In early May, set against a sun-soaked Bathers’ Pavilion in Sydney’s north, PB’s Editor-in-Chief Hannah Gay joined Medik8’s Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder Daniel Isaacs for lunch.
An update on Medik8’s performance
For Daniel, catching up with the media was simply part and parcel during this coveted Australia visit. And with global interest in Medik8 gathering steam in recent years, Daniel’s schedule was busier than ever. “Business is going very well. The US is a new market, and growing as you’d hope. [Globally], we’re approximately 40-50% up in terms of growth from last year,” Daniel revealed in his poised English accent. “The D2C channel is growing very well, and the US market is supporting a lot of that growth. But all of our established markets, all of our professional channel markets, are doing very well.” Australia is considered one of the brand’s largest, and has been distributed here by Advanced Cosmeceuticals Skin Group since its original Australian launch.
His hope is that the brand’s professional efficacy and story of science is translated effectively across the regions, while protecting the professional exclusivity and treatment side of the brand. “We’ve got quite a consistent brand message and product philosophy that is very much international. [We can speak] to the global consumer on a fundamental level. It’s easy for us to tell that story in lots of different environments.”
Daniel Isaacs: A day in the life
Story-telling, it seems, is one of Daniel’s greatest strengths as the unofficial face of the brand in which he co-founded with his brother, Elliot back in 2009. In addition to speaking gigs, Daniel’s role involves acting as the bridge between media, clinic and client feedback and Medik8’s sophisticated, UK-based R&D team. “It’s understanding what’s happening in [the beauty journalists’] world, and I’m very hands on then for R&D when it comes back to the business in terms of product.”
“We’re scientific-led and research-led, but we’re also very consumer and market and professionally-led, and it’s quite hard to do all of those things. The big part of my role is bridging those gaps so that we can really understand what the market and the consumer needs, whilst also being very focused on our own kind of technical innovation projects. That’s where we have the biggest success, and has been the theme of our recent launches,” Daniel explained.
The power of retinaldehyde
The Medik8 range is extensive, with Vitamin A a notable pillar. Over 80% of the brand’s retinoid-centric SKUs sold come from its best-selling Crystal Retinal line, which goes on to make up a further 20-30% of total sales out of the business. Its unique point of difference? Opting to hero retinaldehyde, thereby redefining the gold standard ingredient, retinol. Daniel is proud of Medik8’s work with the pioneering ingredient, noting it to be “the best possible version in terms of stability and irritation”. “It [provides] good long-term skin health. You don’t want sensitisation, or barrier disruption, because then you’re creating new problems. Retinaldehyde avoids all of that, and it’s still so active,” Daniel said.
In the early days, communicating the benefits of the vitamin A subtype proved more challenging compared to today, with Daniel admitting he and the brand have always “set a very high bar for ourselves”. Because of the brand’s increasing potency, Daniels sees that customers have grown to expect this… and then some. So much so, Medik8 unveiled a sixth installment to its Crystal Retinal line – Crystal Retinal 24 – for distribution by professionals only. “People have great long-term journeys with the product because they go from one step to another,” benefiting the user and the stockist alike. A customisable, Crystal Retinal Age-Defying Facial was also rolled out in salons earlier this year.
Once the brand’s full range is tallied – inclusive of moisturisers, cleansers, toners, and other serum types – Medik8 today houses a retail product line-up in the dozens. “We’ve been able to be very forward-thinking and leading in those timeless anti-ageing categories, but also have a very contemporary portfolio that can speak to the very latest trends or ingredient conversations.” Consistently luxurious in nature, Daniel and his team refer to the range as “five star”.
Medik8 on skincare trends
The brand’s most recent launch is also proving to be one of its all-time most successful: Liquid Peptides Advanced MP. The serum introduces a breakthrough in ingredient innovation with MiniProteins. “It was recently confirmed as the number one prestige skincare launch in the UK this year, so we’re excited to keep that going and do more with the technology. We’re very active in the research to keep using this next generation peptide,” Daniel shared.
