On this episode of Honest Ecommerce, we have Fiona Frills. Fiona is the Founder of a teen focused beauty & skincare company called Frilliance. We talk about building close relationships with influencers, embracing continuous learning, navigating the complexities of retail partnerships, and so much more!
Fiona Frills is a 20-year-old beauty, makeup, fashion, lifestyle influencer and entrepreneur. Since launching her YouTube channel at the age of 10, she has amassed a fan base of over 1 Million followers.
At the age of 13, Fiona decided to turn her obsession of makeup into a beauty brand and began developing her own makeup line, Frilliance. She personally formulated and designed all the products in the line, which are available in 1000+ Walmart stores and CVS Beauty IRL stores. Online at Frilliance.com, Amazon.com, and in the UK at Superdrug.com.
Fiona started her career as a model and actress, appearing on Disney Channel’s GameOn and several national commercials.
In This Conversation We Discuss:
Resources:
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Fiona Frills
Listen to yourself because people are always going to have something to say.
Chase Clymer
Welcome to Honest Ecommerce, a podcast dedicated to cutting through the BS and finding actionable advice for online store owners. I'm your host, Chase Clymer. And I believe running a direct-to-consumer brand does not have to be complicated or a guessing game.
On this podcast, we interview founders and experts who are putting in the work and creating real results.
I also share my own insights from running our top Shopify consultancy, Electric Eye. We cut the fluff in favor of facts to help you grow your Ecommerce business.
Let's get on with the show.
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Honest Ecommerce.
Today, I'm welcoming the show, the founder of the teen-focused beauty and skincare company called Frilliance, Fiona Frills. Welcome to the show.
Fiona Frills
So excited to be here. I cannot wait to chat.
Chase Clymer
Absolutely. So first and foremost, I got a shout out where we met. Shoptalk was a few months ago. It was an amazing experience. Did you enjoy yourself there?
Fiona Frills
Yes. Absolutely. It was my first Shop Talk. Absolutely loved it. Loved meeting you. So many different people. And it was an amazing event. I was very impressed.
Chase Clymer
It can be almost overwhelming at times.
Fiona Frills
Oh, oh my god. It was huge. The venue was so big. I was amazed. I was a little lost the first day.But it was great.
Chase Clymer
Can you keep a secret?
Fiona Frills
Huh.
Chase Clymer
I did not go in a single session. I was so busy. I only saw the sponsorship floor and then I was running around Mandalay having meetings.
Fiona Frills
Yeah. Well, that's the right way to do it. I went... I listened to a few different people speak and it was nothing like, oh-my-god earth shattering. I think the meetings were the best part for sure.
Chase Clymer
Oh, yeah. The meetings were... Or make it worthwhile.I forgot that. I kind of refer to them as speed dates.
Fiona Frills
Yeah, it is. It's so much like a speed date. And then the timer is going off and you're like, 5 seconds left. I'm like, oh my gosh. And then everyone is still going to run to their next table. It's crazy. But it's so fun. I really enjoyed it. I was exhausted after, though. I was like, I have talked so much and I was done talking for a day. I was like, okay. Yeah.
Chase Clymer
That's Vegas. It'll take stuff from me that you don't want to give.
Alright. So for those that are listening, and they're not familiar with Frilliance, can you quickly tell them the types of products you're selling?
Fiona Frills
Yeah, absolutely. So Frilliance is a teen-focused beauty and skincare brand. So we target Gen Alpha and Gen Z because when you think of teens in general, there is no teen aisle. There's no teen section in any retail store. Online, there would be more options.
But when you think of beauty and skincare for teens, usually people are thinking of Claire's because there's really no options out there for their skin and Claire's… the ingredients in there are not the best.
So we created a brand specifically for teens and their skin and it's amazing. It's so fun. We're currently in select CVS stores and also Walmart stores, and we're expanding internationally here soon, which is great.
Chase Clymer
Alright. Well, I want to talk all about the beginnings of this. So where did the idea to start this brand come from specifically?
Fiona Frills
So I grew up doing YouTube. So I started YouTube when I was 10. And I loved beauty products from day one. I believe I actually have loved makeup since I was like 2 years old. I would go dig around for lipstick and all sorts of stuff and it wouldn't look too good. But I would use it and it was so fun.
And when I had my YouTube channel, which I still have. So when I was posting YouTube videos, I was using a lot of different beauty products, testing them out, just having a fun time. And my skin started breaking out so bad.
