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The My Wife Quit Her Job Podcast With Steve Chou
613: From Zero To Skincare CEO: How Cristina Brooks Potts Built Her Dream Brand
00:46:33
In this episode, I interview a student in my Create A profitable online Store course, Cristina Brooks Potts, on she created her own successful skin care company from complete scratch over at authenticego.com. Her story is truly inspirational. -
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- [00:00]
A
Welcome back to the podcast, the show where I cover all the latest strategies and current events related to E commerce and online business. Now in this episode I interview a student in my Create a Profitable Online Store course, Christina Brooks Potts on how she created her own successful skincare company from complete scratch over at Authentic ego. Com and her story is truly inspirational. But before we begin, I want to let you know that tickets for Seller Summit 2026 are now on sale over@sellersummit.com and if you sell physical products online, this is the event that you should be at. Unlike most events that are filled with high level fluff and inspirational stories, Seller Summit is all about tactical step by step strategies you can actually use in your business right away. Every speaker I invite is deep in the trenches. People who are running their own e commerce stores, managing inventory, dealing with suppliers and scaling real businesses. No corporate execs and no consultants. Also, I hate big events so I intentionally keep it small and intimate. We cap attendance at around 200 people so you can actually have real conversations and connect with everyone in the room. We've sold out every single year for the past nine years and I expect this year to be no different. It's happening April 21st to 23rd in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and if you're doing over 250k or $1 million in revenue, we also offer a private mastermind for high level sellers. Right now tickets are the cheapest they're ever going to be. So if you want in you over to sellersummit.com and grab your ticket. Now onto the show. Welcome to the My Wife Quitter Job podcast. Today I am thrilled to have a student in my Create a Profitable Online Store course on the show, Christina Brooks Potts. Now Christina is someone who joined back in 2021. We spoke over zoom and then off she went, working hard for the next four years on her business, authentic ego.com now authentic ego is a skincare company that provides safe, evidence backed formulas for hormonal, sensitive and acne prone skin. She launched in 2023. She's had some crazy growth since then, so much so that she has attracted the interest from venture capital. Now I don't believe that I've ever had a student on the podcast selling skincare products before before. So I am really excited to hear Christina's story. And with that, welcome to the show Christina. How are you doing today?
- [02:23]
B
Thank you. I'm so excited to be talking to you again, Steve. It's like it feels like it was literally yesterday and I don't know where the last four years of my life went. But I'm so excited to catch up.
- [02:34]
A
It's funny. Yeah, I think I spoke to you during the pandemic, right?
- [02:37]
B
On lockdown. Yeah, it was, it was like near the tail end of it, but like I had some, you know, wasn't going out much. So I was like, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna start it now. Yeah, now's the time. Yeah.
- [02:51]
A
So I am very curious. How did you come up with the idea of selling a beauty brand and specifically focusing on acne prone skin?
- [03:01]
B
Yeah, so it's interesting. I came up with this idea literally like 15 years ago. So yeah, I was really young. I was like 22. I was working at Sephora in, in downtown Toronto at the Eaton center, which is like the busiest, one of the busiest Sephora's in the world. And I worked in skincare because I was always like that nerdy person who like loved ingredients and like I was always reading labels and stuff and I wasn't so interested in like, you know, working at the front of the store. But I noticed like a trend of women coming in and this is a problem I eventually developed myself. Women coming in in their late 20s, early 30s with that second resurgence of hormonal acne. Right. So like we all get acne as a teen. It kind of goes away, but for so many women, like most women, more than half of us, it comes back. Right. And I just saw a real gap in the offerings of skincare because women will come in and like, you know, they, you know, not only are you concerned with acne in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s too, because we have customers in our 50s. You're concerned with aging, fine lines, hyperpigmentation, hydration, dehydration. And a lot of women are developing, you know, concurrent sensitivity. So like we're talking rosacea, eczema, peril, dermatitis, you know, fungal acne, AKA malassesia folliculitis, that kind of thing. So I just noticed that there wasn't really anything to tailored to women. And we're kind of left, you know, with nothing to use because all of the acne targeted products are very much like one note active. So like benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid, like let's exfoliate, let's kill bacteria. But a lot of times those products even have ingredients in that, you know, are not great for acne prone skin. And that's based on like just the physiological processes that go on behind, you know, the acne development process. And like it's super technical and like I, I eventually like had a, you know, pharma and science background so I was able to really go deep into it and then really develop this. But that's how I came up with the idea. I just saw a gap in the market and then like, you know, 15 years later the gap still hasn't been built. So I was like, I need to do this so that.
- [05:13]
A
So you're, so your background is in biochemical engineering or.
- [05:18]
B
No, not biochemical engineering. So you know, I had an undergrad in political science and law. But you know, after that, you know, I really got into wanting to work in, you know, pharmaceuticals. Like, like drugs. Right. So in Canada there's this license you take and it's, it's like a two year course and it's like university level and it's a professional accreditation in anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology and pharmacology. So I took that. Right. So I, I developed a really, really deep understanding of you know, like drugs and molecules and all that kind of stuff and just like, you know, processes in the skin at a deeper level. Because I learned a lot at Sephora but like Roots is like next level deep and I really honed my research skills there. So that's how I was able to really bring it to life and like use my, you know, my research background and to, to develop the formulas myself.
