#30 Water is soft.

“Building specific knowledge will feel like play to you but will look like work to others.” Naval Ravikant.

We’re onto Drop #5, live this week. It’s been 15 months since we decided to switch to this quarterly business model. This drop, we have no new products, and have chosen not to work with any influencers. Instead we’re focussing on FB ads, trying to see if we can replicate the viral success of our last Tik Tok campaign, doubling down on our podcast content and releasing this beautiful, short film, ‘Before the Mirror’. The only new revenue stream for this drop is Fluff Accounts: our Refill Subscription Model.

I’m interested in how this will all land. Typically a brand relies on new product releases, discounting, or influencers for growth in revenue and engagement. Given our website is only open for 7 days, it’s scary to think our counteract might backfire — we have little time to pivot if the numbers don’t stack up.

To us, subscriptions make sense, people are already doing it for household items like toilet paper and laundry detergent. Our customers use our Lip Oil and Bronzing Powder every day, and many worry they might run out before the next drop. On the other hand, we’re potentially cannibalising our own cart size. We’ve trained people to order multiple refills within our 3 month drop periods. We decided to pull the trigger anyway, and treat subscriptions as an experiment.

This trepidation in my work overlaps with my personal life. I often play out a scenario in my head to be harder or more intimidating than it is — or at least, the potential downside. In May I spent a month in Bali with my sister, mostly doing yoga, with 10 days learning to surf. I sucked for 8 of those 10 days. It was humbling, to say the least. The thing was, while I had worked up the courage to be a beginner again, even when I got good, I was still scared. Scared of an impending big wave, scared of being dunked, scared of the rocks, scared of sharks, scared of being featured on Kookslams. All of it. Eventually, I forgot about the sharks, I got over the rock situation (thanks in part to booties), and a 5-five-year-old surfing and laughing made me embrace the embarrassment.

Yet I couldn’t shake the fear of getting destroyed by a hard wave. Of things not going smoothly.

Then I spoke to Ellen, who reminded me (c/o of her partner and surfer James) that water is soft.

Sometimes the fall isn’t that bad. And most times, the time in the air (or on the wave) is worth it.

It’s the same in business. If we fall over, we’ll be ok. We’ll learn a lesson, hopefully. We might be a little shaken. We’ll have to move things around and decide what’s next. We’ll get back on the board (and into the boardroom) and go again.

To reinforce this, I’ve been trying to take work less seriously, in the sense of creating without expectation (or the fear of hard things). This doesn’t mean I don’t have goals, it just means I’m less attached to the outcome.

“Hold yourself to a higher standard but not an impossible one.”

For me, my high standard has become continual learning. Never stopping, or settling for complacency. In the three months since my last post, I’ve committed to learning: to surf, to handstand, and to go from “Good to Great’ — more on this below.

Across these three commitments, I’ve been thinking a lot about curiosity, trust (or courage), and play. I’d say I’ve always had the former, and I dive in and out of the middle, which has meant I’ve sacrificed the latter. When I’m scared I’m rigid, and I forget to enjoy the process.

The other day, while visiting a friend, I saw written across his whiteboard: “Through discipline comes freedom.” I like this.

While it sounds contradictory, I’m trying to meet this sense of play with discipline, both within and outside of Fluff. When I’m creating, I’m learning. I think this is my purpose. Putting something out there that wasn’t there before. Learning, adapting, evolving.

We’re learning a lot at Fluff right now. Continually refining what works, eliminating what doesn’t (potentially influencers), and getting closer to a base model that can be applied across markets, with tweaks.

We know our biggest asset is our refillable Cloud Compact. Both from the perceived brand value, and from a monetary perspective when we model out our refills. For the end user, for the benefit of change in our industry, and ultimately for this thing called sustainability that all brands like to talk to, refillable beauty — done well — makes sense.

The answer to why all cosmetics aren’t refillable is nuanced, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be championing longevity of personal belongings.

Having moved to a refillable beauty model in 2019, at a time when this idea seemed novel and perhaps unnecessary, we’ve since seen a shift in consumer — and industry — attitudes and behaviour. The very act of refilling Fluff’s Lip Oil or Bronzing Powder makes you realise how much packaging you might have previously consumed (or should we say, thrown away).

Seeing true impact in our industry will take time. And while we see a lot of new brands launching with refillable packaging, significant change will take place only when bigger, established brands with clout and scale can shift their manufacturing models.

Interrupting an existing supply chain however, is a process: when cost of goods are established and existing MOQS in place, convincing your accounts department of change can be tricky. But the benefits to customer lifetime value are significant. One that any smart accounts department should understand.

Change in the beauty industry is a task of both the producer and the consumer.

We need to think about what happens to a brand’s existing products that aren’t refillable — will they be left with unwanted/dead stock? In turn, we need to appreciate and give bigger companies the time to put such changes in place.

Secondly, for consumers, it’s really about reducing how many products you have. Do you need three moisturisers, or will one do? Can you use up your current mascara before purchasing another? In this way, you’re slowing down your rate of consumption, which ultimately, at scale, can reduce the rate of production.