And I was like, “What is going on? What is happening to me?” So I turned to my friends and my family and I'm like, “Hey, what do I do?” And they're like, “Oh, good luck. It's just being a teenager.” And I was like, no, there has to be more to this. So I was like, “Oh my god, let me start researching the ingredients in the products I was using.”
And I was baffled. I was like, no way they are targeting these products to people who have sensitive skin. So I started researching and I was like, ‘Okay, I want to start a brand dedicated to helping teens with their skin.’
So we started up R&D and worked with different labs in 2016, and we launched December of 2017. I was also very young. So I co-founded this with my mom. My mom has done a lot of work in businesses. So it was so fun working with her. And we still work together, which is great.
Chase Clymer
That's amazing. Alright.
So you had the idea in 2016 and you started to really take it seriously in 2017? Is that what I heard?
Fiona Frills
We started to take it seriously in 2016 because we had to reach out to labs and figure out which lab we wanted to work with, which we picked one actually that was an hour and a half away in Hayward, California, so I could be more hands-on with the project.
So right in 2016, when the idea came to mind, I was like, “There needs to be products for teens, especially in the beauty space.” That's when I was like, “Okay, I'm taking all the money I've made from YouTube and previously acting and I'm going to invest it into this brand”, which I have spent basically every penny investing it into the brand which is crazy to think about. But it's definitely paid off.
Chase Clymer
Okay. So you go into your network after this idea and you talk to the smartest person you know, your mom, and you get her to join you on this journey, and the first thing you do is you start talking to labs.
How difficult was finding the right partner to work with there?
Fiona Frills
Luckily, we were in California where there are quite a few labs in the Bay Area and Southern California as well. So we were on Zoom, chatting with them. I really wanted to make sure that they focused on natural ingredients and had good testing. So that was a big factor in the decision that we made.
And finally, we talked to our lab in Hayward and I really just loved everything they had to say. And they wanted me to be very hands-on with the products and the development. And they really put a focus on ingredients in skincare.
So basically, I was like, ‘Okay, this feels right.’ We started with five products going into R&D so the chemists are working their magic and creating these formulas. I would get them in the mail and then I would test them out. And then sometimes I would go up there with my mom and we would do some color work in person.
And then once we got those final formulas approved, they would be sent off to testing, which I believe was around like three to six months.
And then we launched in December and we had to source packaging too, which was crazy. Still to this day, sourcing packaging is oddly so difficult to find reliable packaging in general. It leaks a lot.
And there's a lot of different issues that come with packaging, which I had no idea about. The more you know, it's crazy how much you learn about starting a business.
Chase Clymer
Yeah, there's a lot of different odd things that have to all work together seamlessly to really create a product and to then to sell it and market it and all that stuff.
So while you guys are doing the R&D on these products, were you doing any kind of market research, making sure that other people had the same kind of idea that you had that there was a need out there?
Fiona Frills
Yeah. I had my TikTok community and I noticed a lot of people in the comments were like, “Hey, do you know any products that won't break me out?” And these are all teens basically watching me. So I definitely had that information, which is great.
And then I also turned to my family and they were like, ‘Yeah, there's no teen products out there.” And then we researched like, ‘are there any teen beauty and skincare products?’ And Claire’s is like the main thing that comes up and I'm like, ‘Okay, doesn't really count.’
And then there's like the more mature brands where anti-aging ingredients are not good on teen skin. So there was a huge gap in the market. That was for sure.
And that's really when we dived in. And that was in the very beginning of 2016.
Chase Clymer
Absolutely.
Now let's talk about the first line of products. How many did you release?
Fiona Frills
We launched with five. So we launched with a facial mist, a cream blush, an illuminating cream and then two lip glosses, two different lip gloss shades. And that was our initial launch. And I marketed it to…Not my TikTok. There was no TikTok yet. That was Musical.ly then. I posted a YouTube video launching it and introducing it to my followers.
And I was the main person marketing it at that time. We didn't work with any other influencers or send PR out. It was just me, which now is very different. It's honestly not very much me and it's a lot of different influencers and TikTokers and whatnot. But then it was me announcing it and we did really well.
It started to slow down though because we weren't... It was only my circle of people that we were marketing to. So we had to figure out what was next.
How do we market this? How do we work with these different influencers, which I'm very grateful to have the influencer background. So I've worked with different brands and been like, ‘Oh, that was not a great partnership’ or ‘Wow, that was a great partnership.’ So I took a lot from that and decided to come up with a specific approach to contact these creators.
