Chloe Zhu had the brilliant idea of starting up her own company – Glowie – during one of Sydney’s 2021 lockdown periods when she couldn’t make her way into the salon for a fresh manicure. Since then the young entrepreneur has grown her Aussie based eCommerce company from the ground up. Ariana Pezeshki spoke with Chloe about her passion that fuelled her brand into what it is today.
Sydney based content creator and 21-year-old multi-business owner Chloe Zhu is no stranger when it comes to creative ideas and starting businesses.
From studying finance and a computer science degree under her belt, and teaching high school students to then working in social media, she turned her passion for beauty into her very own eCommerce business. In her young years, her career has already started on an interesting trajectory. “I truly have found my passion and couldn’t be more fulfilled with what I do.”
Chloe’s brand Glowie came about during the June to September lockdown in Sydney during the pandemic. During the lockdown, Chloe was in need of self-care products to step up her nail game outside of the salon and she had the idea to create her own press-on nails. “Glowie is an Australian beauty company, that creates innovative beauty solutions through salon-grade DIY products, starting with our flagship product called our press on nail palettes, which give you an instant manicure in 10 minutes that look salon done.”
When Glowie first began in 2021, Chloe felt the need to create a brand of press on nails that were not yet available on the Australian market, which was salon quality press on’s that were both trendy and easy to apply. “I’ve always dreamed of starting my own beauty brand ever since I was in high school obsessing over pretty makeup packaging — but never thought it was something that would be possible for me,” said Chloe.
During her research stages of the business, Chloe said, “I came across press on nails and thought they were a brilliant idea. But whilst they were great in concept, they did not work for me at all — the sizes were too big and not inclusive, they barely lasted an hour, and they also looked fake when applied.”
“I knew there was so much potential in this product as a pricey and time-consuming alternative. So I thought — what if I was able to make press on’s in trendy designs, that actually worked? And so, I went back home, got on my laptop, and started furiously researching the product, manufactures, trends etc. — and that’s when Glowie was born,” said Chloe.
Glowie is Chloe’s first endeavour in the beauty industry and as a young entrepreneur, she faced her fair share of challenges beginning the brand from the ground up. “This was my first time entering a completely new space, and there were so many things I had to learn when it came to finding the right supplier and marketing the brand.”
“Luckily, I had saved up enough money from tutoring students and my education company to invest my own capital into the business, so I’m extremely grateful that it wasn’t a huge financial risk for me.”
Chloe also admitted the challenges of finding the right supplier with salon quality press on’s they wanted for the brand, she said, “this was also a big learning curve, as many press on nails in the market are very flimsy, poorly shaped, and have untrendy looking designs which were exactly the status quo we wanted to see reshaped.”
As a young business owner, Glowie leveraged the power of organic virility to launch the brand into the hands of consumers with TikTok. “A month before launching, I started posting about my journey and product on TikTok, and we went viral! This gave us so many eyeballs to our small business at such an early stage and we were able to start building a community around our brand,” said Chloe.
“I think people were really drawn to the trendy designs that we had in our unique packaging which took months to create the mould for, and we really went hard on our launch strategy to make sure that people were ready to buy on the day that the product was released.” With this strategy, Glowie sold 13,000 in sales within the first 24 hours of launching, which is an impressive achievement for a new beauty business, and demonstrates the power of social media in the beauty industry today.
Chloe went on to say, “I have never been prouder to be an Australian founder and I truly hope that all Aussies get the same joy as I did when I first saw the transformation of my hands after applying my first ever samples! It’s like that feeling of walking out of the salon with a fresh set of nails.” Glowie’s goal is for customers to have the best experience from the product to the shipping and customer service aspects of the brand.
In terms of the company’s long-term goals, Chloe would love for the brand, Glowie, to be a household name and the go-to brand for press on nails in Australia to make DIY beauty products and beauty routine’s easier.
Glowie is currently available exclusively online at www.glowiebyher.com, but the brand has exciting plans up its sleeves for 2023, including pop-up shops throughout the year as well as focusing heavily on consumer channels to create the best possible beauty brand experience for customers. “In 2023, we’re focusing heavily on both solidifying our foundations by improving our product even more, and on growth,” said Chloe.
“As a Gen Z company, we are very much driven by the latest nail trends, particularly celebrity nail styles! Following current trends is an important business model for Glowies’ success, with Chloe mentioning the popularity of the ‘glazed nail trend” popularised by model, Hailey Bieber’s nail artist, Zola Ganzorigt. “In fact, we actually saw that chrome nails were becoming a trend on TikTok before Hailey [Bieber] wore them, so we were able to get them manufactured and available to customers right away with our first drop of the ‘Hailey’ nails selling out in an hour, and then again in 15 minutes when we were able to restock!”
The future of Glowie seems bright, thanks to the power of social media and Chloe keeping on top of the next big trends. Chloe said, “as a brand, I think it’s so important to listen to our customers, and hear what they want to see next, so a lot of our designs are inspired by what our amazing community has asked for us to make.”
“Early next year, we’re also releasing a collection ‘Glowie by You’, which is a collection designed by our customers and everyday people from all different backgrounds as part of our inclusivity and diversity campaign. It’s like an influencer collection — but with regular people and we really wanted to give back to our community by involving them as part of the design process.”
In the future, Glowie hopes to keep making its mark as a leader in the press on nail space by experimenting with more designs and utilising the organic power of TikTok. Chloe’s advice to young Aussie entrepreneurs is to just get started and leverage TikTok, she said, “learning how to create captivating content and communicate your brands’ story online is such a powerful skill that can be applied in so many different ways with social media marketing being the key driver of sales for businesses in our generation.”
This article first appeared in the January-February 2023 print issue of Professional Beauty.
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