LIHA Beauty: From Kitchen Dream to Cult Brand

From consumer insights across the world to the latest tactics and trends, you're listening to leap into luxury, the go-to marketing podcast for luxury brands. I'm Natalie and today we're talking to Abbey Oye Patant, co-founder of Leihard Beauty, the brand creating beauty products that are inspired by the founders African Roots with the quintessentially British attitude. Welcome Abbey. Thanks for joining us. Thank you for inviting me. You're excited. I'm a bit nervous but excited. You're very good. We're very nice. I promise you. So yeah, you founded the brand with your co-founder Leihard. Yes. Could you tell us a little bit about the journey you're creating today? What led you to starting the brand with her? Yeah, God, it's been quite a journey. So I didn't come for many kind of skincare. Well, I would say wellness background. I am a tea time Olympian. Casual. Casual. I just dropped it in there. Olympic finalist, Commonwealth gold and silver medalist. I have to build this off. Got the tenacity. I try to speak. So I didn't come from what kind of skincare background. Leihard, her first job's when body shop space and cave and she's a skincare junkie in a way that I'm not. But we really wanted to start a business together, not necessarily in skincare but after the kind of brainstorming I was a time for my sport after London 2012. I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I journeyed into lots of different things and starting a business which for me was a side hustle. It was something I thought I'll do because I'm not sure what I'm doing with my career. And so we kind of decided to start in skincare and really that stem from really talking to people about shea butter and black so things that we grew up using. So Leihard's mum's in English of her own therapist but her dad is Nigering. My parents are both Nigerian and it's kind of was a staple in my household but lots of people had never heard of shea butter and like the coconut trend was like coming to fruition and we started like messing about with our kind of cold product called Edan Oil which is a cold pressed coconut oil infused with a cheaper rose flour. And we were making in our kitchens and our family and friends. This is a classic story. Loved our products and you're like you should be selling it. And so we're like okay I wasn't really keen on it because we had two products. The shea butter is one from Nigerian one from Ghana and the Edan Oil but Leihard's really gum her about it. And so we decided to just soft launch. This was in 2015 and so we decided to soft launch at Port Elliott Festival and it was to get feedback on our packaging, the two products and we decided to do workshops showing people how to make their own skincare using shea butter as a base because you can make deodorants, body butters and things like that. So we walked up at Port Elliott. It's a really small literary festival and we had like an army tent that we bought from Cheltenham Army cadets. And yeah we sell it up and Anthropology had a tent three doors down and they had a massive tent and they would do all sorts of workshops. And so people were coming to our workshops especially kids with their mum's parents and the head of Anthropology came to our workshop. That's the kind of guest you wanted to workshop. Yeah, lots of the girls from Anthropology come to our workshop because they were like intrigued what we were doing, like they weren't doing skincare. And so yeah, so she popped in and she loved what we were doing and she loved the oil and she was like, oh can I stock this in Anthropology? And we were like, okay. And she was like, this was just a side hustle. It was. I've achieved so much already. It really was because this was so not planned for me because we had been talking about this for a while and we weren't doing anything. And so we decided to pay money down for Port Elliott Festival to give us ourselves a deadline. Yeah, and so I think gave us like six months to get the packaging. We found some guys from Cheltenham Arts College to do our logo and to do our kind of packaging kind of artwork. And so the head of Anthropology came and she was like, have you got all your EU testing? And we're like, Leha looks at me and I looked at her and I was going to say no and she's like, yes, yes, yes. We didn't even know what she was talking about. Because this was just like really homemade and then we found out we had to have all these like spillety testing and MSCS testing, all this kind of stuff which took like four, five months to get. And so we had to be honest with her. And we're saying that afterwards we're like, we don't have it. She was like, fine, we'll launch the following summer. And yeah, and that's kind of how the brand was born really. That's amazing. It says a lot about the project that someone came to a workshop and off the back of that was not only willing to like buy it and stock it but also wait and launch you. That's, I mean, what more can you have? Yeah, I know. It was really, it was, yeah, it was just, oh yeah, we couldn't have asked for anything more. Yeah, it was. It was a product. Thank you. It is. It's still our best selling product. I mean, this woman obviously saw that there was a demand in the market for what you guys were trying to create. And you say you only started off or she only saw the two products. To watch us a little bit more about your minimalist concept, I suppose. And these multi-purpose products in terms of that consumer. I mean, there was obviously a gap there. What was it that drew you to approaching that? To be fair, I think the gap was just what we wanted. Yeah. To