- [06:13]
A
Okay. Yeah. So how does one even go about creating a skin cream? Like what were your steps?
- [06:20]
B
Yeah, right. So I mean the way it works for most companies is it there's, there's basically two buckets, there's of skincare, there's marketing LED skincare and there's R&D LED skincare. So marketing LED skincare is when you know, someone will come up with an idea for a brand based on a vibe and it's like I want a fun skincare brand that reflects, you know, our personality and fun and like you know, late nights and all this stuff. You there, that's. Most skincare brands then they'll go to a third party manufacturer or contract manufacturer and say I want a cream that you know, we're going to. These are the claims we're going to make and they'll just like basically give you a formula that's already existing and then they'll just throw in some actives. Right. So you're not really getting some.
- [07:02]
A
Sorry, what? Throw in some active.
- [07:04]
B
Yeah, like active ingredients.
- [07:06]
A
Okay, yeah.
- [07:07]
B
So active ingredients. We're talking about things that like if you go on Google Trends A lot of brands start there. They're like, oh, what ingredients are trending? What can we use to, like, increase our SEO? Right. So people will find us. Right. So it's very, very backwards in terms of. It's not really starting with a problem, it's starting with a trend. And customers are really becoming aware of that. And it's super annoying because you start to see all of these brands that look very different, but when you actually try them, they're all 99% the same and they're not really addressing any real concerns.
- [07:44]
A
All those celebrity brands that you see out there really are just formulations of what's already out there. And then they put their own marketing spin on it.
- [07:50]
B
Yeah, for the most part. Yeah. Or they could hire, you know, a private R and D chemist to say, oh, we want something unique. But it's not really problem solution focused. And that's where a lot of brands fall short. On the flip side, and this is what we do, and this is what I really focused on, is being problem solution focused. So really identifying, like, what are the key drivers of early drivers of acne development, what ingredients do we have that already exist that we can use to treat them and, and then coming up with a formula based around that that will solve those problems.
- [08:28]
A
Okay.
- [08:28]
B
So that process is very research intensive. It takes a lot of time. And if the person developing it doesn't have a research or science background, they would have to outsource it to like a scientist, an R and D scientist or chemist.
- [08:43]
A
Okay.
- [08:44]
B
Who a lot of times has like a classically trained background. So they even, they have those preconceived notions of what should and shouldn't be used. So it kind of stifles innovation in, in my opinion. So that's like where we've been a little bit different is I'm the one actually coming up with the formulas and all the active ingredients based on research.
- [09:04]
A
Okay.
- [09:04]
B
Yeah.
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A
So does that imply, like you have a little lab somewhere where you're testing everything and mixing everything yourself or.
- [09:12]
B
No. So basically what I do is I do all the preliminary R D and I'll come up with all the list of actives, all the emulsifiers, all the preserve, basically the recipe for what we're going to use.
- [09:24]
A
Okay.
- [09:25]
B
And then I have a, a chemist that I work with and she's like a true actual, like she has a biochemistry background that I work with who then builds that recipe in the lab. And we have a, we have a lab in California. So she is like independent. She's not one of those big, like, there's basically these like, I don't know, like, kind of like mass market contract manufacturers where they're like just really concerned about churning out products quickly and they'll offer you all of their items to white label. This woman is really just building my recipe and kind of operationalizing it instead of, you know, going with something that's already made. So I work with her really, really closely. So she's, she's the one actually with the lab and we like troubleshoot together.
- [10:14]
A
Okay, how did you find this person? Or was she a friend of yours or did you have.
- [10:18]
B
So it's interesting, when I started, when I started the brand, I spoke to like 30 or 40 rn, like chemists, right? They all told me I was crazy and that they're like, you can't do this because, you know, like, it's just not like the ingredients you don't want to use. It's just, it's too restrictive, it's not feasible. And I was like, well, it needs to be done and we need to kind of maybe change the way we think about what ingredients we use in skin care for acne prone skin. And a lot of them just said no because it makes, you know, when you challenge the status quo, it makes people uncomfortable. Yeah, it really makes people uncomfortable and they just reject it, right? Because they're like, who are you to say that? So I'm like, well, here's my research, like, here's the science. It makes sense. But you know, this woman has been in the industry for like the woman I work with for like over 40 years, super experienced. And she was like, I love this. She's like, this is exciting. She's like, this is really neat. She's like, this makes sense because she has a really deep background in chemistry and like biomedical sciences. So she has a deep understanding as well. And she's like, it's so cool that you're doing this. I'd love to like work with you. So I'm so lucky because she's one of those people who in the past has worked with, you know, really, really big brands, right? If you want to start a skincare brand, it can be very difficult to find a manufacturer because a lot of them don't really give you the time of day because you're starting out small, right? You're going to be doing product runs of a thousand, not ten thousand. So they're just like not interested, right?
