Skincare is big business. The skincare industry is worth an estimated $180.3 billion globally, with a bigger share of the beauty market than make-up and hair care combined (Statista). It has ballooned in recent years, perhaps due to lockdown (NPD reports 22% of women said they spent more time and money on skincare during the pandemic) and is now increasingly popular with teens and tween, too.
This surging skincare industry has certainly proved fortuitous for Glasgow-based entrepreneur Laura Porter. The 39-year-old owns her own skincare line, Face and Body skincare by Laura Porter (F.A.B.) as well as a beauty salon in Rutherglen, seeing “massive growth” in her businesses over the last six months.
This comes despite Laura despite having no formalised business training and leaving school aged 15 with no qualifications. Laura’s entrepreneurial mindset and ambition have paved the way to success. She worked in office jobs at first, but realising that she “wasn’t going anywhere” she made the decision, aged 24, to put herself through a beauty therapy course at college.
“I picked beauty therapy purely because I like being around people, and I thought it would be something easy to do at college,” she laughs. “Turns out it wasn’t as easy I thought! I set up a beauty room to carry out treatments from, while I was still studying, and I also had another job to pay the bills – it was very challenging.”
After spending a decade honing her craft and renting spaces at other people’s salons, Laura decided to take the plunge and open her own salon in early 2020. We all know what happened next.
“Covid meant I had to stop my project to open my own salon,” Laura explains, “though I did eventually manage to launch in 2022. But while working from home, I started planning my own skincare brand. I wanted to provide a ‘beginning to end’ solution for my clients, something I could give them away after their treatment, but where I knew what was in it and how it would react to their skin.”
“All the formulas are made in Glasgow; Laura and her chemist Louise are responsible for creating the formulas. I wanted to work with as many local manufacturers as possible and support our economy. It only launched two years ago, but I’ve been blown away by the response I’ve had to it.
“The line started with five products, but I found I had a skill for creating formulas and have since launched another five. There’s loads more in production and testing. I didn't think I was any good at school, but now I’m doing maths, I’m doing chemistry, I am writing for my own magazine and I’m finding it really exciting.”
Despite growing demands of the F.A.B. skincare brand, Laura still works in her salon in Rutherglen a few days every week.
“It's really important for me to keep that connection with customers. I don't want to be sat behind a desk. I came into this industry because I love to be around people, so I’m going to keep my hand in at that, even if it’s just for part of the week.”
Having regular contact with her clients also provides Laura with invaluable market research for F.A.B.
“The clients are part of my skincare brand – I get to hear what they're looking for, what they want in their skincare regime, and how can we make the products better for them.
“All of my products have been informed by years of listening to people and their skin concerns. I'm not a chemist, but I work with a chemist on my formulas. I'll tell her what ingredients I want in there, based on my own research, my knowledge of the ingredients. It goes back and forth between her and I until we perfect the formula.”
But with the boom of the skincare industry, comes a boom in products being sold. What makes F.A.B. stand out in a saturated market?
“My unique selling point is that I focus on the quality and the individual care I reach out to most my customers, including those who I've never met, to check in with them and get that feedback personally. We have a real duty of care with our products and we want to maintain that quality throughout.
“Everything that I’m putting in there is something I believe is going to work on the skin. It’s hand crafted, it's made with love. I also find that when people buy skincare products they often don’t know where to start, so I colour code and number all of my products for ease of use.”
While the brand started in her salon, with customers Laura knew, F.A.B. has rapidly expanded through social media marketing and online sales. To maintain the quality, she currently only sells the products through her own website, but believes there is “massive room” for further expansion.
She credits part of this increased ambition for her businesses with having recently joined Entrepreneurial Scotland's peer support programme, The Exchange.
“Scotland has got a lot of very talented business owners. When I joined Entrepreneurial Scotland, I thought, this is amazing. This is what we need. It made me not afraid to ask a question that might sound silly – asking people who have been there, done that, who can really keep you in the right direction.”
In the spirit of giving back, Laura also set up her own charity, Let’s Talk Fertility and Birth (Let's Talk FAB), after experiencing a miscarriage and struggling to find support.
“We run workshops and support people having problems with fertility, who can't conceive, who are going through IVF, or had baby loss and struggling with people to talk to. It's helped so many people and I get calls and texts every day from people thanking us for the support. But I don’t get any funding for the charity, so I have to do it all myself.”
With so many commitments, how does she manage to keep on top of everything?
It’s just the normal for me, some would say I do too much, I would say I am not busy enough.
“I’m planning to bring in a manager who will oversee everything and help me out. But I’ll never step away from the day-to-day running of the business. I absolutely love what I do.”