PARIS — French beauty startup Codage is taking product personalization to new lengths. The brand, launched last year by brother-and-sister team Amandine and Julien Azencott, uses an online questionnaire to create a beauty prescription for customers.
So far, so — well, almost — standard. “Today, all brands are tending towards personalization,” said Amandine Azencott.
But this is where the similarity with more traditional brands stops. After revealing the customer’s “prescription” for My Nutri-Out (a serum) and My Nutri-In (a selection of nutritional supplements), Codage allows customers to increase or decrease the amount of each active ingredient, or indeed remove certain elements in the formula before ordering.
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“The consumer wants to be in control and to understand,” said Azencott, who comes from a family of pharmacists. “With Codage, the consumer becomes co-creator.”
This also allows customers to control the price of the product they buy, as each active ingredient is priced individually and according to dosage.
“The price of a one-fluid-ounce serum varies from [30 euros, or $39.44 at current exchange, to 160 euros, or $210.35] according to its ingredients,” Azencott said. “Our clients include young girls with few skin care needs, up to people with complex antiaging, antioxidant demands.”
The products are made of up to 70 percent of actives — compared with between five and 10 percent in traditional cosmetics. Codage claims that its products are 100-percent natural, although not organic, because the company uses stem cells, nanotechnology and encapsulation in its formulas.
In their initial business plan, the Azencotts had intended to launch the concept via upscale retail, but as the credit crunch reared its head, and a first financing round fell through, they scaled down their ambitions for the launch.
Despite its discreet launch and no advertising, “We have already realized our sales target for April 2011” essentially by word of mouth, she said.
Although some 70 percent of initial sales stemmed from France, the company has also shipped products to the U.S., Sweden, Germany and the United Arab Emirates.
The company has mounted a new financing round, which should allow it to fund expansion into pharmacies, further concept stores and spas, as well as launch new products. Codage was auto-funded by the Azencotts, who previously operated their own consultancy in the U.S. and included Ulta among their customers.