- [11:57]
A
So is this chemist the one putting together your, she put together your sampling quantities in the beginning Too. Sorry, is she just a formulator and you had someone else manufacture?
- [12:09]
B
Yeah, she actually has her own like little manufacturing team. So she has like a small team. And I really like her because she's like, she's very responsive and like they're very. They're not like a big company. Right, right. So she manufactures and fills as well. So, you know, I send over our bottles and our packaging from Korea and they fill it and they pack it and send it to our warehouse and in Texas.
- [12:34]
A
Okay, perfect. And then you just found this person just from Googling or just doing your own research?
- [12:39]
B
Intense Googling, like forensic Googling for. It took a few months. I don't even remember how I found her. I just was like, this was before ChatGPT, so I'm like, how did I do anything before that tool existed? And it was just like days of forensic Googling I used to call it. Right. Like, that's how I found her, like on page four of Google search results. Because these people don't have good websites. Like.
- [13:03]
A
Right.
- [13:03]
B
I find the best people in the industry. They don't have a good website because they don't even need one.
- [13:09]
A
Right.
- [13:09]
B
They're so hard to find. Right. It's the ones who like, you know, I think they're kind of dicey and they want your business. They have this beautiful flashy site with all these things. Right. In that industry. So I always look for the, you know, hidden, the hinge apps.
- [13:25]
A
So realistically, how much did it cost you to just start this entire idea? I imagine there's a lot of upfront costs.
- [13:33]
B
Yeah. So it is quite high because, you know, like the just buying inventory and skincare and doing product runs. Very capital intensive.
- [13:42]
A
Sure.
- [13:42]
B
So I think the total cost, you know, I cashed up my retirement, I cashed up my life savings. I was working, you know, in, you know, like high level, like consulting tech, sales. So I took all those savings and invested it in total. It was like 80,000 US to get started.
- [14:00]
A
This includes like the formulation and getting that first batch.
- [14:04]
B
That includes getting the first two products out. Yeah.
- [14:07]
A
Okay. Okay.
- [14:08]
B
Yeah, yeah. And doing like a small, A small run like of a thousand. A thousand units.
- [14:15]
A
So this is a pretty big bet for you. How did you know that it was going to do well?
- [14:21]
B
Yeah. So before I really pulled the trigger on this idea, I did, I'd say about two years of market research.
- [14:28]
A
Okay.
- [14:29]
B
And I primarily use Reddit. I think Reddit is like the best untouched corner of the Internet because there's. It's just like people are so real on there and you have all these niche independent communities and you really can get a really, really deep understanding if you take the time to read through posts every day. You can build an amazing business around problems people are having. Right. So I just, you know, I, I joined all the, the fungal acne subreddit, acne subreddit, skincare addiction to get a deeper understanding of like what those specific problems were. Even though I had an idea from working in beauty, working in Sephora and then later experiencing the problem myself.
- [15:09]
A
Right.
- [15:10]
B
Reddit was really where I turned to and like, you know, I was on there as just like, you know, a civilian, not as a brand with an account like asking questions. It's like what bothers you about skincare? What do you wish was better for acne prone skincare? And you know, that's how I, I came up with the, the whole premise of, you know, like how I would position the brand. Right. And it worked really well. Yeah.
- [15:38]
A
Let me ask you this then. Did you take any pre sales? Like how did you know that it was going to do? Like how did you take that leap of faith to drop 80k? Did you have pre orders? Any like an email list of interested parties or anything like that?
- [15:51]
B
I had nothing. No. So I was one of those people and it did scare me a bit because you know, a lot of people like they build a community, then they launch a brand. Yeah, it's like super common. I had none of that. Like I don't even really have social media. I'm kind of one of those people who's kind of off the grid. Like I just, I just set up my own personal account. So I didn't do pre sales, I didn't do wait lists, I didn't do any of that stuff. I just launched. Right. And I focused on having good on page SEO and people just found us and then it just kind of spiraled organically. Really?
- [16:29]
A
That is so interesting because the students in my class that sell, I would consider this a very competitive niche what you're in, right?
- [16:36]
B
Oh yeah. Probably the worst business to go into for competition because it's just everyone has a skincare brand, including Brad Pitt.
- [16:44]
A
Like, oh, Brad Pitt has one too. I did not know that.
- [16:47]
B
Dude, what are you doing? Yeah, yeah.
- [16:51]
A
Come to think of it, there is one other student in the class that I know of at least that sells like some lip, lip gloss or whatever. I'm pretty sure she just went to one of those companies that just do private label.
- [17:03]
B
Yeah.
- [17:03]
A
And then just you pick and choose what you want and they, and then they make it for you.
- [17:09]
B
Yeah.
- [17:09]
A
Everything is manufactured in the United States. Right. This is not something that you would ever consider making in like China for example, is that?
