Beauty means business. And with the recent launch of the British Beauty Council’s ground-breaking Value of Beauty report, it’s time the discuss the business of beauty.

This discussion panel brings together industry leaders Adam Minto from Revolution, Maria Hatzistefanis from Rodial, Michelle Feeney from Floral Street Fragrance and Will King from King of Shaves. Moderated by Nicola Moulton, former Vogue beauty director, the panel will explore the beauty industry’s impact on the UK economy.

The report marks the first time the beauty industry’s contribution has been quantified ¬– and the numbers certainly add up.

Driven primarily by consumer spending on products and services, in 2018 the gross value-added contribution to GDP approached £30 billion. The same year, the beauty industry supported almost 600,000 jobs – one of every 60 jobs – across the UK.

Forward-facing and keen to embrace innovation, the beauty industry has pioneered the use of digital influencers as a marketing tool. With the relentless rise of social media, influencer marketing may come to rival traditional advertising as a route to potential customers.

Revolution is one British beauty brand making smart use of influencer marketing through collaborations with beauty bloggers.

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“We invite them into our office, give them a blank piece of paper and tell them to create a product.”

Adam Minto, co-founder of Revolution[/four_fifth]

Likewise, Maria Hatzistefanis, founder of Rodial, communicates directly with customers across social media.

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“Social media allows Rodial to share its story with customers directly and to create more engaging and meaningful connections.”

Maria Hatzistefanis, founder of Rodial[/four_fifth]

The report also highlights how the beauty industry is bucking the trend of high street closures, with a net increase of beauty businesses opening in the last year. Launched in 2017, Floral Street Fragrance represents the best of the modern beauty industry – innovative, sustainable, inclusive and diverse.

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“Companies need to start looking at how people want to be employed, whether they’re 18, 21, 51 or 76.”

Michelle Feeney, founder of Floral Street Fragrance[/four_fifth]

Established brands embrace innovation too:

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“Over 26 years performance, trust, authenticity & responsibility have been cornerstones of King of Shaves’ success. With the introduction of aluminium sustainable packaging & new Code Zero lifetime use refillable brand/platform in 2020, we don’t just want to shave lives better, but do best by our planet.”

Will King, executive chairman of King of Shaves[/four_fifth]

Book your ticket today to find out more about the substantial contribution the beauty industry makes to the UK economy.

The event takes place on September 14 at the London Beauty Week Hub at 13-14 Floral Street in Covent Garden. Doors at 4:30pm with panel discussion from 5-6pm.

100% of the ticket price will go to Beauty Banks, a non-profit that redistributes personal care and beauty products to help fight hygiene poverty. You will also be able to bring your product donations on the day.

The Panel

Adam Minto (panellist)
Co-founder of Revolution

Adam co-founded Makeup Revolution in 2013 with the goal of developing “quality makeup accessible to everyone.” The brand, one of the creators of the “fast beauty” category, is rooted in the founders’ passion for bringing the latest beauty trends and product innovations to market quickly at attractive, mass-market price points.

Driven by significant social media marketing and beauty blog buzz, the company has effectively targeted a broad base of makeup enthusiasts, resulting in strong consumer affinity and rapidly expanding distribution in leading retailers across the world as well as online.

Maria Hatzistefanis (panellist)
Founder of Rodial

In 1999, Maria founded her ground-breaking skincare group Rodial by identifying a niche for treatments targeting specific skin concerns. With a growing global beauty empire, her results-oriented products excite with evocative tongue-in-cheek names such as Dragon’s Blood and Snake Serum.

Her two brands – Rodial and Nip + Fab – are sold through 20,000 doors across 35 countries worldwide including Saks Fifth Avenue, Space NK, Harvey Nichols and Harrods, with high-profile celebrities such as Kylie Jenner and Sofia Richie fronting the brand’s campaigns.

Maria is a patron of the British Fashion Council, working alongside them to support and promote young, emerging talent and British fashion.

Michelle Feeney (panellist)
Founder of Floral Street Fragrance

Michelle is a visionary business leader who has created cult global beauty products and brands, gaining extensive knowledge of the sector with world-leading blue-chip businesses in the US and the UK.

Her approach has been shaped by three key factors; her uncompromising determination to create businesses which excel in their field; a natural talent for the creative challenge of developing successful cult brands, harnessing the power of committed and passionate teams of people; and her core belief in the importance of corporate social responsibility.

Starting off in PR in the UK, Michelle moved to the US to set up her own agency, where she was headhunted by Estèe Lauder Companies to work on their Prescriptives brand. She has gone on to work with such iconic brands as Tommy Hilfiger, Crème de la Mer, MAC and St Tropez.

Will King (panellist)
Executive chairman of King of Shaves
Born in Lowestoft in 1965, Will studied mechanical engineering at the University of Portsmouth between 1984-87. Following redundancy in the early 1990s, he created the King of Shaves brand and its first product, a shaving oil.

Buying shave.com for £18 in 1995, he found that “shaving’s a growth business” and in 2019 King of Shaves celebrated its 26th anniversary, with more than 15 billion lives ‘shaved’ worldwide.

King of Shaves has been the stand-out innovator in men’s grooming products for over two decades and in April 2019 announced Code Zero, the world’s first ‘lifetime use refillable’ brand and a phasing out of single use plastic by 2023.

Nicola Moulton (moderator)
Former beauty director at British Vogue
Nicola Moulton is an award-winning beauty journalist who has written for some of the world’s top publications and spent nine years as beauty director at British Vogue.

She is now creative director at Beauty SEEN, a communications agency in London.