weave, right? This is how we knew nothing about like branding or like skincare. We phoned around ourselves. So I came from a sports background where I had a nutritionist who made me read ingredients list. So I was, when I was going to skincare, you know, shops and stuff, I started reading ingredients list and we saw, and I saw lots of products which have the same ingredient and they switched out one product and they told you it's for hand or body or men and women having different, you know, having products that really had the same ingredients, but it was more extensive for women. So we were like, we want it to be unisex, minimalist. So it's all about buying, less buying, well. And so you won't have to buy twice. And so we wanted to be multi-purpose. We wanted to have minimal cat packaging. So we never boxed our products, though we had to box it since we got stockings. But we try and make it as minimal as possible and also visually I do more the visuals. I wanted to be just as clean as static as possible. You know, we come from a West African background where a lot of the products are very loud and bright, which we wanted to showcase in a way in our website or on our socials, but on the packaging on shelf, we wanted to pair it down as much as possible and also think about the sustainability aspect, the recycling, so all our products are glass. We've switched aluminium, caps and things like that. I think all through the packaging, the products itself, our shape butters, raw, it hasn't cut with anything. I mean, we wanted to showcase that and how you can use it in multiple ways, whether you make your own deodorants and things like that or body butters and things. I think, I mean, what you're saying, what you're describing is fairly pioneering, especially in the beauty industry where like you say there is so much of an emphasis on, you know, a product for every single little thing. And I suppose in a way, you were almost kind of leaning that trend that's now kind of emerging, especially in Munch's Gen Z, who love it, that clean beauty. Have you noticed a massive shift in that industry versus when you launch to now? Yeah, I think we, like Leha, my business partner is very, like, she loved the body shop founder and the ESA body. So, she, when she was six in her first shop, was a body shop and she loved the, when they only thought it would sometimes come to a store and shout them and they would do, like, clean, clean the wall, you know, pick up litter and things like that. And she, she really wanted us to embody that kind of clean. I hate, we don't use word clean. We always think about natural, but when we started, there wasn't that many brands doing natural. I think there was Pi, which is, you know, one, I think that was a brand that we kind of, I remember. And then we did see emergence of brands like Upcycle and Bibi. But yeah, it wasn't a massive thing, but then you saw Goop. You saw Goop? Yeah, I went, yeah, she's kind of fairly controversial, who used the word clean, the term clean. But we kind of tried to stay away from that because the converse of clean is dirty. And so, and things like toxic and things. We always kept with natural. We wanted, as I said, we wanted to shake those products that we had grown up using and bringing that element of English or homotherapy essential oils because Lee Harvesmum's in English or homo therapist kind of fused our two cultures, being Nigerian and being British. But yeah, the, it kind of got saturated. Yeah. That kind of clean natural. But what we're seeing now is more kind of clinically proven, like people still use the term clean, but it's kind of people more kind of thinking of the efficacy of the product, how it changes your skin or what it does for your skin. And it's less about it being clean because it's more about chemicals or synthetic products can do just as well or do better. And we're not trying to say one's better than the other, but preference is as natural as possible, what comes from the earth, plant-based medicine that's been used for centuries. So you say in the market, it's become more saturated since you guys started ice bays. I imagine that's because you've got access or startups have got access to online marketing more and more so performance marketing now, content creations a little bit more affordable now and can be a lot more low-fi. How do you stand out now in that noise? Yeah, it's become very clouded and noisy. I think the, I think social media really democratise the market, like the space, and which was great for us because that's how we came up. We all used to think of this. And in real life events, I think how we stand out is just being authentic, talking about things we've always talked about, our culture, which is West Africa, Nigeria primarily, and being British and talking about Eroma therapy and plant-based medicines, and things we've always spoken about. And I think that space is very unique, blending those two cultures. I think when we go to places like America, with the affable pollutants, where we talk about, they love it. They love, like, you know, they want to support Black brands like ourselves, but they also love things that are British because it has that stamp approval. I don't know. I mean, it's funny. Yeah. It's got such clout, but people just love my partner's American. Okay, they love it. Starting out on Instagram has done wonders for you. I mean, your community is now at something like 30,000 followers on Instagram alone, and I saw actually that you've been featured in countless press pieces and interviews in an impressively short amount of time, actually. It's evident that you've built a strong cult