- [17:16]
B
No, no. And so what's really important and what's key in this industry is a lot of brands and this has become an issue with the, the tariff situation. A lot of brands are actually manufacturing their skincare over in Korea. So and they're working with these big Korean contract manufacturers. It's very cost effective over there because it's hyper competitive. They have the best economies of scale in the world. But one thing I've always been wary of because I'm a paranoid person is owning my IP to my product. Right, right. And also as a student of political science, I'm always scared of tariffs. That's why I, that's why I set up my boxes and my bottles coming from Korea from day one. Because I just, I don't know, I kind of like saw the writing on the wall with the, the political situation. But yeah, like the issue now is brands don't own their IP and it's too expensive to import into the US now from Korea. Like I mean it's better now because he, you know, Mr. D, well it changes every day. But yeah, yeah, he lowered it a bit. But like who knows tomorrow, right? But owning your IP is super, super important. What will happen when you go to a lot of big labs is they won't give you the IP iv. So if you want to go somewhere else, you can't. You're stuck with them. Which to me is like really bad business practice, anti competitive. I mean if you're not making your own formula, it makes sense that they won't own it because it is theirs. Right. If you're just white labeling like you can't own that recipe, of course you come up with it. But if you're paying a lab, you know, if I was to give advice to anyone. If you're paying a lab to make you something net new, then you need to own it. Right. And the bio rights shouldn't be crazy.
- [19:02]
A
I just wanted to take a moment to tell you about a free resource that I offer on my website that you may not be aware of. If you are interested in starting your own online store. I put together a comprehensive six day mini course on how to get started in ecommerce that you should all check out. It contains both video and text based tutorials that go over the entire process of finding products to sell. All, all the way to getting your first Sales online. Now, this course is free and can be obtained@mywifequitterjob.com free. Just sign up right there on the front page via email and I'll send you the course right away. Once again, that's my wifequitterjob.com free. Now back to the show. So how do you protect your ip? Do you have a patent or anything like that, or how does it work?
- [19:46]
B
Yeah, no, so I don't have a patent. I mean, a patent is someone we could potentially pursue. I know it would be heinously expensive, so I'm kind of holding off on that.
- [19:55]
A
Sure.
- [19:56]
B
But like, our, the IP is really, you know, a lot of, it's in my head. There's a huge list of things that we don't use that other brands aren't really tapped into. And it's based on, you know, the research that I, you know, developed over the last few years. So it's kind of hard for people to copy what we do because they just don't know the, the underlying, basically blueprint of why I choose what I do.
- [20:23]
A
Right.
- [20:24]
B
And we also, I mean, in terms of like our protectable ip, we also, you know, we formulate based on, you know, four principles of early acne development, which are oxidative stress, lipid proximation, microbiome dysbiosis and inflammation. Whereas other brands are formulating with exfoliation, killing bacteria.
- [20:42]
A
Right.
- [20:44]
B
It, it's, it's something that, I don't know, brands don't seem interested in doing because they just want to, you know, perpetuate the status quo. And I'm like, I feel like the, for the first brand to really challenge that. And, you know, that's why we've had such a positive response.
- [20:59]
A
When you create a product like this, do you need any certifications or anything from the government to sell it or can you just.
- [21:06]
B
Right.
- [21:07]
A
Can anyone just create a formula and just start selling?
- [21:09]
B
Yeah, yeah, it's a good question. So, I mean, with the fda, there's, there's monograph acne active as per the fda. We don't use any of those. Not because they're bad per se. But, you know, I just feel like the science is moving forward. And as we know, the FDA doesn't. I don't know what they do, but they're not really working. They haven't approved a sunscreen, you know, and over a sunscreen filter in over 40 years. Right. But in terms of like, do, do we need a certification? No, still considered a cosmetic. And the only caveat is that you Know, on our product page we have to be mindful of the claims we make. Right. So even though, you know, we're really targeting and supporting acne prone skin, you know, we can't make claims like treats. Acne at the root just makes acne disappear in 12 hours. You just have to be reasonable about the claims you make. The FDA really goes after people who make egregious claims and last I checked, they haven't gone after anyone like over 10 years. So you just have to be like respectful. Right.
- [22:09]
A
And I'm sure the department got downsized.
- [22:12]
B
Yeah, I don't, I don't think they exist anymore. They seem to be defined. I think the last time they sent out a warning letter was the Obama administration.
- [22:20]
A
Okay.
- [22:20]
B
And that was for like really egregious stuff. Like, you know, melt fat in 12 hours. Like just like crazy stuff. Just really not true. But no, it's considered a cosmetic. Like my, my goal though, you know, when we get funding is to start doing clinicals which are just super, super expensive, to help strengthen our evidence base of what, you know, what we're doing and how it works and how, how effective it is. Like right now that's not feasible.
- [22:45]
A
But yeah, like a huge study. Clinical trial, you mean?
- [22:48]
B
Right, Yeah, I mean not a, not a clinical trial in that we would be, you know, pursuing like a new drug application or like the ingredients and to have them monographed by the fda, because I think that would take probably till I'm like 80 to make its way through the bureaucratic system.
