Although their careers and companies are at two very different stages of development, two of nail’s most innovative entrepreneurs prove that when it comes to creating must-have products, great minds think alike.
What was it about the nail category that first attracted each of you?
Essie Weingarten: I loved getting my nails done as a little girl. Back then, there were no nail salons, it was beauty parlors. If I was good during the week, I could get my nails done on Saturday. The colors in salons then were quite boring, so my dad would take me to his cousin’s pharmacy and buy me nail polish. I would hold the bottle in my hand all week. It was my conscience—if I was bad, I knew I couldn’t go on Saturday. As I got older, I still loved my manis. I worked at Henri Bendel and in ladies hosiery and I made all these people a lot of money and I said “If I can do it for these people, why can’t I do it for myself?” I went looking for a chemist and a bottle manufacturer and ultimately I put it all together.
Charlotte Knight: For me, it’s not too dissimilar. But the nail polish I grew up on was yours, Essie. When I was in school I needed to earn extra money and I began to offer manicures and pedicures to teachers and students. From there, I started a mobile manicure service and at age 21, I opened Dublin’s first nail bar. My career just catapulted. I started going on TV, doing photo shoots and fashion week and it grew and grew. Backstage, I would mix shades and micas and things I found at craft shops and people would say, “I love that.” I went to America, met with manufacturers and suppliers and that is how it all started.
Related Articles
How do each of you approach creativity?
You May Also Like
E.W.: Creativity is what makes each brand so completely different. It can happen anywhere. I just got back from Mykonos—the sea is beyond. The blues are limitless. The sunset. The fire. The reds, the oranges, the lavenders were so incredibly intense. It can be an environment, a vacation, walking on the street, looking at flowers, food, kids.
C.K.: It’s about walking around, looking up and around. So many people spend so much time looking down, tap-tap-tapping on their phones. I make a conscious effort to look at everything—the exposed brickwork on a wall, the colors of the pebbles on a beach. It is about taking the blinkers off. On my phone, there’s the craziest assortment of images because I am clicking away all the time.
Is it possible to ever turn off work mode? Is balance possible when you’re an entrepreneur?
E.W.: When I started there were no children. I devoted 24-7 to the business—literally. My phone would ring at 2 o’clock in the morning, and I would be ready. I didn’t want to miss one order.
C.K.: It takes 150 percent of you—emotionally and energywise. You have to be very disciplined about your life. Even when you do have downtime, there is always something.
Particularly as the business becomes ever more competitive.
E.W.: I made the big leap [to sell] because we saw distribution getting more difficult and the world getting smaller. We saw that selling to a global company that has distribution in probably the most salons worldwide would be a natural fit.
C.K.: Did you find it hard letting go?
E.W.: Yes, but I was ready. I knew if we let go this would become the number-one brand worldwide. My joke is that when they have distribution on the moon, we will be the first company there.
C.K.: We’re making toiletry bags for the holidays, and the design is a newspaper article that says “Ciaté takes manis to the moon.”
E.W.: I’ll meet you there!
What were some of the toughest decisions you’ve each made?
E.W.: In business, you make a lot of decisions, some are right and some are wrong. If you don’t make any wrong decisions, then you’re not trying hard enough. You have to be nimble and able to make changes. Some of the changes you make aren’t necessarily right and you have to quickly change them again. That’s the difference between a big and small company. When you still have your finger on the pulse, you know when it’s right and wrong. You don’t have to wait a year and half to realize you made a mistake.
C.K.: You have to stay incredibly dynamic and react super quickly. In the beginning, when we used a different manufacturer, we sold polish to a retail chain that was launching a new concept in this big glass atrium. I got a call at 6 in the morning to tell me that our bottles had exploded. The supplier had overfilled them. I remember thinking, “This is it. I don’t know how to come back from this. How am I going to solve this?” I got in my car and drove there and dealt with it as best I could, as quickly as I could.
There are always challenges. What’s happening now in the regulatory world is a huge challenge. Making sure your products comply is very draining. You can spend months trying to resolve regulatory to get a new product into a country. In nail, it’s all about being first to market, because you launch something fabulous and within eight to 12 weeks, you’re going to have about 10 people who have done their own version and China doing a counterfeit version. You’re struggling to make sure you’ve got global reach as quickly as possible and sometimes regulatory holds you back.
How do you counteract the overall slowdown in the category?
E.W.: Everyone keeps saying slowdown. If you figure out how many new players there are, the pie is getting bigger, the pieces are getting smaller.
I don’t hear about the chemical manufacturers having a slowdown.
C.K.: I know retailers are starting to get panicky, but I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. It’s the responsibility of retailers and brands to make sure that nail stays interesting. It’s up to all of us to keep it exciting.