It’s worthwhile also thinking about where our desire or need for so many products has come from. The answer is: our industry. It’s our job to sell you more. The more you buy, the more money we make. But what if a brand actually encouraged you to buy and use less? Is this too much of an ideal state?

Maybe lastly, if you’re buying refillable beauty, and really want to make an impact, maybe you don’t need the primary packaging. Perhaps simply having the refill will do? It may not be as practical or pretty, but it will minimise your packaging consumption — by at least one more unit.

All I’m trying to do here is further articulate how nuanced this situation is. (Some) brands and (some) consumers are trying to do their best, all the while making money and enjoying the enjoyment of having *things*.

Think about what you buy as a reflection of who you are, perhaps in the same way you think about clothing or the objects in your home. Can it be reused or passed down to someone else? Can the bottle or jar be repurposed or up-cycled as a vase or small storage container? Could the packaging be a keepsake or a paperweight? I dunno, isn’t this what Tik Tok says?

When we designed our refillable Bronzing Powder and Lip Oil compacts, we reflected on art deco vanity and cigarette cases that were treated like jewellery: objects of affection that people wanted to keep on their dresser or the dinner table when out with friends. Inspired by the shape of clouds and the sensorial qualities of a grounding stone — the Zamac compacts are weighted and cool to the touch, fitting perfectly in the palm of your hand, with the satisfying click of the closing mechanism. All these considerations make the Cloud Compacts something you want to keep forever, not throw away. And that’s one less item you have to think about contributing to landfill. If we all think this way, perhaps we’ll start to see some change.

Interested:

Good to great. This book is reminding me how important Fluff’s next play will be. We want to find the best people to help us decide exactly what that is. How to turn this brand and this business from something good into something great. To do what no one else in the industry is doing, what everyone else is scared to do: challenge the narrative. Disrupt the model. Make beauty mean so much more than makeup. And ultimately, create something people talk about after we’ve left. Something that endures.

Barbie. It was so good. I can’t stop thinking about it. I laughed out loud. Billie’s song makes me cry. What’s equally amazing (and sad) is the fact that a lot of fans don’t/won’t realise the irony in the plot and exactly what’s playing out in the production and consumption of Barbie Merch. As Jessica Defino once again so perfectly points out: “If the Barbie production “speaks directly to women … about the impossibility of perfection,” as the New York Times Magazine insists, its products speak directly to women about the importance of attempting it anyway.”

Threads. Kidding. I’m not interested. I’m watching it for now, but I did this anyway.

Interesting:

Retail vs the Drop. We’ve been working through what our drop model could look like alongside a retail partnership. It’s early days, but it’s looking like our refillable compacts (Small and Large) will be available to purchase at our selected retailer partner(s), as well as refills, while new release SKUS (and merch) will be dropped first on our online store, before later hitting shelves.

Packaging explorations. As we develop additional SKUS, we’re looking at a paper packaging travel solution for bundles, so that customers can build their own kits. We’re also working on a limited edition, luxury makeup box to store your additional refill shades at home, and an alternative glass bottle solution, and refill packaging for when we release our skincare again.

Working with young filmmakers. For our short film, ‘Before the Mirror’, we took a leap to work with young Sydney filmmaker, Kaius Potter. We’d been wanting to create a cinematic storytelling campaign for a long time, and Ellen, Head of Brand, came across Kaius’ work and tabled the idea of a loose theme, but mostly, insisted on letting him do his own thing. No modelling agencies. No script. No studios. No significant edits. It was our job to let go of the creative reins and simply play the role of facilitator/connector. This was about curiosity, play, trust, and enjoying the process.

We wanted to tell the story that beauty is so much more than makeup. We wanted to show what we’ve been talking to our customers about for the last few years: their evolving, complex relationships to beauty.

Our mission has always been to reflect our audience — not just how they look, but how they think and feel. Featured in this short film are the voices of our community: followers, customers, and friends, from around the world.

We asked, what do you think about when you think about your relationship to beauty?

Audio submissions have been crafted into a single narrative: a collective consciousness. A story about how much yourself you can be in any moment. In this film, Fluff is discovering what so many of us have spent years covering up: ourselves. Because being perceived is a terrifying thing.

The stories are real. The voices are yours. We couldn’t make this up if we tried.

Shot on location in Naarm, Melbourne, featuring voice recordings & visual stories of Fluff’s own community, I’m so happy with how this turned out, and that we invested in an idea (and people) that we believe in.

When I look at a lot of other beauty brands, I still see the same story from the same production agency: pretty girl smiling at her lip gloss or mascara or moisturiser, laughing. Pastel backdrop, nude or pastel underwear. I’m sorry, (I’m not actually) but it’s so boring. There are incredible, young talent out there that brands should invest their money, trust and respect in. They have fresh ideas that challenge our norms, and if you’re lucky, they’re kind and respectful too.

Perhaps my biggest learning now is actually a remembering: that having the courage to do something different, to try something new, to trust in other people (and the flow of life), even if it’s hard, is worthwhile.

Water is soft.

If you like this update, I’d love you to share it.

And feel free to tell me what you think, here.

I’ll leave you with the state of the world (read internet), here.