- [23:07]
A
Sure.
- [23:08]
B
But you know, like, in terms of like clinical studies, we mean like, you know, having like a panel of like big 50 people who have hormonal acne and then they're supervised by a clinical team and we follow them for, you know, their starting point and then we measure them at 30, 60, 90 days and then, you know, we can assess and show the evidence. Like photographic. Right. Objective, not self reported. Because in this industry there's a lot of what are called consumer perception studies. And that's when you go on a page and you see a claim like, oh, 80% of consumers agreed it made their skin more hydrated. Or it, you know, that's like perception. It's like you try a product, you give it to someone for free. Of course they're going to say it works.
- [23:47]
A
Sure. Right.
- [23:48]
B
And it's amazing. Right. Because they want to keep getting it. We're not going to do that just because I feel like it's very wishy washy.
- [23:55]
A
It's deceptive to Me?
- [23:57]
B
Yes.
- [23:57]
A
Like, yeah. But anyway, yeah. Okay, so you're going to do it right with a, you know, do it the right way.
- [24:04]
B
Yeah, I want to do it the right way because consumer perception studies, I'm like, what is this even? Right. It's just so people can use numbers because numbers sell. Right. Like, but you can pull numbers from your reviews which are more, far more objective. Right, sure. So yeah.
- [24:21]
A
All right, so you, you drop $80,000 on this without any pre orders and you know, without any influencers. How does one make sales? I think you mentioned Reddit earlier and when I googled your site like there was a lot of Reddit that came up actually. So I'm curious, how did you market this without social media? Which would have been in my instinct, like the first way you would have done this. But you're right, you don't do a lot on social media.
- [24:48]
B
Yeah. So honestly I think it's because the way people, the way our core demographic of customer is searching, they're very problem solution based. These are not people who go into Sephora looking for skincare. They're going on the Internet, they're going on Reddit. So basically, you know, that first customer who found us left us a review and then went and mentioned us on Reddit. Oh, I found this cool new brand and then the second customer found us, you know, they told someone else and they added us to you know, a third party review site like thing testing and then someone added us to skin Sort and we got, you know, I think we have like almost 300 backlinks which I didn't even really know about. Like I just brought on a founding like developer know specialist to the team and he's like, where do you buy all these backlinks? I'm like, what are you talking about? Right? He's like, you have so many backlinks. I'm like, I think it's from like just people linking us because they find us and they're so excited. Right. So it just, it just really was like truly organic. And I know I wouldn't recommend it because I know the first 30 days we were open I didn't have a sale. There was no, I had no sale the first 30 days we were open. But then it slowly started to trickle in and just build and build and build. So I did also, you know, start to go on TikTok like as me, the founder and that really resonated with people just talking about our product over and over, like in a genuine way. And like we built it really like small but, like, engaged following and people talk about us to their friends and other people on forums and stuff. Right?
- [26:33]
A
Yeah. So that is a testament to the product that it works.
- [26:38]
B
Yes.
- [26:38]
A
Right. Okay.
- [26:40]
B
Yeah. I mean, so I, I was always wary of being a brand at the beginning. That went in really, really heavy and hard with, like, marketing and pr, because in this industry, it's really easy to get that first sale. Like, anyone can buy a product once, but, you know, you're. They're buying it because the marketing is good, not the product. And I wanted to make sure that, you know, I built a brand that's product first, like R D first, not marketing first. We're not a marketing, like, brand, even though, you know, we're gonna start to have some good marketing, not just me talking in my sweatshirt on TikTok.
- [27:21]
A
Actually, I watched a couple of those. They're quite convincing. Like the one where you said, hey, you have to buy, like, five products to do what this one bottle does. Right?
- [27:29]
B
And then, yeah, that video did really, really well. And, like, I spent, like, you know, a couple dollars a day to run that as an ad for, like, a year. And it just, like, went kind of viral. Right? Yeah, it was really interesting. Yeah. So I was. I was really, really adamant about, like, at the beginning, no more. It was. I don't know if it's the right decision, but it seems to be working. Like, you know, not really focusing on relying on marketing and, like, vanity metrics and follower count and like, PR and just focusing on, like, having the best product because the best product will literally sell itself. Right.
- [28:13]
A
So that's if it gets discovered. This is an amazing story. So did you end up doing anything in Reddit? Because I know you can't be promotional on Reddit at all.
- [28:22]
B
Right. So I made some posts, like blog posts on Reddit that were resource guides really, like, for adjacent things, like, you know, taking B5 for acne or using a water filter or making your own cleansing oil. Those still get a lot of, like, views. Right. So people do find us that way. And, you know, I'm going to start going back on Reddit again because I got kind of frustrated with it because they launched Reddit ads, which is not up to snuff in terms of.
- [28:56]
A
Okay.
