This is an episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, which features candid conversations about how today’s trends are shaping the future of the beauty and wellness industries. More from the series →
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Skin-care founder Lisa Mattam is doing things differently from her competitors.
Her 10-year-old clean skin-care brand, Sahajan (pronounced sa-ha-gin), uses cutting-edge clinical testing to validate ancient Ayurveda traditions and ingredients.
“If I’m going to tell people that this old-world science can transform their skin, I have to prove it to them,” she told Glossy. To do so, she has tapped into her science background to implement a rigorous testing strategy to validate the ingredients, techniques and traditions she grew up with in her Indian-Canadian household.
“We didn’t use the word ‘Ayurveda’ growing up; it was just sort of life,” Mattam said. “When I had my first acne breakout, my dad grabbed some turmeric from the kitchen [to make a DIY treatment].”
Mattam grew up in Toronto and spent much of her career in speciality biotech and big pharma, including 17 years at Johnson & Johnson-owned Ortho Biotech, before starting a consultancy firm. Like many clean skin-care founders, becoming a mother made her more conscious of the beauty and personal care products she was using.
“I sat there [as an adult], and I was like, ‘I know that these [Ayurveda] ingredients are active and high performing. … [So how can I] take this old-world science in which I inherently believe, and use the rigor that I learned in my career to create this really unparalleled, efficacious skin-care line?’” she said.
Ayurveda is a traditional system of wellness and medicine that originated in India 5,000 years ago. It emphasizes holistic healing through balancing the body, mind and spirit. Some popular offshoots today include oil pulling, turmeric lattes, hair oiling and many commonplace herbal remedies. Yoga is considered a sister science.
Today, Sahajan is marketed as “high performance skin care based on the Ancient Science of Ayurveda,” and is available DTC and through Sephora Canada, Credo, Detox Market and Sephora Canada.
Much of her branding and marketing is based on clinical results. For example, the line’s bestselling Nourish Creme Riche, which sells for $55, can claim that clinical study participants saw a 146% increase in skin hydration, which is measured in a clinical setting done by third-party experts.
Data like this helps to encourage first-time purchases, but it can be expensive, she said. So far, she’s found great success. “Our repeat [customers] are like no other,” Mattam said. “Eighteen of our net lifetime value comes from people who have purchased 10 times or more.”
Earlier this year, Mattam shared insights into her clinical testing strategy with Glossy, including the difference between clinical testing and consumer perception testing; the cost, challenges and complications that can arise with this sort of investment; and how she uses the results to market her line.
In today’s episode, she breaks down all of this in more detail, including the challenges, cost and unseen hurdles.
But first, Glossy Beauty Podcast host Lexy Lebsack is joined by senior reporter Emily Jensen to discuss the news of the week. This includes the latest C-suite shuffles at Byredo and Kering, plus analysis of L’Oréal Group’s big #JoinTheRefillMovement refillability campaign that kicked off this week. It marks L’Oréal Group’s first global multi-brand, multi-category, multi-channel campaign — but is it a worthwhile investment?
On growing up with Ayurveda in her home
“My parents are from the very south of India, and what I realized is that a lot of the things that I learned from them were steeped in the science of Ayurveda. And we didn’t use the word Ayurveda growing up; it was just sort of life. And now as an adult, I can come to realize that, for them, it was life. It was the way they did things. When I had my first acne breakout, my dad grabbed some turmeric from the kitchen [to make a DIY treatment], or the way that they oiled my hair as a child. So I sat there [as an adult], and I was like, ‘Wow, I know that these ingredients are active and high performing and all of those things,’ and I started to wonder, ‘Why did it take me so long to get here?’ When it comes to skin care, we want results first, right? We want real solutions for real skin. And at the time, when I started, clean [skin care] was not speaking to that. It was all non-toxic and ‘better for you.’ And ultimately, I believe when we buy skin care, we buy it because it’s either addressing an issue or, you know, we love our skin so much that we’re looking to preserve it. And so I thought, ‘Nothing is doing this, so I can take this old-world science in which I inherently believe, and I can use the rigor that I learned in my career and create this really unparalleled, efficacious skin-care line.”
On the cost of clinical testing
“It depends on what you’re engaging on, and it depends on who you’re engaging with, so there is variety along the way. I’ve seen everything from a subjective test from $10,000-$15,000, and then I’ve seen clinicals that start anywhere from $25,000 and can go up to $50,000 and even beyond, depending on the claims you’re looking for and the number of interactions you want to see..”
On clinical testing timelines
“From start to finish, I think you have to budget for about 12 weeks, and that’s not including sourcing your partner and all of those things. But you have to get the product into the hands of the clinical testing environment [very early]. They’ve got to recruit people, they’ve got to do those things. And then, let’s say you’re running a test that’s six weeks. So now there’s the six week test, and then they have to pull the data together, and if it’s a true clinical they often have to write a paper about it. And so you need to account for all of that in your time frame.”
