Founded in 2018, Solidu supplied a variety of zero-waste strong shampoo, conditioner, body butter, body wash and cleaning soap bars – all packaged in compostable casing that biodegraded in 45 days below common situations. Available on-line throughout its European and US direct-to-consumer (D2C) websites, the brand was additionally presently accessible in choose retailers in the Baltic states.Retail expansion and NPDThe objective over the following few years was to drive additional retail expansion throughout Europe, significantly in markets like Italy, Germany and Switzerland, in addition to the US, by way of main beauty retailer, pharmacy and grocery store listings. Solidu additionally deliberate to innovate additional into areas brimming with potential, in keeping with firm founder Vaiva Žvirblytė.“I believe we nonetheless have quite a lot of unexplored fields [in solid beauty],” Žvirblytė informed CosmeticsDesign-Europe earlier this yr at Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna in Italy.“Lots of manufacturers, like us, work in hair care, however there’s nonetheless fairly little innovation in face care, which I believe is an actual alternative,” she mentioned.Solidu deliberate to evolve its face care choices to faucet into this chance, she mentioned, growing SKUs for delicate pores and skin and different particular wants like fragrance-free – an area the brand didn’t presently cater to.Consumer schooling ‘one of many greatest challenges’But the brand, like all strong beauty manufacturers, confronted challenges forward, she mentioned: “One of the most important challenges is schooling.”Whilst youthful shoppers – Millennials and Gen Z – instantly understood the idea of strong beauty products, and strong shampoos have been their “new regular”, many others nonetheless didn’t absolutely perceive strong products, Žvirblytė mentioned.Image: SOLIDU FbSolidu would due to this fact proceed to speculate closely in shopper communication, she mentioned, however over time the founder mentioned the market would possible evolve. “As the area is rising, it’s serving to us quite a bit – that extra folks learn about this and belief it.”Back in November 2020, worldwide beauty main L’Oréal launched a strong shampoo bar below its Garnier brand in a transfer it mentioned aimed to create “actual influence at scale” in the strong beauty area. The launch adopted 18 months of analysis and growth, providing a variety designed to cater to particular hair and scalp wants, together with broken hair and delicate scalp.Competing on worth – ‘it’s troublesome to out-compete liquid products’Beyond this, being an indie brand in the strong beauty area, Žvirblytė mentioned Solidu additionally confronted pricing challenges because it continued to broaden.“Solid can also be very concentrated, so you can not actually add extra water or low cost elements. Everything is made with high quality elements as a result of it’s pure concentrated actives. So, it’s troublesome to out-compete liquid products that is likely to be less expensive.“But I assume these are the primary challenges going through a lot of the manufacturers, particularly small manufacturers,” she mentioned.
https://www.cosmeticsdesign-europe.com/Article/2022/08/19/Solid-beauty-brand-Solidu-eyes-Europe-US-expansion-for-zero-waste-products-in-hair-care-body-care-and-face-care