- [28:57]
B
So I, They. I was like, until you guys can fix these, like, problems that you have, I don't really want to, like, participate in, like, you know, promoting on Reddit. But, like, we can totally organically post on Reddit. It's an amazing community. You just. The, the problem is, is, like, the, the mods, which can sometimes be mall cops on, on some boards are don't like when brands go on even when they're trying to be helpful. Like, so say if someone was to mention, like, I got banned from the acne subreddit because someone asked a question about authentic ego and I went to answer it as authentic ego, thinking I was being helpful and they just banned me for life.
- [29:38]
A
Oh, wow.
- [29:39]
B
Yeah, okay. Yeah. From that subreddit. So I can never, I can't even post an ad on acne. Right. And it's just because Ahmad on there is having a bad day or likes to feel in control. Right. And I can't control that. But.
- [29:51]
A
Well, there's whole companies now that market on Reddit for you. Right?
- [29:54]
B
Yeah.
- [29:54]
A
And so the person asking the question is a plant.
- [29:57]
B
Yeah.
- [29:57]
A
And you know, so I think they're just very sensitive to, to all that stuff happening because Google is indexing Reddit now right at the top.
- [30:05]
B
So yeah, I like, I always used to tell people, like, only use Google if you type the word Reddit at the end of what you're typing. Other than that, Google is useless. It's been like that for the last five years, right?
- [30:17]
A
Yeah, Yeah.
- [30:18]
B
I love Reddit. Like, I think it's the last untouched corner of the Internet for sure.
- [30:23]
A
All right, so your expertise seems to lie in creating the product. So I am actually curious what were some of the challenges with creating this? I know you said it took a long time, but what is it like? Do I create a formula? You try it. Is it scientific in the way you decide whether it works or not? How do you tweak the formula? What's the process like?
- [30:45]
B
Right. So yeah, once, you know, you come up with the, I come up with the actives and basically the recipe, I'd have my, my chemist make it and she would make, you know, a first prototype sample and then, you know, I would get, you know, a bunch of it to me and I would have, you know, people I knew, friends, family, neighbors with acne prone skin try it and give me their feedback on like the performance. Right. You know, the moisturizer took a little bit longer to finalize because moisturizer is one of those very personal things. But the serum was like a home run from the very beginning. Like, just like, I've never, I don't think I've ever heard anyone say they don't love the texture, performance of it. Right. Just because the combo of ingredients is there in there, it's very, very different from what you see in most products. But yeah, the process is really just trying it on real people who are experiencing that problem. Right. And trying to get a good cross section of, you know, people to make sure it's good. I mean, and the last step in that is safety testing. So, you know, you want to make sure, you know, the preservative system is effective over a period of time, it's stable over time. And then you can also do dermatologist testing, which is, I think we're going to move away from that because basically what that is is you hire a clinical lab and they will, you know, get like 50 volunteers and they'll apply the product for two weeks on an occluded patch. Right. To make sure no one has a reaction. Well, the thing that brands don't talk about is that they apply it on people's backs so it doesn't reflect real world use. So when you see, you know, skincare that says dermatologist tested, hypoallergenic, non acnegenic, they're testing it on someone's face back, not their face. And to me I'm like, well like obviously you're not, you know, you're putting it on someone's back. And the volunteers, you can't control their age. And I remember when we did it the first time, I see the volunteers age, they're like between 60 and 85. Well, like, of course you're not breaking out. Right, right. So we're pulling, we're pulling back all those claims and we're going to say, you know, we trust on people's faces, not their backs. Because I think we need more transparency in the industry. Because, you know, I'm about to release a tick Tock video talking about that and I know people are going to be shocked. I know I was right. You would think that when you're hiring a lab to test your product, they test it on your face. Nine times out of ten they're not. It's, they're putting it on someone's back and putting a piece of tape over it.
- [33:22]
A
I, I would think that they'd be getting people in your target demographic. Right. If you want them, it, that's not an option.
- [33:29]
B
It, it's hard because these labs have to, you know, rely on people to volunteer and apply. And it's a very low paying thing. Okay, Right. They pay them like probably like, you know, a couple dollars. Like for clinical studies you get a lot of like older retirees looking for supplemental income. It's a pain because you have to go in and have, you know, it Assessed repeatedly. So it's not like exactly something that would be convenient for someone, you know, who's in our target demographic, who's working, who has kids, who's busy. So what we're going to be doing in the future is, you know, I have a panel of people I built and I'm going to send them the product to use on their face in real life.
- [34:10]
A
Right.
- [34:10]
B
And report back to me. Right. To make sure that, you know, they're tolerating it well and it works.
- [34:17]
A
So Christina, knowing what you know today, I mean, you've gone through the entire process. What would you have done differently? Like let's say actually, you know, just the other day someone did email me wanting to create their own skincare product. I wasn't sure what type to classify. I assume it would be like research led and whatnot. What advice would you give someone, like if you were to do this all over again? What were some of the mistakes that you made?
