mom, and then
just before Christmas, she was like, How's Georgie feeling? And
my mom was like, So what, what are you talking about?
And she, again, kind of came back to and didn't
say anymore. And then I had my son and she
(13:21):
passed away two weeks later.
Oh my God. So did she get to meet him? No,
she was in a different state, but I got to, again,
she was so in and out of consciousness, but she
came to in the conversation when I got to say
I've had him and he's here, so she knew. Oh
my God, that is so special. Do you know how
nice it is to chat to people that love their
(13:42):
grandmas as much as me like we're all.
But how are really strong women in your life, and
that's what we wanted in the brand. There's so many
brands now that are designed for Gen Z's and they're
pastels and they're bright, and with Bronte, we just wanted
something that really spoke to millennials and felt authentic and
real and beautiful and that, yeah, you get to tell
(14:05):
all of these stories and have a real moment that,
because I think millennials so often, you know, we've gone
through careers and had children, we're at a point now
that we're like, what.
Like what, who are we and what are we doing
and all of those memories so much. And yeah, having
those moments where you have someone that you connect on
a childhood or a memory of a grandma, you're like, oh,
that's right, it was phone free and yeah.
(14:29):
So after the success of Bronte, you launched Soma, and
what made you think, we need another brand. Was it
always the plan to have the two? Oh, it definitely
wasn't the plan to have 2, but equally, I think,
from a strategy standpoint, where we'd landed with Bronte, we put,
I think being our first one, it was such a
labor of love, and we put so much time and
(14:51):
energy into all of the details and all of these
layers and storytelling and ingredients and packaging.
And it got more premium than I think we anticipated
in terms of the quality of componentry, the ingredients, the
active skincare. I think coming from Mecca and being in
that skincare role, I got a little bit personally kind
of fixated on products that do what they say they're
(15:14):
gonna do and found a passion within skincare for more
of your erm-led brands or your brands that had kind
of active ingredients and
I could tell we're going to do something and have
a benefit, and felt like you were getting value for
your money. And so I think as we developed Bronte
and Formula, we had so much to learn, and we
had quite onerous clauses leaving Mecca. So we did a
(15:34):
lot of desktop research. And then by the time we
got out into the market and were able to talk
to manufacturers and chemists and start the actual development, we
thought about it so much and wanted to develop this
beautiful brand. But it also meant that it probably wasn't.
As excessively priced as we had anticipated it would be.
We're still very passionate about accessible pricing and it's not,
(15:57):
it's not. It's, it's definitely not mecca prices, but we
actually then still felt like, hang on a second, we've
sold for, we've definitely sold for a gap and we're
giving a beautiful, efficacious product at a reasonable price. But
it's still left this space for grocery, and I think
Georgie articulates it the best, but just this wanting more
from the grocery offer.
Yeah. So I think with, initially our idea started around grocery,
(16:20):
cause as I said, we would work at Mecca, have
all these beautiful products, but then, you know, we'd be
realistically shopping at 9 at night before the world of
Click and Collect with our kids and like, what do
we need and what's available, and you're looking at like
this tiny selection, and it just felt like nothing was
kind of hit the mark. It felt, you know, very
maintenance Monday daily essentials, and we had that crave to
want more. So that's where the idea started. But as
(16:42):
Camille said,
We, we do love a premium experience and sense, we
got incredibly, I think we were so passionate about the
poor and the lather and all of these elements that
our chemist, I think, was ready to shoot us because
on top of it, we were like, and we want
it to be clean, and we meet credo clean beauty standards.
And so all of those elements made,
Grocery a bit trickier. But as Camille said, we were
(17:03):
learning so much. And so, in getting Bronte to its
beautiful place, we found this very interesting space and trend
we think happening in beauty. There's prestige, and then there's grocery.
But actually a lot of
people like, what is in the middle? You know, what
if I want more, but I can't quite get to there, like,
what does that look like? And so there's interesting offers
from a retail perspective, like Atomica and I see a
(17:26):
door and change Atomica. I went to the Melbourne store
and I was like,
This is everything that is missing in the market, like
in store, retail. And great brands like Ordinary, and then
you've got like LaRoche, but then you've got, you know,
interesting Australian founded brands. And so we were like, actually,
it makes a lot of sense if we want Bronte
to be accessible, if it's the fatigued mom millennial, she's
(17:49):
probably gonna grab it at 9 at night, Priceline, Atomico,
wherever it might be open, or does she want a
prestige experience in a department store. And so we're like, actually,
there's this interesting landscape for Bronte.
But there was still a gap in grocery. And so
when the opportunity came to co-create with Woolworths, it wasn't,
we certainly didn't have the capacity. We didn't have a team,
(18:09):
but we couldn't say no. Like we were like, Oh,
we definitely feel passionate. We've certainly thought about this space.
