This week we speak to Pauline Prescott, Founder and owner of Formulae Prescott, a clean, vegan, skincare formulation company focused on creating luxury multi-tasking skincare that address different skincare needs. All the formulations are consciously crafted from natural, active ingredients, that deliver multiple benefits and transformative skin results.
Hi Pauline, what can you tell us about Formulae Prescott? How did it all start?
I spent years travelling around the world for work, constantly weighed down by a bag full of face and body products. Each time I emptied my suitcase, I dreamt of an alternative solution that would offer what I wanted in terms of product performance but minimised the amount of packaging, no spills or waste – it was that simple.
Eventually, with the help of my sister Frances, I began designing a collection with clear needs in mind - to create high-performance, multi-tasking products using the very best quality ingredients while striving to find the most sustainable solution available across every touch point.
Conservation was at the heart of the quest to save on components, eliminate water as a key ingredient and ensure consumers got highly effective skin care products at an affordable price without any fillers, parabens or chemicals.
After a year in the lab we launched Tribalm in 2017; a formulation that cleansed, exfoliated and hydrated in one. I anticipated a slow burn education process, but the opposite happened. Consumers loved the product and understood its benefits very quickly.
We now have 5 products in our range and are sold in prestigious beauty and department stores in the UK and overseas.
Tell us… How did you get into the beauty industry?
After spending much of my career in the financial services sector working in the UK, Asia, Europe and USA, I moved home to work with my family and sister in the UK to embark on a new beauty business, solving the problem of combining ingredients to address several skincare needs at one time. After all, I had lived for decades carrying products around the world and knew there had to be a better way to deal with this challenge.
After a year in the lab, I created Tri-Balm, the first multitasking skin care product in my range. It is designed to reduce the layering of products on the skin and make healthy skincare with luxury ingredients available to everyone. Tri-Balm has won many awards including two this year and is something of a cult product in the UK already. We now have 5 products in the range and several more in development. It’s been an enormously enjoyable journey knowing I’m doing something that is healthy for the consumer, great for the environment and helps people who want to live a cleaner life.
I wanted to use science to blend ingredients that are natural and healing for your skin into formulations that could address several skincare needs at once. I believed consumers wanted to have less products, less packaging, and less chemicals in their products, but there was not a skincare brand that was combining functions to remove the layering from everyone’s skin regime. I believed I could achieve that whilst using clean, healthy ingredients that feed and nurture the skin. I wanted to include actives in each formula so I could speak to efficacy with consumers as they learnt about healthy skincare.
I believed then, and still do, that this trend of accomplishing more with less will grow. Multitasking had ventured into the haircare market with shampoo and conditioners, but it had not been successful in the luxury skin care market yet. Traditional skincare companies may find it difficult to respond to this change because their model is built on SKU proliferation and so it is easier for a new entrant to the market to address this need. Tri-Balm our first product is unique; it is a cleanser, exfoliant and hydrator in one product. It has been a tremendous success winning lots of beauty awards since its launch.
What is the promise to your customers?
“Innovation, efficacy and conservation are at the heart of everything we do.” – Pauline Prescott
Our customer desires high-performance ‘clean’ skincare formulations which deliver a luxury experience, ingredient benefits, texture and fragrance. They no longer have to choose one or the other. Dispelling marketing trends for layering, and overcomplicated product education, our customer appreciates a non-complex approach and understands that a multitasking 3-in-1 regime means less waste, more space and time. Effective skincare made simple helping to achieve better skin in fewer steps.
While the approach is simple, our scientific research, ingredient discoveries, and twist-up stick packaging positions us as an innovative leader within this emerging category.
Each day we strive to innovate and deliver multi-benefit, multi-purpose products formulated using the best quality naturally active ingredients. We care passionately about the wellbeing of our people from the farmers and scientists to our team and collaborators. We actively seek to reduce waste and conserve water supplies while sourcing the most sustainable solutions across every touch point. We are committed to remaining passionate, honest, curious, nimble, listeners, leaders, innovators.