- [34:41]
B
I think in the beginning I was very scared of going on social media and I should have just been doing it really early. Just going on like every day talking about like what I'm building in a way that's customer focused, like so for a long time I had, you know, a conflict that, you know, I see all these founder led brands, especially skincare, beauty, makeup, where it seems to be all about the founder and I was very obsessed. Well, I don't want it to be about me. I want to be about my customers. Like, Right. So I shied away from social media, but I didn't realize that I'm really just the conduit to making it about the customer. Right. So I now realize that like I was a bit too black and white in my thinking at the beginning. So I, I definitely would advise anyone at the beginning, you do have to show up on social media consistently. You do have to practice, you do have to, you know, go on there as often as possible. And it's one of those things where it's easy to not do it because you get so busy doing so many other things. Right. The other thing I would do is, you know, bring on people earlier. So now I have a team of four other people I brought on. Just like in the last two months. I was worried for the longest time that no one would want to join this business. But you know, it turns out like people are really excited. I have an amazing co founder now and someone just joined to help scale Medicaid in the past who sold to l' Oreal for a billion dollars. Right. So like, people are excited to join the brand, but it just, I think it's just a matter of, like being confident. Right. You know, I think you get that imposter syndrome and you're like, oh, no one's going to want to join my startup or like equity and. No Bay. Yeah, right. But people get excited by that. Right. So just like understanding that, like, if you are solving a real problem, people are going to want to be part of that journey.
- [36:39]
A
And in terms of creating your formulation, was. Would you. Did you feel that 80k was about average or did you spend more than average? Like, what would be the bare minimum if you need to. If you wanted to start your own skincare line with a custom formulation?
- [36:56]
B
I mean, per SKU, you're looking at 25,000 US.
- [37:02]
A
Okay.
- [37:03]
B
SKU, right. I mean, it, it really depends on your skill set, what the startup costs are going to be. So if you can, like build up your own website, take your own photos on the cheap, which I think is a lot easier now than it was four years ago. Sure. Of course, you can do it for way less than what I did. Like, you know, I'm very much like a technical person, like, sciencey. I was not. Like, I didn't really even know how to use Instagram.
- [37:30]
A
Right.
- [37:30]
B
You know, I didn't know how to use a Shopify store when I started, so I, I was paying someone to help me build that out.
- [37:36]
A
Right.
- [37:37]
B
But you know, I think like, if you want to start your own skincare brand, you're looking at bare minimum 50,000 US.
- [37:43]
A
Okay.
- [37:43]
B
And that's to launch with like one to two SKUs that are net new, not just a white label.
- [37:50]
A
Right, right.
- [37:51]
B
Because there's also the cost of, you know, the primary and secondary packaging, the testing, the brokerage freeze to get, you know, bottles across the ocean. And then you're looking at like your 3 PL.
- [38:04]
A
Let me ask you about that, actually. Why did you get bottles from Korea?
- [38:10]
B
So I chose to source from Korea because I was concerned at the time about a terror situation happening. And I know it was 2021 and it was way before it happened, but, you know, I had been following that story from, like, I followed politics very closely and I was like, oh, like they're gonna get rid of the de minimis thing. Like, it's kind of going, it's going to be bad, there's going to be a trade war. It's like intellectual. So that, that's why I chose a source from Korea. Right. I mean, foolishly, I thought Korea would be exempt from Any, like, tariff, like wars, and they're not. But, I mean, it's at. They're at 15% as of today.
- [38:48]
A
Right. Which is way lower than the 55.
- [38:50]
B
Yes. Yeah. So it's not too bad. So, I mean, the. The quality in. In China is just as good as Korea. Korea, right. And, like, let's be honest, most components in Korea are sourced from China. So, you know, in one way or another, stuff comes from China. Most. Most ingredients in skincare come from China. So all the raw material components that make up a formula, I'd say it's like 80 that are actually coming from China.
- [39:22]
A
Okay.
- [39:22]
B
Yeah.
- [39:23]
A
And then in terms of finding the suppliers in Korea, how did you find those?
- [39:31]
B
I looked in some, you know, industry magazines and trade magazines online, and just I did, like, you know, forensic Googling again. And I found this, you know, not a huge, huge supplier. Someone who'd be willing to work with, you know, a small startup and do lower MOQs, because a lot of the, you know, I looked at, you know, sourcing domestically, and I just. I didn't. I just hit a dead end. No one would give me the time of day. They're like, oh, our moq is like, 50,000 bottles. And it's like, oh, my God. Yeah, that's not gonna happen. So, like, this supplier, the MOQ, was 5,000, which is very reasonable. You know, it seems high, but, like, for. For a bottle that is that great of quality and customized and, you know, has all the matte coating and everything, that's. That's a really good, you know, feel, and I built a really good relationship with them.
- [40:21]
A
So what's funny is you did all this stuff when there was no tariffs or nothing from China. Did you look at China at all, or.