And mainly, now we work with TikTokers because TikTok is just so powerful, especially when it comes to Gen Alpha and Gen Z. I mean, they're just on there all the time. And it's amazing what you'll buy from one TikTok. It's crazy.
Chase Clymer
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Chase Clymer
Do you remember the day or the week that you announced the products and turned it live? What happened? Whatever you can share about sales or just what you remember from that time.
Fiona Frills
I can't lie. That was... My memory isn't super great from then. I do remember the video going live. That is for sure. And then I remember fulfilling the orders. That is what I really remember.
I'm not 100% sure on sales. I know it was good. It wasn't anything crazy, that's for sure. But it was cool. It was cool to see it and to pack the order and really make it feel real like, wow, people are going to receive this, people are going to be using it.
But I don't remember in detail. I was like 14, 13 right there. So like... I don't have the best memory, I guess. But it was definitely memorable too, to see people receive it and post about it.
Chase Clymer
Absolutely.
How long were you still packing the products before it got too big?
Fiona Frills
So actually, crazy enough. So basically, our warehouse... We have a warehouse in my hometown. And my parents have hired people to help pack these different POs for Walmart, for CVS, for our website, for Amazon.
But we're still very hands on. We haven't gone to a 3PL yet. We're exploring it, that is for sure. But we do... We're very attached to the business, which is a good thing and a bad thing, depending on the way you look at it.
But when we initially launched at Walmart, we had a lot of shipping issues because we weren't fully informed on certain things. So we got fines and whatnot. So we're like, ‘Okay, we want to make sure we get this down perfectly,” so that we don't get any fines or any shipping issues.
So we do have a warehouse in my hometown and we ship out of there, which is still interesting.
Chase Clymer
So you mentioned that the initial launch was on the back of the cloud that you had built through YouTube and then you realized that your circle was only so big and you started to bring in more and more influencers. Is that still the current marketing strategy?
Or I heard that you launched Amazon. That's a whole different beast. So how had things expanded from just Fiona posting about a product that she had to building a marketing machine behind this amazing product?
Fiona Frills
Yeah. So we have different tiers of creators we work with. So we get a lot of different DMs on Instagram and TikTok from more micro creators, and we send a package out to every single person who contacts us. It's a small package. It's one pack of pimple patches and a really cute note.
So we always are sending products out, which I think is very important to make people feel special and make them feel listened to and heard because in the teen community, most teens aren't usually taken very seriously. That is a sure fact, which you could argue like, ‘Oh, it's because they're young.’ There are different points to it. We always want to make them feel listened to and heard and special.
We have that tier of creators, which are the micro creators, the people who just love the brand, love the mission behind it.
Then we have a PR gifting. We've sent thousands of PR boxes out to select creators. And I actually have two actual teens, they're so incredible. Julia and Claire, they helped me source a lot of different creators.
So we ship products out to them, like to this middle tier. And we actually write custom notes for everyone where I'm very into personalizing as much as we possibly can. And then Julian and Claire also pick out specific products for their skin and their skin tone and whatnot. So we send those out.
And then I have a little over 20 creators that we work with very closely. They all have my phone number. They can call me whenever. We text pretty often and I've built a really good relationship with these creators and they post 5 videos a month that include our products. And I'm looking to grow that to hundreds in the next quarter. That's the plan.
But it's going to be a lot for me in specific. I have to figure out exactly how to make it personalized but also not too overwhelming where my phone is just beeping, beeping, beeping constantly. So yeah, we have the tiers.
And I think a lot of our success has to do with caring so much. I really do care about teens and I understand the struggle of being a teenager. I mean, I'm 20. I'm just basically out of my teen years.
But it is hard and there's so much that goes on in your teen years. I mean, when you think of middle school and high school, there's bullying. You're overwhelmed. There's these different friend groups. There's feeling cool. There's being like, ‘Oh, I need to do my homework. What am I going to do in the future?’
It's very overwhelming. And the last thing I want these teens to be worried about is their skin because self-confidence is a very important thing to have. And it's hard to have, especially with social media nowadays as well.
Chase Clymer
Absolutely.
You alluded to this about getting into Walmart and into these major retailers, how different was approaching that than sending out boxes to people that buy it through your Shopify store?
