Vol. 4 - Estée Lalonde, MIRROR WATER

You're going to want to 'Estée' put for this one. Today i sit down with the exceptional founder of MIRROR WATER to discuss her journey from creator to founder!

Meet Estée:

Where do I even begin here?!

Beauty brand founder. Lifestyle creator. Self care advocate. British Beauty Council Advisory Board. The human wikipedia on all things Beauty. A fantastic human. ✔️

Estée Lalonde is a name synonymous with the beauty space.

She first captured attention over a decade ago with her relatable YouTube videos, blending beauty tutorials with honest conversations about anxiety and self-reflection. By remaining her true authentic, approachable self, she now boasts a 2 million+ strong community across her social platforms, all of whom are drawn to her relatability and belief in the power of small, personalised rituals to create moments of joy.

In recent years, Estée’s journey has evolved. A true entrepreneur, Estée couldn’t let an idea lay dormant any longer and took the leap to start her own brand that embodied her ethos of fostering self-reflection and encouraging ‘realistic relaxation’. So in 2020, a couple months prior to the outbreak of the Covid19 pandemic, she launched MIRROR WATER, a bodycare brand born from her love of bathing and a desire for products that prioritise natural ingredients and grounding scents.

Since its launch, the brand has garnered acclaim from outlets like Vogue, Sheerluxe, WWD and more and is available in renowned stores, including Liberty London, SpaceNK, Earl of East and many others. The brand has grown from strength to strength. At the risk of oversharing, i don’t have a bath without it! MIRROR WATER is a brand that acts as my antidote to the stresses of daily life and a way for me to leave behind the manicness! And I’m not alone. 56% of young adults (yes i am still classing myself as one of those) say they feel stressed most days! MW helps. Trust me. So thanks Estée!

Beyond MIRROR WATER, Estée continues to make waves in the beauty world as a member of the British Beauty Council Media Advisory Board, a brand ambassador for major names like Lancôme, and a collaborator with Daisy London on multiple best-selling jewellery collections.

She simply doesn’t stop!

The Interview:

What inspired you to start MIRROR WATER?

I spent a lot of time trying to get to the root of who I was because I've experienced a lot of anxiety and depression in my life. And I find that with so much going on in the world, it's hard to hear those inner thoughts.

I realised that I was doing a lot of that self-reflection when I was in the bath, in the shower or just spending time during my beauty rituals. For me, those are the times when I can completely disconnect from the world and tune into myself.

This realisation led me to start looking for brands that I could use to elevate my experience, but I discovered very few tackling that. Instead many of the bath and body care brands were a little bit dusty. So that's sort of where I started to get inspired and it kind of grew from there.

What were some of the challenges of going from creator/influencer to founder?

Honestly, I am still challenged by that every single day. First of all it is amazing to have had that platform to start off the brand. I don't know how people do it without a platform, because it is so hard to get a new business off the ground. However, having a pre-existing platform also comes with its own challenges when launching a brand.

For example, you start with so many eyeballs on you right out of the gate. Brands, products etc. take time to form, but in many ways I had to get those little knots out of the way immediately and have my shit together straight away. Which I didn't!

I will say it's amazing to have the experience as a creator because I know all about that world. But I would say a lot of people think that just because I was a creator with an amazing platform that I would sort of launch a brand and it would be an instant overnight success. But that's really not the case.

I depend so much on my audience to help support the growth of MIRROR WATER, but at the same time my community doesn't follow me for MIRROR WATER. They want access to my life and other types of content. So, it's a balancing act. I would say when I launched the brand it was particularly difficult to get that right because I was so excited about what I was doing and just wanted to talk about it all the time.

You have to wear totally different hats and do things from a completely different perspective when switching between roles. I had to learn how to be a founder and everything that comes with that. But I think I now understand the brand side more and the creator side more.

And then comes the task of trying to figure out how to fuse those two worlds.

Has it given you a bigger appreciation for brand and creator relationships?

Hugely. I used to look at a brand and see them being stocked in retailers like SpaceNK and think, ‘they must be making millions of pounds every single year so why can't they afford to pay me for one Instagram post’. Now I'm realizing that that's actually not the only marker of success. And the overheads of running a beauty brand are truly higher than I ever could have imagined. So now I see things from a completely different point of view.

Instead these days I find myself thinking things like "Wow, look at that packaging. Look at everything it took to bring that product to market." And I do really appreciate the product journey a lot more and see them as more than products. I don’t think I appreciated products as much before I had my own brand.

Because of that, I actually think in so many ways it's made me a better creator now that I understand what truly goes into brands you see on the shelves and therefore try to take more time to do as much as I can to help those smaller brands starting out.

What is different about being a founder than you expected?