- [40:28]
B
I did, I did, but I. When I got. And I got samples. So I would always recommend someone to get samples of just the bottles to look at the architecture of how they're made. Like, I'm super technical. Like, I. Like, I have them here. Like, I don't want to be that person. And I remember working for as, like, you get an airless pump, and you have to pump it, like, 50 times for product to come out. I was like, I don't want that to be the customer experience. So I would get samples from suppliers, and this was the highest quality one I could find. So that's who I went with. And it's a mono material, so it's somewhat recyclable, but, you know, compared to things with a metal pump, spring pump.
- [41:05]
A
So, Christina, what lies in the future of authentic ego. So you mentioned perhaps getting funding, doing the clinical testing. What do you have a whole bunch of products in the pipeline or.
- [41:19]
B
Yeah. So I mean we were approached by a VC a few months ago who was really interested in what we were doing and I was like so flattered and like honored that they reached out to me and wanted to talk and like build an early relationship because they like, you know, the gap that we're feeling, like the white space that needs to be filled in the market. So you know, they're like, you got to build a team, you gotta, you know, 10x your revenue and then like come back to us. Right? That's essentially my goal. You know how we're gonna get there. So I, I mean I have an amazing team now. I have a co founder, I have someone who's helping with strategy and growth. You know, we have a creative director, we have someone specializing in like our IT and like back end stuff. But you know, I think in the future like what we're going to be doing, focusing on in the near future, it's Kickstarter, right? So we, we decided we're going to launch a Kickstarter in September and that's because we need to basically fund more SKU development because there's huge, huge like pent up demand from the customers. Like I want a cleanser, I want a serum for this, I want a product for this, I want this. And I'm like, oh my gosh, like it just, it's going to take like a lot of capital to finance that inventory. Right? And like we have such a strong community of backers that we decided like Kickstarter is the best way to go. I mean another route one could take is like angel investing. But you know, I think because we have like such a strong community and people want to be part of this journey where we're going with Kickstarter. So we're going to be launching that like in the middle of September and that's going to help us kind of accelerate and exponentially grow over the next 18 months to 24 months. That's our.
- [43:04]
A
Does this product work on teenagers or is it meant for adults?
- [43:09]
B
It does work on teenagers, yeah. I mean a lot of times teenager acne is a little bit more simple and that it's, you know, you have a bit, a bit, you know, excess oil production and sebum build up and it's not really inflammatory in nature. I do have like, you know, like, you know, parents who reach out to me and ask, you know, is Continuous. Absolutely. It's super gentle. But you know, I don't specifically market to teenagers just because I guess I'm a mom and I don't want to, I don't want to be targeting to kids and teens. You know what I mean? I just feel like it crosses an ethical line. I don't want kids or teens to ever think they need to use something. Right. I feel like it's something the parents should help them with. I don't know, maybe a bit old fashioned that way. But you know, we do have like people younger, on the younger side using our product.
- [43:59]
A
Product. I might pick up a bottle for my daughter. That's why I'm asking for personal reasons.
- [44:04]
B
Yeah, yeah, I'll send, I'll definitely send you some.
- [44:08]
A
Well, Christina, thank you so much for sharing your journey.
- [44:11]
B
Thank you.
- [44:12]
A
It's crazy that we spoke what, four years ago. I, I think you, you joined in 2021 and then you launched in 2023, which means it took a full two years for you to come up with your formulation, right?
- [44:23]
B
That's right. Yeah. And, and a lot of that was I was working full time and I was funneling a lot of the money I made in my job to, to building the business.
- [44:34]
A
Wow.
- [44:35]
B
So I was hustling by day to make commission because I was working in sales, like enterprise sales at the time and then, and then like pharma consulting and then just using it on the back end to fund the business. So. Yeah.
- [44:51]
A
Well, for anyone listening, and it sounds like this is actually a widespread problem. So for anyone listening, where can people find your products online and where's the best place to purchase them? Are you're not on Amazon, right? Is it a website only store? Okay.
- [45:03]
B
I'm never Amazon person. Don't get me started on them. So we only sell direct consumer through our website, authentic ego.com that's where you can find us. We do have international shipping that's, you know, I try and keep as affordable as possible. I apologize for the tariffs. I, I cry every day that they're there. But yeah, just direct on our website and we have new products coming soon and we're going to be launching a Kickstarter so people can find us there and, and follow us and like I'm always available for, you know, to answer any questions people have.
- [45:41]
A
Well, thank you so much, Christina. It's, it's amazing. I love it when things come full circle and I'm so glad that you agreed to come on this podcast.
- [45:51]
B
Yeah, thank you. I'm so happy. Thanks so much Steve.
- [45:55]
A
Hope you enjoyed this episode. I believe Christina recently redesigned her website. For more information and resources, go to my wife quitterjob.com Episode 613 Once again, tickets to the Seller Summit 2026 are now on sale over at sellers summit.com if you want to hang out in person in a small intimate setting, develop real relationships with like minded entrepreneurs and learn a ton, then come to my event. Go to sellersummit.com and if you're interested in starting your own e commerce store, head on over to my wife quitherjob.com and sign up for my free 6 day mini course. Just type in your email and I'll send the course right away via email.