Fiona Frills
So different. So different. Retail stores are crazy. I've learned so much through working with the retail stores we're currently working with. Walmart was the first retail store that we got a yes from and it was actually during their open call season. So they have, I think, like over 100,000 different businesses. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but a lot of businesses apply.
They narrow it down and then they have one-on-one meetings with different buyers and us, the supplier. We had a call with them, I believe it was 2021, and we got a yes on the call after I did the presentation. The buyer was so excited. Like, “Yes, this is a gap in the market. We want to launch in stores.”
So we initially launched in a little over 400 stores. Now we're over 700 stores. Working with Walmart is amazing. I mean, there's so many customers that are walking into these stores on a daily basis, figuring out the turn rate. All these different POs and placement on the shelf and how to market has been such a crazy learning experience but I’m so incredibly grateful.
It's difficult at times though. The beginning of retail is so overwhelming because there are so many systems and they have so many different vendors that they have to have it a very specific way and all the DCs and receiving products. It's crazy. But it's amazing to think how many individual items and brands are in these retail stores, especially one as big as Walmart.
I mean, when you walk in there, it's like a mall. I'm like, this is like... I can get everything in here. And then CVS is smaller, so it's not as complicated. But I absolutely love everyone on the CVS team as well. So great. And it's been great working with these retailers.
Chase Clymer
That's awesome. Obviously, you guys have seen some crazy growth. And that's what helps you get into these kinds of retailers.
Looking back, is there anything that you wish you could tell your younger self or more importantly, tell a listener that's younger in their business that you wish you knew a couple years ago that might have helped you along in your journey?
Fiona Frills
Yes. There's so many. There's so many things. One of them is... I feel like when I've envisioned a business person like a business like, whoa, they're doing this, they're doing that, they're doing all these things, I think they're experts in everything, but the thing is, you're learning. All the time.
Some days, you're going to feel like, Do I even know enough about this to be helping explain to people who are working with you? It's overwhelming. It is very overwhelming at times, but you have to go with your gut and the experience that you get from building a business is crazy. Truly crazy. The amount you're going to learn is so great and you'll be able to use it in so many other ways.
One thing that I think will help younger business owners or just business owners in general is… I got investors in... My gosh, which year was that? I think that was 2018 or 2019. And they were very difficult investors. They were hands-on investors. They really didn't believe in the business. They didn't really believe in me. They wanted a team brand under their belt.
And they never listened to me in meetings. They very much put down my ideas and it was not a great relationship. And then Florence by Millie Bobby Brown came out and they were like, “You cannot compare to her. Your brand will never be her brand. You should shut down. We're pulling out.” And I was absolutely distraught. Crying after. Hysterically breaking down.
And, I mean truly, they just didn't know. Even these crazy business people in the space, sometimes they still don't know. They don't know your business. They don't know what you're going to put into your business.
Sometimes they just have their opinion and it really doesn't matter. You're going to hear no. You're going to hear, “Oh, I don't know about that.” All this different noise, you got to cancel it out and you got to just be a realist and figure out, “Okay, this is what's going to work. This is what's not”, and listen to yourself because people are always going to have something to say. And it's just usually nonsense.
Look at us now. We're in retail stores. We're growing exponentially right now. And these investors who supposedly knew everything about business said to shut it down. So people just love to chitter chatter in your ear and it's not good.
Chase Clymer
And that's the name of the show right there. Honest Ecommerce. You're just out there telling the truth about what's going on.
Is there anything I didn't ask you about today that you want to leave with the audience?
Fiona Frills
I mean, you know, no. Everything was great. I'm so excited we got to chat more. Yeah, no. This is great. I have nothing else to add besides thank you so much and thank you to whoever is listening. Really appreciate you.
Chase Clymer
That's awesome.
Now, if I am listening to this and I am curious about the products, maybe I have a team or I am a team, maybe there's some awesome young entrepreneurs out there listening to this show and they want to check out the products. Where should they go? What should they do?
Fiona Frills
You can go to frilliance.com. You can also check us out on Amazon. And on our website, you can find our store locator to see if you have a store near you. And all of our accounts are under Frilliance and mine are under Fiona Frills.
So you can check us out. But no pressure. All good.
Chase Clymer
Thank you so much for coming on the show today, Fiona.
Fiona Frills
Yes. Thank you.
Chase Clymer
We can't thank our guests enough for coming on the show and sharing their knowledge and journey with us. We've got a lot to think about and potentially add into our own business. You can find all the links in the show notes.
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Until next time!