DIANA VREELAND once said: “Luck is infatuated with the efficient.” Tyffanie Short, CEO and founder of One Earth Organics, seems to have luck on her side, and the beauty products she sells (and uses), hide all the hard work that went into propelling the brand from Instagram to Beauty Bar and Watsons.
BusinessWorld attended the launch of One Earth’s Beauty Blends 5D last month in BGC. Beauty Blends 5D is a series of serums that one can mix and match according to their needs. The series includes Radiance (designed for intense brightening, made with grape extract, beta glucan, magnesium ascorbyl phosphate, and hyaluronic acid); Eternal (to combat aging, made with vitamins C and E); Clarity (exfoliation multitasker); Renascence (plumping and peeling), and Purity (ultra-hydration). The whole set costs P1,895, with each priced at P429.
Ms. Short’s products, according to her, use all-natural and organic ingredients. “It’s more potent.” Furthermore, the fact that she uses organic ingredients minimizes her environmental impact. She also engages in fair-trade purposes for her local ingredients, such as organic coconut oil.
It took four years for Ms. Short to launch this product, as she had been busy building the brand and letting the items hit shelves. The Filipino brand has some status via its selling activities on Facebook and Instagram, but that wasn’t enough for Ms. Short. “When you start online, people would always question your credibility.”
Ms. Short created the product in 2012, starting with an underarm kit — which includes a spray, a serum, and a cream — which she said began with her own insecurities with her underarms. In addition to that, she said that she suffered from psoriasis. Frustration with the products in the market for her sensitive skin led her to research on plant-based skincare ingredients. “I didn’t have a college degree,” she said.
Armed with an idea, she approached a friend who just so happened to have a laboratory and together, they developed the products. In the earlier part of the decade, she sold her skincare products online, as we mentioned; but also worked the bazaar circuit.
“The bazaars were a huge thing already for me.” In 2017, One Earth began to be stocked on SSI’s Beauty Bar shelves. Asked how she did it, she said, “It wasn’t easy. Beauty Bar was known to have all imported brands. When we got in, we were just the third local brand.”
She talked about the two months of preparation just to get to pitch their product, and the additional five months of preparation and negotiation to finally get them on the shelves. This helped them get to Watsons, which they only entered this year.
While it took them only a month to make their pitch this time (she said that their presence in Beauty Bar helped), six months went into the preparation and negotiation.
“Luck, prayers — we literally just went there, tried our luck, and presented,” she said — making the whole process sound simple (obviously, it was not).
Ms. Short mentioned being a single teenage mom at one point during the interview, and we’ve mentioned her lack of a college degree. That kind of story doesn’t usually end well in this country, but there she was at her launch, in one of this city’s skyscrapers, surrounded by friends and guests, and shelves and shelves of her beauty products.
“It started from my own insecurities. I just thought that I could help other women.” — Joseph L. Garcia