Being a founder is basically being a full-time problem solver. Every day there is a new obstacle and I’m not exaggerating. What’s important is not getting too overwhelmed and thinking logically about how to move forward. On any given day I am managing all types of issues from operations to product development etc. I have learned to be comfortable in the chaos of it all, but wow what a learning curve!

What do you wish you knew before entering the beauty/wellness industry?

How much work goes into managing retail partnerships. That's a specific thing, but I think that's something that's weighing on me a lot at the moment.

Getting into retailers is one thing and that's a struggle in itself, but then once you're stocked in a retailer, you have to have the resources to be able to maintain that relationship and help it grow.

We are lucky to be stocked in a number of retailers like SpaceNK, Liberty, Niche Beauty, Oh My Cream! and more, managing every single retailer relationship as a small team is extremely time consuming. Especially when you don't have high budgets.

Things like training the retailer's staff as one example. Who's going to train all of the SpaceNK staff about MIRROR WATER? Ultimately, it's going to me. When am I realistically going to have time to do that consistently between all of the other things that need to get done in a given day.

There is a lot that goes into it and it's important to have a plan on how to grow it. Because once you’re in, you need to perform otherwise you’re out and you’re not getting back in. It’s a lot of juggling and it seems like everything is just as important as the next, so it can be hard to prioritise.

Best piece of advice you have received?

The best piece of advice is that you can't copy and paste what's worked for other brands for you and your brand.

You're never going to be in the same set of circumstances. There's no path to success, every brand is different and each has a different approach. You have to be intuitive with what's working for your own brand and not just try to control C, control V.

A book you think all aspiring founders/ beauty leaders should read?

This is kind of a cliche, but Rick Rubin - The Creative Act.

It's not necessarily an entrepreneurial book, it's a creativity book. And I think so much of having a beauty brand is about creativity, but not just the creative side. You have to be creative with operations. You have to be creative with everything.

I think anytime you can read something that inspires you to zoom out a little bit and look at something from a different perspective it’s helpful.

Marketing campaign you wish you had come up with?

I can't think of the specific activation, but the brand Saie is always nailing it. That's how I feel about that brand. I can't think of a specific thing, but they'll post something and I just think, "Wow."

Actually, another brand I could say is Merit. Their marketing is off the charts. They have all of these amazing posters around London right now. Their campaign imagery is just so simple but I just feel like everything they do is amazing. They have also totally cracked their paid ads strategy.

What’s one skill, or area, you are actively working on to improve? And why is it important to you?

My team leadership and also my financial knowledge.

Finances, forecasting etc. is super important but these are skills that don’t come naturally. As a founder you need that broad overview of everything on the brand, but that I think is my weakest point so I’d like to allocate more time to honing those skills.

Because I’ve worked for myself for about 15 years, I have never had to manage a team. I’m always asking my friends who manage people in their roles how they do it! I recently bought some PipDecks which have helped me a lot!

1x resource (publication, event, individual etc) you use to stay ahead in this rapidly evolving industry?

I really love Beauty Independent. They do amazing webinars - I watch all of them and it’s amazing how often there will be a ‘ping’ in my brain while watching with a new and innovative way of doing something for MIRROR WATER.

I also love listening to podcasts. Recently I listened to an amazing podcast by Glossy about the rise of Malin & Goetz and how they grew the brand.

But really any business podcast that has a founder, an entrepreneur or a CEO. Someone who is in the nitty-gritty.

[Woof woof] Sorry, my dog. One second. She's not gonna stop. Effie.

Your one to watch? An individual in the space killing it?

REOME. I mean, sorry, I am an investor, but I think they are a beautiful and have the potential to be the next luxury skincare brand. Of course they have stunning packaging, but what's on the inside is even better. They're using biotech formulations, and they’re just really interesting. Honest to God, the products are so good.

Their founder Joanna is such an inspiration and so I'm excited to see what they do. They have a very strong brand identity stemming from Joanna’s passion.

Brand / product you can't live without?

Brand or product I can't live without?

Lip Balm. I can’t live without it. I can't do it. I love the 19/99 lip balm.

Industry hot take?

I am already seeing a lot of brands lean into the self-reflection and emotional sensorial space. It is no longer just body care but it’s becoming about unwinding, de-stressing etc.

We're seeing the beginning of trends like ‘bedrotting’ and people talking more about just staying at home and prioritising your own self - I think we're going to keep seeing a lot of that in beauty. More taking time for yourself. I think things like burnout culture are definitely going to continue to be a big trend we see beauty and wellness brands explore. I’m happy to say that MIRROR WATER was ahead of the curve here.

Follow Estée

Estée is a legend and you won’t regret following her on whatever platform you digest your content on. Estée’s Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and SubStack are linked here.

Told you i was a fan 👇 :)

Til next time x