following in the UK and more specifically London. But how would you describe your customer persona as in what are they most responsive to in terms of messaging or content and marketing techniques and has this changed as you guys have changed? Yeah, we do have like personas. So we, I might speak about our Afro-politine, which is, you know, you have them in the UK, but when we started thinking about it as more to the American market, but they cross all both cultures, where they're Black African Americans who want to buy support Black brands, but also I really want to be connected to like, you know, Nigeria, Africa in general. So we've got that demographic or persona, and then we've got the yummy mummies, which, and you know, our personas cross all sections. I'm a yummy mummy. I'm an Afro-politine. I put like a yummy, who, yummy mummies are people like myself, the age bracket between late 20s to 40 something. And then we have height beast, though we don't really market to them as much, but they're the younger kind of generation, they're into like streetwear and that kind of came from all the e-hars background because she's really into streetwear and we wanted to kind of tap into that market. And then we've got like our hipsters again, I'm a hipster. And so we do have like these different personas we tap into and where we kind of meet them in real life. So a lot of our marketing historically has been in real life events. And that's how we came up. And that's what we do. And when we think about where we're going to go whether it's Wilderness Festival or Feast of All, you know, we know we're going to find the yummy mummies there. We are actually going to Wilderness together. Oh, you're fine. We didn't get in this year. Yeah, we didn't get in this year. It's become, we did it in 2019. We can be your reps there. Yeah, officially. We're going to, we did it in 2019, I think, or 2018. And it went, we did workshops again. Wilderness is yummy mummies but people like yourself. It kind of causes all sections. You know, the Afropolicines you might meet them. There's some like, there's some aset has does like every year, does like an arse fair and things like that. And like there's different places we meet them but that's where we kind of spoke, we historically focused on marketing and we haven't done for a few years, haven't done paid marketing. I know. I mean, no, but that's phenomenal. Well, it's not for a lot of you. A lot of what you're, what's coming out of you guys is, it's been very organic. It's been very organic partnerships with aligned with aligned brands, sampling, gifting and things like that. But we are now, it is a 360 thing where I think you have to touch different points, touch points in order to like, you know, build that awareness. I think, you know, back in the day went for the, the reason we stopped Facebook ads is because of iOS changes and things like that and just it wasn't working. It was becoming so expensive for small brands like us and we didn't have the, we didn't have the budget. And so we had to look at, go back to traditional things that we used to pre COVID. But now we need to start doing like more kind of performance marketing ads and stuff and which is what we're doing. We raise some investment and which is going to be, we're going to be put into what's that. It's interesting, isn't it? I was kind of read a report the other week from Bain and Company that were saying that, you know, there's been a real rise of monobrand retail experiences that consumers expect. But conversely to that, they also want an omnichannel experience with a brand so while they want to have an in-person interaction direct with brand, which is as you're saying what the activations you've done, you know, that's what's fueled the growth. But they're now more and more expecting as the kind of leads up to that, this omnipresence from brands, which puts a massive, for small brands, it puts a massive strain on your budgets. It does, but I think it's, you know, being, doing it in real life stuff doesn't necessarily scale. You know, you have to be present, it's hard, but I think it's important to do. We did last year, we did fun cottons, happy place festival. So we had done it, we did it last year, but the year before and we only did it in London. Leihard did it in Manj, they've got one in Manj, so we just thought, oh, let's do it in Manj, just like, oh my god, it was so good. Really? We were literally sold out. It was, but we were so London-centric. Yeah. It's since, and we were like, we need to go out up north and so there was so receptive to it. And it's something we would think we have to do and looking at where we can, I think it's important to meet your customers where they are, especially as a new brand, especially when you don't have money for paid ads because it's so expensive. But it is a normally channel approach, it's so important because, you know, it's great to get that initial face-to-face, but they need to see you at different touch points. Totally. And as a Northern girl, I would let you say that I'm very glad you went up north because I do think it is often forgotten. You know, brands do focus on London, I get it. It's, you know, there's a lot of people here, there's money here, but there's lots of us up north too. They are. I know, they want it because they're so neglected. They're so neglected. They want to see things, you know, different things. And so it's so important. We're doing another event this month, and this month, just a small, like I think as a co-working space, a Manchester, and just doing like a community event, just again testing the waters because we don't know, you