Janet Milner - Walker

Before you invest in producing your beauty product, make sure you have answered these five questions.

1. Is there a real customer need?
Being excited about your idea is a starting point. Understanding why someone would buy it is what matters.

2. Is your proposition clear?
What makes your product different, relevant and worth choosing over the alternatives?

3. Have you tested the concept?
Gather meaningful feedback on the product idea, claims, positioning and price before committing to a large production run.

4. Does the product work commercially?
Understand your costs, target retail price, margins, minimum order quantities and investment requirements.

5. Do you know how you will sell it?
Your route to market should inform product decisions from the beginning, not become an afterthought once production is complete.

Product development is about more than creating something wonderful. It is about creating something people want, at a price that works, with a realistic route to market.

The decisions you make before production can shape the future of your brand.
And if you are looking for support with developing your brand – DM me.

A beautiful product is not enough to build a successful beauty brand.

I see so much creativity, passion and innovation in this industry. But the brands that succeed commercially understand something important: a great product is only the beginning.

You also need to know who you are selling to, why they should choose you, where your product belongs, how you will reach your customer and whether the numbers actually work.

Product excellence gets you into the conversation. Commercial strategy helps you build a business.

For founders building their next beauty brand, this is worth thinking about before investing heavily in product development, packaging or marketing.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing beauty founders today?

On Wednesday evening I had the pleasure of attending Beyond Business Success with Natalie Cheesman and Lee MQueen hosted in the beautiful offices of St James’s Place, with amazing views across London.

Natalie is a financial advisor - a super important job, particularly for those of us running a business. Lee is an entrepreneur - and he won the Apprentice and ran a business with Lord Sugar, followed by launching several of his own businesses including Elite Retreats, which is a really interesting business.

It is not often that I arrive at an event, only to find that I have totally nailed the dress code!

Natalie shared some valuable insights on planning for wealth as a business owner, while Lee spoke openly about his journey as an entrepreneur and the importance of health as the foundation for creating and sustaining wealth.

It was a great reminder that business success is about more than building a successful company.

It’s also about building the health, wealth and life that support the people behind the business. Being healthy is the foundation to living a great life - without our health, what is the point of anything else.

Thank you all for a very inspirational evening!

An Interesting New Chapter for Boots.

Having worked in beauty buying at Boots earlier in my career, I've watched the retailer evolve through many different chapters.

So, the news that Wittington Investments, the holding company of Canada's Weston family, is acquiring Boots in a US$8.9bn deal is particularly interesting to me.

This is another significant change for Boots, just over a year after it became a standalone business following the acquisition of Walgreens Boots Alliance by Sycamore Partners and Stefano Pessina.

But what interests me most isn't the ownership change. It's what the new owners will do with the opportunity.

The Weston family brings significant experience across retail, pharmacy and beauty through businesses including Loblaw and Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada, as well as previous ownership of Selfridges.

And Boots has some very powerful assets to build on: A trusted British brand with a huge customer base, a significant store estate, deep expertise in pharmacy and healthcare and a strong position in beauty and digital.

The new owners have already talked about further investment and a long-term focus.

For beauty, that could mean opportunities to rethink everything from the product mix and customer experience to innovation, NPD and how beauty works across physical and digital retail.

So, the question isn't simply: Who owns Boots?
It's: What will Boots become next? And I can’t wait to see how this unfolds.

There is a stage in building a beauty business that can feel incredibly uncomfortable.

You have the idea.

You can see the brand in your head.

You’re excited about the product.

You’ve probably spent hours thinking about the name, packaging, ingredients and Instagram.

But will people actually buy it?

Many founders believe they need more certainty.

More research.

More opinions.

Another supplier meeting.

Another packaging option.

Another conversation.

But sometimes what you actually need is to test the right things with the right people.

Before committing to significant time and money.

Before building a huge range. Before investing heavily into marketing.

Before assuming your customer will love what you love.

You don’t need to have everything figured out before you start.

But you do need to know what to validate.

Because confidence doesn’t come from guessing.

It comes from evidence.

✨ What a wonderful evening with Aromaria.

On Wednesday, we brought the Beauty to Life community together for a very special evening of fragrance, creativity and connection at Aromaria’s beautiful flagship store in Piccadilly.

From exploring different fragrance notes and accords to creating our own bespoke scent, it was such a lovely opportunity to step away from the day-to-day and experience the creativity behind fragrance for ourselves.

Here’s to more evenings like this — bringing great people together, discovering new brands and creating meaningful connections. 🥂✨