Fashion blogger Elle Ferguson launches Elle Effect fake tan
THE biggest problem with fake tan is the gross smell, right? Well Aussie fashion blogger Elle Ferguson has come up with a way around that.
AUSTRALIAN fashion blogger Elle Ferguson is in trouble with Australia Post.
Just a few days after she launched her new fake tan line Elle Effect earlier this month, Kim Kardashian shared a photo of the plain white bottle with her 108 million Instagram followers.
Immediately, the brand saw a “massive increase in sales”, Ms Ferguson told news.com.au.
“Kim is so influential. When she posted it, I was so grateful because the power she has is so cool. Honestly, the sales have exceeded expectations and Kim played a huge part in that. She created such a buzz that the sales keep going up and up,” Ms Ferguson said.
“I’m shipping globally and the people at the post office would like to kill me. They’re designating us a certain time we’re allowed to come and ship everything off.”
The self-described fake tan “fanatic” is one half of the fashion blogging duo They All Hate Us with her best friend Tash Sefton. But Ms Ferguson wanted to branch out and create her own product.
“I can’t live without a tan and I had worked with many tan brands but I hadn’t found the right, perfect tan,” she said.
“I remember sitting down and thinking ‘Why not do my own tan? Why can’t I?’ The worst thing that happens is I have a house full of fake tan bottles,” Ms Ferguson joked.
The 33-year-old used her own capital and turned away several potential investors, so she retained creative control.
“I’ve backed myself financially and I’m really proud of that. It’s all of my money. I had a lot of people wanting to invest and I want to do this all my by myself,” she said.
“There have been some really low lows, where things were printed incorrectly and I’d paid for 100,000 of them. But I’m still glad I did it.”
The biggest problem with fake tan is the smell. Ms Ferguson says she knew her tan had to smell good for it to stand out against hundreds of other products in a crowded beauty market and decided on a rose scent.
“When I looked at the competitors, I tried to figure out what was disruptive about their tan and the smell was a really big thing,” she said.
“We did a lot of blind testing where I would blindfold people and let them smell different bottles. You don’t realised how toxic the tan smells and I wanted to change the scent.
“We made about 50 samples and tried out so many smells I had to make sure the scent wasn’t masking the fake tan smell.”
And of course, it has to look good.
“It comes down to the colour and wearability. It’s a colour that people comment on and feel amazing in,” she said.
“Most tans come across as orange or dirty and I wanted to have a red base, almost like you look like you’ve been in the sun. Not sunburnt, but having that sun kissed look from the sun.”
Ms Ferguson has zero marketing budget. The product has been promoted entirely through Instagram.
She has diverted 24,000 of her 634,000 followers to the Elle Effect account and is currently operating through a direct-to-consumer model, bypassing retailers like Sephora who would demand a cut of her sales.
“I literally turned [the Elle Effect Instagram account] on at 7pm on a Saturday night without thinking too much about it,” Ms Ferguson said.
“I think what’s resonated so well is they know it’s me and not someone else scheduling the posts. They know it’s me. It’s me answering the questions.”
She hopes to expand the range into cosmetics and clothing and will release another four products in 2018.
“The brand will hopefully just grow over the next year and in 12 months we’ll be talking about an array of Elle Effect products in your cosmetic bag and in your wardrobe,” Ms Ferguson said.
rebecca.sullivan@news.com.au