Winnie Harlow and 100.co Discuss Cofounding Cay Skin With AI Technology

Winnie Harlow has two nonnegotiable house guidelines: “You have to dress in sunscreen and you should take off your shoes.” It’s a excellent move toward guarding friends and loved ones from dangerous rays, but her ultimate aim, she advised WWD, is bringing solar care to the masses.

Soon after two several years of research — and some COVID-19-similar delays — Cay Skin is formally launching in Sephora. Importantly, the sunlight treatment elegance brand cofounded by supermodel Winnie Harlow marks the 2nd to be incubated as a result of Kim Perell’s 100.co, the artificial intelligence-powered client brand name group.

Much more from WWD

Via 100.co, Cay Pores and skin was formulated working with the company’s proprietary AI technological innovation called Claire. The technologies analyzed millions of retail information indicators and attractiveness tendencies to establish a model that match the two Harlow’s vision and to meet up with marketplace requires. The platform also analyzes customer product or service reviews and translates those people insights into tips for formulations and packaging.

“I required to build Cay Pores and skin for all individuals persons who have sensitive pores and skin, who have vitiligo, who are gentle, dark, any color less than the solar, and Kim and the 100.co group have presented me an unbelievable platform to develop this line of products,” Harlow mentioned. “They were being with me every move of the way, from product or service strategy to manufacturing and from fundraising to marketing. Most importantly, their AI system gave us the details and insights to fully grasp the sector gaps not staying fulfilled by common skin treatment brands.”

Courtesy Graphic.

A enormous advocate for serving to other woman business owners, Perell, founder and chief government officer of 100.co, informed WWD it was Harlow’s enthusiasm that made her so fired up about the model from Day Just one, but it was the data that solidified finding it off the ground.

“The brand name was so strong due to the fact it was objective pushed and that is actually what we wished to get behind,” Perell mentioned. “Having been a founder of a lot of businesses, it genuinely arrives down to the persons, and she is one particular of the most authentic ladies I have at any time fulfilled. But it was so vital for us to 1st make certain that we could validate the market prospect and we were being ready to do that applying our artificial intelligence and our technological innovation.”

Tale carries on

Moreover, she said, the process was really collaborative, making guaranteed the brand healthy Harlow’s eyesight, included purchaser insights and met retail partnership specifications. Both equally Perell and Harlow agreed that Claire know-how designed the procedure a much more self-confident one particular.

“I’m passionate about solar care, but the beauty marketplace is these types of a crowded marketplace,” Harlow stated. “Getting insights on what helps make people passionate about pores and skin treatment and what they really like and what they do not gave me self-confidence in the solutions that we were being creating together. The insights enabled us to make products and solutions that people are going to really like.”

“From our standpoint, we see there’s a substantial level of brand names that don’t make it and we want to guarantee our achievement by de-risking the brand name applying details and generating confident that we were truly able to use technological know-how at the begin of item generation,” Perell claimed. “By taking the technological innovation mastering about the pores and skin treatment merchandise, marketing claims, rewards and ingredients to actually realize what clients. We had been then capable to make some great suggestions for Winnie to consider mainly because, ultimately, this is her brand name and we’re right here to energy her vision.”

Some of the distinct things the AI identified have been hero items and an rising fascination in blue gentle security. The information also confirmed the significance of not leaving a white solid and currently being silicon free.

The know-how also bought Cay Skin “Sephora ready.” According to Harlow, getting her items into Sephora was a objective from the very beginning and was usually portion of the dialogue as the model was made.

“Two yrs in the past, we begun collaborating with Winnie to create Cay Pores and skin and we couldn’t be a lot more fired up to see her vision arrive to lifestyle,” Perell mentioned. “For equally 100.co and Cay Pores and skin, doing work with a associate these types of as Sephora is a large instant of results. We all have a shared eyesight for a varied and inclusive elegance market and I have normally thought in supporting feminine founders from numerous backgrounds, which Sephora is committed to as nicely.”

Courtesy of Cay Skin

With $6.5 million in funding for Cay Pores and skin, Winnie Harlow has formally develop into one of only 100 Black female founders to have raised a lot more than $1 million in enterprise cash — a amount Harlow and Kim Perell, founder of 100.co are keen to see expand.

Passionate about serving to “When I examine that statistic, I imagined ‘This is crazy, something’s mistaken,’” Perell stated. “But knowledge does not lie.”

“What I pulled from that is that I genuinely want to make that range even bigger not just with myself but to figure out techniques to motivate and empower other women, other Black women of all ages and women of color,” Harlow said.

Notably, as part of Harlow’s eyesight for Cay Pores and skin to have a good and social impact — all formulation are reef risk-free and accredited carbon neutral — the model has partnered with A Put Termed Dwelling, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit group that gives a harmless, nurturing environment and educational guidance for youth. Harlow shared that the partnership has also been a fingers-on expertise for her where by she has made the time to check out in person to communicate with the boys and ladies about her individual encounters and give some mentoring tips.

On the lookout forward, Perell seems to be forward to the ongoing partnership involving 100.co and Cay Pores and skin as the brand name grows and continuing to commit in incredible founders. She also just lately printed a second book, identified as Soar, to manual impending business people through generating the conclusions they encounter fears in starting off a organization.

FOR Far more WWD Business News:

Experiences Show Consumers May well Not be as Psyched to Spend in NFTs as Advertised

Afterpay Day Is Back With a 4-working day Weekend

Do Customers Seriously Understand the D-to-c Big difference?

Signal up for WWD’s Publication. For the most recent information, observe us on Twitter, Fb, and Instagram.

Simply click right here to read through the whole article.