know, we don't know that landscape. So it's just looking and seeing what works and what resonates. It's such an exciting time for you. And like from what you're saying, it seems like your customers are kind of inspiring and driving a lot of your marketing strategy. Would you see that's fair? Do you take a lot of inspiration from those learnings? Yeah, we definitely do. I think one of the things we do see is that customers love us. Seeing it, asking it ladies, whether it's us doing their events or doing the workshops, we're all conversely even when we're talking on Instagram about like our journeys, about the ingredient that posts them a content that does bellows when we're literally on camera, just talking about the ingredient, whether it's certainly on lavender or whatever, how it works on asking or why we decided to launch it or that's what resonates. So customers are talking about our journey and what we're doing, the behind the scenes, and it's just about us. And it just seems to resonate much better than just a beautiful video. Yeah, the video. People buy into you. Yeah, they find to people. So yeah. So I guess not only the interactions you're having with customers that like constantly are informing that strategy, you're kind of able to be reactive to it because you have the agility and the creativity of being an indie brand when you're putting your marketing strategies together. So how do you approach a marketing plan for Lea? Like, where do you start? Yeah, so we have had much of a marketing. We, as I said, we initially just kind of focused on more in-all-life things, but now we've got social media person. And so looking at what resonates with our customers and what and this is going to inform our paid media as well, things like the storytelling about the journey of our brand has found us, but also the storytelling how to use the products and why we developed and formulated the products. That is where we're viewing towards. And that seems to what's resonate organically. And I think once that does what it's supposed to do, we'll kind of test it on Facebook and things like that. Yeah, I think we can be very reactive and we have been and seeing and jumping on things that tend to work. And like we're doing a lot of partnerships with other line brands, we're starting to do community events. So less, not less, but festivals and bigger things that we don't control, but more kind of getting 20 customers or something and doing like rest workshops. Yeah, and yoga and things like just community small and we can just chat to our customers and things like that. I feel like that fastest such brand loyalty. It does. And, and then, you know, partnering with other brands to do that as well. And less, less so under the kind of bigger festivals and things like that. Okay, so what other pain points do you have to deal with when it comes to these bigger corporations with with global market share in order to get your voice heard? I think, yeah, just the pain point is getting our voice here. I don't know. Awareness, and that awareness piece, we think, like, we do have a cult following, but in the grand scheme of things, you know, zero, zero, zero point, you know, we need to get so much more eyes on the band and just, you know, working smart with that. How do we do that? That could be through partnership with the space in case of the world and things like that, but again, they're like, they want bigger brands. They want you to have budgets so you can put paid marketing into getting your customers to go to facing. Okay. So these are just the money, I would say, and getting that awareness and how we do that. I think, as I said, what we're doing is that on the channel thing where we're going to start having to pay for media spend and get that going, but also ensuring that we can kind of scale things like Amazon going into Amazon. We haven't done that. Thinking about going to the US as well. We're thinking, getting a free LP, it's just bigger. You don't need as much. There's so much more people. And so, you just need a little teeny slice of the market and yeah, and just doing, and rather than catering what we do here, whether it's our community event, so we would pick like maybe start a New York because we do have a lot of customers there and doing some community based events and looking at like kind of small Brooklyn festival, they do festivals they do as well. And just bringing that awareness piece and bringing paid ads towards that market. And then looking at where we can, you know, other regions, states that our customers are and I would say that. It's super interesting. You say that. So with the, she's the head of international marketing and brand, I think is the job title for Ola Plex and she was talking about how to globalise a brand, how to scale it internationally and she suggested doing exactly what you're doing, picking a micro geography within the region you want to target and then scaling it from there. So it sounds like you've definitely got the right approach. Yeah, the market's huge. You know, we've got so many ideas. You know, we've been so lunged in centric or south west centric and we are looking at different regions, you know, Manchester, North, basically and kind of testing where our customers are there. And then looking at the states, I'm looking at Amazon to help us like a fulfilment partner as well and having I in 3PL because the way they shop in America is so different in terms of Amazon. They do everything on Amazon. Yes. It's so weird. They're based on my in law. Oh, they love Amazon. It's crazy. Yeah, crazy. So crazy because when people suggested I'm like, I don't shop, people like