Skin in the Game

Although she has quietly grown a solo operation, working out of her kitchen, into an internationally recognized name in all-natural skin-care products, Suki Kramer says her first passion is writing.
“I have a blog, and I write for seven other blogs,” said Kramer, whose line of skin-care products, known simply as Suki, celebrates 10 years in business this year. “Writing is probably my first love, even before doing this. It’s good for me personally, but it’s also good because education is a big part of what I do, and it helps the business.”
In some ways, Kramer said, she has morphed into a sort of lifestyle guru through her online presence, not only raising the profile of her line of what she calls ‘cosmeceutical’ products, but helping people understand more about why making all-natural choices is important. For instance, her sukiscoop.com blog is dedicated to sustainable living and the numerous ways in which people can live ‘greener’ lives.
“We’re learning a lot about being online and having a retail market online,” she told BusinessWest, adding that her growing, Northampton-based company continues to diversify in other ways, selling to natural stores, whole-foods outlets, spas, department stores — anywhere she can get a foothold. “We have products we sell only to spas, and we have boutique clients as well. And we’re growing a lot overseas; we just keep diversifying and putting a lot of effort into networking.”
And that includes writing — prolifically — about a product line and concept she passionately believes in.
“Like with anything else, I’m learning what works and what doesn’t. Its just trial and error,” she said. “The blog thing definitely came from my own blog; people were reading what I wrote there and asking me to write for them. So I definitely enjoy doing that now.”

Skin of Their Teeth
At their essence, Kramer said, Suki products are skin-care solutions, not just aesthetic products.
“We treat the skin and skin-care issues,” she told BusinessWest. “Whether it’s concealer or moisturizer or lip color, skin care has got to be the focus.” That term ‘cosmeceutical’ reflects her dual goals of skin health and beauty, even in the makeup line. “Often, people put makeup on a blemish, and it clogs the pores. My products actually treat the blemish. It’s based on our cosmeceutical creams, and we just add 100% natural pigments.”
Kramer first began experimenting with skin-care formulas in the late 1990s, although she had no chemistry or business background. But she loved the research process, and for two years she experimented with different combinations of entirely natural ingredients, from plants, herbs, and essential oils to more complicated elements like amino acids, brewer’s yeast, vitamin C, and enzymes. Everything she works with is food-grade, as opposed to cosmetic-grade.
Once she had a formula down for her first product, a lemongrass cleanser, she packaged it in small glass containers with handwritten, hand-glued labels, and started marketing it to the public. But this was no PR machine; she essentially hit the streets, putting her wares in front of whomever would give her an audience. She and her husband lived off a credit card for a time to pay the bills and used a home-equity loan to finance some of the business. It was a risk, but one that began to pay off after a couple of years.
By that time, the product line had grown to include cleansers, hand and body creams, toners, shampoos and conditioners, and lip balms, among other offerings. The company was incorporated, and Kramer got her products onto shelves at a number of high-visibility stores and spas, including the Whole Foods chain and Chicago’s Marshall Fields (now Macy’s). She and her husband were finally seeing their risk pay off, and the company began to grow in earnest.
Today, Suki is an international brand, one even used by a number of celebrities.
Throughout it all, the mainstay has been Kramer’s insistence on natural ingredients — but, more important, natural products that are as effective as their synthetic counterparts.
“We are 100% natural, and we have clinical studies to back up our claims,” she said — a crucial point of distinction, she said, particularly at a time when companies throw around the word ‘natural’ to the point where it’s lost its meaning. She noted that many so-called ‘natural’ products use natural ingredients coupled with synthetic bases or other chemical ingredients, but hers completely avoid harsh additives that could lead to allergies, dependency, or other skin issues.
At the same time, many products that actually do boast mainly natural ingredients don’t necessarily work the way their makers claim, Kramer said, noting that she relies on rigorous product testing to ensure that her natural products are as effective as anything on the market.
“We perform clinical tests on our products, and we do third-party trials to prove that our products work,” she explained. “That’s a really big deal to us. You don’t find that in the natural world; you find it in the dermatology or spa market, or with department-store brands.
“We’re not just 100% natural; we are a natural brand that rivals Clinique and some of the more hard-hitting anti-aging or anti-acne lines,” she added. “It’s important to us that people know that our products actually do what we claim they do.”

Source:http://businesswest.com/2012/05/skin-in-the-game