#32 In-between

Fluff (and my thoughts) are in an interesting position right now. It goes something like this:

People always want a baby, but no one wants a teenager.

People always talk about starting a business, and people often talk about selling a business, but no one talks about the messy middle, the in-between.

We like to talk about the start and the end. Beauty founders like to catch up and say “Everything is great, I love my job”, but no one wants to talk about numbers, or staff challenges, or supply issues, or investor pressure. At least, no one likes to talk about that in a business as usual sense. It often comes in a founder admission or retro.

The in-between of business is both monotonous and tumultuous; and those feelings are relentless. At the same time, we’re growing as individuals: as managers, as co-founders, partners, friends, siblings, children. We hope that the two paths overlap.

What happens if you wake up one day and don’t really like what you’re doing anymore? Or the people you work with? Or industry you work in? What happens if your priorities change? How do you know the difference between being content and complacent, BAU and bored, driven and delusional?

Fluff is in its sixth year of business in which we’ve learnt a lot, lost a lot, gained a lot. We’re definitely past the start. We’re not wondering what this business is anymore. We’re always thinking about our next steps. And I think this is where we’re existing — the in-between of now and what’s next. It’s what often feels so stressful. We see where we want to go, and what needs to be done, and there’s only so much we can do or control.

Drop #7 is currently live and with it comes a new set of challenges and curiosities. We’ve set up fulfilment in the US — finally offering the opportunity of free shipping to US customers. We would have liked to do this a long time ago, and we definitely underestimated the detail of admin required. Sometimes you need to learn the hard way.

Questions we’re asking ourselves right now:

• Are we really just a Lip Oil company? And maybe that’s ok? What if we disregard our product pipeline, and just sell one thing, and sell it well. Could Fluff be the next Burts Bees?
• How do we balance demand with supply? Or access with scarcity? What does this look like long term? How long can we keep saying no to customers in specific regions and are we losing our opportunity to scale?
• What comes next after Tik Tok? This platform isn’t social anymore — we consider it a marketer’s game. It’s given us access to millions of consumers through organic, unpaid content. It only took us three years to figure out how to play. But it can’t be forever, consumers surely will fatigue of brands and influencers taking over their feeds, so there will need to be something more community focussed.

Questions you’re asking us:

How do we find competing with in-store brands? The allure of a Mecca or Sephora’s customer and online database is not lost on me, but their margins and brand support (from what I’ve heard from other founders) are. While Fluff can remain online only (and perhaps with our own store again one day), we’re committed to doing so. This could change, of course, but only if we see a sustainable financial model whereby we don’t end up feeling like an in-house brand, with no control.

Any plans to expand into other products? We have a solid but simple product pipeline across our Small and Large Cloud Compacts that we’re sitting on, which we’d like to release in time. I wouldn’t use all the products myself — like a highlighter or powdered blush, but it’s what we’re being asked to create, and this is a decision we will need to soon make. We’ve also been redesigning our skincare packaging (primary and refills) which we’re excited to introduce, should we decide to keep skincare in our offering.

Manufacturing process? When we started Fluff in 2018, I had spent two years sampling with an Australian cosmetics manufacturer. I couldn’t get it right. We ended up going overseas, working with both American, European, and Asian manufacturers across packaging and formulas. I wanted the best and I didn’t care where it came from. That decision has both benefited and hindered us — the latter from a cost perspective. Fluff has been fortunate that my experience in the beauty industry allowed us to have conversations with large manufacturing companies, that many small businesses or solo founders starting off might not have had access to before. Colour cosmetics is not easy. Minimum order quantities, tooling, and freight are not fun.

Artificial scarcity is NOT sustainable. if you’re having people able to purchase refills with a password, it’s just marketing hype to have limited drops. Not a question, but a statement from someone on Tik Tok, who seems to have missed the point. Fluff has never claimed that drop models are sustainable. We shifted from an ‘always on’ model in May of 2022 to focus our attention on telling meaningful stories. This means creating content without a constant push for sales and to encourage intentional, mindful purchasing. Because you can’t always have Fluff — when it comes to our open drop periods, you have to decide not just if you really want it, but if you really need it.

In this instance, let’s not forget that Fluff is a for profit business — just like many other companies (including how Patagonia started). Having an idea, noticing a gap in the market, or wanting to make a succesful company (and money) is not a bad thing. We can only hope that businesses do it in a way that doesn’t have detrimental effects on their consumer’s mental health (something I’m more interested in), or the planet.

I’m interested:

In ideas I haven’t seen before. That haven’t popped up on my explore feed, or in someone else’s Substack. This is becoming increasingly hard to avoid. Speaking of, here’s three excerpts I liked from newsletters I read this week:

Seth Godin — “Resistance is real. Solving the problem means moving ahead, confronting new, even scarier problems. It might be easier to simply stay where we are, marinating in our stuck. When we care enough to solve our own problem, we’ll loosen the unloosen-able constraints and embrace the new challenges to come.”

Andrew Wilkinson — “​My best friend said to me the other day, Being successful in business is the art of being fucked over by other people, then getting back on the horse, over and over again, forever.”

Jessica Defino — “Here, the kernel of truth is that: yes, your collagen levels do start to decline after a certain age, after 25 or 30. But that’s not a disaster. That’s no less normal than going through menopause. It’s just one of the many ways the body changes as it ages, and it’s not something to panic about. But because the collagen hype is based on scientific facts about levels of a real substance in your body, it becomes medicalized — it’s framed as a medical or healthcare measure to protect and increase your collagen levels. But if that was the case, wouldn’t we also be worried about things like the collagen in our joints?”

Fluff is interesting:

We just released a second short film, ‘In-between’ by director Roman Roman Anastasios. I love working with young creatives and seeing their lens on beauty — literally and metaphorically. I love that I asked Roman to take our product out of several scenes, because this was not about that. That’s what we’ve got Tik Tok for, after all.

We’re a fully remote team. Since Covid I have been questioning the idea of full time staff, I’ve been curious about contractors and inspired by individual creators. Our team can expand and contract from 3 to 20 in a matter of days, when we need. Sometimes I miss an office, sure. Most times I don’t miss staff gossip, expectations, and excuses.

We’re willing to chat. My favourite thing on Tik Tok and IG right now is how so few people will actually engage in a conversation when we’ve asked them if they want to discuss their feedback/criticism/assumptions. I have personally given my email address and phone number, and never hear back.

I don’t have much more to add — beauty isn’t that complicated or groundbreaking.

If you like this update, DM me and let me know, and please share it with someone you know.