We've done all the strategic. You know the customers there.
We know the customers there, but yeah, how do we
do a version that commercially can work? And so once
we kind of had unlocked that piece, which obviously volume helps.
It meant that we just sort of ran it both
as quickly as we could. So year one, obviously, we
(18:31):
have So and Woolworths, and by the end of the year,
Bronte will have found its home in a few retailers. Oh,
that's so exciting. Just a product of not being able
to say no. Yeah. Bronte is positioned as bringing skincare
level actives to body care.
While Soma focuses on that luxury fragrance experience at supermarket prices,
(18:52):
so how do you differentiate between your two brands without
cannibalizing each other? Yeah, I think it comes back to
exactly that. There's different trends in market and different customers
that have different kind of likes, demands, wants, expectations, and
I think
Both, fortunately for us, skincare and skinification, so skinification tends
(19:13):
to mean, yeah, taking skincare ingredients and applying them to
other categories and other products that they weren't necessarily in before.
So if you think about hair care, there's been this
skinification of hair care, scalp care, people taking skincare actives
and putting them in hair care now. And it's not
dissimilar to body. People expect
More from their products. Um, but then equally, there's this
(19:35):
trend around fragrance, and fragrance is having such a moment.
And I think fragrance at all levels, people buying into
super prestige offers and wanting to spend or being comfortable
enough to spend the, the $540 for their baccarat, and,
you know, savoring this moment and saving up and buying
into luxury perfumes. But that trend has flown all the way.
Through now into supermarkets where people saying, Hey, I actually
(19:57):
really love a fragranced experience, and fragrance isn't taboo. And
if you work really hard to make clean fragrances that
don't have phthalates in them and nitro masks, and if
you can kind of clean up the process, which I
think fragrance had come under a little bit of scrutiny
for a time there around what was in fragrance, and
still is in some fragrances, and there's some hormone disruptors
and things that
If you're not particularly knowledgeable in space, you might end
(20:19):
up picking up. But I think people are a lot
more receptive at the moment to fragrance and all sorts
of fragrance. And so fragrances though. No one wants to
go into supermarkets. No, the lemon myrtles are cheaper people
tell me that they don't like lavender, I'm like, it's
because you've smelt like the budget lavender. I love lavender.
(20:39):
When lavender is done well, watch, watch this space because
we would love to do lavender well that's um but
I think that's the biggest difference. It's, yeah, Saa is
this beautiful, fragranced experience. It's accessible, it's easy. It's not
promising the world in terms of skincare actives and that
(21:00):
it's gonna transform you.
Skin, it's super hydrating. It's got some niceinamide in it.
It's got aloe. It does have beautiful ingredients, but really
the experience is about the packaging, the aesthetic, the elevation
of your bathrooms, and then the sensorial experience of the product.
Whereas Bronte will, and even more so when we look
at the NPD that we've got coming, help you treat
(21:21):
different concerns, change.
You know, the feel or the color or the texture
of your skin through either tools or ingredients, which we love,
especially coming into summer. Yes. So hopefully, yeah, customers can
see the difference. And actually, I think as well, retail strategy,
they won't be sitting side by side, and we've hopefully
(21:41):
found them both at homes that really make sense for
where the customer's shopping. Different customer needs a different brand.
I've got a juicy question for you. As Mecca insiders,
what are the cult products customers ask for all the
time that are genuinely worth the hype, and what are
(22:03):
some overhyped products that make you go oh.
Well, I, I can, I'll take 2. I've got, so
there's this one brand that is a little known French brand,
a love brand of so many of the Mecca team members,
and it punches, I think, well above its weight in
terms of sales versus probably the brand awareness. The brand
(22:24):
is Cosmetics 27, and the founder is an incredible French woman,
her name's Michelle.
Uh, she actually worked at L'Oreal at one point in time,
and she's a chemist and had an injury and then
went and couldn't kind of heal her skin from a,
a skiing injury. And so she developed a product with, um,
particular ingredients that are well known for the healing properties.
(22:46):
And then she created this product called Balm 27. And
it is this decadent, beautiful moisturizer straight to Mecca to
for your face, but obviously you could use it on
your body, but it's an incredible, quite a rich.
Thick moisturizer.
And it is divine. And once you use it, unfortunately,
you will probably not be able to not use it. Uh,
(23:09):
she's since gone on and created, there's a rich cream
and an everyday. Um, and the product is incredible. So
that is the one that if you haven't bought Balm
27 from Cosmetics 27, you absolutely should. It is worth
the money. I think it's about.
