#WomenBoss: 3 reasons why Drunk Elephant became so popular
"Let the products speak for themselves."
As one of the fastest-growing beauty brands in the last century, there’s perhaps no greater success story in the skincare world than that of Drunk Elephant. Now a giant within the industry, it seems impossible to imagine the brand’s humble beginnings back when it was first created by founder Tiffany Masterson. Born out of her frustration of what was available in the market, Masterson spent years researching skincare and developing her own line of products, which was to become the foundations of Drunk Elephant. After a quick succession to fame, the brand currently ranks as one of Sephora’s most popular brands and the company was even snapped up by the Sheisedo Group who acquired it for US $845 million (approximately HK $ 6.6 billion). Which begs the question, in an era of start-ups and indie skincare brands, what did the company do differently in order to achieve such huge and quick global success? To investigate, we broke down the brand’s top IT-factors below.
（１）The use of simple and natural ingredients
Well firstly, the products are really, really good. With fun Instagrammable packaging and clean formulations, the products are all free of what the brand calls ‘the suspicious six:’ silicones, essential oils, chemical sunscreens, SLS, alcohols, and fragrances/dyes. Instead they choose to focus on an approach they call ‘clean clinical’, a fusion of natural products with scientific formulations that focus on efficiency and benefits to the skin.
（２）Made with sensitive skin in mind
Drunk Elephant was partly born out of Masterson’s frustration to find products that were gentle enough for her extremely sensitive skin. After suffering from multiple skin issues such as breakouts, dryness and mild rosacea she was left frustrated and disappointed with the options available to her. Luckily for us, she ploughed her frustrations into launching a bar cleanser and taught herself about skincare ingredients and their uses. Now the same rules apply to all of Masterson’s products, each is formulated with ingredients that won’t aggravate even the most sensitive skin and are specially chosen to benefit actual skin health over time.
（３）They let the products speak for themselves
Another main factor that sets the brand apart from other beauty brands, is that it doesn’t rely on celebrity endorsements, choosing instead to let the products “speak for themselves”.
In the past 8 years, the company has never wavered from this intention. Much of the brand’s success has come from word of mouth on the Internet, through online beauty groups and true skincare enthusiasts and addicts. Just as the saying goes, good products speak for themselves, and for Drunk Elephant, this couldn’t be clearer.