shop on Amazon like that in the UK. So we were very like, we peeped it for quite a while but then we've spoken to different brands that like, you need to get on Amazon in America. So that's what, and then coupled with targeting that kind of micro, you know, these regions and then getting that way and then getting into our ultimate goal is to get into like a Sephora or an alter but we need to bring that brand awareness before we even think about that. And with those retailers, there's not only fighting to get into them, my understanding is that once you're into them, you're constantly fighting to retain that space because my understanding is that weekly you're having to demonstrate what you as the brand are bringing into the table. It's been a real learning curve for us because we were in space in K and we're not in space anymore. So and this was something we, you know, it's down to us as well. We didn't have the marketing spend and you know, we're initially in five doors which was amazing for us and then, you know, to then go into the rest of the doors but we can facilitate it as a brand such as more brand and not having the money to kind of spend on our marketing, let alone their marketing. And so that has been a massive learning curve for us and so, you know, we, as I said, we're going to go start doing some paid ads and then really pushing that awareness piece and then really able to nurture our in-will-life brand partners. I guess it's one of those things and this is the beauty of being a starter, you know, okay, you might, you might take a step and then realise it's not quite the right time but that agility that we spoke of earlier means that you are able to kind of rebound quite quickly regroup and then move forwards from a stronger position which is amazing and while challenging I'm sure at times. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So I guess the final question from me before we wrap up is what trends are you witnessing in your niche today? So in natural beauty we won't say clean again. What, what are you witnessing? What ones do you think are here to stay? Where do you think it's going? God's trends. I'm not even, I'm not even thinking about trends but I think in the clean kind of clean space it's that like, as I said before, kind of clinically proven. I think people now want to know that efficacy and like you've tested your claims and how many people have said, you know, 80% of people have said shown that decreases hyperpimpleant test. I think we do a lot of it. Yeah, I think that something we've, I've seen change from like the clean space. We're no longer just taking your word for it and just, you know, it's natural. Yeah, that's great. It's clean, that's great. But, you know, how's it clinically proven? I think remotion has played as part in that as well. Customers are so savvy. Yeah, they are so savvy. And we've taken a pot of just educating our customers. Yeah. And we've always done that. Yeah. You've done that from the beginning. We've always done it. It's something that's natural to us and also I've learned, like I didn't have a skin care background. I just used products. My parents used to see me. And it always works. That's the woman in this room with the most beautiful skin. Oh my God. You guys, you would buy. You should see my family. You should see it. I should see Lee Harves skin. Yeah. So it's something that we've seen and we, when we have more funds, we will be doing that as well. I think just, yeah, yeah, there has been a lot of greenwashing and which I feel just in nature of what's gone on in terms of economically. We've seen a lot of brands that haven't survived. And so I think the brands who do stand out are the ones who are demonstrating that they, the products work and efficacy of their products. Okay. So you want to take over the US. You want to get in Sephora. You want to build up that marketing budget. If you were to fast forward one, five or ten years from now, what are your goals for Lee has continued growth and what would be your, like, we've made it a kind of moment. Oh my God, if somebody exit, lo yeah. You had it at first. Oh my God. Yeah. Like we, you know, when we, we always say that we want to be the next heritage brand of future. When we think about Joma Lones of the world or the Lola Bos, that's where we wanted to position ourselves. We, you know, we always, so we happen to be black founders who skin is skin. You know, black skin is slightly different, but our products are for everybody. And so we want to be like that heritage, like luxury brand of the future and be, be born. I'm not thinking about it. Be on a beach somewhere and not thinking about it. Yeah, a lot of thing about bottles and, yeah, so, yeah, that's where in ten years time, I want to like, you know, you know, a massive exit. Don't be ashamed to say that. I'm definitely on a show to say. But yeah, yeah, that's exactly, and you know, I want us to, when people think of Lehigh, they think of luxury, they think of, but accessibility as well. But also of being, you know, buying one, buying less, that we're a multipurpose brand that, you know, they can be used by everybody. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. I feel like I've learnt a lot. And I? I'm putting money on you guys being bought out under. You were a little flurry up. We've got an ex Olympian driving this guy's. I think she's got the grit and determination. It's good, it's great chatting to you. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me, guys. Thank you. If you enjoyed this episode, follow us at Leap Intellectory podcast on Instagram for updates on who we'll be speaking to next.