220 2. It hurts greatly and we certainly, as we said,
(23:32):
all of our time and energy and funds are going
to our businesses. We do not have the cash, but
that's the one thing that when you go without it
for long enough, you're like, I just, I need it.
My partner's 9 years older than me and partner, because
I haven't got married yet. But, um, he, no, no pressure, Sean,
but he used Balm and used it every day.
And then, what does he think? Well, I know, well like, well,
(23:54):
this is when I had my discount. And then when
I finished, I was like, well, we're starting a business,
you can't have your balm anymore. And so he stopped
and it was so funny because we had photo in
my phone of when he was using his balm all
the time, and then when he'd stopped, and there's a,
a beautiful girlfriend, or now girlfriend, but she used to
work for me at Mecca Jordan, and she's obsessed with
Cosmetics 27.
And I sent her the photos. I was like, Sean
(24:15):
with balm, Sean without balm. And we're like, Well, I'm sorry, Sean,
you just need to get your balm back. Yeah, sorry.
You're looking old as food. You're you're looking a bit old.
So he's got his balm back, and it genuinely, his
skin looks a million times better. He doesn't have botox
or fillers, and he's not that way inclined as a male.
Him and his choices, but he loves bum. And it works.
(24:37):
And then the overhyped, I would say, is your al
de Janeiro sprays. Oh, unless you're 10. Like overhyped, they
don't last very long. The ingredients behind them, I just
think people can do better from a fragrance standpoint. Yes, actually,
I completely agree with that. That's a good one.
Did I steal your thunder with balm? I thought this
Thunder with balm, but I also think of moisturizer. Yes,
(24:59):
there's lots of serums and gels and whatever it might be,
but actually, if you just put on a great moisturizer,
you feel it's a bit like why we started with
the essential ras with Bronte, a really great shower and
a really great lotion goes a long way to making
you feel enormously better. So I have to see these, like,
Shaun should be their promo. Yeah, basically. Yeah. So my pics,
(25:20):
I mean, I love and adore.
Mecca's fragrance offer, love, dip teak. Oh, the fragrances, uh,
and the knowledge of the staff that work in. I've
walked in there and like told them my preferences before
and they've just gone, Oh, you'll love this. And they
just so good. They nail it every time. Yeah. I,
I also think with fragrance, I mean, skincare and if
you're going in for skincare or makeup, it's kind of
(25:41):
got to perform or do something. So you're trying to
also figure out what do you like, what's it got
to do, whereas fragrance, you know if you love it
or not. You take, there is no rules. Just smell
it and enjoy it.
So, anything dip teak, obviously home and candles, but I
am probably quite biased to the Barrado scents. I love
a smokyudie. They have some really, really great scents in Barrato.
(26:02):
All right, looking ahead, what's next? Very excited for Bronte's
summer campaign. So I think with Body Care, we always
said it had to be on a shelf.
Because to feel it, we've worked so hard on the scents.
I think our Bronte sea salt is like second to none.
I just, every brand in every scent category, I just
love and adore that scent. So, to be on a shelf,
(26:24):
we feel passionate about testers and sampling, but we have
some really fun summer campaign ideas cause obviously the brand
so leans into that. We wanted to bottle the Australian lifestyle.
And again, very nostalgic millennial. So, I grew up in Queensland,
surf life saving culture.
So very, very excited for Bronte to have its home,
but then we activate it in the way that we
(26:45):
had always imagined. If you want to take SoMa. We've
been working on lots with Soma. We obviously had this
incredible opportunity to partner with Woolworths and create something that
we knew the customer wanted, but you're equally a little
bit constrained with Woolworths. You work on a range review window.
It's every 12 months the range review opens up, and
we were so grateful for the opportunity to arrange the
(27:06):
body wash. But we'd always envisage.
more. So when you think around aesthetic led or design-led products,
scent experiences, it obviously lends itself to many more products
outside of just a body wash. So there is lots,
and we actually were fortunate enough to be up here
talking to, um, the category manager and our buyer at
Woolworths yesterday, presenting a lot of newness to him. And
(27:29):
he left smiling and excited. So I think we, we
might have hit the nail on the head with a
few of the, hopefully all of them, but at least,
at least a few of the things that we showed him.
So watch this space. Hopefully everyone can have a lot
more so in their lives probably about 6 months' time. Well,
thank you both so much for joining us today. It
has been so lovely. We've gone on many different before
(27:59):
and afters and the balm, but I've really enjoyed it
and I know that the Uies will too, so thank
you so much. Thank you for having us. Thanks for
having us.
Thank you so much to Camille and Georgie, that was
just such a good chat. If you want to try
their products, you can have a look at Bronte online,
although it will be coming to stores soon, and Soma
can be found at Woolies. We'll see you next week, bye.
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