How the founder of natural beauty company BeCoyote turned her skin issues into a million dollar brand
WHEN Ellana Byers decided to come up with her own solution to her skin problem she never thought it would make her rich.
ELLANA Byers came up with the idea for her million dollar natural brand BeCoyote while standing in front of her mirror each morning, doing her makeup.
“I was suffering from hormonal acne and was struggling to find a foundation on the market that could cover all my imperfections, while still being gentle and not cause any further irritation and break outs to my skin,” Ms Byers, 35, told news.com.au.
She wanted a natural, mineral-based product — mineral makeup is free of chemical fillers and preservatives — but couldn’t find anything that worked.
“I quickly realised there was a gap in the market. So I took a bit of a different approach when doing my market research. Instead of focusing on the reasons why people like mineral makeup, I decided that my target market would be the people who didn’t like it,” Ms Byers said.
“I wanted to know why they disliked the mineral makeup they had tried. The most common reason people disliked it was because the foundations did not give enough coverage, they didn’t last all day, it made them itchy, and they were difficult to apply evenly.” she said.
“This confirmed that I was not alone and that many others also wanted more from mineral makeup.”
So in 2011, the then stay-at-home mum from Sydney went about creating a mineral foundation that would fill that gap in the market.
The result was BeCoyote’s Loose Mineral Foundation, which is now the brand’s best selling product. It does not contain bismuth oxychloride (an ingredient commonly used in mineral makeup that can cause itching and skin rashes).
The first few years of running the business were tough.
“My husband and I were living on one wage between us. I chose to be a stay-at-home mum and once the kids were in bed, it was my time to work on building the brand and I would work until 2am each morning.
“We saved as much as we could and sold most of our possessions to save enough money to start creating the range.
“But, because money was limited and I didn’t want to get a loan, I started out with only a small product range and then added more products as more funds became available. There aren’t any investors either — it is all personally funded.”
The natural beauty market has exploded in the past few years with consumers demanding more organic and “clean” beauty products. Mineral beauty products fall into this category.
Ms Byer tries to make her products as natural as possible, because her customers are fussy about the addition of chemicals, preservatives and “filler” ingredients such as talc.
The brand’s blush, for example, contains only five ingredients — zinc oxide, kaolin clay, magnesium stearate, silica, mica.
A similar blush from a mainstream brand contains more than 20 ingredients.
“Brands that don’t use natural ingredients may still advertise that they are mineral-based products simply because they include a small number of mineral products,” Ms Byers said.
“We find it is important to know what ingredients you’re putting on your skin.
“Talc is a naturally occurring mineral, but it’s not something I would want to put on my face every day. Talc is just one example of cheap ingredients that’s sometimes used to bulk up the products.”
Keeping her products as natural has possible has paid off big time for Ms Byers.
BeCoyote is a million dollar business, with an 800 per cent increase in sales in the last financial year.
There are now 77 products in the BeCoyote range and more to come as the business expands.
The global natural and organic beauty market is expected to be worth $22 billion by 2024, as women become even more discerning about the products they use.
“With so much information readily available to us about the harm that chemicals can have on your skin, it has seen most of us become more aware of this and opting for a natural and healthier alternative,” Ms Byers said.
rebecca.sullivan@news.com.au