Whilst having an armoury of hero beauty products is important, for me beauty is also about discovery. What your skin needs today isn’t necessarily what it will need tomorrow. Similarly, just because something is working, doesn’t mean there isn’t something better out for your skin. Which brings me to my very first #beautybagspotlight post! In a series of interviews I’ll be placing a spotlight on beauty brands and their founders.
Beauty Bag Spotlight
First up is Independent British beauty brand Five Dot Botanics. Their skincare offering is based around minimal ingredients (5 to be exact). Co-founded by Zaffrin and Brian O’Sullivan, the range is certified Vegan and produced in the UK. I caught up with Zaffrin to get an insight in to this up and coming British beauty brand!
Five Dot Botanics
What’s your elevator pitch?
Five Dot Botanics makes minimal ingredient plant-based skincare, offering maximum results. We are for people who want transparency and control over the ingredients that go on their skin!
What came first, the brand name or the concept?
The concept of minimal ingredients came first. The brand and name followed (once we were clear on our mission). We stand for radical transparency and by limiting the number of ingredients in any product to just 5, we are able to offer our customers transparency and control over what goes on their skin. Our aim is to challenge the status quo of long and impenetrable ingredient lists, found on the sides of many beauty products. Only after getting clear on what we stood for did we decide on our brand name “Five Dot Botanics”.
The “Five” in our name reflects that we only use 5 ingredients in any product. It would be easy to add more ingredients to things, but we’ve set ourselves the task of innovating with minimal ingredients, to show that you don’t need 20, 30, 40 ingredients in skincare.
Our mission is “do more with less”. We think that a minimal ingredient approach to formulation is better for people and better for the planet. Our brand logo spells “FIVE” in Morse code and we use Morse code as part of our visual brand identity. We are all about helping people to decode their skincare.
Do you have a favourite product?
We love all our products, so it’s hard to choose! Our Brighten Up Eye Serum is currently up for our first beauty award and as a small brand that makes us feel really proud. The serum contains some lovely active botanical ingredients that are great at helping brighten and firm the eye area.
The hero ingredients are an anti-inflammatory extract from horse chestnut and antioxidant caffeine. We also included Mediterranean Liquorice root which has lots of regenerative properties and added in a metal roller ball, as it provides a slight cooling sensation and massage when applying. We have had some great feedback on this product!
Your proudest or most memorable moment for Five Dot Botanics?
Launching was probably one of our proudest moments as Five Dot Botanics has taken over 2 years to launch from concept to going live. We did all of our product development, business plans and brand work whilst working full time. Finally having our products available for sale and getting our first positive customer feedback will be something we will treasure forever. We are really proud of the products we have created.
We are really pleased to see our products distributed more widely and have signed a number of retail partnerships with some lovely independent British brands (Myza, Paradox Design + Coffee, Immaculate Vegan, Farmdrop). All these relationships came to us through our engagement on Instagram or word of mouth. It’s really great to have other people recommend our brand.
What does beauty mean to you?
Five Dot Botanics stands more for a lifestyle or point of view rather than being a traditional “beauty” brand. Our products are great for your skin, our minimalist mission centres around mindful consumption, thoughtful use of resources and mental clarity over what you are using.
We want people to feel good about what they are putting on their skin and feeling empowered about the choices they are making. That could be plant-based skincare, minimalist consumption, supporting an indie brand. Beauty traditionally is centred around the aesthetic senses however I think we are seeing a shift toward wellbeing and wellness being more important. Our products are aimed at this space, we align with feeling good about yourself and feeling good towards others. Making careful decisions is at the heart of what we do.
I was fortunate enough to be sent a full size of the Full Bright Eye Renewal Serum and a few other sample sizes to try. What excites me about Five Dot Botanics is their minimalist approach, both in design and ingredients. The products definitely did not disappoint.
Disclaimer:
This blog post may contain some affiliate marketing links, which means I may get paid commission on sales of those products should you purchase through my link. My content is not influenced by advertisers, affiliate partnerships or brands who have gift product.