The product’s launch mirrors a growing interest in the use of peptides in skincare, and while very pro-trend, Daniel said Medik8 isn’t led by such. “We’re led by science and research. But by using and understanding those trends, we can tailor innovation towards what’s happening and what are the latest [skin] concerns. We’re asking, ‘are there any emerging ingredient trends that are relevant to what’s happening in the consumer space that are also valid from a scientific perspective?’ We think about our product range as being both science and trend aware, and market optimised – particularly with our CSAs (Vitamin C, Sunscreen, and Vitamin A routine) – which are our timeless product categories,” or as Daniel describes them: the heavy-lifters. “We’ll always be looking at science to enhance those products and those ingredients in that area of the range.”
“A lot of what is informing the trends, particularly now, is coming from the professional space, the aesthetic arena,” Daniel admits. “But there’s also bioengineering, biotech, which is launching all new kinds of interesting active ingredients. You’ve got these synergies now between professional treatments and home care, which is really interesting, as well as much more accessible devices. People are going into clinic and wanting home care to complement their results. There’s so much, and we’re looking at the next generations of our timeless ingredients; there’s so much to go after.”
“We’ve been able to be very forward-thinking and leading in those timeless anti-ageing categories, but also have a very contemporary portfolio that can speak to the very latest trends or ingredient conversations.”
On consumer behaviours
With social media behind the explosion in skincare discourse of late, Daniel appears unfazed, instead taking a positive view on consumers’ increasing ingredient knowledge. “I think it’s great that people are making smarter decisions. My brother and I were on the right side of history. Ingredients, the truth, and the science of skincare was very much under the radar. There was a lot of misleading communications [around] the kind of benefits that products promised. We feel that having an educated consumer has been fantastic for us as a brand and a business.”
“Consumers themselves are able to spend their money wisely, although this creates a new set of issues in people overdoing it. You don’t need to have a 10-step routine. You can simplify, and have those great results. That’s very much been the drum we’ve been banging for many years. We can also be a brand that people can turn to to validate the new good stuff versus the pseudoscientific stuff, so we can influence some of the thinking around these trends, because we’ve got the expertise to speak to that.”
Navigating the snags in product development
Product development and manufacturing occurs entirely in-house and in close proximity to one another. Daniel said this allows for formulation precision at high quality standards, “but also with the flexibility to have lots of different versions, and the manufacturing agility to do that”.
On the question of how the Medik8 team deals with ‘snags’ in the production process, Daniel views such with optimism. “I love the snags! The snags, for me, are the best bit, because when you hit a blocker – whether it’s technical, it’s in a formulation, whatever… – that is an opportunity. That is where we can then solve that problem, innovate, and bring that to market. And that’s what we’ve done with Crystal Retinal. We hit loads of snags… it’s very difficult to formulate with, very unstable. In fact, we don’t really launch a product unless there has been some kind of blocker that we’ve seen, either in the competitor landscape or in our own research.”
The near-future for Medik8
The company also remains one of few globally recognised as B-Corp, with even fewer in the professional space. Medik8 undergoes re-auditing every few years in order to retain this credential – something Daniel remains committed to. “[We] have clear targets, from ethical practice, to how we treat our staff, to environmental targets, and we have a sustainability team that’s very much at the heart of all of our development conversations. It’s very much a part of our thinking: ‘how is this ingredient sourced?’, ‘how can we make the packaging better, less wasteful, and more recyclable?’” He said to expect more recyclable packaging and the rolling out of a new refillable jar. These environmental considerations, Daniel believes, are highly valued by clinic partners.
Daniel remains cool in the face of competition, citing Medik8’s unique position merging professional efficacy with luxury experiences. In fact, competitor brands launching their own retinaldehyde serums serve only to raise the awareness of the ingredient, he said. “People naturally gravitate to the leading brand, so we don’t really worry about market share. A lot of what we do is about making sure we’ve got communications on our existing products, as much as the newness.” And while innovation forms the backbone of the brand, Daniel doesn’t produce new products just for the sake of it. “We put a lot into new trials and making slight tweaks to our existing products so they stay relevant and top of mind for people, and are addressing the latest claims.”
Advanced Cosmeceuticals Skin Group is set to launch Medik8’s latest NPDs this June and September, although Daniel remained tight-lipped on the details. “And we are working on sunscreens,” he revealed. “You will rarely find TGA-approved manufacture outside of Australia, but we’re so committed to this market and want to get to [Australians] the proper claims and policy standards.”
“We like to keep our finger on the pulse down here, so we’re going to be [in Australia] a lot more.”
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